You can create your own male or female character, suggesting that Volta may be replacing the Journey, as you star out on the streets and look to make it in the professional game. You can choose what your player wears, whether it be ripped jeans or proper gear, with a range of locations including a London cage, Amsterdam underpass and Tokyo rooftop.

Volta Football is a great addition, although it will not feature on Nintendo Switch. After FUT Division Rivals didn’t feature on Switch last year, EA need be careful not to upset a passionate community. Let’s hope that changes for FIFA 21. 

What about Pro Clubs?

After years of neglect, you”ll be relieved to hear that Pro Clubs finally gets a reform for FIFA 20.

First up, greater physical customisation of your Pro.

EA are replacing the old model with a universal system across the new game – including Pro Clubs.

This feature will bring new ways to design your Virtual Pro’s visual characteristics via an improved morphing tool which allows you to morph and define each facial feature to your liking, and also goes further than ever with added morphing options and skin tones.

This new system also maintains all the features from the previous Virtual Pro system – from commentary name to updated goalkeeper gloves to setting your preferred celebration/set piece styles.

Broadcast features such as replay transition wipes, an on-screen watermark, club banners and a new Pro Clubs logo also come in this year.

Losing Juventus

EA Sports has announced the end of the partnership between its FIFA series and Juventus, due to Juve’s partnership with PES 2020. What does it mean for FIFA 20 and FIFA Mobile Seasons?

Well, EA in a recent blog post answered exactly that.

• Piemonte Calcio will be a new playable team in FIFA 20 with a custom badge and kit throughout Kick-Off, Career Mode, and EA SPORTS VOLTA Football.
• Piemonte Calcio will use real-world, authentic players and their likenesses in FIFA 20 and FIFA 20 Ultimate Team.
• Piemonte Calcio players’ Chemistry within FIFA 20 Ultimate Team is unaffected by these changes.

Gameplay

The introduction of Volta Football means there will be an emphasis on close control, and this has been added in the form of the strafe dribbling mechanic. This enables the attacker to move with more agility than ever to lure your opponent in before beating them with speed or skill.

Strafe dribbling is just one component of what EA have labelled as Decisive Moments. With these new attacking skills, controlled tackling will bolster the defence, providing more intelligent tackling which increases the chance of winning the ball back. For instance, the defender directing the tackle towards a teammate to ensure they regain the ball.

L1/LB for Strafe Dribble

L1+R1/LB+RB for Strafe Dribble (lock face angle)

Timed finishing is as brilliant as it is frustrating. We all love to see a ball fly into the top corner from 25 yards, but when it happens again and again, the magic is lost. It has now been adjusted, with Composed finishing ensuring one-on-ones are easier, and volleyed efforts are more difficult.

New shot trajectories will see shots dip, fade and swerve to add even more realism, as part of the new ball physics for FIFA 20. Football Informed Motion introduces more authentic ball spins and bounces, which will also play in a big role in all the different venues available in Volta as well.

There is now also Natural Player Motion creating sharper movement and more intelligent positioning, with AI players moving in a more natural and composed fashion and potentially opening up space for their teammates.

Goalkeeper movement is another aspect that has faced much criticism, with it being highly unrealistic. Have you ever seen a goalkeeper run across his goal as the striker shoots to gather the ball in his arms? This is now being reduced, as well as the superhuman reactions from one-on-ones.

Free kicks are incredibly difficult to score on FIFA 19, and penalties have been even more of a lottery than they are in real life. A new set piece refresh will show a circular target of where shot is going, providing a clearer indication of where you are aiming.

The new Free Kick System is divided into five aspects: Aim, Position, Power, Spin and Timing.

• Aim: The first step was the new aiming mechanic. The aim now works with a reticle displayed on the goal, and players can use their pad to choose where to aim their free kick.
• Position: Instead of stepping slowly around the ball and moving to different start positions, pressing the Right-Stick to the left or right will now move the player between pre-defined positions (Wide, Normal, Straight). Each position gives a certain bonus to your shot, with Wide giving an increased amount of spin and Straight providing an increase in spin for outside of the foot shots. Normal is a balance between both.
• Power: With shot elevation being determined by the aiming reticle, shot power now determines the shot trajectory. A low power shot will be more akin to a finesse shot (loopy), while a high power shot will be more driven and direct. Aiming towards the bottom of the net will also prioritise driven shots, allowing players to shoot under the wall.

• Spin: After powering your shot, and during the run up before contact, players can apply spin to the ball. To apply different spins, you need to perform gestures using the Right-Stick as displayed below. The speed and accuracy of the gesture will determine how much spin is added to the ball.
• Timing: players can also use the Timed Finishing mechanic in the new Free Kick system, allowing you to attempt to press the button right at the moment of the contact of the shot. If successful, this will reduce the amount of error, and increase the amount of spin applied to the shot. If not successful, it will dramatically increase the amount of error applied to the shot.
• Penalty Kicks have also been improved, using the same Aim, Power and Timing mechanics as Free Kicks. The big difference is that there is no adjustment to the starting position and no spin control on the Right-Stick. Unlike Free Kicks however, players can continue to change the aim of the kick throughout the run up, allowing for last second adjustments.

