Fortunately, FIFA 15 s presentational changes fair far better elsewhere. This is largely down to a new partnership with sky sports. Now matches in FIFA 15 are displayed in a classy, televisual, manner, that has been borrowed from the broadcaster. This adds a neat touch, as do the new replay screens. At full time you re treated to a nifty highlights reel, accompanied by a FIFA Coins catchy, yet durable, custom soundtrack - no more deeply irritating pop tunes to reinforce the losers pain as they re-watch goals conceded. Graphically, FIFA 15 looks stunning. Player likenesses have been improved significantly (for the top leagues that is) in FIFA 15 as have the pitch visuals.

Thanks to a new Living Pitch feature the grass now shows impressive signs of degradation as matches wear on, especially in bad weather conditions such as snow and rain. Though far from perfect the in-game commentary has been much improved too. Commentators of FIFA 15 now read out the full team sheet and players position information at the start of the match. Martin Tyler s habit of repeatedly picking out the same fact or story about a player or national team s performance at the recent World Cup is less enjoyable in fifa 15, however.    Overall, the graphics - thanks to FIFA 15 running on EA s Ignite engine on PS4,

Xbox One and PC - are an improvement, and aside from a few Plastic Man player physics issues the mechanics are spot on, even if the referees are a little whistle-happy with some of the incidental collisions. Kits become realistically muddy as matches wear on, and the option to FIFA 16 Coins have tighter-fitting kits accurately reflects the modern styles in real life. But while the players on the field look great, there s still plenty of work to be done with the crowd animations in FIFA 15. Duplicate animations may have been reduced, but in any crowd shot there are always half a dozen spectators doing exactly the same thing - which kills the immersion instantly.