Where’s ya loyalty, son?

FC 25 was a bust. We all know this. If you listen to our podcast you’ll know that myself and my co-host Miles have a shared opinion on the state of the game, which is to say it was thrown together with little regard and coughed out with zero fanfare. Thankfully, if you’re one of those who have to buy each iteration regardless of its quality (putting my own hand up here) then rest assured, if you’re willing to stick with the process, FC 26 is a world away from what came before. Ten Hag to Amorim. Wait, no. That’s not a good comparison. Solksjaer to Ten Hag. No, no. Oh man, the managers really got worse huh?

FC 26 is built on choice. What EA Sports have done here is essentially create a football game without the boundaries of what they think you want. Rather, they’ve given you the tools to start afresh, to boundlessly create what you want from an FC game, and in doing so, created the best ‘EA FC’ iteration so far.

What do you want from a football game? That’s the biggest question at the heart of FC 26. Are you more simulator leaning? Do you like the feeling of a game that feels like it’s being played in real time? The match moving at the pace of a typical game? If so, you’ve got Authentic mode, go nuts. The classic FC experience is baked right in.

However, if you’re after a zippier, more arcade feeling football game. A game that feels more like a video game but leans into that realism at a moment’s notice? Well competitive mode is the one for you this time around. There’s little to complain about in terms of options off how to play because you can platy the game exactly how you want to. Those CPU sliders are there for a reason, friends. Adjusting the mechanics of each match to your exact specifications is what FC 26 is all about. The club is yours, after all.

It almost feels generational, too. There’s the young bucks who spend their days tweaking and linking their perfect positions for their best players in Ultimate Team, striving for success in a cesspool of microtransactions (we’ll get to those), and fully aware playing Alex Morgan up front with Zlatan is mind boggling, yet somehow it works. Competitive are for those who play FIFA for Seasons, Be A Pro, FUT and not much else.

Then there’s old folk like me, whose first FIFA game was 95, with Norwegian goalkeeper Erik Thorstvedt on the cover, locked into my Mega Drive and not taken out for months. For those like me, it’s all about Kick Off with your mates on the sofa, playing a variety of rule-bending modes that will bring any social gathering to life. It’s all about Manager and Player Career, turning FC 26 in a story driven campaign that you make up in your own head as you power through real life seasons and cup competitions. I miss The Journey, but that’s not important right now.

Even if you feel like you’ve been left behind, EA Sports have brought a breadcrumbs worth of additions to Career modes to ease you back into the familiar. The gap between the offline and online experiences on FC have always been rather stark. I have no real interest in taking the game online, but I’ll sink months into Careers and playing sofa-based Kick Off with my friends, and as above, EA Sports have catered to players like me just as much as they have for the Online players that line their pockets every month, which feels great to say. It wasn’t always like that.

It’s worth mentioning in Career mode, particularly it is player career where you’ll see the most improvements. Adding a skill tree – or ‘Archethypes’ – that you can continuously upgrade throughout your career is a brilliant touch, and one that’s most welcome in between the fairly pointless agent and social media updates. You’re still able to spend your wages on certain things that will improve your mentality, your strength or your..loveability? I’m not sure what that one is really, but it seems to help people liking you on social media channels. I bought a pool for my house and suddenly I could run faster. It all feeds back into the machine and for my money it’s the most complete version of Career I’ve played in years.

And the matches feel great too. If you have a muscle memory of how you play FIFA/FC titles, you’re gonna be fine in learning new skill moves or present mechanics that you can tinker with. Rather than the sticky rubber banding of FC 25, this year the flow of the match is conducted by its speed. The AI players are reactive and focused, challenging and at times, fairly aggressive. The goalkeeper positioning has been greatly improved through ‘real-time mapping’. There’s little realism in Onana stopping everything that comes his way or not fumbling the ball to the feet of Haaland at a crucial moment (can you tell I’m a bitter Man United fan?), but instead they’re poised and at times, tough to crack.

Shots I would take in FC 25 that would go sailing into the top corner are now recognised and stopped. Keepers are more in tune with what’s happening up the field, so their delivery of the ball is more pin-pointed. Their animations more realistic. It’s safe to say unlike Manchester United, the keeping has greatly improved over time and it’s now a little tricker to hit worldies in the top bins. Which makes it all the more satisfying when you do. Pick that one out.

Yet of course, when there’s such glory you must balance it out with the misery. As a United fan I currently know this better than anyone, but then so does EA Sports FC because they’ve deemed it right to add a Season Pass on top of all their other micro-agressive real money options. It feels a little egregious to add yet another way for players to be nickel and dimed by EA, and yet it also feels oddly typical and expected. Perhaps there was a little worry going into this one that it would be received in a similar way to FC 25, and so monopolising yet another aspect of the game seemed like a safe bet to hit those all important bonus targets. I’ll give EA Sports a little credit and admit it’s not as horrendously in your face as, say, 2K offerings (though NBA 2K26 is a better game than this and still manages to bleed you in monetization), it’s almost subtly hidden away when you’re jumping around the modes, hidden within Ultimate Team, the Icons and Heroes – which can be crossed over with Player Career. At a price, of course), is just sitting there already waiting for those who are happy to sign on the dotted line for FUT packs and the like.

If you avoid those modes altogether, this will never bother you, but it’s worth a mention because if you feel like you’re already spending too much on a game that already set you back £70 just to own it, you’re absolutely rig

The positives massively outweigh the negatives in FC 26 though, and it all still looks incredible throughout, with a new UI design that works fluidly. The commentary is still rubbish, but what are you gonna do? EA Sports will never learn on that front.

So the beautiful game is back once again, with the best iteration in years. All this one had to be was better than last year’s, thankfully it’s more Ryan Giggs one man against Arsenal than Gerrard slipping and losing the title.

EA SPORTS FC 26 is available now on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PS5 (review platform), PS4, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, PC and Amazon Luna

Developer: EA SPORTS
Publisher: EA SPORTS

Disclaimer: In order to complete this review, we were provided with a promotional copy of the game. For our full review policy, please go here.

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