EA FC has been pulling itself in different directions for years now. Long before its rebrand from the iconic FIFA moniker, players have been jumping into each game mode for completely different reasons. Ultimate Team, the game’s big moneyspinner, is about building 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:a fantasy team of players 𒁏past and p♋resent to pit against others in a hyper-competit🉐ive online environment. Conversely, Career Mode🦩 is about long-term storytelling, dealing with the trials and tribulations of leading a real team to victory against computer-controlled opponents.

These two main offerings have different aims that appeal to different players. Few EA FC fans dabble in multiple modes, and therefore it’s nigh on impossible to please everyone. Career Mode players have been particularly disheartened in recent years, as they feel that gameplay changes have often been made with 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Ultimate Team in min🍨d. After all, EA can’t earn any more money from your mission to take Tranmere Rovers to the Champions League after you’ve paid the sticker price.

However, that’s changing in EA FC 26. Not the taking extra money part, thankfully, but the shift of focus towards one, more profitable cohort. The dev🦂elopers are implementing two completely different gameplay systems, each built around one gꦜroup of players. Having sat down with those behind the idea and played around with it myself, it’s like EA has developed two different FC games at once.

EA FC 26: Competitive And Authentic Gameplay

The t♐wo gameplay styles will be known as Competitive and 🧔Authentic. While the names are pretty self-explanatory, there’s a whole host of minutiae that each mode changes.

Competitive, for the most part, reduces randomness in the game. Take ball physics, for example. Have you ever been in a position where your goalkeeper pulls off a great save, but the ball bounces straight back to the opponent for an easy tap in? Of course you have, you’ve played EA FC. That is less likely 🌊to happen with Co🅷mpetitive mode turned on.

Instead of relying on accurate ball physic🎃s that take into account the exact part of the goalie’s hand that makes contact in order to perfectly dictate where the ball should rebound to, the game now fudges the roll in the background. Your goalkeeper will 🅷push the ball into space or out for a corner, even if their hand position isn’t quite right. Visually, it’s unnoticeable, but mechanically, it’s a gamechanger.

“If the outcome feels natural, feels football, then that's good,” - Kantcho Doskov, ga💮meplay design director at EA.

In an Authentic match, ꦿthe physics remain untouched. The randomness that pervades real football remains. Sometimes your goalie parries the ball straight back to the striker. That’s life. That’s football.

Competitive mode focuses on manual input and skill. There’s less AI defending, faster skill moves, and players will fall at odd angles to avoid getting in the way of the ball for a lucky (or unlucky) break. The game feels mo𒅌re responsive and consistent.

Authentic mode feels, well, authentic. Its whole deal is trying to mirror real football matches, whether that’s corners tuned to real-world success ♉rates or realistic tackle accuracy and falling animations. It’s not as consistent as Competitive mode, but that’s the point.

"In the last few years, we've heard so much community feedback that when we patch the game during the live cycle, it ꧃makes Ultimate Team players happier,” explains FC 26 gameplay design director Kantcho Doskov. “And then players who are into the more realistic side of the game – namely, the Career Mode players – they say, now it's less realistic. It's more on the competitive side. We didn't want that.”

Splitting the gameplay in two allows the developers to cater to both sets of core FC players, an♊d lays the foundations for more changes in the future, changes that don’t have to impact players enjoying other modes.

It’s a huge unde🌠rtaking, adding a ma𓃲jor increase to the workload of the development team. Gameplay producer Thomas Caleffi acknowledges that it’s “not an easy decision,” but the team “felt we had to do it” in order to please as many FC players as possible.

EA FC 26 Gameplay Improvements

Of course, EA FC 26 also comes with all the small iterations on the classic formula that you’d expect. These are far too numerous to go into in depth (the Pitch Notes are a 43-p⛦age document detailing every change), so I’ll mention those that really struck me when I went hands-on.

Shielding the ball is far more consistent now – defenders don’t just run around you, and you can play with a proper hold-up centre forward up top. Low driven shots return (and timed finishing is gone). Goalkeepers are more intelligent. First-time passes are more consistent, with one-frame animations allowing you to immediately ping the ball to a teammate ൩with ruthless efficiency. Dribbling is unbelievably responsive, and looks set to be the area where the skill ceiling will be at its highest. Expect the top players to showcase Mo Salah-esque mazy runs into the box, leaving defenders in their wake.

That said, defending feels great. Your tackles – in Competitive mode, at least – don’t rebound to opponents. You keep the ball more often, and feel rewarded for your shrewd positioning and perfect timing. It’s less frustrating. There are some funny animations as a result, but it doesn’t𓂃 matter.

It’s particularly interesting that the developers have intentionally introduced more clipping in Competitive mode. By ma♊king the visuals less realistic, they have allowed the game to more accurately simulate tackles, bounces🅷, and the like. It makes perfect sense. I'm not bothered that the ball has clipped through the toes of a centimetre-tall player on my screen, but an awkward bounce based on realistic physics can pull you right out of the game.

“If the outcome feels natural, feels football, then that's good,” says Kantcho. “And if it means there's a little bit of clipping or the ball goes through the foot, but i🧔t still feels right, then that's what people care about.”

The vast majority of the gameplay changes in FC 26 circle back to the Authentic or Competitive modes. With two separate avenues for innovation, the developers’ vision is clearer. They know what each set of players wants from the game, and now they’re in a position to grant every🌌one’s wishes at once. As even FC’s offline modes are beholden to live-service gameplay updates, we can’t foresee exactly how the season will pan out, but this separation feels like a strong foundation to build the future of its football ga⛄me on top of.