Each year, a significant portion of the gaming community serves its verdict on the new FIFA – sorry, FC – before they've even kicked a licensed ball in anger. (Admit it, you've already glanced at the above score and decreed it right or wrong.) In an attempt to address those preconceptions, EA Vancouver has built EA FC 26 around community feedback, with intriguing results. It's both faster, and slower. It's at times more intelligent, at others stupider. It's both more fun, and more frustrating. Schrödinger's favorite football game, if you will.
Let's dig into game speed, because this is the most pronounced – and profound – change. In addition to customizable user sliders, FC 25 quietly implemented two gameplay presets: 'Classic' and 'Simulation'. A year on, they evolve into 'Competitive' and 'Authentic'. These make for a marked difference in how the match engine handles. The former is the basis of online play, and all about gamer skill. It's rapid, with the onus on trick-stick skills and goals, goals, goals, as user-controlled players race about unaffected by fatigue. 'Authentic', meanwhile, prevails offline, with believable weather interference, tiredness effects, and lifelike errors applied to shooting, passing, or heading.
