Perfectly Spherical Balls: Fifa 17 Moves To Frostbite
Football: starring Hazard, Martial and a ball
Football finally stopped recently, when Pepe's Injured Aura and the rest of the plucky Real Madrid scrappers won the Champions League in a penalty shoot-out. It all starts again on Friday, of course, with the first game of Euro 2016, but football definitely stopped for a minute there. It might have been a half a minute if you're interested in the Copa América, which kicked off the weekend just gone.
The point is, football never stops for long and EA know that, which is why they're already teasing next season's FIFA [official site]. Big changes may be afoot, as the game is moving to DICE's Frostbite engine. Destructible pitches incoming?
Do people really say "football never changes?" I've heard it said about war but anyone who argues that football is unchangeable should trot off and read Jonathan Wilson's Inverting the Pyramid (I'm fairly sure I recommend it at least once a year 'round these parts). FIFA has certainly changed a lot recently - just ask the FBI.
FIFA 17's changes won't be fully revealed until June 12th, presumably during EA's E3 extravaganza, which I'll be covering live, but this little teaser confirms the move to the Frostbite engine. Hopefully that means there'll be some major changes. I quite enjoyed last year's offering but didn't stick with it for very long and if Pro Evo's return to grace isn't short-lived, FIFA is going to need to put in a lot of extra work at the training ground to keep up with its rival.
Since there's not a lot of game to think about here, I'm caught up thinking about how early the coverstars are signed. Presumably they knew they were going to have Hazard front and centre and were slightly dismayed when Chelsea's season unraveled and the young star performed below the standards expected. But did they have Mourinho signed up for the voiceover because of the Chelsea connection? Is that one of the reasons Manchester United's Martial has been given prominence in a teaser trailer, to make Mourinho seem slightly more appropriate after his sacking and job switch?
Football is mostly about lawyers, sackings, transfers and media appearances. Occasionally somebody kicks a ball.