When it comes to sports games, some of the most popular are franchises such as Madden, MLB and NBA. But none of these have the international clout as the game series FIFA, and its newest release, FIFA 15 is no exception. Though, when an annual game based on a sport consistently does well, it becomes tough to find innovation and new elements to praise, aside from graphical fidelity. But that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be reviewed.

The first impressions of the game go very strongly. Playing as Liverpool against Manchester City upon starting up the game provided a first look at the well-designed stadiums, crowds and pitches. Then, after commentary banter similar to FIFA 14, the players come onto the field, looking better designed and more realistic than ever. When the clock starts, some of the real modifications become visible. Players react to each other more fluently, the goalie’s animations for saves have been doubled, and the play style feels more professional, rather than a high school JV team.

Once the game finished and hopefully the player led Liverpool to victory, the main menu opens up, and the varied types of play become open to the player. The quick match, Kick Off, doesn’t have much improvement, though its simplicity makes it hard to improve. The FUT, football ultimate team, received improvements in its user interface, but included new features such as an easier search system for players being auctioned and a loan system to try out players for different squads. Also, friendly seasons so players can have entire seasons to face off against a friends team, playing for the title position was added. Multiple seasons are available to play as well, from the Barclays premier league to the US open cup. Aside from all these, not many startling innovations were made to the fifa formula.

The game still has some minor flaws, which range from members of the team running into each other, a large and slightly confusing array of options, and character detail dropping in quality with lower rank teams as opposed to the world class players. But, the game is definitely still an enjoyable experience that can have many hours sunk into, whether playing alone or head to head against opponents across the globe.