FIFA 23's representations of Cristiano Ronaldo, Marco Reus, Luis Suarez and others actually look like the finely-tuned, lean, toned athletes they are, as opposed to the lumpy, bulky humanoids they've been in FIFA's past <a href="https://www.mmoexp.com/Fut-23/Coins.html">FIFA 23 coins</a>. Crowds are also better represented than before, with unique, team-specific animations added to raise variety. Borussia Dortmund's 'Yellow Wall', for example, sing and scream to the wave of hundreds of flags following a goal, while Liverpool's Kop End fans create a synchronised wave of red banners while singing You'll Never Walk Alone.
While these visual tweaks don't directly influence gameplay, Enrique and his team are right in their belief that it adds a heightened sense of drama to proceedings. Seeing Philip Lahm protest angrily at a throw-in that he thinks should have gone his way, or John Terry scold Peter Cech for giving away a silly own goal, brings events on screen much closer to reality. It makes you feel that the players are part of their world, rather than mechanically going through the motions.
Tweaks to the AI system, though, are designed to bring context-sensitive changes to the way players and teams perform on game day. Most obviously, this is felt in the way teams alter tactics to fit a given situation. If you're losing two nil with only 15 minutes to play then you expect your opponent to sit back and defend the lead, working predominantly to stop you creating scoring chances and keeping men behind the ball. Conversely, if you're beating the CPU three nil at half time you can expect them to throw everything they've got at you in the second half.
Additionally, by employing data mined from football matches around the world, EA Canada is able to have individual players act in a way that much more readily resembles their real-life counterparts. "Our data collection team does a fantastic job. I firmly believe we have the best football database out there. The amount of stuff they capture is truly amazing," exudes Enrique.
"We have all the information on tactics, player positioning and which players are more likely to make certain runs and all that kind of thing... including how whole teams move as a unit when defending and attacking. The improvements we've made to teammate AI means they work much harder to get into passing lanes and move into space, which gives you many more opportunities to move the ball around."
"The AI for every player on the pitch is always trying to think two plays ahead--depending on their position on the pitch, their own skill level and where the ball is. Combining that with the new runs the AI players can attempt means everyone is trying really hard to give you the opportunity to create scoring chances and keep possession of the ball."
As far as the ball itself is concerned, its physics system has been tweaked in order to accurately keep track of its spin, momentum and movement through the air. The goal here is to allow you to perform more subtle flicks and changes of ball direction during passes and shots, using the pace and spin of the ball as it arrives at your feet (or head) to knock it on to a teammate or towards goal. It also requires you to think more about such actions, because passing the ball in the opposite direction to its spin can result in an awkward, wayward pass straight to the opposition's feet <a href="https://www.mmoexp.com/Fut-23/Coins.html">FIFA 23 coins</a>.
It's important to note that many of these upgrades are specific to the next-gen editions of FIFA 23.