➤ EA Sports FC 24, the review of the FIFA heir 🕹

The review of EA Sports FC 24, the progenitor of a new dynasty of football games, although still too linked to the legacy of its ancestors.

For the footballer born between the 80s and 90s, who grew up chasing a ball in some dusty suburban field, loving football also meant living it as the protagonist on the screen of a cathode ray tube, at a time when consoles and the PCs are forced to Space was made in the bedrooms of the younger ones. At that time there were already several recreational experiences dedicated to football, but only one managed to shorten the distance that separates a child from the idols of his childhood, making him jump onto the field next to a handful of angular polygons that only remotely resembled each other. the appearance of the different Zidane, Beckham and Ronaldo, but who for us were indistinguishable from their real counterparts.

We are obviously talking about FIFA, the EA Sports video game that over the last 30 years has had the merit of being undoubtedly the best when it comes to translating the entire spectacle of real football into pixels. Of course, it has never stood out for its simulation depth, but the series has always opted for a simply unmatched collection of licenses, sensing in advance the importance and weight that the great champions had and would have in the football universe.

Now, after three decades of extraordinary commercial success, the partnership between EA Sports and the Football Association has abruptly stopped, and many of us find ourselves for the first time observing the first autumn of our lives without a "FIFA" in stores, although the Canadian company already has its alternative ready, a completely independent title and capable of capitalizing on the fortunes accumulated over the years.

We wondered all summer whether EA Sports FC 24 would be a revolution or an evolution and now, at the end of a marathon dedicated to analyzing each component of the game, we are convinced that we have everything we need to express a final verdict on the new . football game from Electronic Arts, especially because the new features of this edition are not that many, despite all our expectations in this regard. In it EA Sports FC 24 Review We tell you why the first exponent of this new dynasty turned out to be a missed opportunity for a legendary series like FIFA.

The same old FIFA

EA Sports FC 24, the review of the FIFA heir — EA Sports FC 24 is by heart one of the editions most similar to the previous one

It is no coincidence that we talk about expectations, since after several chapters that were too similar to each other, what we expected to find in EA Sports FC 24 was nothing other than a profound rethinking of many of the classic dynamics of the series, especially from the new name, offered EA Sports a golden opportunity to score an empty-net goal that could relaunch the series into another thirty years of success. Instead, following a logic evidently very dear to the Canadian company, that is, the one that establishes that "the winning team cannot be changed", it has chosen to propose what is fundamentally the The same old FIFA., supported by an extensive restyling of the menu graphics, and a series of innovations aimed at improving or expanding specific aspects of the game.

This can be found immediately by taking a look at the way that constitute the backbone of FC 24, which have remained exactly the same from a purely numerical point of view compared to previous years. We will have the opportunity to delve into some of them in the dedicated paragraphs, but the content offer, which we want to underline, remains overwhelming and unmatched by any other football game on the market, could have welcomed some new ideas. Although from this point of view, given this, we do not feel like criticizing EA Sports' work too much.

The game, as is traditional, offers a wide range of activities, capable of satisfying all the heterogeneities of virtual football fans: from the Ultimate Team to the career of coaches and players, from Kick-Off mode to local tournaments, to the combination represented by Volta and the Pro Club, EA Sports FC 24 has something for each of you, whether you love single player activity Or those online multiplayer.

If some of these options have included sometimes even substantial innovations, as the example of the coaching career demonstrates, it is imperative to expect absolutely nothing from most other modalities. We know the kick-off by heart, Volta seems cloned from the previous chapter, and even the Pro Club, except for a slight change in the structure of the competitions, is the same one you have played for hundreds of hours in recent years. . Also there comment, entrusted to the experienced couple Pierluigi Pardo - Lele Adani, does not propose any variation on the theme. It is not the best, for an edition that we would have liked to have been a pause rather than absolute continuity.

New gameplay features, including new features and technical advancements.

We had the opportunity to tell you our first impressions of the game from EA Sports FC 24 already on the occasion of the article published on Wednesday and now we can confirm most of the sensations that arose there. Unlike many other times, in which the transition between one edition and another was clearly perceived through the sensation that the gameplay gave, this year we have noticed many fewer differences compared to the past: pad in hand, the maneuver still has a Quite tight pace, the movement of the ball is fast and frenetic and the players are always quite reactive, moving agilely from one side of the field to the other, even when they do not have particularly high acceleration values.

