FIFA 23, the latest and final edition of EA Sports’ signature franchise recently hit the shelves, and millions of players excitedly jumped right in.
Critically, the overall opinion is pretty mixed, the game is noticeably slower when compared to its predecessor, which is right up the alley of some players, while others are far from fans.
On the new features front, there aren’t many significant ones, especially in the game’s trademark mode Ultimate Team.
However, Career Mode connoisseurs were greeted with numerous new additions, although the significance again varies heavily.
As revealed in the run-up to launch, Real-Life managers are officially ‘in the game’, allowing players to step in the shoes of managers such as Pep Guardiola, Jurgen Klopp and…Ted Lasso.
The full release shows off other new features such as fleshed-out player personalities, Playable Highlights which bridge the gap between ‘Football Manager’ and FIFA, transfer grading and lastly brand new ‘Dynamic Moments’.
For the unversed, that’s just fancy lingo for those soulless cutscenes that spent a total of 20 seconds in the oven.
They include abysmal character models, haphazard mouthing, and the most robotic pair of eyes ever stapled onto a digital likeness.
For FIFA 23, EA have simply added new activities, the vibes remain exactly the same of course.
Nevertheless, one of these new cutscenes managed to turn into a trend on Football Twitter, as it essentially allows fans to embarrass their most disliked players.
Dubbed ‘the walk of shame’, the cutscene is triggered after the user decides to sell a player of their squad.
A wonky tune begins playing in the background, as the player is shown the exit door and strolls forward with disappointment.
Bag in hand, he’s accompanied by the player character and a member of staff, probably for final goodbyes and perhaps to make sure he doesn’t dart back inside the building.
After the sliding doors shut, a momentary grin takes over the manager, a very cheeky touch by the devs.
Simply put, this is the best way for fans to really let a player feel the brunt, at least digitally.
Since the cutscenes discovery, numerous players with poor reputations within their fanbase have been booted out, including Mason Mount, Harry Maguire, David De Gea, Danny Ward and many others.
We can’t wait to see what the modding community does with this, the potential is quite frankly brilliant.