FIFA 14 makes a powerful first impression on the visual side, and it has absolutely nothing to do with the action on the pitch. Of the EA Sports games I've played in the last several years, all of them were plagued with miserably overcrowded hub interfaces. To make a long story short, FIFA 14 cuts the crap. If you're for some reason a fan of the mounds and mounds of text that obscured a huge chunk of the screen, you can go digging for it. The result is a streamlined navigation system that looks pulled right out of the current Xbox Dashboard.
On the pitch, the visuals are more important. If you're looking at the big picture, FIFA 14 won't impress you, and for that matter, most sports games won't either. There's only so much that can be said about green grass, stadiums, and spectators. But the impossible agility of FIFAs past does not make its return. The players scrambling on the pitch this time around are more realistically animated (and therefore, more human) than ever. Collision physics are brought nearly up to the standards set by brother franchise NHL. It's a great-looking game despite its otherwise requisite plainness.
Sound-wise, FIFA 14 is mostly par for the course. However, major improvements have been made in the commentary by mainstays Martin Tyler and Alan Smith. They sound less like broken records and more like professional analysts. I won't pretend that I found much of their insight interesting to me on a personal level, but I can tell that more work went into it than ever before, and the fans are sure to appreciate that. On the pitch, the muted struggles of the players contrast nicely with the roars of the crowds. And on top of it all is a great licensed soundtrack.
