Welcome to the World’s Game. I’m talking, of course, about EA Sports FC. I know the name has changed, but we’ve been playing FIFA for over thirty years. So, how has it stayed on top of the football video game pyramid for so long? And will it remain there?
Glory, Glory Luton Town
EA has created the world’s most popular football video game since releasing the revolutionary FIFA International Soccer in 1994. I remember being introduced to FIFA 2000 by my dad on our home PC, and it was magical. I specifically recall enjoying fouling the opposing goalkeeper, a move that kept getting players sent off with red cards. In my four-year-old mind, that was hilarious. To my dad, it probably wasn’t.
My next memory is of being given a PlayStation 2, which came with FIFA Football 2004. In FIFA 08, I took Luton Town from the Championship to Champions League glory. I was later sacked because I destroyed the wage structure when buying legends like Frank Lampard and Thierry Henry. That’s a poor way to treat your most successful manager in history!
A Shiny New Football Game Mode
Then came Ultimate Team in FIFA 09. Most players stopped playing career mode, opting instead for the shiny gold cards of their favourite players. People were no longer only paying for the game. They were also buying packs which probably didn’t even contain a decent card.
Today, the game is littered with a ridiculous variety of cards. Icons are an exciting addition to the game mode, but having five different varieties of the same player seems like overkill. Then there are Shapeshifter cards, which allow players to play in different positions. You’d think this would be an interesting mix-up, but really it just makes my head spin.
Yet this is the game mode most people play today. If you gain enough points in the mountain that is Rivals mode, then you’ll get the chance to qualify for FUT Champions (FUT Champs).
Ultimate Team’s premier competition. We played the game when we had to rotate players due to their fitness levels and contracts. We played when you had to qualify for FUT Champs by winning a four-match tournament. Players even played when FUT Champs meant having to play forty games in a weekend. My eyes were bloodshot, I was sweating, and my hands burned, yet I’ve never quite been able to stop playing.
I am an Ultimate Team Champion
Join me on my FUT Champions experience. I loaded up the game without any music playing as there haven’t been any iconic songs in years. Before I got into the Ultimate Team menu, I noticed that the game was glitching badly. It then crashed. After I reloaded it, I was made to suffer with a frustrating lag for the rest of my weekend.
My centre-back was very questionably sent off in my first game, but I still managed to win. Sometimes it’s easier playing with ten players, other times it feels like your opponent has twenty. Some opponents seem to know what I’m going to do before I do. This makes it impossible to reach their goal. My rule is that I don’t rage quit, even when 7-1 down, because I feel like trying to work out a way of getting past a decent player benefits me. If I’m not touching the ball though, I’m out of there.
After my opponents and I rage-quit a few times, and the game crashed again, I found myself in a penalty shootout. I missed an early penalty, but then so did my opponent. We then went on an emotional roller coaster as we both scored until sudden death. After some heroic mind games, I managed to save a penalty, and then scored mine to win the match.
The last game arrived with me needing to win it to qualify for next weekend’s FUT Champs. I won 11-1. This is when it gets really exciting, because I get my rewards. For most of the year, opening packs at the end of FUT Champs offers very little happiness. There are only so many times I can pack the same 87-rated goalkeeper. Thankfully, we now have a handy storage space for the duplicates.
How much?
The tradeable cards in the store lose value so quickly that you’re better off selling them to fund Squad Building Challenges (SBCs). You can also achieve daily Objectives, which offer some amazing rewards. The issue I have with this is how many hours some of them require you to put into achieving them. You have to turn your console on daily for some of them. That just isn’t healthy.
Then there is the financial side of the game. I never pay full price for the latest release. The gameplay changes slightly each year, but graphically not much has changed in over a decade. I thought the game would have evolved by now, but there is still a frustrating over-reliance on AI. Switching players when your opponent is running at you can be infuriating.
Then there are the times when the game glitches momentarily. What follows are a ridiculous few seconds where every player forgets how to play football, and the screen turns into a weird game of pinball. With all these issues in mind, players should be paying a DLC fee, not a full game fee each year.
When the Fun Stops, Stop
While we’re on the subject of customers paying money, let’s talk about in-game purchases. At this time of year, it’s FUTTIES season. All the best cards have become available, and it’s quite easy to acquire them. There is no better feeling than packing one of the best players in the game, even if the walkouts do love playing with my emotions. Last year, FUTTIES treated me so well that I became bored of winning. I had Pele, Gullit, Vieira. I had so many of the best icons that I eventually stopped playing.
Last year I got lucky. Players often pay a lot of money to acquire the team that I had. You could spend thousands to open packs and waste it all. I remember spending £5 on packs in FIFA 14 and only having an 83-rated John Terry to show for it. I never made that mistake again. Anyway, I can’t wait to score with my new Mbappe card. Wait, no Jordan! You’re addicted again!
The Career of a Lifetime
Before Ultimate Team, I was obsessed with career mode. Signing the best players for your club was a real dopamine rush. You know that you’re happy with your team when you’re deciding to play every game, rather than simulate them. Winning the Champions League with your favourite club was a wonderful feeling when you’d turned up to the rainy Carabao Cup early rounds.
