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I gave the keys to my defense to Tainara De Silva known as Tainara of Bayern Munich (80 out of 100 overall rating). In attack I put the American Christen Press from Angel City, 168 cm tall, 84 speed and 82 shot. I didn’t know either of them, because I don’t follow women’s football nor men’s football, let’s say I frequent tourists this sport if we exclude Genoa and Serie A. But after about ten games Press became my top scorer while Tainara managed to stop even someone like Erling Haaland who is currently the strongest striker in real football and even in the virtual one.
We are talking about a video game, and specifically Ea Sports FC 24, the former FIFA, the best-selling football simulation for consoles and PCs in the world. One of the new features this year, in addition to the name change – after 30 years of ten-year agreements with the International Football Federation – is the introduction of female footballers into the Ultimate Team. Fifa has also hosted the women’s championship since 2015 but from this year the choice was to create a mixed tournament in what is the most profitable and popular game mode. In Ultima Team you can buy (or earn by playing) “digital packs” of footballers (now male and female) to form your own dream team and compete alone against the computer or online.
The statistics have been normalized, in the sense that, for example, Alexia Putellas who is among the strongest has the same score as Haalnad (91). And it’s a great little beneficial revolution, because on the one hand it helps people like me to get to know some female football athletes and on the other it makes the championship more surprising because you no longer see the usual teams with the usual super-stars. To tell the truth, someone tried to protest by denouncing a lack of realism but Ea went straight ahead. And she did well. The only problem is aesthetic. On the pitch, in video games that is, male players who respect the physical proportions of real athletes often seem like giants compared to females. Maybe a little too much.
As for the rest, the post-Fifa era is off to a good start. No revolution as some might have expected but many small improvements that are all going in the right direction. Let’s talk about the Coach and Player Career mode of EA Sports Fc 24. Here come the agents, the trainers and greater tactical control by the coaches. Another new feature is the Tactical Cam, which also offers a tactical view of the pitch, immersing the players in the atmosphere of the stadiums. The Tactical Cam, thanks to a new camera angle, will provide a tactical view of the pitch, allowing players to plan their moves with precision.
This innovation arises from the collaboration with Opta Sports, a London-based company that processes data and statistics. In practice, the characteristics of the players have a more realistic impact on the gameplay, for example, if the player takes free kicks well it will be easier to score goals in the same way a defender guided by the AI will face the attacker highlighting the attributes of his real counterpart . More simply, if the attacker you have is very tall, it is useless to mark him in headers with a smaller one. PlayStyles is available in the FC 24 Ultimate Team, Career and Club modes. In other words, you score more with your head if you have tall players and with high shot values it is easier to score goals.