With football back in earnest throughout Europe’s top 5 leagues, and the World Cup recently concluded, EA Sports FC 27 steps in to frame to take on all comers with some notable feature updates and gameplay improvements. But are they all that and then some? Well, I was able to take a look in the Early Access period to see what’s what, and there is a fair bit to talk about.
First things first, let’s talk about what is new for EA Sports FC 27, starting with The Grounds. The Grounds is a brand-new social gameplay game mode where players can load into the map with 100 other players and take part in different street-level-style games like 2v2, kickabouts, and other mini-games. Players can also earn different cosmetics through gameplay and the in-game store to customise their player character exactly how they want.
The Grounds is made up of three distinct geographically-influenced environments: Montclair, which takes inspiration from French urban football areas; Parkside, which represents the UK’s heritage of rugged and working-class football; and Zeiza, which celebrates Argentina’s Potrero (sandlot or vacant-lot style of play) spirit. As well, players can meet and build relationships with pro footballers like England’s Chloe Kelly, France’s Kylian Mbappé, and Argentina’s Paulo Dybala.
Clubs also make a complete move over to The Grounds for EA Sports FC 27. Everything from leagues & playoffs to Live Events is now available from within The Grounds, giving players the ability to play all of their favourite game modes from The Grounds and then jump into a Clubs match without ever having to navigate through the game menus to another area.
We have a few new gameplay updates in EA Sports FC 27 to get excited about as well, that feature across all game modes. My absolute favourite of which is set pieces. Now, set pieces (i.e, corner kicks and free kicks) have always been in the game, but EA Sports FC 27 has redesigned the way they work, especially corners. Previously, corner kicks had essentially two stages: the kick from the corner flag and the penalty-area interaction.
The player taking the corner kick would kick the ball, and then you would try to position your player to attack/defend it. Simple and easy and not a lot of customization to speak of. In this year’s game, corner kicks are split into three stages, keeping the original two, but adding in a new stage in the middle between the initial kick and the player attacking/defending the ball.
This new stage allows you to move your controlled player around, trying to break away from the defender/stick closer to the attacker, and judge where you think the ball will land. It’s not until the ball is kicked a few seconds later that the game shows you where it will land and you can time your run at it to either attack or defend. This gives corner kicks a whole new look and requires a lot more skill to defend and attack them.
“With football back in earnest throughout Europe’s top 5 leagues, and the World Cup recently concluded, EA Sports FC 27 steps in to frame to take on all comers with some notable feature updates and gameplay improvements.”
Additional gameplay updates to player spatial awareness allow you to create separation from the defending player, creating space for you to receive a decisive pass and take the defender on, as well as off-balance dribbling that allows the player maintain momentum on the ball throughout contact from defenders, resulting in a higher level of skill-based outcomes.
Lastly, you now have the ability to send your non-controlled players on different types of attacking runs, such as an intelligent curved run. Previously, you could only press a button to send your non-controlled player on a run in a straight line for a given distance, but now you have the option to trigger curved runs that maintain the same line, take an extra moment to get there, keep your player onside, and increase the chance of defeating the defending player.
In Ultimate Team, the biggest new feature in EA Sports FC 27 is the FUT Gallery. Acting as a kind of collection book for every player you earn through playing FUT, the FUT Gallery lets you build sets of players from teams, leagues, different versions of player cards, etc.
For instance, there are FUT Gallery sets for TOTW (Team of the Week) cards, as well as TOTW Holographic cards, each of which is a different set that offers you rewards for completing the set in the form of tokens (redeemable for elite-level player cards) or packs to open. This is easily the best part of FUT this year, as it has huge staying power, since some of the sets require a lot of players to complete and can only be completed after playing the game for a while.
Lastly, I want to talk about the Manager Career Mode because there has been a serious revamp of the transfer market therein and player development. For starters, EA Sports FC 27 has partnered with TransferRoom, a company that specializes in ranking players for scouts in real life football, to bring a greater level of realism and strategy to your Manager career.
Things like dynamic player values update frequently to reflect the performances of your team, resulting in changes in morale, fitness, happiness, and more, to create realistic player transfer values and capability. When I was in Vancouver earlier this year to see an earlier version of the game, the devs said that no two Manager career saves will be the same, and with these updates, I can absolutely see why.
I have been a fan of the FC/FIFA series of games for almost 15 years, and these gameplay updates and features are some of the best I have seen from EA. There is a lot to like about this year’s game, and it’s still fun to play. I am looking forward to logging in each day and continuing my Manager career (that I am taking seriously for the first time ever), and then seeing what new content is there in FUT and The Grounds. I only hope the gameplay fluidity and fun-to-play feeling stays beyond the dreaded 1st gameplay patch.
