Summer silly season is back in full pomp and that can only mean one thing, EA FC news! Like Jude Bellingham crashing the box, EA has spun up hype on cue for another year of footy action. Will it deliver when it matters like Cole Palmer? Will it fall short like Lisandro Martinez defending a corner? We’ll find out soon enough, but in the meantime how is the game looking so far?
From the start, EA has made EA FC 26 all about listening to players and making updates the community wants. Sounds good right? Ehhhh, it’s a little more complicated than that considering that the EA FC community is Continental Divide levels of split. Nevertheless, EA has let us know that EA FC 26 will be split into two separate gameplay types: Competitive and Authentic.
In FC 26, we’ve separated gameplay into two presets: Competitive and Authentic. This split is based on where and how you play FC, and with this change, we’re able to customize the match experience of each mode to suit what you want out of the game.
- Competitive Gameplay is tuned for added responsiveness and higher player control, mainly focused on online modes like Ultimate Team and Clubs.
- Authentic Gameplay is tuned for higher realism and true-to-life match tempo/speed in offline modes, like Career Mode.
The community, mainly the simulation (Authentic Gameplay) crowd, has been clamoring for this for quite some time now. As part of that community, what I want out of a game is what I see on the television, a slower, more controlled match where games are won and lost in the midfield but look — I get it. Not everyone wants to rock up to Anfield, park a double-decker bus, and escape with a nil-nil. That isn’t for everyone, mainly the folks who are going to pour serious cash into Ultimate Team, but I find it hard to believe there isn’t common ground somewhere.
Either way, I was ecstatic to hear that “AI defending will be tuned differently” for authentic gameplay modes (Career & Player Career Modes) while the Competitive modes (FUT & Pro Clubs) will see extra responsive controls and less auto tackles and interceptions. EA has even confirmed new sliders, and perhaps even a foul tendency slider made its way in? Nevertheless, it’s nice to hear that EA recognizes this and has tailored the game for two separate experiences.
Refined Gameplay Fundamentals
EA started this deep dive out with music to my ears as the next area they addressed pertained to refined gameplay fundamentals. Long overdue in my opinion, I always felt as if EA needed to take a step back from the gimmicks and work on their game, mainly the core elements of a football/soccer game: passing, tackling, saves, physicality, shooting, agility, etc. More attention to how the players move, both with the ball and off-the-ball, was needed and EA is at least trying to take the first step towards fixing something that has been irking me for quite some time, footplanting:
EA is trying to achieve more realism in how players move through better explosiveness tied to the different Acceleration Types they implemented a few years back. Turns and jockeying look to be more responsive with agility and animations tied to ratings/player characteristics.
For every attacking improvement, defending must also be tweaked to create a balanced gameplay experience, and yes, the defense has gotten some love and attention too. The frustrations that ensue after a well-timed tackle is vanquished by the ball gravitating towards the attacker is getting some new logic through a new “deflection control system” aimed at helping you win possession while also penalizing the tackled opponent by reducing the likelihood of them recovering the ball right back after being dispossessed. Of course, the art of the tackle in EA FC has been tied back to ratings and it looks to be evident now with Tackle Personality:
- Tackle Personality – added more player personality for stand tackles
- Players with a low stand tackle attribute (below 71) can only perform basic stand tackle animations.
- Players with a medium stand tackle attribute (71-84) can perform most stand tackle animations.
- Players with a high stand tackle attribute (85+) can perform all stand tackle animations.
Passing And Shooting
Passing and shooting have also seen some tweaks, mainly aimed at more responsiveness through better animation quality. More optimized animations, specifically in passing, should play out contextually in the appropriate scenarios (short/medium/long passes) whereas shooting has been tweaked to make it more rewarding. Shooting angles and body position are said to matter now, mainly with close-range shots where attackers have to often sacrifice technique for reactions. Low driven shots are back and can now be applied across all shot types (finesse, flair, and so on). As a result of this inclusion, Timed Finishes have been removed (will it be added back in future games as a new feature?):
- Removing it allows us to balance shooting to produce more consistent outcomes.
- This change allows for more skill differentiation through Precision Shooting, where timing, aim, power control, and shot selection help build a more noticeable skill gap.
Attacking & Defensive Positioning
One area both competitive and authentic players come together as one on relates to the lack of fluidity in attack and the positioning of your defense that plagued EA FC 25. Too often in attack your teammates stood around as you screamed at your screen for them to make a run. Manual triggered runs provided some relief, but even Sunday league players know when to attack space and offer up passing options for teammates.
Attacking Runs – made several changes to the attacking runs logic:
- Increased the number of attacking runs by players, to lower reliance on triggered runs.
- Attacking runs more consistently run into open space.
