Handheld Fun - FIFA 14 for iPad

Hey guys, welcome back to 3 Lives Left.

As planned, today's post is Handheld Fun and I will be talking about the iPad version of FIFA 14.

FIFA 14 is free to download on all mobile and tablet platforms and promises a lot. However, as you would imagine, with a free version of such a huge title there must be costs somewhere along the line. These costs come in the form of having to pay for the privilege of playing Kick-Off mode and Career Mode, both costing £2.99/EUR 3.50/$4.79 each.

One good thing is that Ultimate Team is completely free and any activity that you do will sync to your console copy (if you have one).

It's graphics are pretty good considering the hardware lacks compared to consoles. The game also has full licencing so there has definitely not been any scrimping on game play experience.

There are two different ways to control the movement of your players/team.

One way is to use the Touch Controls. This method allows you to have more control not just over the player that has the ball but also players that don't have the ball e.g. being able to make an attacker go on a forward run and make space for a shot.

The second method of controlling your team is the standard button press commands (pass, shoot, sprint, etc).

One downfall is that every attacking move seems like it is repeated over and over. I don't know if this is down to the game design or if it is down to the fact that the game has to be limited as a result of it being on a handheld device.

Overall there is not much difference in the game other than the graphics and the platform that you play it on.

I would recommend downloading this game if you a FIFA fan purely because it is free and you have access to Ultimate Team.

Anyway, that is it for this week's post. Stay tuned for next week's article - Next Gen Weekend.

Thanks guys,

3 Lives Left

EA Sports Ignite - A Revolutionary New Engine?

Hey folks and welcome back to 3 Lives Left.

As I mentioned in the last post (PS4 vs Xbox One), I decided that I was going to attempt to breakdown EA Sports Ignite, EA Sports' new engine. It would be cool if you guys could put your opinions across on this new system to see what you think about it too.

So, introducing the brand new engine be EA Sports, which will now power games such as FIFA 14, Madden, NBA Live and UFC.

EA Sports have claimed that the new engine will aim to even out all of the issues we witnessed in previous titles. It also claims to have improved Human Intelligence for better decision making (At last!), Living Worlds, whereby the crowds are now in 3D as opposed to being like cardboard, as well as True Player Motion; haven't we heard this somewhere else before?

CVG compiled an article stating that the new-at-the-time Impact Engine would improve on areas such as First Touch Control (yeah, right.), Player Impact (really?), Complete Dribble (fair enough), Tactical Freekicks (erm...?), and Attacking AI (please.).

Below are just some of the screenshots taken from FIFA 13.

Puyol getting a bit aggressive in his old age.

Neymar has lost his heading ability.

Now c'mon, let's be serious EA. You promised a lot and delivered a little. Here are some of the issues that I fell across whilst playing the most recent FIFA title:

- Major glitching (more below)

- Server issues

- Massive lag issues

- More?

I recall one glitch at the beginning of this game's cycle where I saved a Career Mode with Borussia Dortmund and when I loaded the save file again it just crashed and I could not advance on the calender. Bare in mind, I also made it to 2019. I was extremely disappointed.

On many occasions it has also been very common that half way through a match, the football, or an entire player would completely disappear during the game. Imagine playing football without the football? It's just 22 people running after thin air.

Human Intelligence: EA Sports' attempt to not just improve the intelligence of the player you are possessing, but also the intelligence of your team-mates and the opposition. I believe they tried this in the last Impact Engine?

True Player Motion: Another of EA Sports' attempts to improve the gaming experience and the realism of gameplay. Again, I thought this was tried in the last Impact Engine?

Living Worlds: EA Sports' are trying to improve the sidelines and crowds in sporting arena's in order to give the player that immersive feeling that real-life sports stars feel as they enter the arena/stadia. Now although EA Sports have always tried to tweak the crowds and add more venue selection, they have never aimed to bring a real-life situation to the player in regards to offering that 'immersive feeling'.

The head of EA Sports was interviewed by IGN on the new EA Sports Ignite engine and pretty much openly admitted that this new engine was years in the planning and was intended as a protective measure for the next-gen consoles. Find the interview here.

So there you have it guys. The "new" EA Sports engine for the next-gen consoles. I have a feeling it is going to be more of the same. What about you?

Leave your comments below.

See ya later folks.