The new EA Sports FC 24 is now available in early access. But what is really new, apart from the name? MeinMMO author Max Handwerk was able to take a first look.
When the farewell to the “FIFA” name and the switch to EA Sports FC was decided and announced, excitement mounted. Would perhaps more change in the game than just the title? What would the change mean? Is a major revolution in the series about to happen, which has so often released very similar titles?
Well: EA Sports FC is still FIFA. In the first hours I’ve been able to spend with the game, it became quite evident. There are indeed changes, such as the new animations, new camera settings, more realism in the presentation, in the movements, in the ball physics.
There are also cutscenes that now run in the loading screens, such as during halftime and after the match. Or dynamic graphics that are displayed on the field. The menu has also been completely redesigned. You can already tell in the details that new things are being used here,
But when you jump into a match, the foundation, the basic structure of the game feels familiar. You know the modes, you know the matches. Anyone who has played FIFA will feel right at home in EA Sports FC 24.
The big revolution – that remains absent. For comparison: The complete jump to the NextGen, which was made with FIFA 22 and HyperMotion, felt larger at the time than the jump from FIFA to EA Sports FC.
But at least for me, three things stand out that differentiate EA Sports FC from its predecessor.
The inclusion of female players in FUT
This is probably the biggest change that EA Sports FC 24 has to offer – and one that immediately stands out when you open the FUT mode. Current female players as well as new hero and icon cards from women’s football are now available in FUT and are included in the packs.
On the pitch, the new cards perform strongly at first glance. Some of the ladies bring very high ratings, and a loan version of Alexandra Popp is probably the best striker card I have placed on the pitch in EA Sports FC 24 so far. Based on my experience, the women’s cards work quite well, especially offensively. In terms of team-building or drafts, the cards are likely to provide variety.
It is certainly an adjustment, and some players who view the FIFA or now EAFC series as a realistic soccer simulator have already expressed criticism of mixed teams of men and women in FUT.
The counterargument would be that FUT has been a fantasy mode for years, where stadiums look like they are from a comic and players receive special cards that only loosely relate to their real-life counterparts. Towards the end of FIFA 23, for instance, Petr Cech, as an iconic goalkeeper, suddenly became one of the most feared strikers.
The gameplay in offense
Overall, EA Sports FC 24 feels similar to its predecessor, but there are some exciting improvements in detail. Among the top features are the new precision passes and the corresponding runs your players can make.
In the first matches, I’ve seen offensive plays in EAFC that I hadn’t encountered in FIFA before. Using the precision passes, the offensive play feels less supported and more manual and, in fact, more realistic.
Especially in conjunction with the dynamic run feature that was introduced a few years ago, you can skillfully execute offensive actions that get you quickly behind the opponent’s defense. As a side note: the new precision shots reward manual aiming and shooting. Overall, the game feels simply more versatile offensively.
This is also contributed to by the fact that the gameplay is somewhat slower and more realistic at the start than at the end of FIFA 23. Whether this will persist or change through patches and increased values in Ultimate Team remains to be seen.
Evolutions in Ultimate Team
The evolutions in FUT are a new feature, but one with tremendous potential. It gives you the ability to upgrade players from your club and possibly adjust them to the power curve typically determined by special cards in Ultimate Team.
The first evolutions theoretically allow you to transform a bronze card into a usable gold card that can keep up well in the first weeks. EA Sports has already announced that more evolutions will follow.
Especially for fans of clubs that may not be among the top 5 in their respective leagues, this could become quite a cool feature. It depends on what evolutions will ultimately be available – but ideally, it would be conceivable that you could use your favorite players for a long time instead of having to eventually get rid of them because they simply can’t keep up anymore.
However, how this feature develops remains to be seen and will reveal itself in the coming weeks in EA Sports FC 24.
Conclusion
Overall, a similar conclusion can be drawn for EA Sports FC 24 as for previous FIFA releases – a step forward, but without a major revolution. It feels less like a completely new game and more like an upgrade of the previous version. Just as you would ultimately expect from FIFA.
Nevertheless, the game brings some interesting innovations that should be on your radar. An overview of all information about EA Sports FC 24 can be found here.
