With its stranglehold on licenses, FIFA 23 on FUT 23 Coins the surface looks the part, but beware, beauty is only skin-deep. Behind the impeccable lighting system and beautiful face/body scans the generic aspects that have plagued the series are still ever-present. Messi might look like Messi, but he plays nothing like Messi. The same holds true for clubs like Real Madrid, Juventus and Manchester City — clubs whose styles are unique as their players. Without tinkering with team tactics, you would expect that authentic team styles would go hand-in-hand with exclusive club deals.

What needs to change: Attention to team styles, and in particular managerial traits, needs to be introduced in FIFA 23. Seeing virtual Jurgen Klopp decked out in a track suit that would make Tony Soprano jealous is wonderful on the surface — until the first ball is kicked and you realize Liverpool is not employing any tactics that see them sitting at the top of the table in this young EPL season. Underneath the Team ID is a need for distinct Individual ID that makes the best players in the world stand out, forcing you to plan accordingly. As it stands now, defending the likes of an in-form Eden Hazard can be accomplished with one defender on the hardest difficulty with no help from your teammates.

Despite your own thoughts about FIFA’s gameplay (or even mine), a massive overhaul is not what we need as a community. More so, fine-tuning “out-of-the-box” AI to make it behave more humanly (rightly AND wrongly) should be priority number one when it comes to gameplay. Whether it be positioning, aggression or odd animations, FIFA 23 suffers from mental lapses despite all the catchy marketing phrases found on the back of the box.

What needs to change: In conjunction with the aforementioned authenticity changes, the strive to continue building upon the fundamentals of the game need to be center stage at the Burnaby studio. Incorporating these aspects would help to create the base from which authenticity, individuality and a host of cheap FIFA 23 Coins other improvements could be made. Without the proper fundamentals, you’re left thinking and playing FIFA instead of thinking and playing soccer.