Having largely perfected and refined the fundamental actions in the game of soccer, EA Sports' FIFA 15 will experiment with other features that make the sport distinctive: A big one is the emotional tenor of every match and the players involved in it.
Polygon previewed this "emotional intelligence" when it was shown before E3, but the best way to understand what's going on is by watching this video. Basically, all 22 players on the pitch have an attitude. Well, they have attitudes, about one another. These evolve as they interact, sometimes roughly, or as big moments occur, or big opportunities are missed.
The point, as producer Aaron McHardy related to me, is not so much to serve up a series of different scenes during a stoppage in play, but to give the game a more organic feel and then deploy FIFA's cameras and commentary to observe and present that. That way, the presentation will, at minimum, be less repetitive, a goal of any sports video game that replicates a broadcast.
Players won't be the only ones showing emotion. Supporters will behave distinctly as well, with commentators remarking on that. And when your striker pounds in the deciding score late in the match, FIFA 15 will serve up dogpile celebrations involving all but the goalkeeper.
FIFA 15 launches Sept. 26 for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Windows PC, Xbox 360 and Xbox One.
