EAFC (formerly the Fifa franchise, but EAFC for short) officially releases this Friday, but if you bought the fancy edition and you’ve been able to play it for a week. The franchise has been going for decades now, and I’ve played pretty much every instalment, even during the years that PES was the superior title, i always longed for the proper kits and presentation that Fifa had over it. These days the Konami made title flounders for attention, with terrible decision after terrible decision meaning that EAFC is now the only real option for the fans of the worlds biggest sport. 

Years ago, before I typed a word on this website, I was part of a group of Pro Clubs players who were bordering on obsessed, even managing to stay in the top 10 ranked clubs in the world. That required a level of dedication I can’t fathom, but it means I am more confident talking about football games than perhaps any other genre of game. 

Now in my Pro Clubs retirement, I tend to go through the same stages with the franchise every year. Whenever I stop playing the previous year’s entry, I say to myself I am not going to bother getting the new one. A few months later the first rumours and leaks come out with whatever the new feature is going to be, and I am intrigued, but stand resolute with my decision. Then we get to the start of the premier league, and my beloved Arsenal take to the field. Arsenal would lose, and the itch to correct the errors of the season arrives, and I inevitably order the new game.

This year was no different. Arsenal’s newfound competitiveness meant I was less encouraged to try and take on the manager’s job on Career Mode and “fix” the team. Could this be the first year I didn’t buy it? Well it was looking like…until I watched a bunch of content. After that, I convinced myself the changes to Career Mode were enough to justify the purchase. I won’t lie, the idea I would be able to write about it on this website also helped in the justification. So here we are, I paid for it, I got it early (CDKeys is a glorious website for getting games cheaper than RRP) and away I went. 

Obligatory Ultimate Team Disclaimer

I know Ultimate Team has become the main way most fans play this franchise now, and I have tried to get into it. The satisfaction of opening a pack and getting one of your favourite players, or even just a player worth a lot of the in game currency, is a thrill that takes me back to being a kid collecting stickers. That buzz is infectious, but it’s quickly ruined the second you start a game up and you find yourself playing a bizarro world superspeed version of football. It’s an arcade game. More akin to a fighting game than a football simulation. 

Frankly, as a football purist, it is trash. I understand the mode is commercially enormous and the reason the game still exists, but the rest of the game suffers as a result and I sincerely hope that it gets classified as gambling and EA have to remove it or make the game 18 rated. 

So, if you’re here for Ultimate Team, this isn’t the review for you. 

FCIQ & Career Mode

EAFC has been a franchise of incremental improvements for a long time now. This year’s innovation is FCIQ, a new tactical system that changes how you can influence your teams to play. As a Football Manager nerd, and someone who watches football and loves the tactical nuances of different managers, this was music to my ears. 

Playing around with the FCIQ in career mode, it genuinely affects the way you plan to build your squad. You look at potential new players with the system and roles in mind. The game feels more authentic to the kind of discussions that you imagine happen behind the doors of the most well run clubs. If you are looking for a new centre midfielder, do you want a box crashing off the ball runner like Joe Willock, or do you want a deep lying playmaker like Martin Zubimendi? Using the scouting system to find layers fit your style is satisfying and actually does ape the Football Manager system in just enough ways to give a similar level of satisfaction. 

In addition to FCIQ, EA has now allowed you to customise your career mode with a range of choices when you start up a new career. You can adjust the strictness of your board, even turning off the risk of being sacked entirely. The choice is yours on whether the players develop fast, slow, or average speed. You can even decide if the players will be affected by fatigue. It’s a nice collection of settings that you will need to tinker with to find the balance that suits you, but it’s a great addition to have that choice. 

This tactical nuance and new customisation options are engaging for football nerds like me, but that detail is irrelevant if the in-match gameplay doesn’t reflect those tweaks. If it’s all just a bunch of rubbish in the menus, there really is no point to it. 

From the tactics board to the pitch

To test the new FCIQ system, I set up my beloved Arsenal with the Tiki-Taka tactics, and found that anytime I tried to attack at pace, I had nobody to pass to ahead of me. Initially frustrated, I realised that my team were actually taking up positions to receive the ball to feet with short, simple passes. As such, I started to play the slow, patient game that is a hallmark of the Tiki-Taka style. To my surprise, I started to find my team slowly suffocating the opposition. Death by a thousand passes was happening, and I discovered something about myself. 

I really don’t like playing Tiki-Taka.

I changed the settings, adjusting to a pressing game more akin to Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool, and within minutes I was pressing, and anytime I won the ball, I found players making runs around me. Alright, sometimes the runs were awful. Sometimes two teammates would make the same run, leading to me calling them expletives I shan’t repeat. It’s a system I am keen to keep experimenting with, and so I will do it over the next few months. But the early signs are that this is a great addition to the game. 

Good in the Menu, How about on Grass?

What were once grand innovations have become small tweaks, and the core gameplay of EAFC is largely the same as previous years. Given the basic settings are geared for Ultimate team play, it’s a perfectly passable game. It has been for a long time and I am not sure if there will be a big innovation without competition from another brand. PES and FIFA brought the best out of each other back in the 2000’s, and I’d love to see a competitor rise up and challenge EA’s domination.

Now the hardcore career mode players out there know that the secret of making Fifa feel like a “simulation” rather than an arcade game has been in the gameplay sliders. Online communities on Reddit have been giving their best versions of the settings to use to slow the game down and make it feel more realistic for years, and finally EA have taken note, and given their own bespoke version of these settings. 

Flicking the switch to “Simulation” in the settings slows your players down, increases the chances of poor first touches and misplaced passes, and makes scoring much harder for both you and the EAFC controlled team you’re playing against. I’ll be honest, I was sceptical they’d get this right, but they’ve surpassed my expectations. This slower, much more realistic feeling style of gameplay is a departure from the hectic, high score games of Ultimate team and the like. 

The sliders that EA have selected aren’t perfect though. The restrictions to player sprint speed mean that even your fastest players look like they’re running through molasses. It’s odd, and something that feels a little too obvious to have been missed by play testers. The solution ended up being that I went in, customised the settings to give the players a little more of their speed back, and after a few tweaks I’ve landed on a happy cocktail that suits my preferences. 

Final Thoughts

Finding your balance is going to be the key to how much you get out of EAFC 25. The simulation sliders in the menus are a feature that’s actually been in the game for a while, only now the light has been shone onto them. It’s been tweaked well, and the option to customise it further is welcome. A few quality of life additions in these menus would be welcome. The customisable career mode is a great addition, and I am yet to dabble in the Pro Clubs part of the game. Mainly because me and my old club mates are difficult to get online at the same time now. 

EAFC feels like the final version of this generation of the game, whilst also having some features that will likely be the building blocks of whatever comes next. FCIQ feels like it’s in its infancy as an idea, even if it’s been quite a nice change to experience. This is the first EA Football game in a long time where my biggest feeling is one of excitement about what the next one might be. 

Good: FCIQ and the customisable settings are a nice addition to help you make your fifa experience what you want it to be.

Bad: The game is still clearly designed for Ultimate Team first, and the gameplay in its default settings is essentially the same as last year with some slightly smarter tactics. 

TL:DR; EA Sports FC 25 is the first one in a long time that shows some shoots of something exciting.