EA SPORTS FC 26

The game seems good to me, except for the animations and balls passing through the feet, I found it more rhythmic, I also liked the GK, and there is a lot to change in the sliders new options, it is possible to make FIFA very playable, for those who like FIFA it is a good game, for those who like Pes, they certainly will not like it very much!
 
Yes the gameplay is the big focus this year, there are some nice new animations to be fair. Once again the variety of goalkeeper diving animations is awesome and it really adds impact seeing the keeper palm away a low drilled shot.

You can ping some lovely moves together. Is it completely realistic? No. Does it feel satisfying? Definitely. Tapping through ball button with someone like Wirtz and having him play a disguised ball through the defender is really nice.

Also haven't felt cheated by the ai yet. Playing on legendary difficuly.

Player ID is also something you can really feel. Players also have a different impact depending on the opposition. Salah had an anonymous game for me against Crystal Palace, then next match against Bournemouth he was completely unplayable.

I'm wondering how much of this is down to the dynamic opposition toggle when you set up manager mode, but I don't really care because it works. Every match you need to feel out who is going to be your most impactful player, and that adds genuine novelty to single player.

Haven't had any random events yet, I have it set to medium. If I don't get one soon I'll change it to high in my next save.
 
Last edited:
FC26 Review after 30 minutes:


Animations even if slower look terrible as compared to last good FIFA w.r.t animations (FIFA 23)

R1 dribbling is still broken where you can literally control a single player while performing it and destroy the Legendary AI defence. (Defence is definitely tight but they still bow down to R1 dribbling easily)

Opposition AI intelligence: Scored 1 goal against Everton and just passed the ball in my own half, they didnt press a single time. This is game breaking bug cause opposition AI isnt match context aware (that they are losing). Inspite of EA's claim of improved context awareness BULLSHIT!
(Please remember in FIFA 23 and before, if opposition AI was behind by a goal they would start team pressing after 80th minute and if by 2, start pressing after 70th minute)

Overall, I appreciate they have taken steps to have a separate authentic mode gameplay for OFFLINE audience but for folks like me who see above granular details, Authentic mode will need FAAAAR MOOOORE LOVEEE from the devs!
 
Bravez said:
Waiting patiently for @Chris Davies impressions before I do something unheard of.
Click to expand...
Oh very much the same as the beta, mate - an improvement in many ways but still frustrating moment-to-moment.

I tried my first in-person multiplayer game earlier, on Authentic, and God do the headers make me sad.

Literally. They make me so sad. Every header feels, and looks, so completely physically impossible that any immersion you managed to build up pops like a bubble.

The ball changes physics on a whim - with headers it's a balloon on a string that flies pixel-perfectly to target. When it's back on the ground it moves at a rate of knots.

The ball is never free - you never half-intercept a pass and create a free ball... It's physically impossible. You intercept it perfectly, or the target player receives it perfectly.

The physics, and the trajectory, all have "forced accuracy" to make the gameplay slicker, so there's no consistent "feel" where you know what button press length will result in what power... because it's all automatic (even on manual).

The ball is genuinely more on-rails than it is in most of the FIFA PS2 games. For as long as that's the case, I'm out. It's still enjoyable, but not as a football game - as something in-between.

They are going in the right direction, but they've only just turned the car around, and they're 100 miles from realistic yet (and I just don't know if they will have the remit to even go as far as modders will take this game, let alone go further).
 
Chris Davies said:
Oh very much the same as the beta, mate - an improvement in many ways but still frustrating moment-to-moment.
Click to expand...
Well that has dampened the mood somewhat :LMAO: For the first time in a long time I'm really craving a football game. I enjoy eFootball but there is just nothing to keep my playing for more than a couple of games.

The fact that it's an improvement gives me a little bit of hope.
 
Well it's never going to be simulation football is it. It never has been since it's inception in the 90s.

