There is a reason I love the idea of games finally adding Women’s football and expanding on it, because even years on, EA SPORTS FC 26 can have “he makes his way through” during a WSL game. In the wake of EA’s sale to the Saudi PIF and other groups, the speculation is that this might be the nicest that EA will be in terms of monetization for a while. So, is the latest EA FC/FIFA with a rebrand any good? Apparently, that depends on what level of Robbie Fowler marching powder you subscribe to, with one of the major features this year being “Competitive” vs “Authentic” gameplay.

One is a high-tempo video game experience, and the other is laughing yourself to the floor as Man United play a back five and are still mid-table behind Sunderland and miles off of Bournemouth. It could be worse, it could be Alex Ferguson’s other former club, Aberdeen, having not scored a single goal in the first 6 of their 7 matches. Despite playing on both, it is certainly difficult to say one of those is “authentic,” as 4-3-3 and 4-2-3-1 formations rarely cross the ball high, unless you request it during career modes, with 5-4-1 formations playing boring back-line play without a great push for momentum.

For those of us who aren’t twelve and need Ultimate Team’s rare, ultra rare, mega rare, super-duper rare, super-duper mega rare variations of cards, and so on, the actual gameplay is the bread and butter of EA FC 26. It is no secret that with every year, it feels like we’re gaslit into being told that this year the AI intelligence is higher. They also say the authenticity and competitiveness is more realistic, the movement is more realistic, it was motion captured during the event to mimic the true sport, and all the other PR lines we hear with EA FC/FIFA, F1, Madden, NBA, PGA, MLB, NHL, FM26, and all the other alphabet people like LGBTQ+IA.

As I say, the first thing I did was jump straight into the Women’s football side of things, because as I’ve said before, I prefer watching Women’s football. It is rawer, it is hungrier, it is more brutal, and unlike the men, they can break a nail and play on for 93 more minutes. Though, as is noted about another football game series, the limited number of teams feels rather stingy if you’re going to play a player/manager career mode. Spain, the US, England, France, and Germany all have one league; internationals; then single teams in “the rest of the world,” like SWPL 2nd place finishers Glasgow City.

Though speaking of the player career mode, I only dabbled with it a little bit in FIFA 19, when I last played the series a couple of years ago, and there is a bit more to it this time. Beyond a cleaner UI to look less like Kelly Rowland sending texts. There are activities, social media to blow smoke up your hole, basic three-question personality tests, as well as attribute points to improve your player. With each player you decide to create, you have skill points, archetypes, and people to model their career on.

During matches, depending on your player’s position in the formation and how well you can actually play in said position is rated from 0.0 to 10.0. Get a nice clean pass, provide a great assist, nutmeg a player in a 1-on-1, and of course, scoring the goals, gets you a positive rating. Missing timed tackles, yellow cards, poor passes, calling for possession, being caught offside, and sailing the ball past the goal decrease that same rating. One that I couldn’t understand too well was being negatively impacted for returning to position in transition.

The first player I started with was a #6 called Matsumoto, playing in Hasegawa’s Defensive Midfielder role for Manchester City. So the intention is to win the ball, block passing opportunities, and play the ball through to the attacking players in the final third, basic stuff. I won’t say the AI is terrible since I haven’t played an EA FC/FIFA game in several years. However, the only goals that were going in were either from my assists/build-up play or from a bit of play I orchestrated to better the keeper in 1-on-1 chances. In those transitions when you’re out of possession, you are being dinged for not being in the formation.

Hold up! I’ve just beaten several players on either touchline, made decent build-up passes, created chances on goal, and because I’m on the byline after attempting a cross that goes wrong, I’m now a bad player? I guess what is “bothering” me here is that you’re disadvantaged for being out of position, yet somehow expected to have all the stamina after the buildup and have reserves to reset again, but you aren’t rewarded for being in a good position. You aren’t rewarded for squaring your hips and blocking that chance through, forcing the opposition to play out from the back and build their offense.

I get that it is probably difficult to code that, as is the whole game, but it is odd to bemoan one bit of play and not reward the same play when done well at the same time. A problem that isn’t so much the case when you’re a #10 on a men’s team and just expected to score goals for fun. Though you can probably bet that positioning is much stricter when you’re a Center Back – something I fear trying in case I put my head through the concrete wall of my office. I was annoyed enough with the goalkeeping career at Leicester City.

Breaking from the usual FIFA/EA FC mode of controlling the whole team, I like the ideas of this mode. I like what it is trying to do. However, if you’re even remotely knowledgeable of the sport, some bits feel stupid. When playing in the WSL, there is no FA cup or League Cup for the women or knock-off equivalents, so not only do you not have a lower league to build from, but you only get 22 league games to play. Unless you’re in Europe. Equally, getting a red card in the match before the Scottish Cup game means you’re suspended for that game despite being a separate competition.

The actual gameplay, whether you like the Authentic or Competitive option, is still fun and frustrating as always. Especially when you play a manager career, taking over at Leicester City, winning away to Everton, and on the bounce, you have to go down to Chelsea, where every single one of your players stands behind Erin Cuthbert for some reason. Oh, what a fun game that was to play, with every intended pass to an open player going anywhere else.