By the time training had become a feature in the mode, I’d lost interest. Trying to keep my players energetic, while making good progress in the calendar, is tough. I started a new Career, and I immediately felt that there were way too many settings to trudge through.
After I’d sorted out the scouting areas, the training schedule and my team sheet, I then had to discuss every minor detail in each player’s contract. This meant having to guess each player’s wage expectations. Three hours had passed, and the wage budget was finally fixed. I was finally ready to play my first pre-season game.
Was all my effort worth it? No. The gameplay in Career Mode feels like driving an electric car on 1% battery. World Class is too easy for me, so I play on Legendary difficulty. This means that after waiting five minutes for the AI to give me the ball back, I then lose it straight away. The only way to beat Legendary is to allow most of their players deep into my half and tackle them, before using the fastest player on Earth to catch them on the break. The concentration levels required for that are disgusting.
So I quit Career Mode without saving my game and ended up back in the shiny arms of my Team of the Year Mbappe on Ultimate Team.
What other Modes are there?
The popularity of Ultimate Team has largely contributed to EA neglecting the other game modes. Ultimate Team is an arcade game, and Seasons used to be the mature option. While games in FUT often end with a basketball score, in Seasons, it’s a lot more difficult to score goals. In this game, though, it felt like someone had smothered my controller with tar. The players are so slow and clunky; it really wasn’t an enjoyable experience.
Pro Clubs has always been hilarious when you can get your friends online. Those wacky hairstyles would be funny if they didn’t represent the demon wearing it. As soon as I see a player with grey dreadlocks, I know they’re scoring a hat-trick against me, even if they’re playing in goal.
Bravely, I recently tried a drop-in game on EA Sports FC 25. I shouldn’t have. I touched the ball twice before frustratingly losing it because my player has awful stats. The rest of the game was ruined by other players who refused to pass the ball until they’d miraculously managed to get a pointless shot away. As you can imagine, the game then became more toxic than the game chat in Rocket League.
Tournament mode is still available for when you have multiple friends playing in one house. You each take turns on the controller playing head to head in a league or knockout format until you have a winner. If you’re not in the same room as your mate, then Online Friendlies is the next best thing.
If you’re really struggling to compete with other players, I highly recommend that you enter the practice arena. It offers a large selection of drills to help you improve your understanding of the game’s mechanics.
Any Contenders for the Football Video Game Throne?
In the 2000s, the Pro Evolution Soccer series successfully competed against FIFA. In that period, I owned both titles each year. My recollection was that PES had better gameplay, while FIFA had superior game modes and graphics. PES could have stolen the industry from under EA’s noses, but one thing always counted against them. They never managed to get the rights to the majority of the popular clubs. Kids didn’t want to see Wayne Rooney playing for Manchester Red, in plain red clothing. They wanted the magic of scoring an overhead kick at Old Trafford, in the latest kit.
PES have now rebranded as E Football, but the gameplay just doesn’t compete with EA Sports FC anymore. There are other football games releasing, though. There is UFL, which is available to play now, and Rematch too. For years, we’ve been forced to play the only available option to us football lovers. Hopefully there will be more options in the future.
You Never Know What you’re Gon’ Get
Another reason this game is still superior to its competitors is because of its fluidity of movement on Ultimate Team and the Skill Moves. Rush is a fun addition to the game, where you can show off your skills in a smaller-sided match. After a quarter of a century, the adrenaline still flows when you score a last-minute winner, or come back from 3-0 down to win. It is heartbreaking to lose in the last second, though.
I’ve found I win as many games as I lose. The system seems to be that if you win a few games in a row, then you’re punished by being thrown into the lion’s den, and you’re the zebra. Likewise, if you lose a couple of games, you’re then treated to the easiest game of your life. Sometimes, if I concede two early goals, my opponent pauses the game, prompting me to quit. If I score some early goals, however, my opponent also pauses the game multiple times in an attempt to bore me into submission.
Neither strategies work, but it’s nice to know that I’m playing against human beings and not bots, I guess.
I started to doubt my football knowledge when I decided to belatedly tackle the confusing tactics system. The commentators just irritate me, but just when I feel like I can put up with them, I notice that my kit is clashing colours, so I have to quit the game anyway.
There are some other nice mechanics, like scoring a free-kick with David Beckham and out-smarting a goalkeeper who steps to the side rather than diving normally. I like the jockey system when defending and pressing the R1 button to apply additional pressure. Unfortunately, the cons do outweigh the pros.
We Just Can’t Seem to Let Go
It’s slightly upsetting that a game which had such a strong impact on my life has turned into what it has. The fun, care-free adventure of Career Mode has been replaced by the toxic addiction of Ultimate Team. The glory days of having football tournaments round your house with your mates are over. Now it’s just the same content, the same bugs and the same people that buy the game every year.
EA Sports FC 26 is out in September, but do many people care? Not really. Will one of the other games finally become the world’s most popular football game? Truthfully, I don’t think so. Mainly because the core audience of EA Sports FC will still pump their money into the franchise no matter what state the game is in.
Verdict
My overall rating for EA Sports FC 25 is 4/10.
This review will be uploaded on Thursday at 6 pm BST on YouTube. Search ‘Jordans Media picks’ to find my profile, and thank you for reading my blog post.
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