Featured Image Credit: EA Sports
Topics: EA Sports, EA Sports FC, Gaming
Matthew Dove
EA Sports have announced a major overhaul of Career Mode in FC 26 ahead of the game's launch in September.
Career Mode has been a staple of the franchise throughout the years of EA games. While new modes such as Ultimate Team, Rush, The Journey and Clubs have emerged, there's still a loyal fanbase who love nothing more than, as one X user put it; "starting a career mode save, spending four hours rebuilding the squad, playing three games and never touching it again". We've all done it let's be honest.
Ahead of the new game dropping next month, EA have teased several new features including a deep dive on gameplay, Clubs and now Career Mode. Here's what is coming in EAFC 26:
Probably the biggest change in this year’s game will be the challenges that players can take on throughout the season. This will be a variety of real-world scenarios and alternative storylines, ranging from a few minutes of play to multiple seasons with the club. For example, you may find yourself jumping in to a career mode to save a team from relegation with only five games to go or being given a financial takeover with the goal of winning the treble. It definitely gives a bit more variety to the mode and might be beneficial to players who have commitment issues or just generally don't enjoy the slog of a 15-year career mode.
FC 26 will feature a manager market in career mode where managers will change clubs just like in real life. This will be welcome news to fans and adds another sense of realism to the mode. EA also claim clubs will hire managers based on their philosophy meaning the likelihood of us seeing Sean Dyche managing Barcelona is highly unlikely.
If a manager leaves, the club will be appoint the assistant coach as an interim who could be promoted permanently if they achieve positive results.
One of the key mechanics behind the manager market is the introduction of manager ratings. These ratings will be hidden and dynamic, changing based on a manager’s performance and will play a role in how the AI decided whether to keep or sack a manager. You will also be able to view their ratings should you fancy switching clubs to see which clubs are likely to take you to replace their current boss.
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In previous versions of the game, the transfers of AI clubs was a major issue, with teams making unrealistic signings and sometimes ending up with five or six players in the same position (basically every club going full Chelsea). You would also get a lot of transfers that in reality would never happen which, in moderation is fine but tended to happen on every save.
Dodgy food, opposition fans setting off flares outside the team hotel, wages leaked and more chaos is coming this year. In a bid to make things feel a little less repetitive and make gamers deal with more real-life problems, there is a whole cluster of events being added in that can disrupt the flow of your career save. Obviously you have the option to turn this off or alter the frequency of when these curveballs occur but this feels like a nice added feature (He says before his star striker inevitably gets food poisoning the day before a Champions League final). There's even a chance to allow a documentary to be filmed on your club to increase exposure and revenue at the risk of adding pressure to players.
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One that might divide opinion. You will now be able to unlock icons and heroes through the new manager live challenge and add them to your squad. This includes players like Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Ronaldo Nazario, Franz Beckenbauer and more. Personally not something that seems to make a lot of sense but maybe for the more casual player, they might enjoy the chance to play with football legends in their career.
So sadly, the long wait for online career mode goes on. Lead dev Andreas Wilsdorf said they’re "exploring the idea, but it’s still in the early concept stage and nothing is being built yet".
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Being brutally honest, it does feel like Career Mode has gone backwards rather than forwards over the years. Popular features such as transfer budget request, sponsorship offers and stadium upgrades have all been removed whilst new features can almost feel a bit like a token gesture and it can feel very repetitive at times.
That being said, it does feel like *should* these changes be effective, it may be the most realistic career mode for years. Ultimately, the gameplay is the most important factor and if EA can get that right, there won't be many complaints from us.