FIFA 21 was recently revealed to the world with a trailer that showed Mbappe,
Hazard and Van Dijk looking sharp,
but there's plenty of information that wasn't highlighted in the combined Madden teaser.
Firstly, although we didn't see proper gameplay footage,
the brief segments shown were built in the Frostbite engine
that has long frustrated players.
FIFA 21's pre-order listing on Steam confirmed the game is "powered by Frostbite,"
which isn't good news for gamers who will have been hoping
for a dramatic change of style from FIFA 20.
The series' general quality has dipped in the Frostbite era,
which started with FIFA 17.
There were rumours prior to FIFA 21's reveal that a new engine
would be implemented, but that is not to be.
Frostbite is notorious for being a difficult engine to work with,
as noted in Kotaku's 2019 feature exploring the failure of Anthem,
a game developed by EA-owned studio BioWare:
"BioWare developers say Frostbite can make their jobs exponentially more difficult,"
wrote Jason Schreier. 
"Building new iterations on levels and mechanics can be challenging due to sluggish tools,
while bugs that should take a few minutes to squash might require days of
back-and-forth conversations."
This isn't good news for FIFA players, who want timely 
and effective bug fixes when the new game drops.
Away from the game engine, EA has hidden away some new features,
most of which are in marketing jargon for minor next-gen upgrades.
The most obvious of these is "controller haptics,"
which suggests that players will "sense the impact of shots,
passes, catches, kicks, tackles and hits" across FIFA and Madden.
EA makes special mention of the PS5's DualSense controller utilising controller haptics,
but while there's no mention of Xbox Series X,
it's worth noting the publisher has an exclusive marketing deal 
to promote Sony's console alongside the game.
"Blazing fast load times" are mentioned—and will continue to be 
so for many next-gen games—but in reality, this is going to make little difference to FIFA 21.
Extensive loading times are not really one of the franchise's main issues,
but you'll be able to save a few seconds here and there anyway.
EA is also going big on "deferred lighting and rendering,"
which the company says will "create ultra-realistic football experiences and player fidelity,
enhancing the game in every part of the stadium."
In layman's terms, it promises to look more like real life,
and we can expect more authentic shots from around stadiums,
like the flash of Anfield and the Kop in the trailer.
Dynamic lighting is also set to have an impact on small details in each match,
such as on the faces of players,
hair and kits. Next-gen versions will have "deeper definition in player physiques"
that will allow more responsive and realistic player movement.
Getting even deeper into it, a feature EA is calling "off-ball humanization"
will try to amplify the smaller moments of each match. 
The example given is players "adjusting shin pads in the 89th minute,"
or "screaming for passes in the end zone" if you're on Madden.
"Authentic character behaviours" also sound good on paper
but will need to be witnessed before passing judgement. 
Away from gameplay details, EA did confirm a release date of October 9 for PS4, Xbox One and PC, 
which is later than the usual September release.
However, this means the PC version will be current-gen and not a replication of the PS5
and Xbox Series X game that EA say will release "later in the year."
That will be a huge disappointment
for PC players who have the tech to run the next-gen version properly.
People who pre-order the Ultimate Edition or Champions Edition will get to play FIFA 21 from October 6,
and EA Access subscribers will get an early trial starting on October 1.
There's also a "Dual Entitlement" scheme 
that means if you buy the game on PS4 or Xbox One,
you'll receive a free upgrade to the corresponding next-gen console.
Ultimate Team and Volta progress will carry over,
but those who play Career Mode, Pro Clubs and Online Seasons will need to start again.
For players who want to buy on Nintendo Switch, beware.
EA has made it known there will be no new gameplay additions
to what they call the "Legacy Edition."
Like FIFA 20 on this platform, just kits and players will be updated. 
EA is just being explicit about it this time
after the current version received an awful 43/100
average review score on Metacritic and was called out for being a cash-in.
It's also worth noting there's likely to be no crossplay in FIFA 21,
but EA confirmed this is a long-term goal, saying:
"We're continuing to investigate its integration 
and will share any updates when we have them."
While EA's first showing of FIFA 21 was brief,
the company confirmed new information on gameplay,
Career Mode, Volta, Pro Clubs and Ultimate Team will drop in August.
This is surely going to be more in-depth
and hopefully separate from Madden
as players turn their attention to what is a really important next step for the series.