Animations for kicks and shots for both Free Kicks and Penalties have been improved as well as new star-player run ups and animations, but the wall creep has been removed.

House rules were a great addition for FIFA 19, and more are coming to FIFA 20. Mystery ball boosts stats of the attacking team, whilst King of the Hill improves the worth of the next goal depending on how long you can keep the ball in a particular area of the field.

Career Mode

Ultimate Team will always be the main focus for EA, with the thousands of in-game purchases an absolute goldmine for the game’s publishers. The old-school FIFA players love Career Mode, setting up with their favourite club on the game or embarking on a journey taking a League Two club all the way to the Champions League. It’s high-time these gamers were repaid with some new features, or revisiting things from yesteryear.

Something that is coming more common in real life football, is deals being agreed outside of transfer windows, with players joining their new clubs the following season. Think Ajax’s Frenkie de Jong, who is on his way to Barcelona in the summer. It can help you use some of that transfer budget and prize money that goes to waste after the season ends.

It can be frustrating on Career Mode, when one of your star players decides to leave the club, and there is little you can do about it. How many times have we seen in real life football players claiming to want to leave, but a week or two later, sign a big fat new contract. You should have the option to tempt them with a new deal, with older versions of FIFA, players asking you for a wage review if they were playing at their very best.

Older FIFA versions also had an adjust ticket prices feature, meaning that if you were playing well or had a big match coming up, you could raise the prices knowing the game would sell out either way. Conversely, if you are playing poorly, you can lower the prices to ensure you get more fans into the stadium.

The player manager feature was arguably better than the other two career mode options, with you being allowed to both manage the team and have your star man on the field. It is a rarity in real life, but that didn’t matter when you were bending in free kicks with your player and making tactical adjustments.

Ultimate Team

Ultimate Team is the most popular mode in FIFA, but players are still frustrated by the imbalance of purchasing packs from the FUT store, and what you actually get in return. FIFA’s in-game currency has been banned in Belgium due to it breaching gambling laws, defining it as an “illegal game of chance”. It has been shown that the chances of getting an 84+ rated card is just 4.4% in a premium gold pack.

Take your FUT team into new House Rules in FUT Friendlies on FIFA 20 a new and more social way to play against your mates and the FUT community. House rules will also come to Ultimate Team. ‘Max Chemistry’ –  where every player has maximum chemistry regardless of positioning, nationality and league and ‘Swaps’ – where three players swap teams at random.

New Icons come to FIFA 20 Ultimate Team and players will be able to play with juiced-up versions of Zinedine Zidane, Didier Drogba, Andrea Pirlo, Ian Wright and Ronald Koeman for the first time. A further nine Icons are yet to be announced.

Special card items can now be rewarded after completing tasks related to the special card in-game thanks to improved Season Objectives. For a OTW Jovic you would need to score with a Serbian player, and score a certain amount of finesse shots along with other tasks before you can receive your reward.

With Milestone objectives, smashing your opponent 5-0 will now mean more as every type of goal can contribute to rewards in the long run. You can then show off your rewards in-game with special cards such as a 16-bit ball and many more items.

Get rewarded for Milestone moments in your FUT Club’s journey with long-term goals to aim for throughout the season. From players to packs to new club customisation options, upgrade your club with different rewards all season long. EA will make sure there are different rewards so that completing the objectives never feel boring.

The Journey

The Journey: Champions marked the end of Alex Hunter’s journey mode over the last three versions of FIFA, so what’s next? It looks as if Volta Football is replacing the Journey, but this isn’t confirmed.

The UEFA rights were secured for the Champions League and Europa League last year, and it wouldn’t surprise to see the European Championships appear on the new story mode, as you look to make it into the national squad and challenge for the European crown. Euro 2020 is being staged throughout Europe, creating scope for fantastic stadium atmospheres on the continent on the new FIFA.

Anything else?

What we’d love to see is something similar to in the in-depth club creator that appeared on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. You could go on the FIFA Creation Centre website and create a club complete with budgets, stadium and roster. You could then download this team on the game and then play with them in kick-off, tournaments and career mode.

With EA going bigger on customisation on Ultimate Team and Pro Clubs, this could happen.

For FIFA 19, La Liga followed suit of the Premier League by 16 stadiums and over 200 player arriving on the game. Licenses for the Bundesliga, Serie A and Ligue 1 are already obtained, but it’s time to add more depth and realism to the game. Those three leagues combined have just 11 stadiums between them, something that EA should look to improve.

More news is coming on FIFA 20 in The Pitch Notes over the next couple of months. Keep tuned to PlushNG for more news in the build up to the new release.

1. Sort out the gameplay
2. More detailed Career Mode
3. Justice in Ultimate Team packs!
4. A new Journey
5. Customisable features
6. Other (comment below)

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