As my Watford side took on Wolves in FIFA 22, there was a bizarre eureka moment that highlighted all the good that EA’s annual football behemoth has done on the pitch. The tankish Adama Traore, prowling the left-wing takes a pass with his back to goal, outmuscling my full-back to create a small amount of space. He turns, foot on the ball, then in a flash knocks it past the scrambling Kiko Femenia –no slouch himself– and thunders into space on the wing… before reaching the byline at a canter and smashing a wayward cross into the side-netting.
You can’t help but chuckle. The sequence was strangely uncanny, the kind you have seen time and again on Match of the Day. FIFA has long professed to capture the subtleties of the world’s elite players, but that has tended to fall on recreating their tattoos, perfecting the flop of their coiffed hair or capturing the unique way they canter. And while much is made of players’ rating in each edition of the game –found in elaborate YouTube videos of footballers grumpy at their sprinting stats– the recreation of their behaviour in matches has remained rather elusive.
Here, then, is EA’s best attempt yet. But let’s not get carried away, FIFA 22 is an impressive incremental improvement on the pitch, but not some grand overhaul. Instead it is the result of smaller tweaks working together to create a better and, dare I say it, more ‘realistic’ representation of the game. The Traore moment was the first, but you notice the details throughout. Liverpool’s front three gave me a torrid time, Mo Salah peeling off into his favoured position on the right of the penalty area before lashing the ball home into the opposite corner. Thankfully, the improvements go beyond starry individuals.
The back of the box change is animation aided by the motion-capture of full 11-on-11 games for the first time. Combined with the improved AI, you can see the natural touches this brings to a game as players jostle and move into position with much more guile. The ball itself feels weightier and less magnetised. Time and time again I have given the ball away because I’ve tried to direct the ball through an opposition player, as is right, rather than it fizzing its way to my teammate anyway. There’s nothing quite like a righteous improvement in a sports game to highlight the foibles in your own play.