The latest instalment in the top-selling series hits the shelves worldwide today. The franchise is in its 21st year and though the game comes with a lot of new gameplay features, gamers will be surprised by the latest update of player ratings.
FIFA player ratings have always been a source of hot debate amongst gamers and professional footballers have gone to twitter in the past to voice their anger towards their assigned stats.
The EA sports team analyses footage from all over the world and devises a formula to determine player ratings. Each player is rated on their goal scoring ability, pace, passing, dribbling, defending, heading, special ‘skill moves’ and ability to kick with both feet.
Manchester United have three of the Premier League’s top five finishers – Robin Van Persie (1st), Javier Hernandez (4th) and Wayne Rooney (5th). Spurs’ new striker Roberto Soldado was placed third while City striker Sergio Aguero was placed second in the rankings.
Arsenal are the only team to have two players in the Premier League’s top five fastest players with Theo Walcott and Ryo Miyaichi claiming first and second place respectively.
Swansea’s Leon Britton was ranked the fourth best passer in the league and the top ranked English player ahead of Manchester United’s Michael Carrick.
Bayern Munchen have two of the top five dribblers in the game in Arjen Robben and Franck Ribery while Barcelona have three in Messi, Neymar and Iniesta. Meanwhile, two of the top five dribblers in the Premier League are new to the division with Willian coming in third and Erik Lamela fifth.
Rio Ferdinand remains in the top five Premier League defenders, ranked fifth with his team mate Nemanja Vidic the Premier League’s top defender. The Premier League also boasts of two of the top 5 headers of the ball in the game, with Arsenal’s Per Martesacker ranked second and Manchester United’s Nemanja Vidic coming fourth.
EA sports confirmed that the new game offers improved ‘pure shot’ technology, gamers will also enjoy the new sprint dribble turns, with players able to make quick cuts and turns to beat defenders one-on-one with the ball.
FIFA 14’s gameplay leans more towards build up play through midfielders thanks to improved team mate intelligence and a more realistic variation in dribble touches, and dribbling has been transformed with player skill greatly impacting on their control when running with the ball.
New second chance tackles provides defenders the opportunity to recover from missed tackles and two-footed tackles are more important than ever.
FIFA 14 is available on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, and will also be offered on the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 consoles when they launch in the next couple of months. Most retailers will be offering the game at £39.99.
EA Sports has also released FIFA 14 as a free download for both Android and iOS, which offers in-app purchases.