FIFA 15: Review, Elite Player Ratings, Tips, Achievements, Roster Updates Info | Bleacher Report

The day has finally arrived. FIFA 15 is now available in stores throughout North America. Over the last five years, the FIFAseries has established itself as one of the most consistent and highly regarded sports video-game franchises in existence.

Last year, FIFA 14 received a Metacritic score of 87. With that recent history, expectations are again high for the newest version of the game. 

With the Xbox One version in hand for over a week, it's time to share thoughts, impressions and to score the latest game in the FIFAdynasty.

Graphics and Animations

The FIFA series took the next step in player rendering this year. Games like NBA 2K14, EA Sports UFC and NHL 15 implemented the use of sophisticated camera rigs to scan the heads of 200 players in the game.

FIFA 15 followed suit with this year's game.

The FIFA universe is a large one, so you obviously won't see every player's authentic head. However, you should have realistic versions of most of your favorites.

The facial renders are good, but for some reason, they seem just a bit beneath the level of accuracy and sharpness presented in the aforementioned games. Don't get me wrong—the players look really good, but the bar has been raised significantly in this area as of late.

From the neck down, players look about the same as they always have. That isn't an insult, as body types weren't a negative for the game.

That said, it's easy to see how improving the player frames might wind up being the next aspect of the models to get a boost moving forward. As for the surroundings of the players, the various stadiums and venues are rendered quite nicely and especially in the Premier League, where every stadium has been accurately captured.

The excellent lighting really does a great job bringing shadows into play and causing each field to look differently.

While the new renders and other goodies are nice, the best part about FIFA 15's visual appeal is its animations. There's seemingly an endless amount of physical reactions to the most subtle and skeletal-shaking collisions.

Players colliding has never looked so good. The physics goodness is not limited to player-on-player sequences. The roll of the ball on the grass and the sight of blades of grass rising and falling appropriately during close-ups is pretty.

While there's room for sharpening up the visuals in a few instances, the vast majority of the graphical package is above average.