FIFA 19 - First Play Impressions

With the new football season up and running, the latest FIFA installment is approaching faster than Mourinho’s next impromptu strop. After spending a few hours with the game that’s going to dominate your free time for the next 12 months, I reckon there are enough tweaks and evolution to excite the senses.

Arguably FIFA’s biggest signing of the summer is the Champions League licence, which it snapped up for what you have to assume must have been a fairly hefty transfer fee from Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer series. It was always rather conspicuous by its absence, particularly in Career mode where Europe’s top teams competed in the euphemistically named Champions Cup.

Now you can take part in the real thing, because the European competition features in pretty much every mode of FIFA 19: as a standalone tournament, a one-off match, part of The Journey and, of course, during Career games.

Don’t worry, Arsenal fans, the Europa League is also part of the deal. On the pitch EA has attempted to give FIFA 19 a more physical feel – not in terms of making it all about strength, but seeing players realistically stretch and strain to win the ball. A new Active Touch System has also been implemented, giving your players more ways of controlling
the ball with the most suitable part of their body.

There’s also an optional new feature coming to FIFA 19 called Timed Finishing, which opens up the possibility of helping you become more clinical with your strikes. If only such a thing had existed for Alvaro Morata in real life last season...