Amuse Productions

Ah, Sports Video Games. Call it gambling at this point how big corporations still make them year after year, feeling like huge hype when we get a gameplay trailer for it, only to be disappointed with a $70 (Next-gen tax) DLC. This year is different for EA however, having lost the full license to the NBA back in 2019, and now FIFA severing ties with EA after FIFA not wanting to pay EA all the money necessary to actually make a game, EA made it clear they would still go along and create a Football (yes, I’m going to call it that) video game. It seems like the move away from EA had been in the making as over the past few years we’ve seen teams individually sign exclusive licensing deals with games like eFootball, and PES. So, for example, if you are a big Liga MX fan and wanted to play with your favorite team, that’s no longer possible and hasn’t been on EA’s video games since FIFA 22. Atalanta, FC Barcelona, Napoli, and Roma are just a few that have left EA’s licensing deal and have chosen to go to another game. (Although FC Barcelona is still very much playable in EAFC 24, with normal badges, kits, and even their famous Camp Nou, even if its called EL Libertador). Anyways, many teams and leagues did maintain a relationship with EA including UEFA, which means the Champions League, Europa League, and the Conference League will all still be in EAFC 24.

So what has changed? Is the beta something revolutionary? Well, not quite and a beta never is for a game. I’m not going to be overly harsh about everything because the game itself hasn’t been fully finished, and won’t be until September 22nd which is when early access starts for the game itself. So, let me go mode by mode and point out some changes, and some not so dissonant changes that have happened to the games, some I’ll be talking more detailed, others not as much.

Right off the bat I will say that I did not play, Online Co-op, Seasons, Online Seasons, Pro Clubs, or Volta. The reason I didn’t actually play them is mainly because I just didn’t really feel like spending the month we got with the game, simply on those game modes. Especially when all of my progress would reset, and you could say the same about Ultimate Team and Career Mode, but in all honesty it is different, and even EA knows it with how they introduced UT this year.

Play Now –

EA claimed that this year we would be getting more women’s teams as well as some changes to Play Now. Not many changes in all honesty in the beta at least, but what’s interesting to note is that all of the men’s international teams from FIFA 23 are also in EAFC 24, which means FIFA does not have a license over those teams, which is nice actually. For the women, tournaments are where you will mainly play with a women’s team, but other than that, it doesn’t really seem as prominent yet. It seems standard, no teams have been added or taken away, nor have leagues been added or taken away. Another small detail to note is that footballs have been added in, as you know in single player and UT you can pack a football to have as your regular, and it’s funny to see the Al-Rihla from the FIFA World Cup, and the Oceanuz football from the Womens FIFA World Cup.

Ultimate Team –

I didn’t spend a whole bunch of time to see absolutely everything in this mode, but, I did like the previews we got from it. Especially with EA being generous for once and giving us packs that had some of its best players and icons to keep at least in the beta and try them out for ourselves. Though to some it may seem redundant, it’s a nice touch to have an Mbappe while my opponent also has one, without it feeling so much as him paying for it, while I didn’t and am stuck with an average Premier League striker, or even worse, a bronze striker. The chemistry style is the same from last year, which I don’t necessarily mind, but I still prefer saying I got a 190 rated team, to a 130. The biggest change however, is that you can now pack women’s teams players in the mode itself. So if you want to play Marta as your striker with Messi and Alex Morgan next to her, you absolutely can, which is honestly a pretty cool way to get women more involved in the game, especially with gameplay this year (which I will touch upon later). The ratings should be taken with a grain of salt as I wouldn’t think they have all the final ratings of the all the players yet, namely the bigger names such as Rashford, Haaland, Mbappe, whom all have the exact same stat lines even though they had great seasons, respectively. SBC’s seemed the same, the market seemed the same, and the packs have a new animation along with new card designs, which I do like, but after changing the format again last year, it’s a bit jarring to have to get used to a completely new format this year, basically, don’t mind the card design change, just the format its in. I did play 2 games of UT single player and it seemed to play as smooth as the rest of the game when playing offline. Which has been a complaint from a lot of people that UT felt a little too different to offline modes to get used too, so people just chose not to play it sometimes. As for new icons this year, we are getting our very first women’s icon in Mia Hamm who just retired this year, Zico, the brazilian legend, Sir Bobby Charlton, which feels like a long time coming, and Franck Ribery, which is amazing to see a face we haven’t seen in a while. All in all, minor changes on the backend of modes, but big changes for players, with obviously the introduction to women on your team, newer chemistry modes playing off of player’s playstyles, which really impacts a player’s feel in the game, as well as some newer faces with more being added in as we get nearer to release date.