I love PES as much as all of you, but it ain't coming back. So you find happiness where you can. As it stands this game has novelty in the single player and it's new. That's an improvement on what we've had in recent years. A starving man does not complain when he is handed a bowl of gruel.

Is that worth a purchase? Probably not to a lot of you, but I'll keep playing the trial and then decide whether to pull the trigger.
 
I hate the ball and passing physics. They pass the ball as if they were playing with a balloon. Also, it seems there's lack of body weight, strength and inertia.
All that combined, makes the movement much more longer than IRL. And this is weird, because I understand they're copying the physics from real data taken with movement sensors.

 
ElChachoCoudet said:
I hate the ball and passing physics. They pass the ball as if they were playing with a balloon. Also, it seems there's lack of body weight, strength and inertia.
All that combined, makes the movement much more longer than IRL. And this is weird, because I understand they're copying the physics from real data taken with movement sensors.

Click to expand...


This doesn't look particularly bad to me.
 
I had two games. It's not bad but I did not have fun.
Physics is too much streamlined. There is lack of physics interactions with players due they are always too much far from the player who has the ball.
First touch is still too much realible.

Player individuality seems noticeable only when it comes to Speed and dribbling/agility.
Too much from the game is streamlined and/or watered down by gameplay core design choices.
Passing accuracy, body strenght, off the ball positioning are all nullified by how the game require to be played.

They should remove 1vs1 allowing players to stay closer to opponents and improve ball physics.
They should remove Sam Rivera too lol.
 
simogto90 said:
I had two games. It's not bad but I did not have fun.
Physics is too much streamlined. There is lack of physics interactions with players due they are always too much far from the player who has the ball.
First touch is still too much realible.

Player individuality seems noticeable only when it comes to Speed and dribbling/agility.
Too much from the game is streamlined and/or watered down by gameplay core design choices.
Passing accuracy, body strenght, off the ball positioning are all nullified by how the game require to be played.

They should remove 1vs1 allowing players to stay closer to opponents and improve ball physics.
They should remove Sam Rivera too lol.
Click to expand...
Play as Liverpool and try playing through balls with Florian Wirtz. It's definitely there but probably only for the elite players.

Movement off the ball with elite players is also massively improved. They actually make runs past the defending line into space now.
 
ElChachoCoudet said:
I hate the ball and passing physics. They pass the ball as if they were playing with a balloon. Also, it seems there's lack of body weight, strength and inertia.
All that combined, makes the movement much more longer than IRL. And this is weird, because I understand they're copying the physics from real data taken with movement sensors.

Click to expand...

The CPU build up is SO NICE in this video, like genuinely one of the best I've ever seen in a football videogame, to the point I struggle to understand why they bothered to code all this realistic way of the AI to move around the ball and the players in possession.. compared with all the rest. What I'm seeing between the expected horrible physics and the one vs one mess unfortunately still well in place, discourages me almost completely. Sigh.
 
Last edited:
I had one game on the original Xbox one in authentic mode

Some things I like but one major flaw is that it’s like the sprint button doesn’t work sometimes especially if you’re a defender chasing an attacker. It’s so frustrating I had to stop playing

I’ll try the ps5 version later or tomorrow
 
Why is world class difficulty so easy in this game? And the games before that?
Played with Liverpool against West ham and it was really easy to score. Legendary is unrealistic hard and world class is easy. No inbetween.
So we will wait for Anths mod to play the game again
 
Last edited:
I tried it and for me (Authentic) it's still a parody of a football game. As said above, we are very, very far from a simulation. I don't take any pleasure in scoring a goal or even in building my actions... Everything is so assisted, controlled... There are no random moments, just movements to recite seen and reviewed in the previous games of the license.
God... The management of the cross is a disaster
 
Last edited:
cristobal64 said:
I tried it and for me (Authentic) it's still a parody of a football game. As said above, we are very, very far from a simulation. I don't take any pleasure in scoring a goal or even in building my actions... Everything is so assisted, controlled... There are no random moments, just movements to recite seen and reviewed in the previous games of the license.
Click to expand...
It depends totally on your tolerance for 'Fifa gameplay'. I've been mainly a Fifa player in the past 20 years, but I enjoy(ed) the novelty of PES single player gameplay until the rebranding. So I try not to show bias because both franchises have given me great experiences over the years.

