Matthew Will
Managing Editor
The history does not lie. With over 260 million units sold in their history, FIFA keeps the success going. On Friday, Sept. 28, the newest addition of the franchise release, titled FIFA 19, was released. For the second consecutive year, it featured now Juventus forward Christiano Ronaldo on the cover.
KICK OFF:
Kick off got a huge face lift this year. Headlining the new features was the new house rules. Within house rules, there are five new modes, survival, no rules, long-range, first to and headers & volleys.
In survival, every time a team scores, they lose a man for the remainder of the game. The game mode delivers a challenging way to play the game. Next is no rules which is exactly that. No offsides, no hand balls, no fouls, no yellow cards and no red cards. Long-range ups the ante on the skill of long-range shots. All goals scored from outside the box are double points. In “first to”, it allows you to set a set number of goals to play towards. First to that many wins, simple as that. Headers & Volleys turns crossing up to a whole new level. Only goals scored off headers or volleys count. If it is not scored that way, it does not count.
Series games join the new kick off modes, allowing teams to play a home-and-home series to determine a winner.
Stat tracking is a great new feature added to kick off mode. Like to know your head to head record with your best friend? FIFA has got your back now. All goal, attacking, defending, goalkeeping, win and loss information is stored for each profile used.
THE JOURNEY:
No longer will you follow just Alex Hunter, as this year you follow the paths of best friend of Alex, Danny Williams, Alex’s sister Kim Hunter as well as Alex Hunter himself. The flow of the games works well, you even play Alex against Danny sometimes. If you enjoyed The Journey in other FIFA titles, you should continue to enjoy the series with this edition.
FOOTBALL ULTIMATE TEAM:
A yearly staple of the franchise is football ultimate team (FUT). FUT is the collection of cards that play as your superstar starting XI. This mode did not change much and if you spend a little money, you will be instantly better than those who do not, but that’s the sad part about EA games.
CONCLUSION:
This game continued the success that FIFA has so richly experienced. The new modes are great, the graphics are better than ever, and it has never been a better time to play football on video games. Great job EA and great job developers. One of my favorite sports games I have ever experienced. 9.3/10
