New cover star Eden Hazard recently moved to Real Madrid for an eye-watering 100 million euros
FIFA 20
FOOTY GOLIATH SLIPS TO A EUROPA LEAGUE FINISH DAVE MEIKLEHAM
PUBLISHER EA / DEVELOPER EA VANCOUVER / RELEASE DATE OUT NOW / COST £59.99/$59.99
a ludicrously nonchalant heel flick.
Chipped shots – which hardly ever
work in regular games of FIFA –
suddenly become the perfect weapon
to bobble balls over flummoxed
players into miniature, keeper-free
nets. It may not have FIFA Street 3’s
elastic-legged, stupefying spectacle,
but it’s still a whole heap of silly fun.Street life
At the heart of these Volta matches is
a story mode that tries to pick up the
baton from Alex Hunter now that the
self-made legend’s ‘Journey’ is finally
over. A stupid, overly sincere tale of
the customisable Revy and his/her
up-and-coming footy crew, it takes
you all over the globe. One minute
you need to win six straight matches
on the caged courts of Amsterdam,
the next you’re playing kid-crushing
knockabouts against youths in Rio De
Janeiro. Spoiler: we fouled those poor
kids silly en route to an unconvincing
first-to-three goals win. In spite ofRoughly translated,
‘Volta’ means ‘turn’.
Knowing this, it’s
easy to see why EA
gave the headline
new mode of its
returning soccer star the name.
An updated, more realistic take on
FIFA Street and its physics-defying
showmanship, Volta’s tense matches
see you bemuse rivals with twisting
turn-on-a-dime trickery. It’s an
energised and warmly daft addition to
a package which, elsewhere, is crying
out for an overhaul.
Considering it has every licence
from the Champions League to
Serie A’s Coppa Nazionale, it’s kinda
crazy the best thing in FIFA 20 is
kicking a ball about in an outdoor car
park. Volta’s brand of 3v3, 4v4, and
5v5 street footy can be electrifying.
The walls of an outdoor cage become
ace assist makers, as you ping
balls off them to beat a defender.
A simple lofted ball transforms into
dialogue so awful it damn near made
our eardrums implode, Volta’s varied
campaign is a throwaway good time.
When it comes to 11v11 matches,
FIFA is sadly becoming increasingly
soulless. A big part of the problem?
Games just don’t look like the actual
sport. More than past entries, players
seem to be stuck in invisible eight-
axis ruts, never fully able to break
away to take advantage of space.
That so many moves devolve into
a game of ‘keep away’ around the
opposition’s box sums up the series’
increasing on-field woes. Too often
FIFA 20 serves up one-pace tiki-taka
antics that lack oomph and surprise.
While passing often feels limp, at
least EA Vancouver has finally tried to
address the issue of pace. In the past,
even the nippiest of speed demon
wingers would struggle to get past
lummoxes like Shkodran Mustafi, but
now pacy players can at last beat a
man and keep them in the rear mirror.
If anything, pace may be overdoneshort
cutWHAT IS IT?
The latest edition of
EA’s chart-conquering
soccer sim.
WHAT’S IT LIKE?
Pretty much every
entry since FIFA 14...
with more pace.
WHO’S IT FOR?
Footy fans who need
every licensed league
under the sun.074 THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE
REVIEW