Gaming: FIFA 21 Feature Wish List

One of the most exciting times of the year for FIFA fans is almost here. On June 18th EA is set to officially unveil the next iteration of the famous franchise, FIFA 21. Over the course of the subsequent three months leading up to the game’s September release, we are sure to be inundated with information about the game’s new features. Of course, among the most thrilling aspects of the buildup to the release is the speculation and hope of exactly what new features may be added – so here we seek to explore some of those endless possibilities.

Career Mode

Career Mode is one of the most neglected modes in the entire game, yet it possesses a large player base that is perhaps bettered only by Ultimate Team. Fans have long been yearning for EA to make major innovations to Career Mode, and although FIFA 20 was a step in the right direction in that regard, they’ve still got a long way to go.

The transfer system has had minimal changes over the years, including the addition of cutscenes during the negotiations which add to the immersion, but it is still nowhere near as thorough as it ought to be. When another club enters into talks with you in a bid to purchase one of your players, as of right now it is impossible to request one of their players enter into the deal as part of a swap. This is a practice that occurs in real life football. Furthermore, you are able to include your players in a swap when you approach other clubs, so why should fans not also have the ability to merely do the opposite of that? If Manchester City approaches you to sign one of your players, you should be entitled to say “Sure, but you’re going to have to include Riyad Mahrez as part of the deal if you want him.”

Moreover, the ability to pay in installments over a number of years has bizarrely never been an option in FIFA’s Career Mode. This, along with a greater variety of clauses, are musts. Release clauses and sell-on clauses do currently exist, but what of buyback clauses? This is a tool that is used far too often by clubs in the real world for it not to be present in the most famous football video game simulation. In a similar vein, the option to purchase a player on a full-time basis when their loan spell has expired, a feature which was present in past iterations, has been missing for a number of years now and has simply got to make it back in.

Training is an addition that has garnered positive reviews but it is also severely limited in scope. You can train a player’s stats to make him better, but you cannot train his weak foot or skill moves. Just imagine getting a talented wonder-kid from your youth academy, only to find out that he’s ruined by having two-star skill moves and a one-star weak foot. Ideally, you would be able to put him into training to change that! Whilst on the topic of training, it would also be delightful to have the ability to change a player’s preferred position; if you’ve got a defensive midfielder you think would make a great centre back, you should have the ability to convert him over a period of time through the training system.

Additionally, it is understandable that EA cannot possibly include the authentic youth teams of every single team in the game. However, giving fans the ability to create their own youth teams would be a viable avenue to work around that predicament. Ideally, you could have 22 generic players in your youth academy, elect to form a youth team comprising of those players, and have them compete in youth tournaments against other clubs’ generic youth teams. This would be a spectacular addition to the game as it isn’t always possible to give youth players game time in your first team. This way you could have them gain match experience and grow in the youth team instead.

Lastly, I would love for EA to take inspiration from NBA 2K20’s MyLeague mode by allowing you to have full control over certain key elements of Career Mode – such as AI-controlled transfers and match results. This is an offline game mode, so what you do would have no consequences for anyone else; you would be able to craft your own football universe the way you see fit. Your Career Mode could be as realistic or unrealistic as you’d like it to be and no one could complain about unrealistic transfers or results anymore because hey, you have the power to prevent that should you feel the need to. This could be that ground-breaking moment for Career Mode that we have all been waiting for.

Volta

The flagship addition to FIFA 20; the long-awaited return of street football to the series. A year later, though, and it’s fair to say that the mode has failed to live up to expectations. In my experience, this is for two key reasons. Firstly, you are unable to play Volta online with or against friends. That seems like such a guaranteed shoe-in for a mode such as this, but EA decided to omit it. Quite simply, this has got to be added.

Secondly, the essence of street football is sublime flicks and skills. However, when playing against the AI they tend not to do much of those; instead they merely focus on getting the ball, going down the other end, and scoring without any flair whatsoever. Moving forward, slight tweaks to the AI’s play-style in Volta should be made so that it actually feels like you are playing street football. Volta has massive potential but, as of right now, it remains largely untapped – which will hopefully change in FIFA 21.

General Additional Features

Here are some of the features that fans could hope for in FIFA 21:

• Similar to the NBA 2K series, the addition of historical teams such as Barcelona 2010-11, Spain 2010, Argentina 1986, or Manchester United 1999 would be great.
• Classic Kits were available to be bought from the Catalog in previous FIFA games and, although they remain in a smaller capacity in Ultimate Team, they should make a return in Kick Off mode.
• A new Ultimate Team mode that is solely dedicated to objectives and Icon Swaps. This would prevent people from intentionally relegating themselves in Division Rivals.
• Being such a dominant aspect of the sport, it’s about time Video Assistant Referee makes its way into the game too.

Hope springs eternal and over the course of the next couple months, millions of FIFA fans around the world will be eager onlookers as news begins to emerge about what the newest installment of the franchise will bring to the table.

Words by Nicholas Bayley