FIFA 06 - Q&A Feature

One of EAâ??s biggest sportsâ?? brands goes from strength to strength and just when you thought they had gone as far as they could those clever chaps at EA think of some innovative ways to improve and impress.

Our football fanatic, Derek dela Fuente, spoke with the producer of the game Hugues Ricour and came away suitably impressed (well he is a Millwall fan after all â?“ ed).

With the release of FIFA 2006 on the familiar collection of machines what kind of focus is placed on technological advancements as opposed to new gameplay ideas?

We take into account both aspects. Both technical improvements and game design ideas are equally important to us.

"Competition is good, it makes us more aggressive."

How much attention is paid to its one big rival Pro Evo and what kind of feedback and fan research does the team constantly do to ensure you present one or two ideas that the fans wish; also do you see the competitionâ??s increasing use of licenses as a threat?

As football fans and gamers we do pay attention to all our competitors to see how the genre is developing with a view to improving the FIFA franchise each year. We constantly communicate with the web communities to improve the game and answer as many wishes as possible. Competition is good, it makes us more aggressive. I used to produce NFS Underground and we pushed ourselves to the limit to compete with Gran Turismo.

With regard to licensing, FIFA 06 is the only fully-licensed football game offering a completely authentic experience that we know resonates with football fans everywhere. The level of detail increases every year. Check out the sports wear manufacturers, the video content, the major leagues and also the lower divisions.

"The improvement that we are the most proud of is the player positioning."

You have an influx of new personnel within the dev team working on the game. Was this a conscious decision to ensure the game presented new ideas and possibly a slightly new direction and how do you ensure continuity with so many new people working on the game?

FIFA 06 boasts a development team that hails from various countries all around the world. Around 70 of the team are from the core European football nations like France, England, Italy, Spain and Germany. Rather than being a challenge having so many nationalities working together, itâ??s absolutely necessary to have a diverse team that truly understands what motivates and compels football gamers. The role of the producer is to ensure that the vision is clear and that the team moves in the same direction. It is a challenge and at the time very rewarding.

One of the tasks set was a newly redesigned engine. Can you expand on this please â?“ to make a product better you surely have to add more detail and possibly make gameplay more sophisticated and challenging but at the same time you could lose some of the qualities that made FIFA so well liked â?“ its ease of use and learning curve?

I think weâ??ve achieved that necessary balance with FIFA 06. Weâ??ve worked hard to improve every aspect of the gameplay so that now you feel like you are truly participating in a football match on your console. Passing, shooting and the AI of your team-mates and the opposition have all been enhanced and weâ??re closing the gap between reality and the virtual football world. The improvement that we are the most proud of is the player positioning. This system is 100% new. Itâ??s our dedication to making the game authentic that will simultaneously provide the accessibility for the new gamer and yet still provide depth for the experienced FIFA player.

"Just as in real football there are no â??cheatsâ?? or â??hacksâ?? to score goals, weâ??ve gone to great lengths to ensure this is the case in the game."

We are informed that the AI has been heavily worked on so will the improvements be easily discernable and can you expand on why you felt the AI needed improving? Also, what effect does this have on the CPU team and can you still score a certain goal from crosses?

One the most impressive things youâ??ll notice when playing FIFA 06 is the fact that all the other players on the pitch that arenâ??t directly under your control will behave exactly as youâ??d expect a real player to react. Your team-mates will make intelligent runs, find space and position themselves realistically. The opposition will organise themselves, put in tackles and play to their own tactics just as youâ??d expect a real team to behave. Just as in real football there are no â??cheatsâ?? or â??hacksâ?? to score goals, weâ??ve gone to great lengths to ensure this is the case in the game.

Has there been any work done on the pace of the game and possibly new tactics added and could you pick one element of the game you feel is perhaps the biggest improvement to the series?

There are a number of new elements to the gameplay that Iâ??m pleased with and so itâ??s difficult to choose. However, one such addition is the ability to change your tactics on-the-fly by using the D-pad. Just as a real team will change their tactics during a game on the orders of the manager pacing the touchline, in FIFA 06 you can adjust your playing style at the tap of a button to exploit an advantage or make necessary changes to get yourself back into a match.

Teams behave differently whether itâ??s offensively or defensively and they all react according to the situation within the 90 minutes of the game. We worked on the â??Team Chemistryâ?? and the way the players react to the situation is linked to the situation. For instance whether the opposition scores, youâ??re playing home or away, the level of experience of your players, the time left on the clock - the list goes on.

FIFA 2005 introduced first-touch control, can we expect any developments from this, or perhaps a new feature along similar lines?

First Touch was a great success. Feedback from the gamers we talked to believed that it added a very tangible improvement on previous FIFA games. It was by taking on board this feedback and then examining how that kind of user control helped the gameplay experience that led to a more general improvement of the whole game engine. For one thing, we added more context sensitive animations. We also improved the control system to make sure the user is never surprised by the player he is controlling when using First Touch.

One aspect of the game that is creating a lot of excitement is the Career mode. Please tell us more!

We added an in-depth manager mode to the game thatâ??s completely unique to â??action footballâ?? gaming. The gamer can now undertake a 15 season campaign controlling every aspect of your club from budgets and managing coaching staff, to overseeing training and buying and loaning players in a fully-functional transfer market. Itâ??s a level of complexity that isnâ??t offered by our competitors and that football gamers have been demanding for some time. To best describe the depth of this yearâ??s management mode, the design and many ideas came from our management game called Total Club Manager.

What improvements have been made to the online play; fans seemed very vocal about the lack of voice communication during pre-game lobbies, etcâ?¦?

EA Sport is constantly improving the On Line experience. We added many features to answer the fansâ?? wishes and we are sure that no one will be disappointed!

One aspect that always seems to have less significance than other areas is the commentary; can we expect any significant enhancements from FIFA 2005 and does the next-generation offer extra opportunities in this regard?

We decided to shake things up a little and Clive Tyldsey has been brought on board this year to supply the commentary. Cliveâ??s voice is synonymous with football in the UK and he adds a fresh atmosphere to the matches. For the Latino market in North America we added Mexican Spanish commentators who have a very passionate delivery and itâ??s worked very well. So well, in fact, even the non-Latino members of the development team love to play the game with the Mexican Spanish commentary.

TVG would like to thank Hugues Ricour for taking the time to answer our questions. FIFA 06 is scheduled for release on the current-gen systems on September 30th, followed by DS, PSP and Xbox360 versions later in the year; weâ??ll have further coverage soon.