Fifa 23 is a sober farewell game | Exam

In terms of content, there’s really nothing to fault with Fifa 23. Fifa has long contained almost every competition imaginable, including the Champions League, Europa League and Conference League. This year, for the first time, two women’s competitions will be added. In the English league, we see Vivianne Miedema at Arsenal, while in France Jackie Groenen and Lieke Martens play at PSG.

Philips Stadium has also been added, and you can even play as the fictional AFC Richmond from the Apple TV Plus series Ted Lasso. In FUT, in addition to Ted Lasso content, we will find new icons and heroes to build a dream team that spans generations. Cruijff, Van der Sar, Kuyt and Frenkie in a team? Yes you can. Fifa 23 is already full of content, then the Men’s World Cup in Qatar and the Women’s World Cup in Oceania will also be added soon. There is, of course, always room for more. We would also like to see De Kuip properly represent our traditional Dutch top 3, but looking for low tide nails.

The real room for improvement is in the gameplay. In this regard, this year we will find a new Power Shot, and new animations have been added through the advanced Hypermotion technology, which records movements during real matches. When it all comes together, Fifa 23 shines like never before. I still have in mind a great Power Shot from Berghuis: after a corner the ball is cleared by the opponent, after which the ball ends up just outside the 16 just in front of the feet of the midfielder. The ball is passed perfectly then sizzles loudly in the corner with an effect that makes Roberto Carlos say “U”. Try not to clap out loud at this point.

Such goals are also possible thanks to the tight and delicate controls. As an attacker, you can orchestrate your moves with great precision. First take the ball or shoot it straight away, blow up a ball to pass your opponent, take it hard with a Power Shot or place the ball modestly: everything is possible. But where in real football unparalleled action from football virtuosos such as Messi, Frenkie de Jong or Antony are the moments you come to the stadium for, the beautiful goals in Fifa 23 fall in a sea of ​​absurd goals.

Not only are there too many goals in an average game, many goals don’t make sense. You often see this during the game itself, but in replays it really becomes visible what nonsense is being pushed to the TV by the HDMI cable. Goalkeepers sometimes yank their hands away or suddenly change animation mid-dive, balls get an unrealistic effect, roll through a standing leg in an impossible way before a shot is fired , etc.

Perhaps the most extreme example was a computer controlled opponent’s own goal. With a return pass to the goalkeeper, the goalkeeper’s foot disappears through the ball. Yes, that’s how the ball rolls into its own goal. An incident? A game later, a defender’s foot literally shortens an inch or two, just so the ball can be kicked through their gate.

They seem like anecdotal examples, but there’s something to point out in every game. Especially just before and just after the break there is an excessive number of goals, often in bizarre ways. This suggests that there are more forces at play: goals must and will be scored no matter how. At EA, they apparently always think football gets more fun the more goals they score, but that’s not the case. With this inflation target, no win – or loss, for that part – is like your own credit. It’s mostly a shame, because there’s also enough in Fifa 23 that’s good.

For example, defense has become more interesting because the way players sprint has been changed. Although the sprint a player performs is mostly adjusted visually, it does make a difference to the experience. The tall defenders are now chasing their man with impressive strides. It gives you as a player the feeling that there is still something to salvage. Tackles can also be rock hard and always perfect on the ball. The grass flies through the air on such a tackle and a solid line remains visible on the mat for the rest of the game. In the preview, we still had the vain hope that such tackles would bring a little more balance and a more realistic score. Unfortunately they don’t, but they make defending in Fifa 23 more spectacular and, above all, more satisfying.

Goalkeepers also sometimes have insane saves, where they go completely stretched to the corner. Hypermotion pays off especially in turns. If the ball gets too close to the keeper, the goalkeeper overpowers the others to snatch the ball in the air, before turning away so as not to lose the ball en route to the ground. Such moments feel very truthful. It is all the more incomprehensible that this same goalkeeper – whether Manuel Neuer or Justin Bijlow – a few minutes later when a kind of bag of salt falls backwards on a perfectly tenable ball.

It should be clear that something is fundamentally wrong with Fifa (for years now). You can argue if the pacing is too high and even if (slightly) more goals than in real life doesn’t make the game more appealing, but there is more going on. Modern Hypermotion technology is mixed with old animations that can’t keep up anymore, and hit detection vibrates from all sides.

For goalkeepers, this clash between old and new technique translates directly into ugly goals, but elsewhere on the pitch it’s also starting to get painful. A defender who steps in with a woodsy tone, an attacker who walks towards the ball with a curious arc, or who stubbornly charges forward as a pass clears behind him; these are moments that determine the course of the score and the fun of the game.

Many things that have been added in recent years, such as ball protection, precision dribbling and modern Hypermotion animations, show Fifa’s true potential under the right circumstances, but the foundations are rotten. Old, decrepit, done. There’s real work for EA to do in the coming year to complete a major renovation or catch up. The next EA Football FC 24 will not go through a name change alone.

Fifa 23 is available now on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PC and Nintendo Switch. All innovations can be found on the current generation of consoles and PCs, on the previous generation only a part and in the version for Switch (‘Legacy Edition’) there are no innovations. For this review, Fifa 23 was played on the PlayStation 5.