What is actually frustrating is the occasional bug, and I do mean beyond the ones where commentary uses lines meant for the men’s game. I had one where I’d played the first half of an SPFL game and was leading fairly well, but it hit half-time, and for whatever reason, the camera in the midfield, pointing up into the sky with a bit of blur for the pause menu, stayed. I could rollick the ball over the stands, I could go in for a two-footed tackle, and everything, nothing changed. The camera was stuck, even after restarting the match. So to say it in such a sarcastic way: That was fun!

Another game against Hearts in the Scottish Prem, I’d said to myself, “one more match, then I’ll go to bed.” Didn’t even get 5 minutes in, as a line appeared emanating from My Pro with a target on the end of his soon-to-be destination. I will say I had some control, but for love nor money was I getting rid of this line to play normally with the DuelSense I’d played the previous 35 hours before that with. At that point, it was 11:30 at night, and I was to get up in the morning so I could go watch women play football.

I’m forgoing repeating myself on the red card issue, the board being “disappointed in the team’s performance” despite being top of the league, and such, simply because they are annoying but not “I’m pressing Alt+F4 here in a second” moments. For all that gameplay brings back years of playing as Arsenal simply because 90s kids are traumatized by Man U’s run around then, to playing around with the manager mode and its new additions, I do like parts of EA FC 26. However, I won’t say that it hasn’t been without frustrations.

Especially when it comes to that My Pro/Player mode. Playing as a striker for newly promoted Falkirk in the Scottish Premiership, playing 90 minutes a game, often scoring a hat-trick (or two), often being the player of the match, and after only 20 appearances scoring double that of Lawrence Shankland’s 23-24 season record. Yet you’ll get a text from your agent reading, “[The] Falkirk board is not satisfied with your progress towards meeting the objectives for the next season’s contract renewal. It would be good to work on that.” Ah yes, the objective of being in the starting XI at least 31% of the time – which, at the time of writing, I’d been in 72% of the time.

On the pitch, gameplay is pretty good, at least as much as it is going to be after 30+ years of iterations/variations. You can complain about the Authentic mode being a bit slow, sure, but that’s what competitive is about, being quicker and more arcade-y. The core of an EA FC/FIFA game is, of course, going to be there; there is no denying that. Unless you’re playing for more than 300 hours a year, the gameplay changes might not be as noticeable straight away, but I’m not going to complain about something I’ve mostly enjoyed for nearly 50 hours.

In those 50 hours, I’ve played a few seasons as a midfielder, striker, goalkeeper, and manager for various teams, and though I like the ideas, some of the execution is lacking. On-the-pitch presentation is top-notch and fairly unrivaled, the player’s career is fine off the pitch, but the manager mode is severely lacking. Maybe it is a console-centric design that I’m not used to after playing Spreadsheet Simulator 24, but it feels at times superficial and at other times downright incomprehensible.

There were players I’d put on short lists to scout during the transfer window, those who I’d already scouted, and despite going through all the rigmarole of both, it was a separate menu hidden away somewhere else to even approach signing them. Again, once you get into the gameplay of the on-the-pitch action, it is fine. It is the management that felt like I was fighting menus with both arms tied behind my back. It is for a uniform look across player and manager careers, but what works for one doesn’t work for another.

There is a new mode to the manager mode, which allows you to take on short or long-term goals depending on the status of certain clubs. Being sane, I thought Leicester City’s “don’t get relegated” goal was fair enough once I set up a custom live challenge, though you can play a normal manager career mode if that sounds like a faff on. Truth be told, it is. It is a nice idea that will hopefully be fleshed out or set up to meet its intentions in the next few years, but right now feels barebones.

Aside from the bugs, the performance has mostly stuck around 60 FPS at 1080P. I’ve heard that some have complained about optimization, but on an i7, GTX 40 series, 32GB of RAM at the highest possible graphical settings (minus blur once I found it), there may have been a frame occasionally dropped, but not much. If I complained about a single frame dropping in every game, I’d be complaining about every game that’s ever existed. Let’s be honest with ourselves.

Ultimately, as far as FIFA/EA FC titles go, EA SPORTS FC 26 is pretty good when you’re not nitpicking at bugs you’ve encountered, mostly reverting back to memories of playing FIFA 06. I say it often, but if you’ve missed a couple of years of FIFA/EA FC, then EA FC 26 is a solid entry that gets most things right. I am partial to the new Authentic gameplay mode over the classic intentions of Competitive, simply because players seem to fall into the formation more, play a bit more of a defensive game, and generally be a touch more intelligent.

A PC review copy of EA SPORTS FC 26 Ultimate Edition was provided by Electronic Arts for this review.

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EA SPORTS FC 26

$69.99 - $99.99

7.5

Score

7.5/10

Pros

• Player Careers are a fun, if flawed, experience.
• Competitive/Authentic gameplay modes.

Cons

• Manager mode is clunky to say the least.
• Ultimate Team is still everything you hate it for - always will be.
• Bugs, I've seen a few - too many to mention.