FIFA 16 Review

Alex Morgan

Another year of FIFA is upon us and there are few new things that have been added, FIFA 16 holds its own as a great football game and here's my review for those of you on the fence.

New Features;

Women's Football
For the first time in the franchise we see women take to the centre stage as well. Twelve (12) Women's National teams have been added and it gives you a taste of where the franchise is headed. Hopefully more National teams and clubs would be added in the following year.

No-Touch Dribbling

Adding to the various attacking manoeuvres used to embarrass defenders, FIFA 16's No-touch Dribbling will have you leave defenders on the floor without a touch of the ball, hence the name.

Better Defending

The defending overall has been improved, so much that it gets difficult to keep up quick passes; pass too quick too often and you lose possession of the ball, quite awkward for a "possession" game. For a game based on ball possession the CPU tend to stick to  the ball like Velcro and it has to be fixed either by a patch or in the following game.

Player Training in Career Mode

This new feature permits you to be able to alter the attributes of the player in your team in what ever specific way you choose. These training drills come in the form of skill games;you can either play them yourself or simulate. You would be able to train first team players, substitutes, reserves and even the youth academy.

Youth Academy Players Growth
That frustrating wait for youth players to clock an Overall (OVR) of 70 has changed. After scouting youth players they can now grow as you progress in your career mode. Apart from the new default natural growth you would be able to train your youth players even if you haven't signed them to the main squad. A bit unrealistic, the growth occurs to quick to be honest.

Career Mode
Pre-Season tournaments, two-years loan options and multiple substitutions during friendlies are some of the new features

FUT Draft Mode

Testing your team building skills is the FUT Draft Mode, draft a squad and challenge opponents in a series of four matches and win rewards. Choose your formation, a captain, and fill out the rest of the 23-man team from a draw of five random players for each position, even legends (only on Xbox though), take to the pitch and the rest is yours to decide.

Pros
Gameplay Experience
It promises an refreshing and competitive gaming experience for long hours, the DEMO hardly showed what much FIFA 16 has to offer. It even plays better with friends online or offline.

Cons
Glitches
As some holes have been plugged in new ones have opened, certain glitches have been fixed but some new ones plague this beautiful game, like the overly possessive CPU's hold on possession and difficulty getting the ball back, not sure it is part of the game or a glitch. Like all games and previous FIFA games, FIFA 16 has glitches, but which game doesn't?

Verdict (8/10): Go and get yourself a copy, you won't regret it.

Voice Actors Going on Strike?

Screen Actors Guild American Federation of TV and Radio.

Screen Actors Guild American Federation of TV and Radio or better known as SAG-AFTRA are threatening to go on a strike to enforce their negotiations with big video game publishers.

A change for how voice actors are paid is amongst the demands leading to Back-End Bonuses; common in film acting, initially charges for voice acting fees upfront but will eventually pay performance bonuses after meeting certain milestones post-release (e.g. After 2 million copies of a game is sold). SAG-AFTRA want a residual sum to kick in after milestones continue to heap following the games sales pattern, also claiming that it protects smaller game developers and publishers as they don't seem to rack in as much sales as AAA developers and publishers, calling for a vote to strike and it 75% of its members agree to go on strike? They are required to not work until a resolution has been reached.

Also Encouraging non-union members to join, certain actors have already used the social media to voice their discontent; Jennifer Hayle Ashley Birch Will Wheaton and  Steve Blum have all voted in favour of a strike. Using #PerformanceMatters #IAmOnBoard2015 on Twitter.

All we want is a fair Interactive contract. Please stand with us. #PerformanceMatters #IAmOnBoard2015 pic.twitter.com/fISZasDC7W

— Steve Blum (@blumspew) September 22, 2015

SAG-AFTRA and members of the game industry have met twice earlier in the year without a resolution to the problem.

Hayden Christensen to Return as Vader?

Hayden Christensen.

