As a slightly more than casual football fan, EA’s annual football game has made me far more aware of the beautiful game than ever before, going back to FIFA 13 on PlayStation 3. Since then, I’ve only skipped two years of titles and have seen the series evolve from something basic and barebones into a wealth of features and game modes. Not everything has been positive, but EA Sports FC 26 looks to address some pain points from recent years.
The first thing I want to highlight in EA Sports FC 26 is gameplay. Improvements have been made through two presets: Authentic and Competitive. Authentic is the default for modes such as Play Career and Manager Career, and it focuses on a more realistic football experience. In practice, this means gameplay is slowed down, placing greater emphasis on strategy, immersion and realism.
In practice, the slower pace of gameplay was immediately noticeable. Inch-perfect passing, perfectly timed tackles and other elements were toned down, while player errors such as heavy dribbling touches or the speed of shots and passes were more apparent. These factors can all be adjusted in the settings using sliders to suit your preferences, but I actually enjoyed the Authentic gameplay experience. It felt intuitive and far removed from the fast-paced, arcade-style gameplay of past iterations.
There is a bit of a learning curve in breaking the “sprint everywhere” habit, but I felt like I was actually playing football, which is more than I can say for some earlier titles. My goalkeeper was no longer palming the ball away to the corner flag or catching everything cleanly. Instead, they were knocking the ball down to fall on it, or diving to push it behind the goal line for a corner kick. My forwards also found it increasingly difficult to simply run through the defence, even on lower difficulty levels, forcing me to be more methodical in my attacks.
“Not everything has been all sunshine and roses, but EA SPORTS FC 26 looks to improve on some pain points from recent years.”
The other preset, Competitive, is used primarily for Clubs and Ultimate Team. In contrast with Authentic, EA Sports FC 26’s Competitive mode plays more like traditional arcade football: fast-paced, with increased shot and passing speeds, giving Ultimate Team and Clubs players a familiar but slightly refined experience.
For example, in the Competitive preset, your midfield and back line may be easier to break through if your opponent relied heavily on AI defending in previous games. With less AI assistance, you need to be more aware of your players’ strengths and weaknesses and take direct control more often. By comparison, last year’s game often saw players avoid controlling their defenders, instead leaving the AI to do the work while they patrolled the midfield with a defensive midfielder.
One of the biggest quality-of-life features added to EA Sports FC 26 is the option to turn off stadium shadows in the settings. In previous years, stadiums such as the San Siro in Milan had overwhelming shadows that covered nearly half the pitch, making it difficult to see the ball or players as play moved from end to end. This change shows the developers are listening to the community, addressing a long-standing frustration that hampered enjoyment when playing against other human opponents.
When it comes to new features in existing game modes, EA Sports FC 26 introduces several additions in both Player Career and Manager Career. In Player Career, which also ties into Clubs, the new Archetype system replaces the previous Player Growth system. The 13 available archetypes are unlocked and advanced by earning experience points, giving you more control over how your player develops and plays.
For my created player, I wanted a tall, target man–style forward and chose the Target archetype, which boosts physicality in ground and aerial duels. Of course, this only matters if you play to that style. Curling in long-range strikes from outside the penalty area is not a target man’s strength, so I had to relearn how to hold up play and work from the wings. My role became about using my forward to bring wingers into play, then meeting their crosses with headers. It was extremely satisfying to see a well-worked sequence result in a goal or a dangerous scoring chance—something I hope to see more often as I progress through Player Career.
In Manager Career, EA has introduced a feature called Manager Live in EA Sports FC 26. This is a subsection where you choose from various scenarios to manage a club. In my first attempt, I was tasked with winning a trophy and a league match before Sept. 1, with the freedom to pick any club under pre-set restrictions. I chose my favourite team, Manchester United, and entered the South American pre-season tournament. During the competition, I received transfer offers, sent scouts around the world and managed player relationships.
The full Manager Career experience, but condensed to a couple of objectives was amazing and really inspired me to try other clubs and other Manager Live options. If you finish them all, no need to worry as they change up both weekly and monthly, giving you a wealth of different options throughout the game cycle.
Ultimate Team, the main mode in EA Sports FC 26, has also received updates, with several new options and quality-of-life improvements. Champions Playoffs have been removed, meaning players in Division 6 can qualify directly for Champions by earning enough points. A new version of Champions has also been added for those in Division 7 and below, giving players of all skill levels something to compete for.
Rivals, where you earn points to qualify for Champions, has also been updated. The biggest change is a reduced points requirement for division rewards, dropping from 35 to 30. Based on feedback from last year’s game, this adjustment lets players earn rewards sooner and strengthen their squads more quickly before moving on to the next challenge.
“…I enjoyed EA SPORTS FC 26, and will continue to play it for the next few months, especially Manager Live as that has the potential to be really interesting with different circumstances becoming available…”
As a mostly offline player in EA SPORTS FC 25, I was very excited to learn that for FC 26, the Squad Battles game availability has been raised from 14 to 18 for each week. This allows players to earn more points and have more opportunities to make up for a bad game/loss where they didn’t score as many points as they could have. As I play Squad Battles almost exclusively, apart from the occasional Rush or Rivals match, this was music to my ears, as there were numerous times I was so close to the next tier of weekly rewards and another game could have sealed it, so this is a welcome upgrade.
With all this good, what could possibly be bad, right? While ‘bad’ may not be the right term, there are certainly some things that could use some attention. Graphically, FC 26 is as near as makes no difference to FC 25. With the exception of a slightly differently coloured UI and a couple of new tabs in each respective game mode, there isn’t a lot to write home about.
In Ultimate Team, the live service mode, one of the biggest issues is power creep and Evolutions. Last year’s game saw so many restrictions when it came to player cards that are eligible for a given Evolution, so hopefully EA have gone the other way and eased the requirements for some of the Evolutions.
Overall, I enjoyed EA SPORTS FC 26, and will continue to play it for the next few months, especially Manager Live as that has the potential to be really interesting with different circumstances becoming available, possibly inspired by real-life events. As a football sim, there is a lot to like here, so now is the time to get back on the pitch.
