What’s a fan of El Tri supposed to do once all the tears have been collected in empty bottles of mezcal or hojas de tamales? Why, play the ever-living crap out of the just-released FIFA14 demo, of course! But first, a little insight into the current situation.
This week further proved that Mexico’s national team suffers from the same debilitating disease that almost put a stop to France in 2010 for World Cup qualification. The Domenech Effect is now The Chepo Effect: Shoddy defense, a lack of a creative midfield, a predictable style, and a lack of leadership has now put Mexico in fifth place in qualifying rankings.
The team has two games and must at least earn a win and a tie under new coach Victor Manuel Vucetich to qualify for the fourth place wild card match against New Zealand. Of course, that’s a best case scenario and if El Tri fails to qualify, well, y’all better watch out because I’m going to master the ever-living crap out of FIFA14 and FUCK ALL OF YOU UP (on the internet).
Anyway, Electronic Arts took some sting out of the loss the day after when the company released the FIFA14 demo on the Xbox 360 and PS3. The game will be available for both systems as well as the Nintendo Wii on Sept. 24th.
The demo features FC Barcelona, AC Milan, Manchester City, Borussia Dortmund, Paris Saint-Germain, Boca Juniors, Tottenham Hotspurs, and New York Red Bulls as playable teams. The only stadium available is the Camp Nou but DAAAAAAAAANG does it ever look beautiful!
As with previous versions of the game, there’ll be plenty of other real-world stadiums to play on. I’m most excited about the inclusion of La Bombonera where we’ll all be able to play the Argentine clásico between Boca Juniors and River Plate. Both teams, as well as every team in the Primera División, are in the final product. I hope the programmers included riot police on the sidelines.
But how does it play? Incredibly realistic!! Player movements, reactions, etc. appear smoother and flow more realistically from one animation to the next. The “animation slide” during a flair shot has been mostly fixed.
One of my gripes with last year’s game was the number of unrealistic movements of the players as they ran on the pitch. That’s been fixed, which makes the game feel a touch slower at first. That’s nothing a few rounds won’t fix though! Besides, it’ll put a stop to sprint-button fiends everywhere. The defensive line plays smarter as well though I did see a few too many games with far too many offside calls.
It’s not perfect but, then again, it’s just a demo. Who wants to stand in line with me at the local Gamestop on the 24th?