It’s that time of the year again. EA SPORTS releases another football game slightly named differently than last year. Changing the number at the end of the title did not suffice this year as they lost the right to use the name of a certain football association that shall not be named for the entirety of this review. EA SPORTS went for a classic solution by simply putting “FC” before the number and being done with it.
Never change a winning team
EA has been the golden standard when it comes down to football games for a long time. Releasing a new game every year allows them to make sure you get the best experience possible. Technology evolves all the time and EA makes sure to utilize the newest optimizations possible. This year they are using the HypermotionV technology for their simulation of the game. This technology makes sure the movements in-game are as authentic as possible. By using data from real-life matches they can make sure every defender, midfielder, or attacker acts appropriately for the football situation unfolding.
Playstyles add a new dimension to the overall stats of every player. This adds a new way to make every player feel like their real-life counterpart. These additional abilities are all based on OPTA data. For those not familiar, OPTA is a well-known and heavily used data-collecting company for football games. Implementing this data in further detail to each player, makes them feel unique in FC 24.
To top things off, EA SPORTS made further use of the Frostbite engine to enhance the player’s individual features even further. Most top 5 league players look almost as real as on television. The way they move, the way they look and even the way their kit behaves through the motions is optimised with this technology and it shows. Players look very realistic and their movements look authentic to create an immersive experience once again.
Inclusive
Football – at least over here in Europe – has been a predominantly male-dominated sport. The last 15 years – give or take – has seen huge changes in the inclusion of woman in the sport. EA SPORTS was not blind to this change and added women to the game in previous entries. This year sees an even further boost in available women’s teams. The UEFA Women’s Champions League is included. Perhaps the most controversial addition is adding women players into Ultimate Team. Some say letting women and men play in the same team ruins the realism. I find that the argument is a bit pointless when we are talking about a game mode where you can use sadly deceased legends as Pele and retired heroes like the newly added Kompany in your team. My starter’s team has a great female keeper in goal and my right back from the English Women’s Super League is doing great things running up and down the wing.
Evolutions got me excited again
With Volta, the player’s career and a manager’s career mode all being pretty much untouched from the previous entry, it is clear this year’s game is once again all about Ultimate Team. For those uninitiated, Ultimate Team is a sort of fantasy football mode where you collect player’s cards and use them to form the ultimate team. Coincidentally it’s also the game mode each of us initiated/veteran players spend the most time with. Some of us even spend a hefty amount of money on in-game currency to get a potential shortcut to “pulling” that one special card that will be obsolete in 4 weeks’ time when a better promo comes out. Being Belgium-based we got our government to thank for blocking EA SPORTS of fuelling this gambling addiction. How not more countries went this route baffles me to be honest. I’ve heard people splashing a month’s wager (and more) on this mode. The pay-to-win model is pushed heavily but it is possible to be competitive without spending extra money through playing the game well.
Last year’s changes to Ultimate Team sounded fun but left me a bit disappointed. Oftentimes times EA SPORTS add stuff to the mode but stops updating the content with quality injections to keep it interesting throughout the year. This time I feel like they really listened to the userbase with the introduction of Evolutions. The community has long reached out to have an opportunity to upgrade players to make them usable in competitive gameplay. With Evolutions, you now get the chance. With Evolutions, you pick a card to be upgraded and put it in an evolution “slot”. To get the upgrades you need to fulfill certain objectives. An Evolution takes your base card and changes stats, overall rating and the design of the card, boosting the in-game performance. One of the first Evolutions available is called “Glow up”. This gives you the opportunity to take a bronze card and upgrade it all the way to a golden version. This year my favorite team has an academy player having his first card and it was only a bronze card. Almost useless in the game but as a fan of the player I could now make him useable through Evolutions. Other Evolutions make it possible to add new playstyles or boost the weak foot stat amongst other boosts. These new additions make for new and exciting ways to build a team and potentially have a bit of variety in teams encountered.
Conclusion
EA SPORTS FC 24 proves yet again there is no better alternative if you want to play the beautiful game. As always the game starts out with its fair share of hiccups that get ridiculed online but knowing EA SPORTS they’ll patch things up pretty fast in the coming weeks. Gameplay is superb and the changes in Ultimate Team are for the better.
