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EA SPORTS FC 26

Yesterday, I played FIFA 11, FIFA 12 and FIFA 19. What struck me most was that the CPU makes strange decisions when in possession of the ball. When should I pass, when should I shield the ball, etc.?

It just doesn't look like football in FC26...

The video that wiichamp posted in the forum is the best example. The CPU also takes the ball and dribbles back in (with Ball) a very strange way. Middle of the Player (Human) standing close at the back, so almost anyone would play wide across the wings, but the CPU decides against Wingers. He running against four defenders and gets a shot off by luck.

Due to illogical decisions, it does not look like football.
 
I just want to see a corner where the ball flicks straight up in the air off someone's head and/or deflects around (NOT directly to feet), causing confusion and chaos in the box.

But instead you either see a perfect header from defender to teammate (even if they're 50 yards away), or a perfect header towards goal.

Openness of gameplay just doesn't exist, it's all so ... and I hate to use this word, because I don't mean forced scorelines, but individual outcomes ... scripted.

I desperately hope the "Authentic" devs have the freedom to delete all the rails and shortcuts next year.

EDIT: For those enjoying it, serious question (because I can't make my mind up about this) - do you think the primary reason Authentic Mode scorelines are lower (which is a good thing) is simply that the speed is significantly slower (meaning attackers just can't run away from defenders even in realistic scenarios)?
I think the CPU AI uses something called Sprint Safety points and I believe part of that is tied to sprint speed. Also jogging back is also tied to sprint speed. So what I would encourage is using Custom Sliders that matches Authentic Mode sliders but set sprint speed and acceleration to 50. A lot of gameplay is tied to those 2 being 50.
 
Played the first academy tournament match and the music wouldn't turn off despite being off in the settings, so that's a hard fail from me.
 
Yesterday, I played FIFA 11, FIFA 12 and FIFA 19. What struck me most was that the CPU makes strange decisions when in possession of the ball. When should I pass, when should I shield the ball, etc.?

It just doesn't look like football in FC26...

The video that wiichamp posted in the forum is the best example. The CPU also takes the ball and dribbles back in (with Ball) a very strange way. Middle of the Player (Human) standing close at the back, so almost anyone would play wide across the wings, but the CPU decides against Wingers. He running against four defenders and gets a shot off by luck.

Due to illogical decisions, it does not look like football.

I agree. I am honestly not that impressed with attacking AI. It looks like it's missing some programming so AI just wonders around not knowing what to do next. Maybe CPU sliders can fix it?
 
The fact that EA doesn't respect the stadium's ambiance is ridiculous.
It is a total disrespect to the typology that predominates in the country.



But here it is FC Bayern Caribbean. :LMAO:



I honestly don't understand what they intend with this.
Maybe they are predicting future demographics in the stadium, what with the German government trying to fix democracy. But this is obviously not the place for politics
 
I had my first match with the 10 hour trail version last night in authentic mode.
Well… I can see progress in regards to sim… but the step doesn’t seem huge.
It’s a tad slower, but still to fast for my liking.
AI is way to clinical even when they seem to take more time with the ball.
The ball aint as free as mods had me enjoy this in 25.

I’ll save some hours of the trail and wait for a slider set from OS or @saturator to give it another try.

In the end… I think (if I get FC26) @Anth James mod will be my savior.
 
Try to find this on FC 26 if you can


Bravo - exactly what I've been talking about. A half-deflection leading to a ball the player has to move out of his way to go and get.

How in God's name is that missing in a football game from 2025? Because of these "competitive" players, who are dictating what they want (to win) and forcing a terrible experience on the general public.

In FC the ball goes to the players, rather than the players going to the ball, and it's so obvious it kills any hope of immersion.
 


This sums up my feelings. It’s just so easy for me to just get to the other end of the pitch in about 3-4 first time passes. I know it can happen in football, but it’s almost every attack.

Weirdly watching the clip back the pace of the game feels better than it does when actually playing it. It’s the perfect close control, skating and loose movement that make it feel fast to play and just the same old FIFA.

Anyway, upped the difficulty to Ultimate and it feels a little less easier to score but I think I’m almost done with the game already.
 
As much as I dislike what FUT is, think about Japanese gacha games, or Kinder eggs/Joy, or a Happy Meal in McDonald's. You don't know what you get in those either, it's a form of gamble. As long as EA make it clear the kind of card you get in the pack, and deliver that, there's nothing anyone can do
There's always something to do. Boycott the games and force ESRB and PEGI to put AO rating on these games. Same goes for those gaccha games. These games can go to hell.
 
Yesterday, I played FIFA 11, FIFA 12 and FIFA 19. What struck me most was that the CPU makes strange decisions when in possession of the ball. When should I pass, when should I shield the ball, etc.?

It just doesn't look like football in FC26...

The video that wiichamp posted in the forum is the best example. The CPU also takes the ball and dribbles back in (with Ball) a very strange way. Middle of the Player (Human) standing close at the back, so almost anyone would play wide across the wings, but the CPU decides against Wingers. He running against four defenders and gets a shot off by luck.

Due to illogical decisions, it does not look like football.

