FIFA 23 Gameplay: These 3 New Features Look Amazing

If you're bathing in all FIFA 23 news, features, and gameplay available, then you're pretty much just like us. Ever since EA Sports introduced the two cover stars of FIFA 23 and more and more official information has seen the light of day on the internet, the hype has increased dramatically.Recently, the developers also delved deeper into the actual gameplay and introduced many of the upcoming innovations. That's a pretty long read on the official website, though... so we've summarized some of the features that particularly caught our attention.

FIFA 23 Gameplay: So Many New Features

Well, if you're pissed off, you have probably claimed that EA Sports is just sooo lazy and simply presses ctrl+c and ctrl+v for each new FIFA, but the gameplay has actually changed pretty drastically over the years. Sure, I've said the same before, but it's not true.

FIFA 22, for example, was much slower to play than its predecessors – at least in the beginning. But that didn't exactly cause any enthusiasm in the pro scene, which is why we're now playing a completely different game after countless balance patches.

Thanks to the Hypermotion 2 technology, EA Sports promises to make significant changes for FIFA 23 and – of course – to take the gameplay to the next level. In the 11-minute-long trailer, we particularly noticed some of the new features.

Overhauled Set Pieces

If you've practiced for hours to perfect your set pieces in FIFA, then you probably need to do it again. Sorry. For FIFA 23, the way we take free kicks, corners, and penalties will be completely overhauled.

The FIFA 23 announcement trailer has already shown us what the free kicks will look like. We use the right stick to determine exactly where the ball will hit. An auxiliary line shows us the trajectory of the ball for the first few meters. With the left stick, on the other hand, we move the camera or align the shot a little differently. The little circle that every FIFA player has known so far is probably a thing of the past.

At this point, we also want to address a pretty awesome innovation: you can now choose a player to lie behind the wall. After Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and others used low-flying free-kicks to score many goals, it's a common practice in modern football for one player to lie down behind the wall. This won't be as important on the virtual pitch, but you should definitely try out this new features in FIFA 23.

Thanks to the official Gameplay Deep Dive, we now have a pretty good idea on how to master penalties in the future. Timing is even more influential now – a circle (Composure Ring) around the ball gets bigger or smaller. If you press at the right moment (similar to Timed Finish) your shot will be much harder and more accurate.

Power Shot

Speaking of shooting harder and more accurately... the power shot is one of the most exciting new features of FIFA 23. EA Sports itself describes it as high risk, high reward. For example, you need enough space around your player to successfully execute a power shot. In addition, you should definitely aim more precisely, as there is no post-correction here as with the assisted default shots.To perform a power shot, press L1+R1+O (PlayStation) or LB+RB+B (Xbox). Whether every player is able to master this new shot type, or only individual world stars can, is not yet clear. However, Shot Power, Finishing, Long Shots, and Composure all have a big impact on whether your power shot is successful or not.

Dribble With Your Strong Foot

Overall, EA Sports has four new skill moves and three new fake shots ready for FIFA 23. But that's not all because some well-known tricks have been given fresh variants for left-footed players. Lionel Messi will therefore no longer perform the following tricks with his right foot, but with his left foot:

• Elastico, Reverse Elastico, Triple Elastico
• Drag Back
• Rainbow (Simple/Advanced)
• Hocus Pocus
• Flick Over, Sombrero Flick, Flick Up
• Running Fake Drag

Especially the new fake shot versions could be damn op for the start of FIFA 23. It's not exactly a fancy move, but it's simple and effective. For example, if you're playing with Kylian Mbappé, using skill moves correctly could do some serious damage to your opponent's defenses.

In the meantime, we're pretty excited to see where EA Sports takes the gameplay for the last FIFA ever. It should at least feel quite unique at launch – after that, there will be three patches in two weeks and FIFA 23 will play exactly like FIFA 22. Let's hope it doesn't happen that way...