Career Mode –

Now to get into what I’d say is the part that most people are looking forward too when picking up the next FIFA, or EAFC game, career mode. Career mode has been neglected for a good little while from EA, getting bare minimum changes, a slight reskin, and some development changes that would help develop players, but some things are still missing from the mode, yet again this is a beta. One of the biggest changes you will see is the implementation of a playstyle for your team along with development coaches, or coach management.

This is definitely a feature I am absolutely behind, essentially how it works is, right now there are 7 playstyles, or tactical visions, that can shape the way your team will play their games. Those being, Standard, which is essentially as it sounds, regular football at your own pace, Wing Play, which will shape the game around your wingers and fullbacks, while it would be recommended to get a Centre Forward more than a Striker as the Wingers will close in more, Tiki-Taka, which is a very popular style, using triangular spacing between players to move the ball up the pitch such as Prime Barcelona back in 2011-2015 did, Counter Attack, which is not bad and sounds exactly like what it is, but leaves you very open in the midfield as most players will be going up on the attack, Gegenpressing, which will have your players press high and fast when they do not have the ball, Kick and Rush which will utilize a lot of long balls and aerial battles to move forward in attacks, similar to Counter Attack but will use up less stamina, and finally Park The Bus, which is the most defensive tactic, yet will run your course with 5 at the back and potentially having a sparse midfield and less lethality on attacks. You can also customize your play in the team management screen as well, and it will automatically tell you which playstyle is suited more towards you, so you don’t necessarily have to be stuck with just one certain playstyle in those settings. Another nice thing about playstyles is before every game you get 2-3 options to help you prepare for said match, if its a big game, or rivalry game, it will do 3, if its a normal game it’ll do 2. These 2-3 options are a pre-match report of the other team, which is waaaaay better than anything they’ve input before including a full lineup and subs preview of your opponent, as well as their form as a team and ratings, while also showing you their style of play so you can be prepared to face said team. A press conference is the next thing which will mainly just affect morale, which is standard, and finally the biggest one yet is the temporary attribute. What this means is doing a training session with certain players giving them boosts for that game, for example your wingers getting curled crosses instead of direct and powerful ones for that game, defenders getting strength and timing bonuses, as well as midfielders getting passing bonuses such as being able to send the ball much more direct. It’s a nice touch that actually does make a difference for the game.

To explain coach management that would go along with the tactical vision, you are given 13 slots to fill up your training in different areas all dictated by the amount of stars you have in that area, and that’s dictated by both quality and quantity of players. Coaches will also cost a little bit, as it does add a need of development if you are playing career mode with a smaller club on a Road To Glory. Each coach will be versed in a certain tactical vision and will have more stars in one area than another, for example, a Standard tactical vision coach may be more suited with a 5 star rating in midfield, than a 2 star rating in goalkeeping, so naturally, you put them in the midfield training spot. I love this feature because it actually adds a sense of development from training (thankfully you don’t have to do the drills anymore), while also giving them a boost depending on how many coaches and what the quality of the coaches is in that area of your team. For example you will find most goalkeeping coaches will give you a 100% development bonus to your team goalkeepers, so if for example you have Allison on your team and have the adequate coaches, for him to go up in overall instead of it being, maybe 30 weeks, with a 100% boost, it will be half that time at 15 weeks, which means a higher overall, and bigger and faster development. It’s a great way to condense your team and not have it be as overcrowded as possible, as well as form not being the only component to development which is a very nice touch. Another great thing is that depending on how development is going, and how close you are to getting it completed in terms of the amount of coaches and star ratings, some players will benefit with added boosts to either pace, shooting, passing, or defending depending on the area, and that maintains as the season progresses.

