Interviews// FIFA 14 producer Sebastian Enrique

It also changes how the game is played because when you are sprinting and you attempt to do a hard turn, like a 180 degrees... you will see that it takes longer because that’s what happens in real life. So the defender will have a better chance of stealing the ball.

If you’re the defender, you’re no longer going to rush in towards the guy because if the guy moves a bit, OK, you’re done, because you continue moving forward - you couldn’t stop yourself.

SPOnG: I noticed a couple of points where I managed to get the full back on his back foot, so you’ve actually ‘done him’ and he’s almost kind of moving away from you because his locomotion has dictated that you’ve sent him the wrong way. How do you stop that being overpowered?

Sebastian Enrique: In terms of AI we’re still balancing it, so it’s 60% there. The first time we enabled the [new] system by default we were seeing that, with the old positioning system, the AI was stopping like five metres away from the striker, so that’s what we’re working on, to find the right balance.

In terms of human behaviour when you’re defending - you need to adapt your game. You need to adapt your game both in attack and defence. In defence you need to know that if you want to play as you’re used to, that is just rushing towards the guy you’re going to continue going as if you were skating on an ice rink.

You need to know if your defender is quick at turning or sprinting... you can probably rush in. But if the defender is kind of slow you better mark the space instead of just rushing towards the guy because otherwise the guy will eat you alive!

SPOnG: Player stats must be more relevant than ever with all these new physics, so things like agility for defenders and strength for midfielders and attackers, holding the ball away from people.

Sebastian Enrique: Every year we try to bring that personality even further into the game. We always try to find the right balance because what you’re doing in the game should be your skills.

If you are with Messi in front of the goal it doesn’t mean that you are going to score all of the time - you need to keep the right power, you need to keep the right timing, and with the rest it’s the same. So you will expect to do things with Messi that you couldn’t do with Puyol in the game, but all-in-all, if you don’t have the skills of doing it in the game, it’s not going to work.

SPOnG: I remember the bad old days of FIFA when it was all about hammering the ‘trick’ buttons and spinning down the pitch and then doing an overhead kick into the top corner - it was rubbish. But now I get a million times as much pleasure from a three yard scuffy off someone’s backside.

Sebastian Enrique: Every goal should feel good, even if it’s just a deflection or whatever it is it has to feel right, it has to feel good. That’s our aim.

SPOnG: I noticed a few little graphical improvements here and there.

Sebastian Enrique: Yeah, every year we try to do things but we don’t call them out because they’re not as major. So the crowd has a better resolution so it’s not as pixelated as before. The 3D grass is better compared to last year and we have more silent characters with more movement, they’re not as static as before so you see the cameraman following the ball. We have little touches here and there to make the game more alive and better.

It’s not that we forget all that, we always try to improve a little bit but I have £10, probably £7 would be in gameplay and the rest I distribute.

SPOnG: And with no loss of frame rate presumably, or increased loading times.

Sebastian Enrique: No, no. Frame rate we always try to keep it at 60, and the loading times we never want to get worse than last year.

SPOnG: Finally then, FIFA 13 was obviously a massive success critically and commercially but this year’s probably going to be more of a hard sell because people are going to be waiting for the Xbox One and PS4 versions. So why should we play FIFA 14 [on 360/PS3] and not wait for the next gen versions?

Sebastian Enrique: To me, on a personal level, I’m making this game for PS3, 360 and PC, right? I don’t care about what the context is, I want to make the best football game, period. And I don’t know when the other consoles will be out there - but if you want your football fix, what are you gonna play?

SPOnG: Thanks for your time Sebastian.

FIFA 14 will be released for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC on September 27 2013