EA SPORTS FC 26: We Hit the Pitch for the Review!

EA SPORTS FC 26: What's New in Electronic Arts' Football?

There's an unwritten rule that all football-loving gamers know: the month of September cannot exist without the new installment of the FC series (formerly FIFA) arriving on our gaming machines, and here I am to take to the field and let you read our review of EA SPORTS FC 26! The edition under review is for Xbox Series X, but it will naturally be available for all platforms on the market, although the reference versions are for next-gen consoles and PC. For years we've heard talk of innovations and improvements, and this time too, the run-up to the game's release has been surrounded by announcements and trailers ready to show us what new things we would encounter once we put on our virtual boots. Undoubtedly, for several episodes now, the development team has shown that they are on a path to improve their game, and I won't hide that this year the step taken is, while not definitive and still imperfect, decidedly significant. The biggest novelty is the presence of two gameplay styles, one Realistic and one Competitive. The first is slower and more thoughtful, with the physics of players and the ball gaining more depth, for an experience that purists of played football and tactics will find decidedly more satisfying, while the competitive one aims for faster paces and greater speed, where the qualities of the most renowned champions truly make a difference. 

The two styles are designed for different situations, and when it comes to competitive online modes, the Competitive style will be set by default, while offline you can comfortably use the Realistic style. In short, you won't be able to participate in FUT or similar in Realistic mode, but it was quite obvious that the two styles couldn't coexist, due to obvious programming issues. Perhaps it could have been arranged for matchmaking to divide the two gameplays and create two alternative "leagues" for FUT, Seasons, and so on? Perhaps, but the effort would probably have created too many management problems. The fact remains that, in general, there are novelties that affect both options, starting with the innovations related to goalkeepers. During all my matches, divided into the different modes, I never noticed any particular blunders or reckless interventions, apart from a couple of questionable positioning decisions, which nevertheless ended with a save, almost as if the algorithm guiding the goalkeeper had too many doubts in deciding the best move to make. Even the strongest goalkeepers more frequently choose to deflect shots for a corner kick, avoiding putting the ball back into play and risking tap-ins or dangerous rebounds. I don't struggle to imagine that over the months and thousands of matches played, "sweet spots" will emerge from which unstoppable shots will be fired, but it's impossible to deny the quality of what has been done with goalkeepers.

EA SPORTS FC 26: The New Gameplay

Furthermore, there's a significant difference between the Realistic and Competitive modes regarding off-the-ball movements, with the former seeing our teammates use space more intelligently, both in defensive cover and in seeking depth in attack. The increase in animations and movements of the protagonists during dribbling has made them more fluid, but especially when playing in Competitive mode, the problem related to the overwhelming power of the most talented and imaginative players returns, with the risk of seeing the likes of Yamal stringing together trick after trick and driving even the most solid defenses crazy. Shots gain the ability to be aimed low, an option that requires decent aim but can provide several satisfactions. As for tackles, these are more solid, but even in this case, in Competitive mode, there are some flaws: on several occasions, not-so-realistic deflections occurred, and I assure you that if one of these were to happen in front of your goal while you are the last bastion against the opposing attacker, your curses would be heard blocks away. The specific weight of the ball and players has also increased, and especially in Realistic mode, the experience has given me no small amount of satisfaction. A revolution? No. An epochal change of course? Not even. A great job that has made EA SPORTS FC 26 more enjoyable than its predecessors? Absolutely yes, and if the development team continues to work in this direction, we will see interesting solutions in the coming years as well. A note: headers are still not very effective, while making them more dangerous would make wing play more effective, which would greatly benefit the development of actions during matches. 

Naturally, FC 26's gameplay cannot exist without a solid technical department featuring increasingly refined graphics, especially in the faces and movements of the most famous champions, and sound capable of transporting us into the heart of a thrilling match, starting with the punctual commentary from the duo Pardo and Adani, but it's the entire context that makes the experience immersive. The rendering of the stadiums, the crowd, the pitch grass, the lighting that appears more real and less glossy than in the past: there are multiple elements present, and it would be impossible to list them all; what matters is that the overall result is satisfactory, and it matters little if less famous players lose detail: it would have been impossible to have the same attention for all 20,000 athletes present. Yes, you read that right, between male and female footballers, these are the numbers for FC 26, and we add more than 750 teams, 120 stadiums, and over 35 leagues, although not all are fully licensed, see several notable absences in our Serie A like Milan, Inter, Lazio, and Atalanta, which become Milano FC, Lombardia FC, Latium, and Bergamo Calcio.