While I’m certainly no programmer, I’ve always held the belief that there were ratings or behind-the-scenes attributes at play overriding natural intelligence. EA has alluded to this in this deep dive blog:
All players will be more likely to make the best attacking run options instead of strictly following what their player Role dictates.
Ex. a Winger can cut into the box if the opportunity arises, where before they would wait out wide.
Ex: a Wingback can move forward if there is open space in front of them.
There isn’t too much by way of defensive positioning in this blog apart from this tidbit that was glossed over:
Defending Positioning [NG]
- Player marking – adjusted positioning of defenders to now man mark opponents when close and inside the box.
That’s potentially a big change as man marking inside the 18 was a real issue in past EA FCs. Too often an attacker could get the ball to feet inside the box, turn, and get a shot off without too much opposition. If the above is indeed fixed, this could really improve defending and help to keep score lines manageable.
Physicality, First Touches, And Shielding
For all of the glamour and glitz that is HyperMotion, the lack of physicality it failed to produce was a major disappointment for me. I’ve long held the belief that there isn’t enough physicality in EA FC/FIFA. Players coming together, whether it be tussles or fouls, simply doesn’t happen enough for my liking. Already it looks like there are massive improvements to shielding, enough so to make Romelu Lukaku proud:
With all of the additions for shield traps and entries, hopefully there’s some risk/reward for defenders who are too eager to go through the back of the shielder, especially since EA has tweaked some of the player physics to prevent getting “stuck” on other players.
First touch responsiveness seems to be an area of big focus this year with the tweaks in physics carrying over:
Factors influencing the difficulty of a first touch include ball speed relative to the player’s speed, ball height, requested exit angle, opponent pressure, the part of the body used for the touch, the extent of stretching, and player attributes such as Ball Control, Interceptions, and Composure.
Music to my ears, especially the bit about when using the LT/L2 Shield command, player movement speed will take a hit — risk and reward! Player urgency was also touched upon, but if we’re keeping it real, the example they used raises more questions for me than it answers:
In this scenario, the urgency displayed by the attacker who gets to the lobbed pass goes against the first touch improvements we just discussed. In instances such as this, the first touch should be looser as the attacker is using turbo to get the pass and has to stick out a leg while sprinting. I could be a little harsh here so hopefully this plays out differently when different rated players are used.
Team’s Playing Styles Improved
For far too long, one of the main areas of frustration for offline players was aimed at how teams in EA FC/FIFA all played the same. Despite numerous attempts to resolve this, the issue never really was resolved despite the modern trend of teams setting themselves up in similar approaches (inverted fullbacks, extra centerback, and so on. To scratch this yearly itch, EA has once again pledged improvements:
We’ve made improvements to the playing styles of CPU Teams to make them more unique, and to stand out in both attack and defence.
- Attack
- CPU opponents will now make smarter and more varied decisions when it comes to passing, crossing, dribbling, and other gameplay areas.
- For example, some teams prefer to cross into the box more often, while others utilize slow buildup or fast tiki-taka attacking plays.
- Defence
- The CPU will know better when and how to defend, press the player, stay back, or use double contain.
- For example, specific teams will try to overwhelm you by pressing with multiple players at once, while others will just sit back and then press you aggressively when you get close.
Hopefully EA truly does address this as it really does breathe life into Career Mode.
PlayStyles & Player Roles (FC IQ)
PlayStyles and Player Roles have divided opinions over the past few years. On one hand, there are lot of people who feel like these two have a negative impact on how players play, citing conflicting traits versus ratings as their main irk. On the other hand, there are folks who believe that these traits are needed to differentiate players, especially those at the highest level. EA is obviously in the latter camp:
Our goal is to make high-rated players play akin to their real-life ability, making attributes more impactful and PlayStyles feel like an addition, not a requirement.
EA’s approach is to consolidate and rework the PlayStyles to rebalance them while also adding some new ones, possibly as a result of the revamped shielding and physics. New player roles in my opinion are needed as they keep evolving in real life — Ball-Playing Keeper, Inverted Wingback, and Box Crasher. There are a lot of Twitter buzzwords that tacticos attach to modern players, but it’s not entirely false as these roles are becoming the norm in top-flight football. Tying back to the improvements to player positioning, EA drops this nugget:
Attacking Positioning – Players are less constrained by their Roles. If the opportunity presents itself, they can go beyond it or contribute to the play in more ways.
Positional freedom and being less constrained by attributes is a good thing, but the fear is always that there are too many variables at play behind the scenes that could lead to wonky behavior on the pitch.
Bottom Line
Kudos to EA for the massive information drop for what to expect in gameplay in EA FC 26. As per usual, the intent is there as there’s a lot to like in this deep dive. The proof will always be in the pudding, but it’s clear that EA took community feedback to heart as it’s at the core of all these proposed improvements. In a time where EA’s main competitor, Konami, is taking the mobile game approach, we as footy fans desperately need a game to satisfy our thirst.
