EA Sports FC is the next soccer-simulation game from EA Vancouver. It's a challenging yet exciting time for EA Sports. They will be developing their first soccer-simulation game after ending their licensing agreement with FIFA. It's nice to know that official teams and players won't be removed. However, there are a few issues EA Vancouver can address before the game's launch.
Ultimate Team Dominance
Mentioned in our 5 Mistakes EA Sports Must Avoid with EA College Football was the over-aggressiveness of microtransactions from Ultimate Team. Both Madden and FIFA Ultimate Team are very lucrative game modes. Therefore, it'll be hard to convince the developers to leave something out that brings so much cash in. Besides, the idea of collecting player cards to build your own team isn't a terrible idea.
But the problem is that while FIFA Ultimate Team remains popular, it has become the sole priority over other games modes. Instead of improvements to other game modes or features, the game outside of FUT has become stale.
But it would be impossible to get rid of Ultimate Team, as not only are the developers focused on it, but there's literally a genre of content creators on YouTube who open card packs, showcase the new available players, so on and so forth. The popularity of the mode is real, but we'd just hate to see it overshadow everything else the new game offers.
As for Ultimate Team itself, it would be nice if Position Modifiers became a thing of the past. These allow you to change a player from one position to another that is more compatible for them. If players could just change it without the PM card that would be a subtle but great change. Considering how much money Ultimate Team makes for EA Sports, this should be an acceptable sacrifice.
EA Sports FC will likely have an Ultimate Team mode of some kind. Hopefully it won't take away from the rest of the experience.
EA Sports FC Needs A Career Mode With More Substance
Unlike Madden's Franchise or Superstar mode, FIFA games have always had a deeper career mode. Managers can actually meet with their players and agents. There are cutscenes of players practicing on the field. There's also things like seeing your player look at the team sheet and making it to the roster. But beyond that, there's not a lot of substance.
One thing, for instance, is the lack of voice acting. Manager/Player meetings have very little spoken dialogue, and much of these conversations are limited to text-only. It's not bad, but when you look at game series like NBA 2K, you see the potential for so much more.
Take-Two Interactive's Basketball simulation series has actual pre-game, mid-game, and post-game interviews with real NBA personalities. Your MyCareer player has actual meetings with his social media team and agent, as well as meetings with sponsors. Beyond that, you can text other players on your teams and others, and build little rivalries that will create challenges for you each game. We think EA Sports FC could excellently execute some of these features, especially in a world with many great soccer personalities both on and off the field.
Another problem is players being limited to a 15-year career. We live in a day and age where athletes can play for up to 2o years, and maybe even more. It's a shame to start a career at, say 20 years old, and when you turn 35 (regardless of how well you perform) you're forced to retire. There's also no option to take your career from playing on the field, to managing on the sideline. I mean, how awesome would it be if you were a historic player who went on to become a historic coach?
Bugs, Bugs, and even more Bugs
It seems with every new FIFA game, bugs appeared more often than the previous title. While we think some of them are hilarious, they can also be costly to the experience.
There's minor things, like the referee being miniaturized for no reason. But then there's big ones like players running out of stamina after just 45 minutes of play. This is especially painful in Career Mode. Your player plays for about 5o minutes, and is quickly subbed out. This sometimes results in you having to pass the ball back in forth for the entire second half to avoid this issue. Even goalies can lose their stamina, even if the ball has been on the opponents side of the field all game.
There's always usually a problem with transfer markets, and making money can be more difficult for teams that aren't the most popular ones right now. You could have an amazing career managing FC Lokomotiv Moscow, but for some reason its harder to manage their money than if you had an okay career with a club like Chelsea FC.
We hope that with a new soccer title means a new path of development. One that hopefully emphasizes rigorous playtesting.
We're excited to see what EA Sports FC has to offer now. Until then, check out ClutchPoints Gaming for more information on the latest soccer-simulation game.
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