FIFA 22 - The game required an additional edge

Typically, EA uses optical capture actors, as well as  FIFA 22 Coins the odd star footballer, such as Cristiano Ronaldo, or Lionel Messi, to write new animations. However, it's a smaller space that can only accommodate one or two players at one time - making it challenging to tackle the ball with speed or ping passes from one side to the other. Limited passages of motion-captured game such as one-on-1 dribbles have to be modified by FIFA animators into fluid movements which are akin to eleven-aside games.

However, now the cameras have been removed. Motion capture was abandoned. Only the Xsens suits remain. "One of the main issues been drift . We'd understand the joint position of players in relation to one another but not to a point in the space" Eaves explains. Virtually speaking, this meant that players would return 10 metres from where they began. EA's game changer was a local positioning system. Instead of GPS satellites LPS beacons were distributed across the stadium, with motion sensors attached to players' chests.

This meant that high-quality information could finally be recorded during a football game. "We decided to select the two teams in Spain's third league because they've had a long-standing relationship," Eaves says. "They're both professional, well-coached teams that have amazing technique. They play possession-based football and play with control and aplomb - ideal to play a video game since we want it to be fast as well as enjoyable."

EA's directives were minimal, if any, other than telling the players and the coaching personnel that this was a "must-win game." The game required an additional edge. "Just as in a real soccer match, teams were subbed on and off, we could stop tired defenders, and we could capture fresh forwards as the game commenced," recalls Eaves. "You could feel the animosity. There were so many fouls in the opening five minutes - it was exactly what we wanted."

These off-the-ball moves - shouting and pointing they were invaluable for EA in making the most of the physicality and excitement of a real-life sport. "If the stuntman slides down the player in a motion capture space and then comes back up, it does not have the same intensity as an actual game," explains Eaves. "In this game, the physicality is real. The player gets up and gets angry. We then take all that anger and  cheap FUT 22 Coins use it in our games."