Darth Vader is rumoured to appear in both Star Wars: Rogue One and Star Wars: The Force Awakens and even so Hayden Christensen, who had played Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader would be back to reprise his role as the menacing number two of the Empire.

A Darth Vader costume is definitely being worked on for Rogue One, but an appearance in The Force Awakens is speculated to be between a flashback as Anakin or a full blown Vader at present.

Will we see Hayden Christensen in the future +Star Wars and or Star Wars Anthology movies as Anakin Skywalker or Darth Vader?

Wolfenstein Sequel in the Works?

Wolfenstein: The New Order.

A Wolfenstein sequel might have been accidentally announced by Alicia Bachelda-Curus, who plays Any Oliwa in Wolfenstein in an interview with Polish TV station in which she stated "I'm working on a video game, first part of which I have already made. Now we are making a second one, which will take two more years, I played this game as a child. I was very happy when I got to the point where i could shoot Hitler.

BJ Blazkowicz.

Machine Games' director, Jens `Matthies, in June last year  expressed a strong desire to have a sequel, however, +Bethesda Softworks has not announced that a sequel would be coming.

Source: +IGN 

Naughty Dog Comes Clean on The Last of Us 2

The Last of Us

The writer and creative director of The Last of Us explained the reason why all the chatter about a sequel was everywhere in an interview with Official Playstation Magazine

"When Bruce (Straley, game director) and I moved to Uncharted 4, we were brainstorming ideas for The Last of Us 2 with new characters; ideas for TLOU 2 with Joel and Ellie; ideas for a sci-fi game; ideas for a fantasy game and building prototypes for each ideas. And just as we were getting close to narrowing the list down, we were asked to work on +Uncharted 4: A Thief's End ."

Neil Druckman continued. "You know, there's a part of me that's really looking forward to going back to those things, but I have no cycles left in my mind even to be thinking about that right now."

Regular Naughty Dog voice actor Nolan North mentioned that The Last of Us 2 was in the works in June and Druckman quelled such talk explaining. "So I guess he (Nolan North) was kind of right in that we were working on stuff we don't know what we are doing next and we don't know until probably a few months after we finish Uncharted 4."

The League Actor Has Been Lying for 14 Years

Steve Rannazzisi.

The League actor/comedian, Steve Rannazzisi, has been lying to the world for 14 years with a false 9/11 story, attributing his survival as an inspiration to do stand-up whilst telling "his story" multiple times. He was recently confronted with evidence that weaken his claim-He had been working in Midtown that day, the company has no record of his employment and had no offices either.

Recently, He admitted to coming up with the 9/11 story saying "For many years, more than anything, I have wished that, with silence, I could somehow erase a story told by an immature young man."

What hits will his career take for this? Rannazzisi, who also does Buffalo Wild Wings commercials might be losing his standing relationship with the network and sponsors. This event begs the question, whether he is the only actor who has lied? or Maybe he was just unfortunate to get caught.

Source: +Business Insider

Netflix Knows when You Are Hooked On A Show

Netflix.

On Wednesday the popular streaming service, +Netflix disclosed a press release showing details that revealed the exact time viewers got hooked on a show.

Observing popular shows like +Breaking Bad and original content like +House of Cards "70% of viewers who watched that episode went on to complete season one." Netflix chief content officer explains "we found that no one was ever hooked on the pilot, this gives us confidence that giving our members all episodes at once is more aligned with how fans are made." said Ted Sarandos, meaning binge-watching is what users want.

The list below shows the number of episodes it took to turn a Netflix session to a binge-watching session:

+Bates Motel: 2
+Breaking Bad: 2
+House of Cards: 3
Orange is the New Black: 3
+Better Call Saul AMC: 4
Grace and Frankie: 4
+Pretty Little Liars: 4
+Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: 4
Daredevil: 5
+Mad Men: 6
Blacklist: 6
+How I Met Your Mother: 8

Regionally, Australia and New Zealand were inclined to watch a few more episode before getting hooked unlike the Dutch that were hooked from the get go.