Every time a new edition drops in an annual sports game, the majority of fans have the same question on their mind: how is this different than the game I purchased last year? When most of the audience for a game consists of people who just bought the last one a year ago there’s an expectation that developers will do enough with the latest game to distinguish it from prior years and make it a worthwhile purchase and not just an expensive roster update patch.
Unfortunately, this is a mark that developers often fail to meet. Now that EA FC 26 is fully released to gamers around the world, players are getting a chance to see how EA FC 26 has changed what fans could get with their existing copy of EA FC 25. If you’re curious about what has changed over the last year to decide if another purchase is in your future or if you’re better off waiting another year, here’s a comparison of how the two games stack up.
The Expensive Roster Update
Yes, it is often mentioned in a derisory manner when it comes to annual sports games, but that’s only when the surrounding game doesn’t do enough to earn the extra purchase on its own. As an individual item to check off a list, however, the roster update is still an important thing to players who want their sports games to feel as much like real life as possible. This is even more important for a game like EA FC, which, unlike other sports games based around a single league, has a complicated licensing game to play with the various leagues and clubs around the world.
So, while changing who is playing where may not be the most challenging difference to carry out for developers, it’s still a big one for players. You also see clubs rocking their latest, current season kits for players who care a lot about the virtual experience, matching the real-world game as much as possible, while the return of the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona headlines new stadiums in the game alongside the likes of the Allianz Arena in Munich and Inter Miami FC’s home digs, Chase Stadium.
New Roles For New Playstyles
The most significant way developers can change the way a sports game feels is to change the way players behave on the field, and across all franchises, adding in new roles and special abilities or styles is a key component of this. The playstyle you task a player on the pitch with significantly alters the way they operate, and so players are always interested in knowing what new options are available to play with.
In EA FC 26, there are several new player roles you can assign to your players to dictate how they play within your tactics. The new roles added for this year’s EA FC are:
- Ball-Playing Keeper: The modern game has seen goalkeepers move from players who need to stop goals as jobs one through five into an integral part of managing opposing defenses, as high pressure has become more and more common. The Ball-Playing Keeper works within this system, moving high up in the box when on the ball in the defensive third to create new passing lanes to move the ball around at the back, crack the press, and spring a dangerous counterattack.
- Inverted Wing-Back: Another modern tactical twist that is gaining more and more popularity every year, an Inverted Wing-Back playstyle lets you emulate teams like Arsenal, who have climbed back into the ranks of the top clubs in the world this year with tactics that frequently saw their left back moving centrally. This playstyle takes an even more attacking approach than a Falseback, telling your back to move further forward in the midfield.
- Wide Back: The Wide Back is a new role ideally suited for three-at-the-back tactics where one or more of your defensive trio is required to take on responsibilities not usually aligned with playing as a central defender. Tweaking the focus of your Wide Back can let you direct where those responsibilities are most frequently used, be it as an outlet option while pressed, a close-down defender as balls enter the final third, or moving out to cover for a full back on a more enterprising role.
- Box Crasher: Often, fans get a bit too wedded to the idea of defensive and attacking roles within a midfield, but modern tactics often have more nous than that. The Box Crasher role is for a player with strong defensive skills, but who still can bury a shot when given a clean sight on goal. With this role, a central player will be more inclined to make late runs into the box, latching onto cutback passes or smashing rebounds or blocked shots back into the mixer.
Early Returns On AI Show Positive Signs
At the end of the day, it’s how a game plays and feels on the sticks that is most important when assessing a new annual sports game, and so far, the early indication is that EA has broken out of a rut and delivered an update that actually feels significantly different. While it’s still early days, and there should always be caution around how a game performs early in its release cycle when players have not had enough time to find any potential exploits or for any potentially irritating flaws to grow more and more bothersome, the response has been positive.
The most notable difference is the addition of a second playstyle to choose from. First, there is the arcade feel of Competitive play. This is the mode used for online play and is designed to feel a bit more like a video game, with faster action and more dynamic players. With fans having been down on the feel of the game for several editions, EA FC 26 has seemingly found a sweet spot and delivered the most enjoyable competitive play in quite some time.
The Authentic Playstyle is an attempt to better represent the look and feel of real-world soccer on EA FC pitches. This means that the game plays slower and more methodically, demanding that players break down opposing defenses the way a real-world club might, not simply battering through them with the more dynamic competitive play. While the focus on online play means many gamers won’t even interact with this playstyle much, for those who felt the game was too much video game and not enough sport, it is a welcome change in this year’s version.
Career Mode Goals For Short Term Challenges
Like many genres, sports gaming has become an industry that pays its bills on its online play, where microtransactions allow the developers to rake in a steady stream of cash year-round, and this has unfortunately led to neglect for offline modes like Career or Franchise modes. However, there are some changes this year that might appeal to players who prefer a solo sports game experience.
EA has put work into the AI running decision-making in career modes with the goal of creating both more realistic opposition and making running your club easier. More noticeable is the addition of new elements in the form of weekly objectives in career mode, as well as random events that can impact your team. While still the notably less-centered part of the game, these tiny changes in EA FC 26 do add a little variety to a career mode that can otherwise feel a bit rote outside of transfer windows.
Online Play Has New Bells And Tweaks
As the most popular way to play, it’s not surprising that online play has also received unique updates and changes like offline modes did. The most notable change from a gameplay perspective comes in how chemistry styles work. You can learn about what each of the new or updated chemistry styles does with our comprehensive guide, but the topline takeaway is a nerfing of their strength, with top-level chemistry going from offering boosts of +12, +8, and +4 across affected stats to +9, +6, and +3.
The biggest game mode addition for Ultimate Team in EA FC 26 is the addition of Gauntlet mode. If you find that you end up in a rut of team selection, Gauntlet requires you to build deep as you play five matches, but you must rotate your entire lineup, starters, and bench every time, so you need a squad deep enough to compete every time if you want to maximize your reward with five wins.
The changes in a sports game year on year are always, to an extent, minimal by broader video game standards, but that doesn’t mean there’s no pressure to adapt. Are these changes enough to get you to jump on board, or are you happy with your copy of EA FC 25 (or older) for another year?
