FIFA 15 career mode: Gamescom news


FIFA 15

EA have announced a number of changes at Gamescom this year when it comes to FIFA 15. Here’s what they mean for career mode.

To see all of FIFA 15’s career mode changes, click here

EA’s FIFA 15 Gamescom conference has been and gone, and a number of interesting and exciting changes are lined up for the game. Many of these relate to improving the realism of the game and the way you play it, but there was a fair amount devoted to what we’re all looking forward to – career mode.

In a reassuring (and perhaps surprising) move, EA described career mode as “one of FIFA’s most popular modes”, suggesting they themselves still view it as an important part of the game. And the good news is that this translates into a number of changes that should improve the way we play the game and guide our teams to glory.

Updated team management lets you use custom team sheets

Updated team management lets you use custom team sheets

Player growth and scouting in FIFA 15

I’ll let EA explain this one in their own words, because it’s going to be music to a lot of people’s ears:

“FIFA 15 has a more realistic system for player growth and potential. Highly rated older players won’t retire as quickly and high potential players grow faster if you give the opportunity to do so.”

Yes, that’s right. No more retiring at 29. Hallelujah!

Well, possibly. They’ve said this won’t happen to “highly rated older players”. Will it still happen if you’re managing a League 2 team? And never mind retirements, have they fixed the rapid stat declining in older players?

Still, improved player growth for younger players can’t be a bad thing, and we may be able to get more wonderkids on our teams this way. Whether that means a return to the insane growth of a few years ago remains to be seen.

The player search function has been updated and looks more like Ultimate Team

The player search function has been updated and looks more like Ultimate Team

As for the Global Transfer Network, it’s still there but looks to have had some tweaks and updates. Scouts will now actively suggest areas for improvement in your team instead of passively waiting for instructions, and they will also suggest actual players to solve those squad flaws. EA also say that “a new player search screen lets you find players faster and better suited to your team”. What this means isn’t yet clear.

There’s also no mention of whether they’ve changed the way scouts report back to you. Will they tell us a rough potential or OVR range for the players they find? And will the “first team quality” bug be fixed for teams that have worked their way up the league. No news yet.

As for youth scouting… nothing. No news so far on this one, so I’m guessing there aren’t many major changes, certainly not anything along the lines of a youth league or trading academy players, or anything like that. Unless EA have some very big cards hidden up their sleeve, it’s likely we’ll only see small tweaks in this area. But rest assured, you’ll be able to come back here once the game is out and find out everything you need to know when I release the FIFA 15 scouting guide.

FIFA 15 squad selection

Squad selection is more visual as you can ‘drag and drop’ players

FIFA 15 team management

For a start, team management looks to have been given a much-needed overhaul. You can now define ‘team sheets’ and quickly switch between them during a game, enabling you to change your team and tactics without having to change every player every time. So let’s say you have an important league game followed by an easy cup game – you first define your team sheets, filling them with the players you need for each occasion, then simply switch to your cup team sheet after the important match and you’ll have your pre-defined reserve team all lined up and ready to go. It’s something I know people have been calling for for years and should really speed up team selection.

Team selection itself has been updated with a much more ‘visual’ feel. Players can be dragged and dropped to the exact position you need them on the pitch, which is displayed in a top-down view. You can define player roles in a much more straightforward way, being able to define them as a ‘target man’ or tell them to ‘run in behind’.

That said, from all the images I’ve seen there seems to be a big empty space on the right-hand of the team management screen. What this will be used for isn’t yet clear – perhaps displaying detailed player stats? – but hopefully it’s put to good use.

FIFA 15

EA have been very quiet when it comes to youth scouting in FIFA 15

Your thoughts

How do you feel about these changes? Was there something you really wanted to see announced? Make sure you leave a comment below.

If there’s anything you want to find out from EA, let me know and I’ll try to get in touch and get some answers. Fingers crossed they can get back to me and clear some things up!

And check out the FIFA 15 career mode screenshots below – how do you think it looks?


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FIFA 15 team 9

FIFA 15 team 8

FIFA 15 team 6

FIFA 15 team 5

FIFA 15 team 4

FIFA 15 team 3

FIFA 15 team 2

FIFA 15 team 1