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What is the most exciting news in gaming this month? Whatever you just said: incorrect. The most exciting news in gaming this month is of course the release of new player ratings for FIFA 15 Ultimate Team and the multitude of fascinating subplots contained within, scarcely any of which will have a measurable impact on playing the game, but all of which somehow feel worth discussing in these football-starved minutes halfway between the respective evening kick-offs of Monday and Tuesday's international qualifiers.And there was indeed big, albeit largely meaningless news at the end of EA Sports' initial reveal of the top 50 players in FIFA 15 last week, a ceremony envisaged as a way of whipping the FIFA-playing community into its traditional frenzy of anticipation over what are essentially the exact same numbers, and an event which was spread out over five days, as if by a parsimonious aunt caressing the last of the toothpaste out of the tube by rolling it up to resemble a thimble. And that news was that Leo Messi remains the highest-rated player in FIFA 15 despite dropping from an overall rating of 94 to 93.
EA says FIFA ratings are based on performance over the last 365 days and take into account league and cup play. Does that include the World Cup? If I had to guess (and I do because I have not researched this detail), I would conclude that it does, because EA reckons Messi has lost a point of pace somewhere and that seemed particularly evident in Brazil, where he could frequently be witnessed huffing and puffing around the pitches of the Arena de Sao Paulo and Belo Horizonte, labouring under the weight of his flaccid team-mates and a nation's ultimately doomed hopes and expectations. Either way, that 93 overall still puts him a point ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo, who is football's R-Patz to Messi's Taylor Lautner, leading to howls of derision across social media. So that's the big news: no change.
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