FIFA 19 Review every year

I probably play over 500 hours of FIFA every year. Of those, only about five are spent in Ultimate Team – a mode primarily designed to eke those ￡s out of you. I spend most of the year restarting a career mode with Manchester United every time they lose. This year confirms what I feared for career mode players like myself: “Hey, look! Champion’s League! That’s it!”.

The FIFA 19 beta came along and slowly, word got out that career mode was practically unchanged, as was Pro Clubs. When Konami announced that it would not be renewing the Champions League and Europa League licenses for PES, FIFA players knew that could only mean EA would announce the partnership at E3. It’s an addition that could be truly great, sure, but my fear was that EA Sports would merely do a bit of a reskin and add some new commentary. Sadly, that’s exactly what it feels like. Every time FIFA gets a new feature off the pitch, there’s a sense of “is that the best you could do?”. Frankly, everything could do with a little bit more effort and thought put into it.
The Journey, FIFA’s story mode, makes a return in FIFA 19, giving us the final part of Alex Hunter’s journey. This year though, he’s joined by two more characters: you’ll also play as Kim Hunter and Danny Williams. While they’re playable briefly in fut coins, they take more centre stage alongside Alex in FIFA 19 with dialogue choices, training, and matches. It’s moved slightly away from being about Alex Hunter and his immediate family. Being able to spend more time with Kim as a playable character offers some more welcome representation of women’s football, but I can’t help but feel that Danny’s inclusion feels a little like spoiling the broth.

The Journey’s opening was a pleasant surprise as you get to play as Jim Hunter, Alex’s grandfather, with EA Sports taking the time to give the segment an authentic 1960s look. Unfortunately, the training sessions that pad The Journey continue to be a real detriment to the mode – and now you have to do training sessions for three different players.
On the pitch, EA Sports continues to make the game feel ever closer to the real thing. In FIFA 19 there’s more fluidity in movement, passing, shooting, the works. Defending feels more rewarding this year too – heading out from a cross feels more satisfying than ever. And with every new FIFA, the players feel more and more realistic. When I take a shot with Pogba, the way he sets himself and hits the ball is uncannily like how he achieves it in real life. Long shots need to be toned down a little bit on the pitch though; I bought Ruben Neves to partner Pogba, and they’re both banging in goals from 20+ yards so often that they’re my top scorers – even on Ultimate difficulty!want know more fut coins news Read More