However, as the games went on, we began to notice a general improvement applied to all the player animations, who continued skating around the field in the tightest changes of direction, but who now performed a series of movements much more convincing. EA Sports FC 24, from a technical point of view, is without a doubt the most advanced simulation that has ever come to PC and console, and in that sense the impact that technology brings is tangible hypermovements, which allowed EA Sports to capture volumetric data from 180 real matches with extreme simplicity, to translate it into significantly more realistic game movements.

The other great novelty of this edition is undoubtedly represented by the Playback styles, "improvements" developed in collaboration with Opta, which also significantly influence the player's performance on the field. The developers' goal was to give a well-defined identity to each athlete, to achieve the fidelity expected from a football simulation. For example, Haaland has PlayStyles + (an improved version of these skills) Acrobat, which means that the Norwegian will have access to exclusive acrobatic animations, and all of his volleys will be exceptionally precise. Observing a player's PlayStyles will allow you to get a fairly precise idea of his personality on the field, also because there are no less than 28, among which are applied to attack, passing, ball control, defense and physicality. . PlayStyles seemed like an excellent way to renew the gameplay of EA Sports FC 24, however we fear that over time the community will learn to abuse them, although it is really too early to be sure.

For the rest, plus one. new ball physics which makes rebounding and controls less predictable, there's not much more to say: all set pieces are based on the old system, it's very difficult to defend early when you're facing a fast player. Curiously, the changes to be made to the game have once again been three, although we suspect that this depends more on a mistake than on a precise choice on the part of the developers.

Ultimate Team welcomes women's football and Evolutions

If you have opened this review and are reading these lines, it is very likely that you are here to learn Ultimate team, the most popular mode in all of FIFA, which returns to EA Sports FC 24 with a couple of new features whose specific weight we have not been able to fully appreciate. The first, and most obvious, refers to the introduction of women's football, through the incorporation of player profiles from five women's leagues into the database. If, on the one hand, the presence of these athletes is a considerable step towards a more equitable representation of women's competitions within this product, at the game level this has who knows what impact, given that in terms of mechanics the athletes do not They are characterized by any specificity and understand each other with their male colleagues in a very intuitive way.

The other innovation refers to new ones. Evolutions, whose importance will directly depend on the use that EA Sports wants to make of this mechanic in the coming months. Simply put, evolutions allow you to greatly upgrade a card by completing simple gameplay challenges that reward the user with permanent improvements to the player's stats. If, on the one hand, we are not entirely convinced that the community will prefer to complete these evolutions instead of getting the best champions on the market, on the other, it is clear to everyone that this innovation is capable of facilitating the construction of your squad. plus Ultimate Team exquisitely deeper, especially considering that the developers will be able to add new ones at any time.

Unfortunately, except for these two new features and a handful of other small changes (such as the disappearance of role changes and the passive introduction of playing styles), Ultimate Team remains the same as always, also due to the absence of any intervention in he competition structure. Squad Battles, Division Rivals and UT Champions have been identical for years, and while they certainly work in the current format, we would have liked to see a little more courage from EA Sports, for a major edition like this.

A coaching career never so close to Football Manager

Of course, the race itself is structured like that of recent years, even replicating the menus of the old FIFA chapters, but the introduction oftactical idea He was able to impress us with his ability to subvert the way one can shape their idea of a team. From now on, at the start of a new match, the game will ask us to choose between six tactical ideas, which refer to the most important football philosophies in the world: select one of Wing Play, Tiki-taka, Gegenpressing, All- Outside of Defense, Counterattack and Long Ball, the system will adapt the tactical balance of the squad to change their attitude on the field, also offering us the opportunity to observe the entire match from the bench, through the new real-time simulation.

Tactical ideas not only influence the game strategy, but can have a direct impact on the players' performances, thanks to the contribution of the preparatory, new staff figures that may be assigned to a sector of the field, to enhance the capabilities of an entire area of the team. The entire system is exquisitely complex and provides additional layers of management governance to professional expertise, which we couldn't help but appreciate across the board.

Conclusions

Tested version Xbox Series X digital delivery Steam, play, playstation store, Xbox Store, Nintendo eShop Price 79.99 € Holygamerz.com 7.5 Readers (39) 5.5 your vote

Last year we gave FIFA 23 all possible alibis, after all it was a transitional chapter that anticipated a major rebrand, but the fact that even after the inauguration of a new cycle EA Sports did not find enough energy to Proposing something truly new now exposes the Canadian studio to having no more excuses. EA Sports FC 24 continues to be the best football video game that exists, the amount of content is unmatched and is light years away from what any competitor offers, while the studio has finally managed to deploy that agglomeration of small innovations that justify the purchase of the game. new edition. Too much, really too little, for such an important occasion.