FIFA 14 is the latest edition of the storied franchise, and unlike most previous years, this version is FREE! -well, that is if you download it on the iPhone, iPad or Android. Good luck getting a free version for the PS3. Anyways, the mobile and tablet versions of this game might be a little bit dumbed down, but they are very nearly as involving and as fun as the console versions of the game, without having to pay the console price. Read on for the beginner’s guide to FIFA 14!
Right when you begin playing FIFA 14, you’ll be faced with a huge variety of options. You can play quick matches online, or games of the week, but the meat of the game will be in the Ultimate Team mode. The first time you go into Ultimate Team, you will play an introductory match with a super strong team, but afterwards, you can pick your own team and then begin to manage it.
Before you go there, though, go to the customize menu to familiarize yourself with all of the options. Most of the options deal with appearance and sound, but there are some very useful ones which deal with the gameplay itself. Under the game options, you can change the length of a half, or the difficulty level (difficulty level changes don’t apply to Ultimate Team, though). You can turn injuries, offsides, bookings, or handballs on and off too, although these too will have no effect on the ultimate team play, since these settings are preset.
Go to the display mode and you can change the entire appearance of the matches, from the camera angle to the height and zoom. Turning on the radar will allow you to see the location of all players on the field at all times. Audio mode has the usual options of sound effects and music. Controls mode is where it really begins to get fun.
There are two different control schemes – the classic and the touch mode. The game starts you off in touch mode, which is ostensibly optimized for touch screen play – however, classic mode, which includes a virtual joystick and buttons, is far more intuitive and allows for far more various skills and techniques to be used. Change the “auto switching” swtting to change how sensitive the game is to switching players when you are on defense. The higher you set it, the better of a job the game does of switching to the defender who is in the best position to tackle the player that has the ball.
Click here to continue on to part two of the FIFA 14 (mobile and tablet version) beginner’s guide!