''FIFA 15'' is a football

simulation A simulation is the imitation of the operation of a real-world process or system over time. Simulations require the use of Conceptual model, models; the model represents the key characteristics or behaviors of the selected system or proc ...

video game developed by EA Canada and published by

Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the ...

under the EA Sports label. It was released on 23 September 2014 in North America, 25 September in Europe and 26 September in the United Kingdom and Ireland for the

PlayStation 3 The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. The successor to the PlayStation 2, it is part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. It was first released on Novemb ...

, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Nintendo 3DS,

Wii The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America and in December 2006 for most other regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major home game console, ...

, Xbox One,

Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generati ...

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for ...

, iOS, Android and

Windows Phone Windows Phone (WP) is a discontinued family of mobile operating systems developed by Microsoft for smartphones as the replacement successor to Windows Mobile and Zune. Windows Phone featured a new user interface derived from the Metro design lan ...

. On PC for the first time, ''FIFA 15'' runs on EA's

Ignite To ignite is the first step of firelighting. Ignite may also refer to: Music *Ignite (band), a melodic hardcore band from Orange County, California * ''Ignite'' (Econoline Crush album), 2007 * ''Ignite'' (Shihad album), 2010 * "Ignite" (Eir Aoi s ...

engine with the same features as the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 editions. This is the final game in the ''FIFA'' series to be available on the Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo Wii and PlayStation Vita, as well as the last game published by Electronic Arts for the former. The game features

Lionel Messi Lionel Andrés Messi (; born 24 June 1987), also known as Leo Messi, is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a forward for club Paris Saint-Germain and captains the Argentina national team. Widely regarded as one of the g ...

on its cover, alongside different players in different parts of the world, and is the first game in the ''FIFA'' series to be fully licensed by the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...

. ''FIFA 15'' received positive reviews across all platforms, although the PC version in particular was criticized for the amount of bugs that were featured at release. For the third consecutive edition, the main commentators for the game are

Martin Tyler Martin Tyler (born 14 September 1945) is an English football commentator. He has worked as a commentator for Sky Sports since 1990, covering the Premier League and UEFA Champions League, as well as other domestic and international competition ...

and Alan Smith.

''Ultimate Team''

''FIFA 15''s Ultimate Team introduced a new feature, in which users can sign loan players for a limited duration of matches. Another new feature is The Concept Squad, where players are given access to the game's database and can create a "dream squad". The concept players card is grey colored. A number of new legends are also introduced to the game, including

Franz Beckenbauer Franz Anton Beckenbauer (, ; born 11 September 1945) is a German former professional footballer and manager. In his playing career he was nicknamed ''Der Kaiser'' ("The Emperor") because of his elegant style, dominance and leadership on the fi ...

, Roberto Carlos, Peter Schmeichel and Hristo Stoichkov which are only available on Xbox One and

Goal celebrations

New goal celebrations featured in the game include Luis Suárez's 'kiss the wrist' routine, Zlatan Ibrahimović kicking the corner flag, and

Cristiano Ronaldo Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro (; born 5 February 1985) is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays as a forward and captains the Portugal national team. He is currently a free agent. Widely regarded as one of the greatest pl ...

's celebration from his second goal vs Sweden in the qualifying play-offs for the 2014 World Cup where he raises both arms and points downwards.

Licensing

A demo was released on 9 September 2014, with three new teams – Chelsea,

Liverpool Liverpool is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the List of English districts by population, 10th largest English district by population and its E ...

and Napoli – alongside the previous game's demo's teams:

Borussia Dortmund Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, commonly known as Borussia Dortmund (), BVB (), or simply Dortmund (), is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is best known for its men's professional fo ...

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly referred to as Barcelona and colloquially known as Barça (), is a professional football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of Spanish football. Found ...

, Manchester City, Boca Juniors and Paris Saint-Germain. A full list of the game's leagues, clubs and national teams was published on its official website on 18 September with the description "Experience true football authenticity with FIFA 15 – featuring 35 licensed leagues, over 600 clubs, 16,000+ players and 41 licensed stadiums". EA Sports had signed a deal with the Premier League as the Official Sports Technology Partner. In this way EA are licensed under Premier League development. This deal allows all 20 Premier League stadiums to be included in the game, including the seven stadiums from '' FIFA 14''. Official Premier League scoreboards and television graphics are also in the game, as well as real-life referees, chants and advertising hoardings. The Italian

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Cop ...

is fully licensed in ''FIFA 15''. All

Serie B The Serie B (), currently named Serie BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 season. It had been ...

teams except the three relegated from the 2013–14 Serie A, and several Argentine clubs, feature with generic crests and kits. The

Campeonato Brasileiro Série A The Campeonato Brasileiro Série A (; English: "Brazilian Championship A Series"), commonly referred to as the Brasileirão (; English: "Big Brazilian"), and also known as Brasileirão Assaí due to sponsorship with Assaí Atacadista, is a Br ...

and Brazilian clubs are not licensed, due to a failure to reach agreement with the rights holders, but the Turkish

Süper Lig The Süper Lig (, ''Super League''), officially known as Spor Toto Süper Lig for sponsorship reasons, is a Turkish professional league for association football clubs. It is the top-flight of the Turkish football league system and is run by the ...

returns to the series. The

Brazil national football team The Brazil national football team ( pt, Seleção Brasileira de Futebol), nicknamed ''Seleção Canarinho'' (‘Canary Squad’, after their bright yellow jersey), represents Brazil in men's international football and is administered by the B ...

feature in the game, despite the domestic league not being included. One of the new features added for ''FIFA 15'' is that all 20 Premier League stadiums are included and officially licensed. On 19 September a list of stadiums in the game was published on its website, alongside 31 generic stadiums.

returns as the main cover star for all regions on the global cover. Messi has starred on the cover of all instalments of the FIFA franchise since '' FIFA 13'', when he replaced Wayne Rooney. Some regions also have a player from that region starring on the cover with Messi. Nintendo's platforms may not have localised variants of the game cover available, or feature an additional player, in select regions.

Reception

''FIFA 15'' received generally positive reviews from critics. Review aggregation website GameRankings provides an average rating of 81.57% based on 15 reviews for the PlayStation 4 version. The Xbox One version received a similar average of 82.17% based on 12 reviews, and the PC version 64.00% based on 2 reviews. Another review aggregation website

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

gave the PlayStation 4 version an 82/100 based on 29 reviews, the Xbox One 84/100 based on 19 reviews and the PC version 82/100 based on 5 reviews. Chris Schilling of IGN gave the game a score of 83%, saying "FIFA 15 is still one of the best sports simulations around, with superb animation and big-match atmosphere", although finding flaws in the frequent use of cutaways and the quality of the game's

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech ...

. A score of 8 out of 10 was given by

GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. In addition ...

writer John Robertson, who concluded "If you're looking for football that is exciting, exaggerated, and immensely entertaining, FIFA 15 is the game to get" but was critical of the game's commentary. Steve Hannley of Hardcore Gamer gave the game a 4 out of 5, saying "Shrewdly taking advantage of current-gen's capabilities with added emotional intelligence and improved animations, this is easily the prettiest EA Sports title this year", but he criticised the "relatively unchanged" game modes. Some users complained that their version of ''FIFA 15'' suffered from lagging, stuttering and audio looping, as well as gameplay bugs and lighting issues. Patches have been released for the PC version of the game, fixing several bugs, but the major stuttering issue remains unresolved.

References

External links

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