It seems youth players are also a bit more boosted in their potentials, again maybe just the beta, but a few times I found myself either a 16 year old CB who was already a 69-70 overall, or an 18 year old GK who was a 73 overall already, which I do like as well, because it did feel that last year it was too many 50-60 overall players that would take a whole 2-3 seasons to actually be able to fully play and develop them, although I get its more realistic, 2-3 seasons in career mode can be a very long time, if you are invested in one. Now to the negatives though, age is still a problem with the game. At least its been reduced from the old days of a player turning 30 and automatically starting to regress, but I feel with this day and age in football age matters but not as much when we have some 30-40 year old players still playing at a top level, for example, Messi, Ronaldo, Casemiro, Varane, Toni Kroos, Modric, and even Son. It seems 30’s are the newish 20’s so why not treat age as a secondary thing in EAFC? In my opinion, the system should be that your very first season at your club, any player close to 30 or at the end of their development cycle, depending on their form should be at least a 1-2 overall boost. Depending on how they did last season, the next season would either keep them there or boost them to an entirely different potential, but all depending on form and training, not simply on how old the player is, yet of course once a player reaches 37 onward, it should be clear that they should be close to retirement. Another small negative is that simulations are absolutely treacherous to your team. For an experiment, in my career mode of EAFC 24, I simulated a whole 15 games after playing a few games and getting my players to excellent form and very happy morale. They would end up losing 8 of those games, and only 2 of those were tough games, while drawing 3 and winning 4. That team I went with was Manchester United, and at that point in time I had already signed and upgraded my team, including having an 86 rated Rashford, 78 rated Hojlund, 88 rated Tchouameni, and 87 rated Mount. Those loses also including a lose to Luton Town whom at the time being 11 games into the season, lost all 11 and had only scored twice. Going back to FIFA 23 and trying to get all the same players in the squad and overalls as close as possible. Man United would go on to win 13 of the 15 games, including 2 draws, and only allowing 3 goals in those 15 games. I don’t get how a team with excellent form and overpowering overalls in respect to Luton Town, would lose to said team, I get the factor of unpredictability, but that’s just pure BS in my opinion. Again maybe just the beta, but I’ll keep an eye on it when the game actually comes out. All in all, a very enjoyable experience for career mode, even if not the biggest overhaul of changes ever, I would want to see more unique transfer animations, bigger presentations for any big player signed, and potentially more individual goals that can give players and teams added attributes to their side.

The Gameplay –

Finally the last stop before I write for another 1000 words, the gameplay this year is nothing revolutionary, but in all honesty, I like the pacing of it. It’s a lot more coherent and functions more on the strengths of an individual player than simply just because they’re a high overall. For example in my career mode, Tchouameni was an absolute brick wall and would be the main player to contain the midfield from even being able to get past him, while players like Rashford would then utilize pace and hard shots to score goals. The difference there is the game recognizes Tchouameni to be more defensively oriented, while Rashford won’t be seen coming back and battling with the midfield. Playstyles are also a big factor in the way the game is played. For example, defenders do feel much more responsive and hyperactive as they do in real life, while fullbacks with the relentless attribute are stamina monsters and will never tire of chasing after any pacey winger. I will say, defenders that don’t have any playstyle do feel kind of bland, but in a way, it makes sense since not every defender would have the same attributes. I do think the gameplay is a lot more active, the goalkeepers are much better this year and are more alive than simply being there occasionally, the midfield as well as accurate passing seems to be very important as before it was just long ball after long ball, while the defensive position you’re at also matters a lot, as it does in real life. The difficulty also feels more balanced, don’t make fun of me but I always play in World Class, as Legendary is just incredibly cheesy and bypasses any skill you have simply because the game wants your opponent to score. This year its a lot more balanced and CBs will actually maintain a position on their man instead of being a simple stick figure waiting to be scored on.

Overall, the beta was actually pretty good all things considered. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t come into this beta thinking the game was going to change the world, but when having low expectations, anything better than that seems like a win in my book. The game seems to have good chunk of potential and I’m excited to see how the game progresses and see if it does become a good football game, as it’s meant to be.

EA FC 24 releases on Xbox Series X, PS5, and on Steam on September 29th, September 22nd Early Acess (Pre-order).