So, much like last year I took part in the Closed FIFA Beta. And much to my surprise was it a LONG beta. 10 days to be exact so I got a lot of hands on time with the game. To preface, it is a beta, overalls aren't final and certain mechanics needed balancing. But as a whole it was pretty damn good, but not perfect.

For starters my initial beta was for Career Mode, both Be a Pro and Manager mode. As the beta progressed all modes were unlocked so I played FUT for the last three days. The Journey was not in the beta, which was not shocking.

The Good:
- Frostbite 3
- Atmosphere
- Player Models and Likenesses
- Player Movement and Animations
- Updated Manager Mode (more difficult this time too)

The Meh
- UI
- The Controls
- The Lighting
- AI player runs
- Manager scans (except Eddie Howe)
- New Freekick/Setpiece system

The Bad
- Low Driven Shots (more on that later)
- FUT pack drops
- FUT Squad Building Challenges
- Goalkeepers
- No Serie A or Serie B licenses (They have the teams, not the league, they are named Calcio A and Calcio B)
- Some celebrations have some of the worst motion capture ever (Ronaldo's celebration looks like it was captured by a 600 pound man. It was perfect in FIFA 16. Now it looks terrible.)

So lets start with an explanation for the good aspects. Frostbite blew me away, as I didn't believe it would look well when it came to FIFA. The pitch and updated stadiums look incredible. As time passes in a game the lighting will change, be it through placement of shadows or even turning night. The updated physics and collision engine also works even better. Physicality and player strength actually help now. Your placement on the ball helps with how much you can fight off or shield the ball, even the strongest of players can fall or be stripped if you have no leverage. This addition of physicality which is one of the three new mechanics allows a whole new way to play that previously wasn't feasible. Previously FIFA was all about pace. Still sort of is, but you have options. For example Olivier Giroud is actually useful now, because you can play as not only a target man, but a hold up attacker. You can effectively hold the ball up the pitch and wait for a full counter. Before you would be a fool to try that. Forwards with little to no pace were useless, no matter how good their shooting or skill capabilities were. Not only that but you get abilities with your added strength. Goal kicks are now not just first one to win the header wins, you can chest the ball down, or battle for it. Which gives a more dynamic feel to it all.

But the most noticeable upgrade of Frostbite is how the players look and feel. More players have their faces, and the new upgraded faces have incredible fidelity. Scanning technology has made leaps. Black players now have varied skin colors, as in previous FIFA's the lighting would react strangely to the skin and they would appear to dark, now they appear the correct skin color to who they are. Pogba and Balotelli have realistic skin tones now. Not only do faces look good, but they added more detail beyond that. As a game progresses players sweat. As they get tired their faces begin to get red, they begin to run in a more tired way, they make more mistakes and lose balance more often. Players get dirty, although this isn't new as in previous FIFA's you could see marks on the jerseys. Now players accumulate dirt on their bodies and cleats. Players foreheads or body parts get red after headers or taking a hard shot. There are numerous new emotional animations and their faces change in frustration. Constant errors by a player have more and more teammates berating him. Players rush the refs after hard fouls or controversial calls. You will see players be visibility upset if a call doesn't go their way, you'll see players smile after a good shot or chance. Keepers will yell and celebrate after saved penalties or crucial saves. They will also point at players out of positions and move them when they are in possession. Players will point for passes and get upset if you don't see it. Managers will celebrate goals and yell at players throughout the game. Players have more dramatic animations after a wonder goal or penalty time goal. Crowds get louder from crucial goals, and less into it if you pile on the score. In fact the crowd will get pretty quiet if your up 5-0 against a small club. New chants have been added, and some old ones brought in. I bought Ronaldo and brought him back to Manchester United and fans sang his songs. Everton fans boo when Rooney has the ball or scores. Aston Villa fans boo when Ashley Young touches the ball. Players will be more aggressive in Derby matches and even the animations in kit selections are different if its a rivalry.

Manager mode is now more in depth, you have to manage fan popularity and keep players happy. Depending on the club you have to give more youth players chances and constantly produce talent out of the academey. Failure to do major objectives lowers your popularity and may cause you to be removed. Signing big players brings revenue to your club via selling jerseys and selling more tickets. But selling a fan favorite will do the opposite. At giant clubs its not too different, but at small clubs you have both more freedom and more ways to mess up. It increases the challenge of bringing a championship side up to the Premier League.

With a lot of good comes some features that leave more to be desired. The UI felt confusing and unclean at times, but since it was a beta I'm sure it will be fixed. The design is nice as a whole. The lighting was also an odd one as jerseys seemed to bright when compared to the pitch and didn't change depending on time of day. Players weren't making as frequent runs, some even stopping dead rather then following through. Numerous times did players like Aguero and Luis Suarez stop dead in their tracks for no reasons. Manager face scans do not look as phenomenal as the should. Although its the first year they could be much better. Except Eddie Howe (Bournemouth Manager) he looks real. Also the new free write free kick system took away a lot of ability. You are forced to move a player from his natural starting position, which is not real. Memphis Depay should be able to have the correct amount of power and curve in his starting position. Those numbers should change depending on where I move. They also basically removed the ability to do dipping driven shots, which was the best free kick but hardest to pull off. The new corner system is terrible in my opinion. You aim with a reticle that isn't even accurate and its very hard to pull a driven pass to players on top of the box. You also can't control the angle or power of the cross. Its always lofted.

The bad was, well, bad. Low driven shots, a new mechanic is broken beyond belief. In fact, if you do a low driven shot it is impossible for a goalie to save it. No matter how much pace is on it. It can be going 2 mph and the goalie will not be able to block it. No matter how good he is. Goalies as a whole feel very poor and unreliable. David De Gea and Manuel Neuer felt no better then a 65 overall no name goalie. FUT drops were so bad too. I opened 80 gold packs, and 10 rare player packs (100k equivalent) and the best players I got were Aguero and Diego Godin. Thats it. Which is the worst I have ever seen. The new squad building challenges are even worse. Whatever players you use to complete the challenge, for example build a squad made of La Liga players that has 100 chemistry and 85 rating for a rare James Rodriguez card. The squad you use to complete the challenge is deleted and you lose all the players for that one card. And that's a god tier team that is needed to complete it.

And yes, as of right now they do not have the rights to Serie A or Serie B (Italian top league). Which is embarrassing. They atleast have there rights to the teams and players.

Overall there was a lot of good, but for once there were enough issues to prevent me from being blown away. If low driven shots are fixed, and the AI is fixed, then it would be the best FIFA yet, but those two issues alone are pretty significant.

If you have any questions that I didn't answer please ask. Be as specific as you want. I played around 30 hours total so I know quite a lot.

NOTE: I didn't bother checking for spelling or grammatical error.

That detail on the faces / player models actually sounds legit as hell. Damn.

The only question I have, "is it worth getting it when my last FIFA game was FIFA 15?" Like I don't play too, too often but if it's good enough I likely will.

Yes, as it is vastly different, and to me a lot more fun. However, it's going to be hard at the start, shooting accuracy was tweaked and power was also tweaked. That's the case with most FIFA's. 15 to 16 was actually pretty different, but 16 to 17 is a large leap. Both in visual fidelity but how the game plays and feels.

Typically this is the part of the cycle where it slows down again. 16 to 17 huge leap, 17 to 18, small tweaks.

Quote from: Verbatim on August 30, 2016, 01:05:10 PM

i would love to archive this review, but my thread has necrolocked

Can't you ask LC to undo it.

i reported it last night