FIFA World supports gamepads, including the Xbox for PC one

FIFA World, which recently entered worldwide open beta, suggests EA Sports sees a future beyond this flawed but successful model. It's a free-to-play FIFA game that is, for now at least, available on PC only, and it consists of an Ultimate Team mode that is extremely similar to the one in the most recent FIFA games and a League Teams mode similar to the main series' Online Seasons. The gameplay engine is a little behind its big brother, but not as far as you might imagine, while the monetisation is always in your face but not as coercive as you might fear. In fact, my experience was often to the contrary. It may only be a beta, but I had no trouble finding opponents at all times of the day.

To start, there’s FIFA World Ultimate Team, which lets you build your own club from the ground up and compete online and offline. A 24/7 transfer market gives you the opportunity to buy, sell and trade players. On top of that, you’re able to enter your team in single player tournaments to win trophies and rewards, with the latter boosting player performance. Then you’ll experience feature tournaments that challenge you to beat the world’s best. Do so, and you stand to earn valuable coins and packs. Can’t handle the pressure? You can always challenge friends for a more laid back experience. In addition, FIFA World also comes with League Mode. Here, you get to lead your favorite club to victory through Online Seasons while climbing the leaderboard.

The FIFA World interface is similar to the one you'll find on FIFA 14: large and well-designed panels that are easy to understand, and if you've never played the Ultimate Team mode on any FIFA, it includes a useful tutorial. FIFA World controls are very simple: with the mouse, you select where you want the player to aim. With the left button, you make short passes; with the right one, you shoot. With other keys, you can perform certain actions including changing players, or taking the goalkeeper outside his area.



Although it’s quite easy to play with the mouse and keyboard, you get the best gaming experience with a controller. FIFA World supports gamepads, including the Xbox for PC one. If you're using a controller, the right analog stick is used to dribble.

On 1 October 2014, Electronic Arts released version 8.0 of the game, allowing players to make use of new items from the 2014–15 season in the Ultimate Team mode of the game, including new kits and updated player ratings from FIFA 15, while still allowing players to keep their old FIFA 14-style items from the 2013–14 season. Released on 5 November 2014, version 9.0 saw the introduction of an improved version of the Impact engine from FIFA 12, first announced at Gamescom 2014. New features included 2,000 new animations added to the gameplay and tactical free kicks introduced in FIFA 13, as well as new skill moves and celebrations. Six new stadiums were also added to the game, including Aston Villa's Villa Park , Swansea City's Liberty Stadium and Schalke 04's Veltins-Arena.

The single player elements do exist in FIFA World and this is largely due to player feedback. A tournament mode was created specifically due to player response, another sign of the ‘constantly updating’ concept behind the game. As well as the Ultimate Team packs, you’ll also have to buy match credits to play the online games - either that or wait a day or so for your credits to replenish over time. What’s more, you can speed up the credit regeneration process by winning your games. It’s a system heavily influenced by mobile game monetization, but it’s difficult to see it being a particularly effective system on PC. The team behind FIFA World encouraged the idea that game works well as a ‘break’ game in between work, but I can’t help but feel as though it brings the payment aspect of this free-to-play too close to home.

After a limited test, EA launches FIFA World open beta on PC worldwide
Free-to-play PC game now available for anyone to play.
by Eddie Makuch on May 21, 2014

Recommended FIFA World PC specs:

    Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 @ 2.4GHz / Athlon II X4 600e @ 2.2GHz

    OS: Windows XP SP3 2GB / Windows Vista / Windows 7 4GB

    RAM: 2GB

    Graphics card: DirectX 9.0c, Shader 3.0, GeForce 8800 GT / Radeon HD 3870

    Disk space: 3.96GB (1.96 for the initial download)

    Required Internet connection: 1Mbit/s download, 256kbit/s upload.