EA SPORTS™ FIFA 14 Skill Moves And Precision Movement Explained

In this latest FTW interview, EA SPORTS™ FIFA 14 Producer and pretty handy footballer Kantcho Doskov discusses new Skill Moves and even demoing one for real. We then talk about Precision Movement, what it's all about and how you’ll be using both sticks when you start playing the next FIFA.

FTW: Kantcho, You're a keen footballer and one that has actually been motion captured so you’ve actually been in the previous FIFA games?
K.D: Yes, I had the chance a few years ago to suit up and have my motion captured including several skill moves and several shooting animations.

Are there any new skill moves that you can tell us about for FIFA 14?
There is one new skill move that Ronaldo likes to do from time to time, it’s basically a combination from a previous skill move called the ‘Reverse Step Over’ and what you do is you step over the ball, you touch it with your instep then use the outside of your foot to knock it the other way. It’s sort of like a double fake and it’s really effective when you get it right.

Why would you use that move on the pitch Kantcho?
When you’re facing up your defender on the wing, one on one, that’s the best place.

Is there one tip, or one super tip, that you would give those who read this interview or watch the videos to help them get ahead of the pack?
When you first pick up FIFA 14 you’re going to notice that the pace is slower and much more realistic, so you’re going to have to take some time to adjust to that. But the one tip that I would give is to try to use the ‘Protect The Ball’ – the ‘Left Trigger’. This going to slow down the pace of the game, allow you to keep ball possession, and bring your teammates rather than just hoofing it forward or trying to sprint down the wing. It’s my new favourite FIFA 14 game mechanic and I hope everyone tries it out. It’s not something that you need to use, but I recommend it.

One of the major new gameplay developments in FIFA 14 is Precision Movement. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
Yes. Precision Movement is something that we have been working on for the last couple of years, revamping our locomotion system to be completely new, to focus more on momentum preservation, proper weight shifts and changes of direction. This changes the game, football is all about moving around the pitch and how you accelerate and decelerate and this is a fundamental part of the game and that’s what we’ve changed this year to make FIFA 14 much more realistic.

So in FIFA 14 the Left Trigger is now used to protect the ball whereas previously you’d use the Left Trigger for Skill Moves and Close Control. How do you do Skill Moves now?
So Skill Moves are a lot more intuitive now. It’s only the Right Stick – that’s all you have use! No need to hold the Left Trigger anymore if you want to do Skill Moves, but the Left Trigger is now ‘Protect The Ball’. So anytime you are standing, jogging, running, sprinting, dribbling you can simply hold down the ‘Left Trigger’ and the player will use his body, use his arms, or do whatever he can to get in between the defender and the ball. So using the physicality of that player to slow down the game, allow time for his teammates to join in the attack is something that a user can do whenever they like and is just an alternative to holding down the sprint button using pace all the time.