Man, the way all the players twitches looks so weird. Go back to FIFA 98 and you will see the player movements look less uncanny on a game from 1997. What's even happening with the animations?
 
Try to find this on FC 26 if you can


WE9, in which the CPU can knocks the ball in out during an attack due to an injury to your player… This game have all, that we need in old times.

I recently played FIFA22, and I lost a ball in a similar way. The player of CPU's side was x3 times closer to the ball than my player, but it just froze and waited for me to pick up the ball. CPU have algorithms for taking the ball only after a pass/interception, and that is why free ball works as a bug in new games.
 
First touch, turning and passes needs to be way slower and with more errors ... not forced errors, but natural ...
That will be major upgrade in gameplay.

Shoting and GK are looking fine, some difficult shots which will end up goals in last year game-now regulary miss
 
Unfortunetly you are right. Played my first matches this night in early access. The magnetic balls on the feets of the AI is really over the top, even for a first release of the game. ANd the movement speed in authentic mode I played makes me fear to try the UT Gameplay mode. I also got this goal against me by the AI. I upload it without wanna tear EA in pieces but what the f... are doing Manuel Neuer there. I am tensed about Day 1 Patch next week, so I don´t take it so serious for an early access. or should I? I played FUMA on world class difficulty and authentic Gameplay mode. Match ends 2:1 for Leverkusen (AI). I tried the game with hands (penalty) on. Was a mistake. 2 hand foul penalties are given by the ref. I scored with Kane and Patrick Schick of Leverkusen missed the pen by shooting the ball in the crowd. wtf? A longer video I will upload later that day with more gp content.

Seems again modders will not retire this season. :-)
The base Game vision by EA is clearly more worse than last year. The Player movement is horrible fast by all sliders default.


I honestly cant believe how bad this game is for a game in 2025! In my first game i had a player make a tackle, then begin a falling animation which then changed to another animation which then switched to an interception and a pass animation and then change direction 180 degree all while his feet never touched the ground with no physics at all. How can 6 year old PES with mods still be better than this billion dollar game?
 
Can't believe there are exactly two decades between EAFC 26 and the release of FIFA 06. Not in my top 10 football games as my favorite, but its core was about enjoying football.

Such a great intro:



...fluid on the pitch, no twitching or skating, AI doing what's supposed to be done in a sports game; overall just on point football experience:



Again, released 20 years ago...
 
Can't believe there are exactly two decades between EAFC 26 and the release of FIFA 06. Not in my top 10 football games as my favorite, but its core was about enjoying football.

Such a great intro:



...fluid on the pitch, no twitching or skating, AI doing what's supposed to be done in a sports game; overall just on point football experience:



Again, released 20 years ago...

I was not a fan of the way PS2 fifa players turned and move (not a fan in general, to be fair), yet you watch this video and you realize that even 20 years ago Indeed, for how simplify it was compared with the same years Pes, turning and stopping a ball still looks way more natural than the critters on drugs with magnetic feet we have in this fifa's era! Absolutely unacceptable.
 
Can't believe there are exactly two decades between EAFC 26 and the release of FIFA 06. Not in my top 10 football games as my favorite, but its core was about enjoying football.

Such a great intro:



...fluid on the pitch, no twitching or skating, AI doing what's supposed to be done in a sports game; overall just on point football experience:



Again, released 20 years ago...

Spot on. Even if its not as realistic as PES 5, it still tried to capture the essence of football. Just in a more arcady way than PES.

And it was a time, when the developers had a vision for their game and they went with it. Of course FUT is also a reason that changed, but we did not have influencers or "gamechangers" back then who complained after losing one game. Nowadays the game gets changed every two weeks, so the influencers and other players can still spend money on the game.

But I have a feeling that the players/people were also way smarter back then. You bought a game but did not like it? Guess what, you went to the store and returned it. Nowadays players think that every game has to be exactly like they need/want it to be. And if its not how they want it to be, they still play it, but complain online about it.
 
Bravo - exactly what I've been talking about. A half-deflection leading to a ball the player has to move out of his way to go and get.

How in God's name is that missing in a football game from 2025? Because of these "competitive" players, who are dictating what they want (to win) and forcing a terrible experience on the general public.

In FC the ball goes to the players, rather than the players going to the ball, and it's so obvious it kills any hope of immersion.
Man I use to love how chaotic football game use to be. The chaos on sending a lob pass or a cross into a box and you never know where the ball ends up. I miss the chaos of football games a lot and it has been missing in FIFA since FIFA 16 and missing from PES since 2017.

Edit: Honestly if there was a harder version of PES 5/PES 6/WE9LE, i would end up playing that for ever. The game has just gotten too easy for me. That's the only issue with that game.
 
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).
searched out this post so i knew whether to pursue this any further.

'maybe next year'
 
searched out this post so i knew whether to pursue this any further.

'maybe next year'
lol forever waiting for an edition that will satisfy you then

sometimes I don't know whether it's just sour grapes or chasing clout for bashing the newest thing or actual high lofty standard that you'd rather play non Master League f2p efootball or waiting yet another year as if EA would suddenly change the game drastically
 
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