3. Five-A-Side
Something that has been a much-lamented missing feature of FIFA for more years now than it actually appeared in the game is the Indoor Arena, which has now seen more online petitions for its return than any other lost gaming feature I care to remember. Since 1999, FIFA has been cruelly without an indoor arena, and indeed the ability to play small-sided matches against the CPU or friends, and it's something that many fans expected EA Sports to have rectified by now. The opportunity to play small-sided games would introduce an entirely new gameplay dynamic, and would fundamentally change how players played matches, not only entertaining in themselves, but also allowing the player to hone the skills necessary to play well in limited space and in a pacier match, as it does in real life. This would encourage players to learn more skills, and integrate them into their style of play more successfully, rather than always looking for a defence-splitting pass or a burst of speed to beat their man. Considering how EA Sports took the new dribbling system from FIFA Street, you might have thought they would have included small-sided games into FIFA 13 as a way of showing off those skills, and making the step off of that style of play a more fluid transition for those players who didn't usually go for skillful play. And it would have been a very welcome inclusion, judging by the continued clamour for EA Sports to relent on the Indoor Arena issue.