FIFA 18 Demo: 7 Things We Learned
Goalkeepers: still idiotic.
Rejoice, because the FIFA 18 demo is finally upon us. Landing a little earlier than the expected September 15 launch date, EA's brand spanking new demo allows players to play as 12 different clubs from around the world and sample the second chapter of Alex Hunter's fledgling career in The Journey: Hunter Returns.
There's a lot to take in at first glance, but play enough of the demo and some features EA Sports touted pre-release really sing. Others, well, they certainly sing, but it's perhaps not the tune we were expecting. There are definite improvements to FIFA's core gameplay and overall presentation. To some fans though, a few of these may seem unnecessary, and maybe even a bit disappointing.
Nobody can argue with the content included in the demo package however. Attention, fine folks at Konami, this is how you put together a sampler for your new football game. It's big on presentation and there's a lot to get stuck into.
What does FIFA 18's demo get right and what hype proved impossible to live up to?
7. EA Sell What PES Doesn't
Nobody can fault EA's undying need to push their products as 'better than last year'. FIFA 18's demo offers up more of the same. Get used to those overlays touting new gameplay features, because you're going to be seeing an awful lot of them. In fact, it's one of the first things you're greeted with when booting up the demo, and it shows up again after pretty much every match.
That's not criticism. It makes sense that EA would want to proudly show off how much they've tweaked the established FIFA formula this year. After all, this demo is an advert for the full release, so it makes sense that it'd be crammed full of hype and boasting. Konami need to take a lesson from EA here, because the PES 2018 was woefully devoid of any text like this.
Particularly cool is how EA managed to tie in the idea of FIFA being the best in the world with poster boy Cristiano Ronaldo's own brilliance. That's a smart way to use your featured athlete, and it only makes FIFA look bigger. Again, where was this sort of thing in the PES demo?