14 DAY TRIAL // 
FIFA 14 is a big and varied game, the kind of experience that can keep a dedicated fan of the series and of football occupied for months even if he never meets another human being in order to launch a multiplayer match or engage in an Ultimate Team battle.
Sure, the innovation level is pretty low and some of the changes made to the core mechanics are rather marginal.
However, the physics are tighter than ever, the spectacle has been toned down a bit to include more tactical options and the presentation still benefits from the money that publisher Electronic Arts is ready to pay to clubs for licensing rights.
I liked what Konami managed to deliver with Pro Evolution Soccer 2014 when the title launched last week, especially when it came to the interactions between players and the ball, and EA Sports manages to match all those achievements, although the overall approach is a little bit different.
The watchword for FIFA 14 is refinement and it applies to all aspects of the football simulation.
Story
FIFA 14 is still the best way for a football lover to choose his favorite team and then create dazzling plays using his preferred players and tactics.
The game uses the likenesses and the names of hundreds of the stars that appear on pitches all over the world, complete with careful attention paid to the stadiums they perform on and the way they celebrate their goals.
The gamer feels like he is in the middle of a season of the Premier League or the Bundesliga or the Brazilian championship. I initially played FIFA 14 for about six hours straight before I realized I had actually moved my team into 2014.
The Career Mode might use some tweaking when it comes to player fatigue and morale, which seems to have a very limited impact on how the various players perform.
Gameplay
FIFA 14 is a game of small changes and that’s especially visible when it comes to the actual matches and how gamers approach them.
There’s more physicality to the movement of both players and the ball, with greater importance placed on the first touch and a wider range of results for it based on player skill, speed of the incoming pass and speed of the player on the receiving end.
Speed and passes that bypass the defensive line are less important as attackers are now able to use their body to shield the ball and try to deliver a pass to a player in a better position.
This is helped by the overall improved Artificial Intelligence, which allows teammates to make interesting runs when they do not have the ball.
Stars like Messi, Ronaldo, Bale, Ribery and more have their special skills and moves, which can have a profound effect on the result of a match as long as they are deployed well on the pitch.
The flow of the games has been slowed down by all these changes and FIFA 14 clearly wants to give players more time to think about tactics and plan their attacks.
There are more movement options included for all players, but switching direction too often or too quickly results in imbalances that can make the next pass or shot miss its intended target.
At the same time, the game still makes crosses a little more precise than they should be and there are more ways to shoot at goal, even when a player is on the move and off balance, which means that the overall number of goals seems to be roughly similar to that of FIFA 13.
Defenders are also more intelligent than they used to be, making sure to gather around attackers and hold them off by staying on their feet rather than lunging for a desperate last resort tackle.
I like how FIFA has evolved over the past year because the current experience shows a deeper appreciation of football as a game driven by the brain, even in its virtual form, rather than by simple reflexes.
EA Sports still has work to do, as long as it keeps all the current core systems for FIFA 15, when it comes to the interactions between the compartments of a team, which seems at times disjointed, and to the differences in quality between some players, that currently have a lower impact than they should.
Graphics and audio
FIFA 14 looks good, but not great, although the animations are better overall and there’s an improvement to the presentation segments that run before a match.
EA Sports is still keen to have a unified look for the game and the lack of the power of the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 is currently keeping the PC version back as well.
The user interface is also superior to that of last year’s version of the football title and it’s easier than ever to navigate the various info panels in Career mode to get to a match or to relevant e-mail messages.
Sure, even with all the variety, the commentary becomes boring after a while and I really wish for an option to just have the excellent soundtrack play at all times while I am engaged with FIFA 14.
EA Sports promises that the new Ignite engine, which is only offered on the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One, will introduce even more details to the overall presentation and the various simulated players.
Multiplayer
It’s easy to set up a multiplayer match or tournament using FIFA 14 and there are plenty of options that gamers can tweak in order to make sure that they get the best experience.
I usually play locally with friends and matches are a little less spectacular at the moment, but we all use more of our brainpower to think out clever passes and interesting runs to make out mostly solid defensive setups useless.
But traditional multiplayer matches have a tendency to become less important to the franchise than the newest, more complex and more competitive incarnation of the Ultimate Team mode.
This year, the experience is enhanced with a new Chemistry Style for all included players and with new cards for gamers to access and to open up more tactical options and innovative ways to structure a team according to their specifications.
EA Sports will also deliver more cards and updates as the season progresses, in order to keep the mode interesting, and there are more tournaments and more search options to encourage players to switch up their tactics.
EA Sports is at the moment more interested in keeping its player base satisfied with plenty of incremental improvements and in making sure that the Ultimate Team mode remains addictive and continues to provide revenue year round. Despite the limited innovation, FIFA 14 is a huge game, filled with options and modes, and fans of the sport can buy it on launch and be assured that they have content to keep them occupied until the summer of next year.
The Good
The Bad
Conclusion
