FIFA 23 gameplay: you can now pass with your butt!

Last year, the developers at EA Sports presented their new HyperMotion technology, a revolutionary mix of new types of motion capture and machine learning. Thanks to so-called XSens suits, it was possible to film a complete match with 22 players on the pitch at the same time. The actors thus moved across the lawn in real time in a natural setting, instead of just re-enacting individual movements in a sterile studio environment. The recordings were then fed to an algorithm that produced even smoother, more natural movement sequences and animations from the data. FIFA 22 should look even more like real football, at least on the current-gen consoles Playstation 5 and Xbox Series S|X

That worked surprisingly well in itself, but of course it could still be expanded a little. Accordingly, EA Sports for FIFA 23 (buy now €69.99) HyperMotion 2.0 in the pipeline, the logical next step to bring even more authenticity to every corner of the game.

reading recommendation: Crossplay, Women’s Soccer, World Cup Modes: FIFA 23 in Preview

How it works? With even more raw material, of course! For the new EA kicker, the creators held an additional MoCap session in the stadium of the Spanish football club Real Zaragoza. As part of this, not only one game was recorded this time, but a second one: once 90 minutes between two men’s teams and again 90 minutes with women’s teams.

On top of that there were a few training drills on corners, free kicks and other standard situations. Cheers and team circles before the game were also recorded. In the end, Electronic Arts came up with twice as much data as in the previous year, i.e. almost 10 million frames, from which over 6000 new animations have now been created. The bar in terms of realism has been raised even higher.

The uses of these new animations are of course varied. During a first gameplay presentation, Lead Producer Sam Rivera highlighted a few aspects in particular:

Full Team Authentic Motion

First of all, HyperMotion 2.0 allows for a complete refresh of previous animations. Your players now have even more movement options. This makes the action on the pitch much more variable.

Powering the women’s game

In the past, male and female players played completely the same since both had the same pool of animations. FIFA 23 finally has specific moves just for female pros. This also includes various individual sprint styles for world stars such as cover athlete Sam Kerr from Chelsea FC.

Technical dribbling

In FIFA 22, players sometimes felt a little “slippery” while dribbling – like they were skating on skates. They lacked a bit of traction, especially during fast turns. In FIFA 23, your pros now look a lot more grounded. This is also due to the fact that they now take small intermediate steps calculated by an algorithm while they are running. This way, your kickers react better to quick controller inputs and look even better at the same time.

FIFA 23 played: All gameplay innovations at a glance. (2)

Source: EA Sports

ML Jockey

Any jockey animations, i.e. if you shield the opponent with the L2 button, are created in FIFA 23 by machine learning. As a result, players now position themselves more cleverly on the ball, block passing paths at the right angle and even keep their arms behind their back in dangerous situations to prevent a handball. Not only does this look chic, it also increases your chances of successfully conquering the pill.

AcceleRATE

The sprint behavior of players was far too predictable in past FIFAs: an attacker with 99 PACE always left his defender without any problems. In defense you almost never had a chance against lightning-fast opponents. In FIFA 23, the developers want to provide more depth and variety.

So now they’ve come up with three different types of sprint archetypes: explosive, lengthy, and controlled. In the future, not only attributes such as acceleration and sprint speed should decide on victory in a running duel, but also strength, agility and body size. An explosive type of player like Mbappé now pulls away in the first few meters, but a lengthy type like Virgil Van Dijk catches up again in the long run thanks to his long legs.

Composed Ball Striking

Composed Ball Striking is the evolution of Composed Ball Control introduced last year. Not only are players better at picking the ball out of the air for nice handling, they also have more control when passing and shooting. Longer, multi-part animations make player movements even smoother.