EA SPORTS FC 26: A Mode for Everyone

Naturally, EA SPORTS FC 26 wouldn't be what we know if it didn't offer a large number of modes to play, both online and offline. Today more than ever, the offering is colossal, and I challenge any gamer to fully exploit all the available game types during the year that separates us from FC 27. Above all is His Majesty FUT, with its ultra-tested formula of virtual packs to open, squads to build, and a ton of content, including weekly tournaments, more careful management of player chemistry, and attention not only for "pros" but also for casual gamers, with the presence of tournaments divided by skill levels. I struggled a bit to navigate all the material available in FUT, but for the most avid players, all this could prove to be an immense playground... and an equally immense incentive to buy packs. Needless to say, FUT will be the FC 26 mode that evolves the most over the months, and I'm curious to see how everything will progress. For those who love online challenges but don't want to get involved in the intricate mechanisms of FUT, there are Seasons, classic mini-leagues where you try to earn points to move up a category (or avoid relegation) against opponents from all over the world... and 90% of the time you lose against those using Barcelona or Real Madrid (a small polemical streak from someone who got very frustrated on several occasions but didn't succumb to the dominance of the big teams). Jokes aside, Seasons always works great and allows for a constructive online experience even if you have little time to play. The net code is already excellent: apart from a few cases where the match didn't start due to a roster download error (which will surely be fixed promptly), the games have always been perfect, without any lag, even though the writer has a fiber optic connection.

Needless to say, you can indulge in friendlies and championships of all kinds, but what stands out is the career mode, whether you want to experience it as a player or a manager. The latter puts you in the shoes of a Manager in the Anglo-Saxon sense, where in addition to choosing how to deploy your players, you can also dedicate yourself to club management, including the transfer market. You create your own avatar or choose an existing manager and embark on this adventure, which is more alive than ever today, thanks to the addition of random events that could disrupt your plans (sick or unhappy players and more) and the manager market, through which you could also receive offers from rival teams. There are interesting insights, such as specific situations from which to start the match, taken directly from reality, oiling an increasingly proven and engaging system.

A similar story for those who want to experience the career of a single player: you start with your own avatar or a real footballer, trying to become a world-class champion, but even in this case, the options are varied: do you simply want to try to climb to success, or perhaps experience the sporting journey of an already established top player? Maybe there's a promising young player in your favorite team, and you'd like to make him the star of the team? The choice is yours, and to help you, compared to the past, come the Archetypes. Every footballer has a primary and secondary style, as well as a playing character, but over time you can unlock these Archetypes that will give you a growth boost and make you a unique and recognizable player. Do you want to become a superb playmaker? "Passing Maestro" is for you, but if you dream of launching into furious runs down the wing, it will be better to aim for "Sprinter." Even in this case, the variables will be numerous, with events linked to the reality of the reference leagues, and even if we certainly cannot list all the content, know that the experience is fun and rewarding. 

EA SPORTS FC 26: Is It a Won Match?

Do you think it ends here? Of course not, Pro Club returns, also linked to archetypes, so that your team composed of 11 human friends (with AI managing absences) has specific growth for each individual player, making the mode increasingly structured. If, on the other hand, you are looking for speed and frantic gameplay, here's Rush: a smaller field, fewer players, offside active only from the attacking third, and frantic speed, which replaces Volta and allows for a hit-and-run experience, alone or with friends. In short, as you will have well understood, EA SPORTS FC 26 truly has something for everyone, and to avoid making this article of biblical proportions, I have deliberately omitted some aspects (past icons, co-op, and so on). After a full immersion of matches played and experienced in the various available modes, I can only point out the clear step forward compared to past years, although some revisable points still remain that prevent a higher rating. EA SPORTS FC 26 is a great football title and demonstrates how diligently its development team has worked, not so much on improbable revolutions, but on specific elements that the community has been asking for for a long time. Of course, not everything has been corrected, and in the future, much more can be done to improve the experience, but we are facing what comes closest to a totalizing experience in the world of football. Kick-off: one-nil to Electronic Arts.