Demo's out.
OK; two games in and here are my first impressions:
First off, you immediately notice the 'foot planting' and inertia.
The ball absolutely feels like its own separate entity now.
The game feels more 'solid' as a result - less floaty. Manual passing seems to work properly now in that if you want to play a tiny rolled pass with barely any power (like in PES), you can.
I noticed something I never saw in Fifa 13. When the AI was attacking and a winger was trying to cross into the box, when I moved a player to intercept, the AI player stopped and began rolling the ball from foot to foot in an effort to confuse my player. I never saw that in Fifa 13 - that is a huge plus.
The AI can now play balls in behind your defenders and if they're slower than the attackers, the attacker will be able to nip in behind and score a goal.
Everything just feels more solid - the ball physics are better, the player movement is better; everything is better.
OK, I'll admit - I was infuriated with EA for not giving the PC the Ignite engine, and the game does look very dated; the stadiums especially feel very dead - but credit where it's due: EA have not just recycled Fifa 13's gameplay here. This feels like a markedly different football game.
One weird thing I noticed though: when the AI wins a freekick, they're very good at passing the ball along the ground directly to one of your players. That needs looking at.
I love the formation screen in the menu - now it is so much faster to switch formations! All EA could've done to improve that is literally allow us to click on a player and drag him to a new position, but as it is it is a welcome addition.
EA: if KSI and his sheep want a faster game, then why not just point them towards the 'fast' setting? Leave slow exactly how it is - do not change a bloody thing!
Konami might well have shot themselves in the foot by not releasing the PC demo at the same time as the consoles, but that's for another thread... for me, Fifa 14 is showing a lot of potential.