TOKYO — With the reviews for the new current-gen consoles and iOS versions of FIFA 2014 praising the game, it’s clear that game developer EA has once again managed to bring the latest iteration of the football simulation game to new heights. But if you’re truly hungering for a football experience that’s in another league, FIFA 2014 executive producer David Rutter of EA Sports says that you might just have to wait for a next-gen console — like the PlayStation 4 or the Xbox One.

“For the (current-gen) version of the game, we’re incredibly happy with the quality ... We’ve done a ton of gameplay features and we’re confident that we’ve made the best football video game ever made,” said Rutter at a interview during the recent Tokyo Game Show. “What (next-gen consoles) have allowed us to do is to take that game and then break down all the boundaries that we had on the old consoles.”

For next-generation console versions of the game, Rutter says there are three main improvements: “Real Player Motion”, “Human Intelligence” and the “Living World”.

In Real Player Motion, EA has included 10-times greater depth of animation and hundreds of new moves “fans have never seen in a football video game” to make the game look more realistic and to make it “more authentic and responsive”.

For Human Intelligence, Rutter said that instead of older versions where the football players would work more as individuals instead of as a team, next-generation console versions will allow players to “collaborate and cooperate together as a true team on a pitch due to the power of the consoles”. Rutter says this is due to the newer consoles having “four times the decision-making power” over the current ones. Another aspect of Human Intelligence is something called “pro-instinct”, where players can now anticipate collisions with other players and react accordingly such as by flinching or bracing when they see an incoming tackle.

But perhaps the biggest improvement seen in Human Intelligence was done in response to fan requests: While current versions have only two players challenging for a ball when a cross comes in, every player can jostle for the ball in next-generation versions, just like in real life.

For the Living World, Rutter calls it “the most exciting aspect on next generation”, and it centres around the “idea of atmosphere and believability”.

“Previous versions can capture gameplay but not the environment, but now we can,” said Rutter, who cites a “very broadcast inspired” approach to the game. The next-generation version will have a fully-rendered 3D animated reactive crowd, which you can see gesturing to your team. You can watch this via the over 100 broadcast cameras, giving more angles to view the game, and highlights will now focus on a “hot” player as players get a heat rating depending on their performance in the game. But even better is the introduction of continuous gameplay - players no longer reset to their formations when the ball goes out of play, but instead continue where they were, and you can watch the players move about as the ballboy runs to pick up the ball. Yes, ballboys are now included in the game — but Rutter draws the line at realism in terms of allowing players to dive or punch the ballboy. Refereeing mistakes are also nowhere to be seen.

“We want success to be based on skills, not cheating,” says Rutter.

Still, all these changes leads Rutter to admit that the next-generation version of the game has enough changes to be a totally different game, so much so that a next-generation version of the game should have a different review from a current-generation one, but he was also keen to maintain that the core aspects of football still remain between the two versions.

“It’s still football, it’s still eleven versus eleven, pass the ball, try and score, try not to concede anything,” says Rutter. “It’s the new stuff that then takes it to the next level — the animation, the behaviours, the AI (artificial intellgence), it gives you a lot more control, input and believability in the game.”

“It’s a big step up, but it’s still football,” added Rutter.

And all these improvements means that the development of FIFA 2014 for next-generation consoles is taking longer — FIFA 2014 has just been released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, but EA Sports is currently “putting the finishing touches” on the next-generation versions. But the demo of FIFA 2014 on the PlayStation 4 at the recent Tokyo Game Show really showed what the new iteration can do — while it was still the FIFA I knew, gameplay was more immersive and really came to life even as I struggled to get Barcelona to beat FC Schalke 04 (I lost 1-0). Everything, from the crowd response, to watching my players beckon for the ball from the ballboy, really added to the realism, and I stepped away with a huge smile on my face

With the PlayStation 4 less than three months away for Singaporeans, the best of what FIFA 2014 has to offer is just around the corner and it looks like waiting for the next generation version might just be worth it. Just one caveat: If you enjoy playing the game with friends online, current and next-generation versions of the game cannot play against each other.