FIFA 20

FIFA 20 is a football simulation video game published by Electronic Arts as part of the FIFA series. It is the 27th installment in the series and was released on 27 September 2019 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch. This is the first game in the main series to not have Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions since FIFA 06 and FIFA 07 respectively. Real Madrid winger Eden Hazard was named the new cover star of the Standard Edition, with Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk on the cover of the Champions Edition. Former Juventus and Real Madrid midfielder Zinedine Zidane was later named as the cover star for the Ultimate Edition.

The game features VOLTA Football for the first time, a new mode that provides a variance on the traditional 11v11 gameplay and focuses on small-sided street and futsal games. The mode shares similarities to the former FIFA Street series. Gameplay changes to FIFA 20 focus primarily on a new feature titled VOLTA Football. The mode, which translates to ‘return’ in Portuguese, focuses on street football rather than the traditional matches associated with the FIFA series, similar to the FIFA Street series. It includes several options to play in three versus three, four versus four and five versus five matches, as well as with professional futsal rules.

The mode will incorporate the same engine, but places emphasis on skill and independent play rather than tactical or team play. Additionally, players have the option to create their custom player by gender, clothing, shoes, hats, accessories and tattoos. Following the completion of the three-part series “The Journey” in FIFA 19, players are now able to follow a similar storyline mode in VOLTA Football, which would be played with the player’s own character. Alex Hunter also makes a cameo in the game, along with his agent Beatriz Villanova. Changes were also made to the traditional 11 versus 11 mode to encourage more one-on-ones and off-the-ball space creation. New penalty and free-kick mechanics were implemented and updates were made to the ball physics.

VOLTA Football includes 17 locations, with each providing a unique experience. In addition to the generic warehouse and parking lot, VOLTA Football features venues based in real-life cities, namely Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, Buenos Aires, Cape Town, Lagos, London, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Miami, New York City, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, Rome and Tokyo. Commentary is once again provided by Martin Tyler and Alan Smith and alternating with Derek Rae and Lee Dixon for all competitions, with Alan McInally providing in-game score updates and Geoff Shreeves providing pitch-side injury updates. Each player has his own overall rating, with Lionel Messi having the highest rating in the game with a 94.

Ultimate Team features 88 icon players, including 15 new names. Carlos Alberto, John Barnes, Kenny Dalglish, Didier Drogba, Michael Essien, Garrincha, Pep Guardiola, Kaká, Ronald Koeman, Andrea Pirlo, Ian Rush, Hugo Sánchez, Ian Wright, Gianluca Zambrotta and Zinedine Zidane all feature as icons for the first time. Two new game modes – King of the Hill and Mystery Ball – are also incorporated in Ultimate Team following their previous inclusion in kick-off mode. Mystery Ball gives the attacking side boosts to passing, shooting, dribbling, speed or all attributes, adding unpredictability to every match. King of the Hill sees players fight for possession in a randomly generated zone on the pitch to boost the amount the next goal is worth.

Ultimate Team also includes a new dedicated kit supporting Premier League’s No Room for Racism campaign. Career Mode, following feedback from the community, saw some major updates – mainly to the manager mode. New additions include fully interactive press conferences and player conversations, an improved player morale system which can affect the team or individual players stats, performance levels and stance with the manager. The ability to fully customise the manager’s appearance and gender, a new dynamic player potential system, live news screenshots, league oriented UI and new negotiation environments.

The game features more than 30 officially licensed leagues, over 700 clubs and over 17,000 players. For the first time in FIFA History, the Romanian Liga I and its 14 teams were added, as well as Emirati club Al Ain, who were added following extensive requests from the fans in the region. Juventus, Boca Juniors, River Plate and Colo-Colo are not featured after they signed exclusive partnership deals with eFootball PES 2020. As a result, they are instead referred to as Piemonte Calcio (Juventus), Buenos Aires (Boca Juniors), Núñez (River Plate) and CD Viñazur (Colo-Colo). While these teams feature the players’ likenesses, their official badges and kits are not licensed, and thus replaced by custom designs created by EA Sports.

The three teams’ stadiums, the Juventus Stadium, La Bombonera, El Monumental and Estadio Monumental, are replaced in the game by generic stadiums as well. Bayern Munich is featured in the game with their licensed players and kits, but without their home stadium Allianz Arena, which also happens to be exclusively licensed to PES 2020. FIFA 20 retains the exclusive licenses to the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, and UEFA Super Cup, first seen in FIFA 19. The deal includes authentic broadcast packages, branding, and custom commentary. Additionally, the Copa Libertadores, Copa Sudamericana and the Recopa Sudamericana is featured in the game via an update released on 13 March 2020.