It's an improvement on what came before. Is it worth a purchase? Maybe wait a month or two, but if it holds out there is still fun to be had. Build up play can be really fun and to me that is a vital aspect of a football game.

This is a separate rant, but it really kills me what happened in 2021. Pro Evo was really onto something between 2017-2020. I remember playing as Barca in Pes 2017 and it was the most fun I'd ever had in a football game.

In fact I can do better than explain, here's a goal :)

 
I've watched AI vs AI for a few hours of the 10 hours trial today, on PC, and I have to say the decision making of the CPU players, the movement, the timing of it all, along with organic mistakes, is THE FINEST SIMULATION of real football as a video game I have ever seen. It is sensational this year.

You know that feeling you get when watching a sports game and more often than not forgetting its a video game doing all the moves, that is how good FC 26 is this year.

For FC 25, it was awkward to watch, and only became watchable when Anth's mods started to sort out the animations and the fluidity, and the decision making to a certain extent.

Well this year, I cant tell how it is to play as the "Human" against the AI, but I've had every single football game since Anco's Kick Off (old git!) and believe me when I state that this is the real deal, from a watching AI vs AI angle at least.

It even looks better graphically as well, especially at 8K@60hz, its out of this world for me.

I have been in Authentic/World Class mode all thru.
 
Last edited:
thelinnen said:
It depends totally on your tolerance for 'Fifa gameplay'. I've been mainly a Fifa player in the past 20 years, but I enjoy(ed) the novelty of PES single player gameplay until the rebranding. So I try not to show bias because both franchises have given me great experiences over the years.

It's an improvement on what came before. Is it worth a purchase? Maybe wait a month or two, but if it holds out there is still fun to be had. Build up play can be really fun and to me that is a vital aspect of a football game.

This is a separate rant, but it really kills me what happened in 2021. Pro Evo was really onto something between 2017-2020. I remember playing as Barca in Pes 2019 and it was the most fun I'd ever had in a football game.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately Konami's strategy worked. Some of my classmates who do not play games on pc and consoles all started talking about efootball as if it was the best game on phones and spend hours playing this game.
 
Sami 1999 said:
Unfortunately Konami's strategy worked. Some of my classmates who do not play games on pc and consoles all started talking about efootball as if it was the best game on phones and spend hours playing this game.
Click to expand...
It's the Panini Sticker Simulator aspect, it's really unfortunate that gambling is so addictive. We've been robbed of some wonderful experiences.
 
pootball_furist said:
FC26 Review after 30 minutes:


Animations even if slower look terrible as compared to last good FIFA w.r.t animations (FIFA 23)

R1 dribbling is still broken where you can literally control a single player while performing it and destroy the Legendary AI defence. (Defence is definitely tight but they still bow down to R1 dribbling easily)

Opposition AI intelligence: Scored 1 goal against Everton and just passed the ball in my own half, they didnt press a single time. This is game breaking bug cause opposition AI isnt match context aware (that they are losing). Inspite of EA's claim of improved context awareness BULLSHIT!
(Please remember in FIFA 23 and before, if opposition AI was behind by a goal they would start team pressing after 80th minute and if by 2, start pressing after 70th minute)

Overall, I appreciate they have taken steps to have a separate authentic mode gameplay for OFFLINE audience but for folks like me who see above granular details, Authentic mode will need FAAAAR MOOOORE LOVEEE from the devs!
Click to expand...
Crap, it has been like that since FIFA 21 where CPU play like they are winning when they are losing. Still hasn't been fixed.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom