EA Sports FC 25: New Features and Gameplay Innovations Unveiled

EA FC 25's new Rush format is better than Volta - but where's FIFA Street when you need it?

Alongside the many changes coming to FC 25, a big new addition is Rush, a format - EA Sports was keen to specify this is not technically a mode - playable across every actual mode within the game. Rush is a 5v5 "gameplay experience" which replaces Volta, the old 5v5 mode that was ultimately a little underplayed. "The feedback we got from the community in Volta is that they felt like they were missing out on Ultimate Team, on Clubs, when they were going to Volta," senior producer Sam Rivera said. "People were not engaging as much as we initially thought, so we did a big exercise of 'learnings': what's happening with Volta, what are the numbers telling us, what's the community telling us?" The result is Rush, and the change in how it's described by EA - as a "gameplay experience" rather than standalone mode - is the big hint here: Rush is available, in different forms, across Career Mode, Ultimate Team, Clubs (formerly Pro Clubs), and good old Kick Off, rather than being a separate thing on its own. In Career Mode that's primarily as a training ground experience for youth players, as we detailed in our big FC 25 preview earlier on; in Ultimate Team it's something you can play as an alternative means of earning rewards while still using your own FUT squad players; in Clubs, it's an additional way of playing as well as 11v11 matches - crucially, it doesn't replace the ability to play full-sized games. To play it you'll need a team of four human players - the goalkeeper is always controlled by AI, penalties aside - with any additional slots matchmade if you're playing solo or short of a full squad. It's all "one pool" in matchmaking, as Clubs associate producer Tim Able told us, but you'll get a special match intro when you're up against a full opposing Club online to let you know you're in for a tougher match. With Clubs in particular feeling quite closely linked to Rush, it's worth running through a few of the big changes coming there before getting into how it plays. First up, Clubs in general has gone through a bit of a spruce-up. It's now more of a "social hub", with a "clubhouse" decorated in your club's colours, mainly depicted as a changing room for your custom player, as well as for the players of your clubmates who drop in and out as they join you. In other words, it's a fancy multiplayer lobby, but there's also an updated menu system (Able was keen to emphasise the developer's "play more, navigate less" mantra this year), which should make the whole experience a bit smoother, and a bit of work done on the metagame. Your Club Manager can now allocate a "budget" for club facility cards, which can offer a gameplay boost on the pitch. One example was certain facilities granting you a third Playstyle for your club's players - the preset boosts to things like a player's ability to score finesse shots or dribble with greater close control. Back to Rush, and that ties into Clubs with a new currency - EA loves a currency - called RP, or Rush Points. This currency goes towards your player rank, and climbing through those ranks during the season grants you Club-focused rewards. Your Club also gets victory points for wins, with each season placing clubs on a global leaderboard with its own rewards, which seem to be primarily cosmetic and based around showing off how well you ranked. How does Rush itself play? Short answer: it's more fun than Volta, but still no FIFA Street. The key difference in comparing against Volta is that Rush doesn't really follow any specific indoor football rules, instead opting to be just slightly more playful with the formula. The action is faster, the game is more open, and consequences are, crucially, felt much faster as a result. There's a new offside system, for instance, which means a player can now be offside, but only when they're in the final third of the pitch closest to the opposition goal. In playing it, that immediately created an interesting mind game around when to "step up" as a defender, and when to drop deeper towards your goal. The best forwards will be able to time their runs perfectly so the ball's played to them while they're still in the middle third, while the best defenders will ideally know when exactly to turn and start sprinting towards their own goal. It also means losing the ball in midfield can be catastrophic if your teammates aren't smart - just like casual five-a-side in the real world, if you're a bit more tactically-minded that can often be a burden: you'll end up the only one who knows to drop deeper to stop a counter when the rest of the team all goes flying forwards during an attack. The flipside of course is that teams who communicate well and know their roles, or when to rotate with others (and there are no set positions at all in Rush) will naturally do better than those who try to wing it. A few other fun rule tweaks are worth mentioning. There's a drop-in kick off, much the same as in the old FIFA Street where you need to rush to the ball in the middle of the pitch, and there are now Blue Cards, which work as a one-minute sin-bin for egregious fouls. There are no draws, with matches that are level at full time instead going to a golden goal in extra time, and penalties are different too. Like the cult-favourite US-style penalties of the 90s, it's now a one-on-one against the goalkeeper, with the captain taking on the ability to control the GK just in that moment. All of this is good fun, and feels like a very slight move towards something a bit less straight-faced from a series that has been predominantly focused on the "simulation" approach for some time. But it did also make me wonder about my old friend FIFA Street, the wonderfully arcadey cult hit from the Ronaldinho- and Rooney-infused era of the early 2000s. Surely EA must have thought about it? "We're always talking about ideas," Rivera told me. "A lot of the features you see in the game are not a 'one-year thing' - literally right now we're discussing things three years from now. So we're always open to things, however at this point the only thing I can say is that Rush is basically our foundation for social play, for small-sided, for years to come." That may be a coy way of saying: it's probably come up, like all things would, but don't expect anything there any time soon. "We are very confident that with Rush we are solving some of the problems, some of the feedback that we hear from people that used to play Clubs, or people that used to play Volta," he continued. "We hear, for example, with Clubs, what we see in the data [is] that most people prefer to play as an attacker or as an attacking midfielder - because you're closer to the ball, it makes sense, you want to score the goals." On the flipside, he said, playing as a defender in 11v11 meant you had to take fewer risks with the ball - because losing it can mean conceding a goal. "So right away, we see that tendency of being more attacking... in Rush we're solving that, with the fact that there's no positions and you just need to rotate, you're always close to the action." At the same time, EA felt that the pitch for Volta was too small, requiring "a completely different approach to the mechanics of dribbling or shooting, and that really takes a lot of time, a lot of polish, to make it fun." The Rush pitch as a result is 230 percent larger than a Volta pitch, Riviera said, which in his words creates "a completely different experience." Having played it, I would just about agree. Rush is snappier and more snackable, easier to dip into and out of for a more casual game when the concentration of a full-sized match feels like too much work, or when just a couple of friends are online. It's far more fluid, you're far more involved at all parts of the match, and importantly, it takes itself just a bit less seriously than Volta did. But it's still missing a bit of truly cartoonish action - because it's still no FIFA Street.

FC 25 preview: EA kills off Volta for new five-on-five experience - and revamps career mode

Volta is dead - long live Rush. EA's FIFA successor marks its sophomore year by introducing a five-a-side experience that permeates every mode. Rush is a fast, goal-heavy match type used to earn extra rewards in Ultimate Team, to train up youth prospects in career mode, and to enhance friendships within Clubs. Where Volta prioritized skill moves and general chaos, Rush recreates the 11-vs-11 game in miniature, on a smaller pitch but still with corners, throws-on, and full-sized goals. EA Sports FC 25 is shaping up to be really fun. Whether that early enjoyment can be sustained over an entire year remains to be seen. Volta - a revitalized take on FIFA Street - also felt refreshing when introduced to FIFA 20. Wary of that, EA is bolstering Rush with some clever-yet-surreal innovations. A new, devoted lobby enables you to seamlessly leap in with up to three friends, while there's no kick-off to start the match. Instead the ball pings in from the bottom of the screen, and you race to get it under control. Like old Subbuteo games, offsides only occur in the final third of the pitch, while blue cards introduce a sin-bin element, with players sent off for borderline fouls - but only for one minute. If you're a traditionalist emitting groans at this point, rest assured that - having been weaned on the glory years of Pro Evo - I was too. Here, then, is some eleven-a-side news to offset that Rush cynicism: FC 25 is getting a Simulation option. Selecting it slows gameplay down in comparison to FC 24, and supposedly utilizes AI learning to adopt realistic opposition tactical approaches. Wind affects aerial balls, particularly in smaller stadiums, while inclement weather causes players to slip over. It's an offline-only option, clearly included to appeal to career mode veterans who've become dismayed at that once-great mode's decline. More on career mode shortly. Because ultimately the success of that feature, and Rush, and the forever-imposing return of Ultimate Team, all hang on the football itself. You're therefore right to wonder whether this feels much different from FC 24. Well: yes and no. From a pick-up-and-play perspective, there's an immediate familiarity. But fiddle around in tactics menus and you discover some key differences to be explored and tinkered with. That's down to something called FC IQ. Building on the popular FC 24 PlayStyles feature, EA has introduced 31 unique player roles which directly affect how every team-mate (and opponent!) thinks when you're not in direct control of them. During a demo at EA Vancouver, FC 25 producer Thomas Caleffi calls them "the missing piece of player personality," with each player also assigned a specific focus as part of his role - such as Jude Bellingham being placed in a Playmaker role, with a Roaming focus. "Considering all the roles and focuses in any given team and formation, you have between 100 and 400 million possible combinations," says Caleffi. Caleffi demonstrates multiple examples during one passage of play. As his team moves upfield, its RB with a False-back role drifts into central midfield, while a CM set as a Half-winger pulls wide into the space created. On the other flank, the LB with Attacking Wingback overlaps to support the current attack, and the team's CAM, designated as a Shadow Striker, makes a late run into the box. As such, a traditional 4-1-2-1-2 formation becomes promisingly fluid, to mirror the convention-shattering success of dugout pioneers such as Klopp and Guardiola. Underpinning these choices is an overhaul to the way team tactics work. You can still use formational presets, but reconfigured menus show exactly where your players will be when on and off the ball. A neat summary also analyzes the pros and cons of your current approach, while saved set-ups can be toggled in-match using the D-pad, and even shared with other players using a unique code - across all formats. In a welcome upgrade, you can also set three corner assignments: near-post player, back-post player, and main attacking target. So while there is an air of FC 24 reskinned, subsurface nuances should transform that over the coming weeks - particularly in online fixtures. Indeed, those tactical tweaks are likely to have a colossal effect on Ultimate Team, where the meta often turns matches into basketball-style shootouts by Christmas. As well as Rush and FC IQ heralding change, EA is acting on community feedback to its biggest mode. Evolutions, in which you upgrade cards by completing in-game requirements, can be customized with new colors and even sound effects. (Such as fireworks. Um, what?!) We're finally getting a space for Duplicate cards too. Up to 100 can be stashed in a bespoke storage folder, and will be the first item listed when you come to fill in SBCs. That should be a godsend. Finally, and formidably, there really are encouraging signs for career mode. EA is touting this as the mode's biggest leap forward in a decade, with a suite of tweaks and upgrades - not least that Simulation option - and ability to train up prospects using Rush. Five-a-side youth tournaments take place every two months, and give you the chance to try out your wunderkinder, and earn stats upgrades. That's cool, as is a 90-fold increase in the countries available to scout, for a total of 160. Five women's leagues, and the women's Champions League, are also integrated. Most intriguing are Live Start Points. 17 leagues and 11 cups are going to be tracked across the coming year, enabling you to pick up exactly where real-life leaves off, at any point of the season gone by. "The current points, the goals scored, the transfers, the player form, injuries, suspensions, point deductions - all these things are reflected," explains game design director Pete O'Donnell during the EA Vancouver demo. "What kind of stories are going to happen this year? We don't know, and that's the excitement of this feature." "There's going to be sackings, big transfers, title fights, relegation battles, unbeaten runs, loads of things we haven't thought about," continues O'Donnell. "We know some of our players love exploring different games, and this is a real opportunity for us." Rush may be steering the former FIFA series in an unexplored direction, made for Generation TikTok - but with career mode going back to the future, there's hope here for scarf-waving old-schoolers, too.

EA Sports FC 25 First Impressions: How will Rush and FC IQ improve the EA Sports FC formula?

The FIFA series made the move last year to become EA Sports FC after the developers and the football organisation went their separate ways. But EA Sports FC 24 wasn't quite the revolution that many gamers had hoped for. The feeling has been that not much has happened in a few years and that the series is mostly stuck in the same place. This is something that EA now wants to change. At the FC 25 Producer Showcase in Vancouver, we heard a lot about what this year's title will be about and the hopes are that two main developments will kickstart the series for real: Rush and FC IQ. According to producer Sam Rivera, EA wanted to introduce a new social experience in EA Sports FC 25, something that made games like Fortnite so popular. In the past there hasn't really been anything like that to be found, except in Clubs where it's 11v11. The result is Rush. It is 4v4 with a computer controlled goalkeeper and will be available in all game modes. Online there will always be four real players whether you play with your friends or end up with a random group, and it is also possible to play by yourself offline. They call this "the most exciting and engaging social experience that we have ever created". But this sounds a lot like Volta. EA has chosen to completely remove Volta this year, but this is not a replacement but a completely new experience. "I want to clarify this right away. The Rush experience is not like Volta. After community feedback, we've decided to remove Volta from FC 25. But we know we want a social gaming experience and that's why we're introducing Rush. It's built on key principles that create a unique experience," said Rivera, who also added that the reason it's being added to all current game modes is that they want to breathe new life into the game modes with a new gameplay experience. Unlike Volta, which offered flashy street football similar to the FIFA Street series, Rush is built on existing 11v11 gameplay. Basically, it's full-size football scaled down to 4v4 (plus goalkeeper) with the same movements and behaviours. "Why? We want to keep the depth and balance that we have achieved over the last 15 years. It takes time to polish and balance the experience to create a fun environment, so we're not going to try to reinvent the wheel. This applies to basic mechanics like passing, dribbling, shooting, and goalkeeping." If you've played any online sports game in a team, you know that you're almost always forced to choose a position. Do you want to be a centre back? Or maybe outside midfielder? In Rush, this is gone and everyone can be exactly where they want on the pitch. Communication is the key to success. If you don't have a microphone and headphones there are instant messages to send that only your team sees. For example, if you want the ball, you can press the pass button and a speech bubble with "Pass" will appear above your player. Of course, with a new game mode comes special features. Rush offers blue cards instead of red and a sprint to be first to the ball on kick-off. If you play badly enough to get a blue card, you will be sent off for one minute. You will then have to kindly stand on the sidelines until that minute is up. Should you also incur a penalty, it is similar to a hockey penalty. It's 1v1 against the goalkeeper, but all other players start further back and can start running when the penalty taker does. There are also offsides, but instead of applying from the centre line, these now apply from the final third. On the kick-off, everyone starts from this offside line and the ball is rolled in from the touchline, and it's important to communicate who is sprinting to the ball and who is staying and defending. Matches are seven minutes long with time stopping each time the ball is not in play. We got to play two matches and the feeling is that it's definitely an improvement from Volta and it's something that the series has really been missing. The other word EA really wants to hammer into players is FC IQ. After introducing Hypermotion V in FIFA 22 to improve the realism and movement of players and Playstyles last year to make players feel special with specific traits and personalities, this year the focus is on tactics. It's supposed to be "the most significant change to tactics in over a decade". Part of this is player roles. This will guide how each player thinks and behaves on the pitch, resulting in more genuine tactical intelligence and movement without the ball. There are 50 roles and each player has one, and to assign roles to players, EA created an AI model that has analysed real data from sports analytics company Opta from recent seasons. Some positions share player roles, such as central midfielders and attacking midfielders who both have 'playmaker'. However, these will work completely differently when the player does not have the ball. In one clip shown, one team had control of the ball. In attack, a fullback with the role of 'falseback' had positioned himself quite centrally on the pitch. Behind him, between the centre backs, was a defensive midfielder with the role of 'centre half'. In the position where the full-back usually is, there was an inside midfielder with the role of 'half-winger'. The other full-back was almost in line with the forwards with his attacking wingback. And in the centre, an attacking midfielder with a shadow striker flew into the attacking penalty area. After the static line-ups of recent years, it's exciting to see how this will affect the game experience and a meta that tends to be locked into one thing, something we asked Rivera about. Every year there seems to be some kind of meta. Last year there was a lot of running down the line, passing diagonally backwards, and shooting. How do you now try to make a game that doesn't just fit one style of play? "When we designed FC IQ, we had in mind a lot of this feedback. And that's why there will be a lot more tactical variation, so you can prevent this with the new FC IQ. So, we wanted to give you guys more control over how this meta will be during the year. So, that was one of the goals. Even with the FC IQ, there's still an opportunity for us to continue to develop and give you guys maybe more roles, more tools to do more things in these situations. There's more that can be done, but that's the basis, a new approach to tactics." Each player role will have one to three focuses and players may have different familiarity with these, but it's the base role that means they can play in that position. An example is Vini Jr. with "winger". Everyone also has a Role+, Vini Jr. has "poacher" here. Then there are also Role++ that only the absolute best players have. Vini Jr. has this as "inside forward". All of this sounds great, of course, but it wouldn't matter if the different game modes weren't improved. Take Career Mode for example, one of the most classic game modes in sports games. For a long time, it has hardly been updated at all, something that finally seems to be changing. "The biggest update in years", as they call it. The first thing that was brought up was that there will now be something called "live start points". This means you can go into Career Mode at any point during the year and jump straight into how the standings are in the league at that moment. For example, you can take over a top club in the hectic final weeks of the season. Or play as a striker just back from injury and save your team from relegation. "Fresh content throughout the year, that's the key. Historically, the Career Mode has been launched on day one and then doesn't change. Now we're going to look at the world of football for all 12 months and see the stories that take place in the real world," said Pete O'Donnell, the game's design director. The second part of the live updated seasons is something called "Snapshots". These are scenarios that take place during the season and will be added throughout the year. It could be that a team has sacked its coach and you are now trying to keep the ship afloat. Examples from last season could have been Jadon Sancho going back to Dortmund, so you could have played as him for the rest of the season and tried to win the Champions League and Bundesliga with him. If you just want to play the classic game mode, there are new things there too, and one of the biggest is that you can now play with female teams and players. Last year they were added to Ultimate Team and now to Career Mode. So far there are only five leagues, something that will hopefully be expanded next year. But if you want to pretend to be Arsenal coach Jonas Eidevall, you can. The next is a new system for the Youth Academy. Here you can see how your players grow physically every year and actually look like teenagers, meaning no more 14-year-olds with full-grown beards. When they're called up to the senior team, they'll get their adult look and this is where Rush comes back into the equation. Every two months there will be youth tournaments where you can play three games in this 4v4 mode. Win and the players get a boost. You can play with their current ability or with a potential ability as an adult player, and if you feel you'd rather play as a customised player, there's the option to use background stories as a starting point. For example, you may have grown up in a successful football family or you may be trying to recover from an injury that threatened to end your career. This affects the personality and characteristics of your player. Over in the cash cow Ultimate Team there are changes, but perhaps not as many as we would have liked to see. Most of the game modes are largely unchanged with the major difference being that you now unlock prizes for both Ultimate Team and Clubs as you progress past the various milestones throughout the seasons. Rush is available here as a game mode, but without a specific ranking system. You will be able to select a player you have in your set of player cards and play with others doing the same. Some events may have restrictions, like only having players from LaLiga. Following feedback, there will now be storage for up to 100 duplicates that you get from your purchased card packs and the evolution system will be expanded. "We've heard from fans that they've been clamouring for FUT to be more social. And we think Rush is the perfect solution," said producer Karthik Venkateshan. In the last major game mode, Clubs, probably the biggest news is that relegation is back. Lose enough games and you'll be forced to play a relegation match against another team. Win and stay up, lose and go down a division. A new social hub called the Clubhouse has been added and the club owner can decorate the stadium, changing room, and more. In addition, there is a facilities budget that provides various bonuses. Do you think your team is too weak? Spend all your money on a gym that will give you a big boost in strength. All teams start with the same budget, but successful clubs naturally earn more. But none of this matters if it doesn't work on the pitch. To make sure it does, EA has looked to improve players' running styles. Last year they were only matched to the upper body, but in EA Sports FC 25 the whole body has now been included in players' running, which is obviously a big improvement. This will be used on around 1,800 players, including 200 women. Feel like a player is running a little too fast? Then you're in luck, because something that's been added is a so-called tactical cancellation. You often see this in real football and it's when you need to cause havoc for your opponent by simply pulling them down by their shirt or simply extending your leg, resulting in a yellow card. This can be useful when the opponent uses the improved dribbling control with the left stick, as a 180-degree turn looked much smoother in one example they showed. The passing mechanics are also something they've looked at and tried to redo. For example, when you hit a blind pass 180-degrees to where you are facing, in FC 24 this was no problem at all regardless of player. This year, there will be a significantly greater risk that this pass will not end up where you wanted to hit it at all. Better players, like Luka Modrić, will have more success hitting passes under pressure than a beefy centre back. If you're a dribbler rather than a passer, five new dribbles have been added specifically for you. When it comes to the graphics, there will be a new weather system when playing offline with different wind speeds and weather conditions. This affects how the ball flies, how hair blows, and that a player can slip if it's wet. The latter is something that fans in the improved stadiums will certainly enjoy, as they'll react dynamically to what's happening on the pitch and, if you're lucky, you might see some of the added mascots. And this will be done in 4K at 60 FPS. A new graphics mode is introduced where you can choose between "enhanced visuals" with improved graphics and lighting in upscaled 4K. In addition, Ray-Tracing will be available in the series for the first time, as will dynamic light for the time of day. The first half might be played on a bright afternoon while the sun starts to set during the second half. "This is the most innovative, most ambitious title yet," said Rivera. If it lives up to this, we will be able to see on September 27 when EA Sports FC 25 is released. Early Access will be a week earlier for players who purchased any of the versions that include this.

EA Sports FC 25 - First Video Preview

We tell you all about the upcoming sports game and how it is differing and changing from last year's instalment. "The FIFA series made the move last year to become EA Sports FC after the developers and the football organisation went their separate ways. But EA Sports FC 24 wasn't quite the revolution that many gamers had hoped for." "The feeling has been that not much has happened in the last few years, and that the series is mostly stuck in the same place. This is something that EA now wants to change. At the FC 25 Producers Showcase in Vancouver we heard a lot about what this year's title will be about, and the hopes are that two main developments will kickstart the series for real." "Rush and FC IQ. According to producer Sam Rivera, EA wanted to introduce a new social experience in EA Sports FC 25, something that made games like Fortnite so popular. In the past there hasn't really been anything like that to be found, except in clubs where it's 11v11." "The result is Rush. It is 4v4 with a computer controlled goalkeeper, and will be available in all game modes. Online there will always be 4 real players, whether you play with your friends or end up with a random group, and it is also possible to play by yourself alone." "They call this the most exciting and engaging social experience that we have ever created, but this sounds a lot like VOLTA. EA has chosen to completely remove VOLTA this year, but this is not a replacement, but a completely new experience." "Of course with a new game mode comes special features. Rush offers blue cards instead of red, and a sprint to be first to the ball on kickoff. If you play badly enough to get a blue card, you will be sent off for one minute. You will then have to kindly stand on the sidelines until that minute is up." "Should you also incur a penalty, it is similar to a hockey penalty. It's 1v1 against the goalkeeper, but all of the players start further back, and can start running when the penalty taker does. There are also offsides, but instead of applying from the centre line, these now apply from the final third." "On the kickoff, everything starts from this offside line and the ball is rolled in from the touchline, and it's important to communicate who is sprinting to the ball and who is staying and defending. Matches are 7 minutes long, with time stopping each time the ball is not in play." "We got to play two matches and the feeling is that it's definitely an improvement from VOLTA and it's something that the series has really been missing. The other word EA really wants to hammer into players is FCIQ. After introducing Hypermotion V in FIFA 22 to improve the realism and movement of players and playstyles last year to make players feel special with specific traits and personalities, this year the focus is on tactics." "It's supposed to be the most significant change to tactics in over a decade. Part of this is the player roles. This will guide how each player thinks and behaves on the pitch, resulting in more genuine tactical intelligence and movement without the ball." "There are 50 roles and each player has one. And to assign roles to players, EA created an AI model that has analysed real data from sports analytics company Opta from recent seasons. Some positions share player roles, such as central midfielders and attacking midfielders, who both have Playmaker." "However, these will work completely differently when the player does not have the ball. All of this sounds great of course, but it wouldn't matter if the different game modes weren't improved. Take career mode for example, one of those classic game modes in sports games." "For a long time it's hardly been updated at all, something that finally seems to be changing. The biggest update in years as they call it. The first thing that was brought up was that there will now be something called live start points." "So this means you can go into career mode at any point during the year and jump straight into how the standings are in the league at that moment. For example, you can take over a top club in the hectic final weeks of the season, or play as a striker just back from injury and save your team from relegation." "The second part of the live updated seasons is something called snapshots. These are scenarios that take place during the season and will be added throughout the year. It could be that the team has sacked its coach and you are now trying to keep the ship afloat." "Examples from last season could have been Jadon Sancho going back to Dortmund, so you could have played as him for the rest of the season and tried to win the Champions League. If you want to play the classic game mode, there are new things there too, and one of the biggest is that you can now play with female teams and players." "Last year they were added to Ultimate Team, and now to career mode. So far there are only 5 leagues, something that will hopefully be expanded next year. But if you want to pretend to be Arsenal coach Jonas Eidevall, you can. Over in the Cashcow Ultimate Team there are changes, but perhaps not as many as we would have liked to see." "Most of the game modes are largely unchanged, with the major difference being that you now unlock prizes for both Ultimate Team and Clubs, as you progress past the various milestones throughout the seasons. Rush is available here as a game mode, but without a specific ranking system." "You'll be able to select a player to have in your set of player cards and play with others doing the same. Some events may have restrictions, like only having players from La Liga. Following feedback there will now be storage for up to 100 duplicates that you get from your purchased card packs, and the evolution system will be expanded." "In the last major game mode, Clubs, probably the biggest news is that relegation is back. Lose enough games and you'll be forced to play a relegation match against another team. Win and stay up, lose and go down. A new social hub called the Clubhouse has been added and the club owner can decorate the stadium, changing room and more." "In addition there is a facilities budget that provides various bonuses. Do you think your team is too weak? Spend all your money on a gym that will give you a big boost in strength. All teams start with the same budget, but successful clubs naturally earn more." "When it comes to the graphics, there will be a new weather system when playing offline with different wind speeds and weather conditions. This affects how the ball flies, how air blows and that a player can slip if it's wet. The latter is something that fans in the improved stadiums will certainly enjoy, as they'll react dynamically to what's happening on the pitch and, if you're lucky, you might see some of the added mascots."

Here's Everything You Need to Know About EA Sports FC 25: FC IQ Tactics, Career Mode Improvements and More

Ahead of today's reveal of EA Sports FC 25, we were able to check a remote showcase of all of the game's new features and improvements. I've talked about the 5v5 Rush experience in a separate article, so I'll focus on everything else here. It all starts with FC IQ, a comprehensive overhaul of the game's tactics implementation. The developers claim they want players to channel their inner club manager, dictating exactly how their team plays. FC IQ was designed to complement and benefit from previously introduced technologies like HyperMotion V and Play Styles. It consists of three foundations: Player Roles, the big one which guides how players behave off the ball thanks to over 50 new roles; Team Tactics, which replicates a team's real-world playstyle more closely and provides more variety from match to match; and Smart Tactics, which allows for real-time suggestions based on the current match and even provides commentary on your tactical changes. EA Sports used real world data provided by Opta and a proprietary AI model to power Player Roles. This model analyzed the Opta data from the last two seasons of each player: all games, stats, and plays. Jude Bellingham's predominant style turned out to be Half-Winger (75%), with 14% as Shadow Striker and 11% as Playmaker. Kai Havertz, on the other hand, has a more balanced style, with 40% as Playmaker, 39% as Shadow Striker, and 21% as Half-Winger. According to the studio, the result is a more authentic and intelligent movement of your team. At launch, you can expect three to five Player Roles per position (except the goalkeeper). For example, a Wide Midfielder (RM/LM) can be a Winger, a Wide Playmaker, or an Inside Forward. A Full Back (RB/LB) may be a Falseback, a Wingback, or an Attacking Wingback. A Centre-Back (CB) can be a Stopper, Defender, or Ball-Playing Defender. A Defensive Midfielder (CDM) could be a Holding midfielder, a Centre-Half, or a Deep-Lying Playmaker. Striker Player Roles include Advanced Forward, Poacher, Target Forward, and False 9. Lastly, the Centre-Midfielder (CM) has the most options: Box-to-Box, Holding, Deep-Lying Playmaker, Playmaker, or Half-Winger. On top of Roles, players will be able to select one to three Focuses per Role. For example, when a Playmaker is set to Roaming, it will move around more freely to find spaces. This greatly increases the amount of possible tactic combinations in EA Sports FC 25. By the way, each combination of Player Role and Focus will provide pros and cons. Moreover, EA Sports added Familiarity, which tells you whether a specific player is fit to perform well in any given Player Role. There's the base role, and then every player has a Role+, which means they are specifically accomplished in something. World-class players also have Role++, which will be a rarity at launch. Finally, a player can also be put out of position, translating into a simplified version of the Role. An example could be placing Vinicius Jr. as a Defensive Midfielder. Familiarity is essentially the new and improved version of the old work rates (which have been removed in EA Sports FC 25). Since the community is fond of sharing tactics, the developers have created a new code-based system. It is generated automatically when you save your own tactics. Since it's a universal system, it can be shared across any mode and platform. By the way, the bench size has also been increased to 9 players on Gen 9 platforms (PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series S|X) in the Kick Off, Career, Seasons, and Tournaments modes. Lastly, they added three assignments for corner kicks: target player (when attacking) and near post/back post players (when defending). EA Sports FC 25 is also getting improvements to HyperMotion V. Whereas last year they only mapped the upper body motions of players, this year the team was able to do full-body mapping on around 1800 players, including 200 women. Goalkeeper playstyles have been massively expanded: the new game includes everything from Deflector to Cross Claimer, Rush Out, Footwork, Far Throw, and Far Reach. This year, a new core gameplay mechanic called Positional Foul is being introduced. Regular football watchers are very used to it: it's when a player essentially grabs another rugby-style without any chance of getting the ball, with the sole purpose of stopping a dangerous counter-attack. The Positional Foul can be triggered with the right bumper and A or X, depending on whether you play with an Xbox or PlayStation controller. Like in real football, this is an automatic yellow card, but the developers said persisting with this tactic could even result in a red card. Dribbling has been refined to look more responsive, and the animation database has also been 'cleaned up' to make dribbling feel better than ever. Passing accuracy has been reduced a bit when doing blind passes compared to last year in an attempt to improve realism. Players will also find five new skill moves: toe drag stepover, big feints, stepover ball, heel nutmeg, and drag turn. Those who plan to play EA Sports FC 25 in single player, offline mode will also get to select the brand new Simulation mode. This is meant to be a slower and more authentic way to play the game. In this mode, weather also affects the pitch, making players slip when it's raining a lot, and the AI opponent will feel more dynamic. There's been an effort to make stadiums feel more alive through the introduction of authentic mascots, active sideline moments featuring managers, officials, and substitutes, authentic crowd reactions to what's happening on the pitch, and dynamic elements like photographers and cameras following the action. On consoles, the game will allow users to pick between two graphics modes: Enhanced Visuals or Favor Resolution. The former mode upscales to 4K resolution while adding ray-traced ambient occlusion, cloth simulation on the shirt and shorts, self-shadowing at all times, rim lighting, 3D pitch divots and puddles, and local exposure, while the latter delivers a native 4K presentation as well as cloth simulation on shorts and default exposure. Both still target 60 frames per second to keep optimal responsiveness. Additionally, there's a dynamic time-of-day progression for the first time in the franchise, so you might start a match before sunset and then begin the second half at nighttime. The accuracy of player likeness has been further improved with EA Sports Cranium, a new machine learning-based system that will be rolled out to other sports games in the future. While a lot of players have accurate scans, those who don't used to look very generic in past games. After feeding EA Sports Cranium enough photos, though, the results in EA Sports FC 25 definitely improve the likeness of thousands of less famous players. Career mode also got a significant revamp. The first key feature the team talked about is Live Start Points, which will take up the unfolding seasonal stories from real-life football competitions such as the Premier League, Serie A, La Liga, Bundesliga, Ligue 1, and Champions League. An example from last year's season might be Girona being on top of La Liga last Christmas. You'd begin from a Snapshot, a specific moment in time grabbed from the real season, and continue in the game. Inevitably, Live Start Points will be added post-launch. Career mode has fully integrated FC IQ. Something you could do here is, for example, bring in a coach to ensure Haaland can learn how to play in the False 9 Player Role, which he doesn't have by default in the game. Of course, another option is to recruit a brand new player who's already familiar with that playstyle from the Youth Academy, which has been expanded to include over 90 new countries to scout in. Youths will also be playable throughout the newly added 5v5 Rush tournaments, and managers will have the opportunity to play either with their current or potential stats. Winning these Youth tournaments, which happen every two months in Career mode, will give those players a big stat boost. Women's football is also fully implemented now in Career mode as part of EA Sports' effort to bring parity with men's football. While most of it works identically, selecting women's football also means adapting to a different financial model with tighter budgets, shorter contracts, different salary structures, and so on. Career mode also optionally offers a more casual experience, stripped of things like transfers and scouting. On the other hand, those who enjoy the transfer market game will be happy to know that EA signed Italian journalist Fabrizio Romano to be in EA Sports FC 25's in-game social media system. Whenever a club signs a major player, you'll get his classic 'Here we go, confirmed' message. EA Sports FC 25 even features the option to go through a Player Career with icons like Pirlo, Van Nistelrooy, Henry, and Kelly Smith (pre-order icons add Ronaldo, Zidane, and Beckham to the mix), the twist clearly being that these legends would have their careers unfolding much later than they did in real football, against and with current players. Lastly, the developers discussed the changes coming to Ultimate Team. First of all, the mode fully supports Rush, allowing users to bring their own players and even enter matchmaking if they do not have three friends to complete the team. Ultimate Team's Rush is based on Events, which may introduce certain limitations, like club requirements, to which players you can bring in. Outside of Rush, Ultimate Team in general will enjoy live updates that tie into FC IQ. For example, if a player performs well in a slightly different role than usual for him or her, their Player Role in Ultimate Team will be updated as a result. If you don't want to get too involved in the tactics, you can now just hire real-world manager who will apply their favorite styles to the squad. Everything can be managed via the Web and the companion app, allowing EA Sports FC 25 players to continue theory-crafting out of the game. Moreover, EA listened to three main community requests for Ultimate Team: players will now be allowed to send up to a hundred items to a squad building challenge storage, which is especially useful for duplicates; Evolutions have been expanded to dramatically increase (around seven times) the number of eligible players; the competitive space will see friendlies and rivals matchmaking decoupled, draws awarding one point for rivals, and relegations are being introduced to the top tier. For Clubs, the developers created a personalized social space called Clubhouse that connects all players. It's essentially a dynamic, customizable locker room that will show up to 11 players at once. The Club manager can also allocate some budget towards Facilities cards, which provide unique attribute boosts that help define your Club's playstyle. There will be 20 to 30 Facilities cards at launch, each coming with one, two, or three-star variant. Moreover, league relegation is back to reintroduce greater stakes. Losing enough matches triggers a one-off relegation match where players will need to avoid losing to stay in their current league. Crucially, the season pass in EA Sports FC 25 has been unified so that completing matches across all modes will go towards the same goals. Lastly, the player customization tool is deeper than ever before. We'll need to wait until we get more time with the game, but on paper, it sounds like a bigger evolution than last year. EA Sports FC 25 is out on September 27 (although early access through the Ultimate Edition starts a week in advance) for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S|X, and Nintendo Switch.

FC 25: 71 Changes That Actually Make a Difference

All of the new gameplay, Ultimate Team, and career mode details you need to know about FC 25. Jude Bellingham may not have sealed the perfect season by lifting the Euro 2024 trophy with England, but he does at least have the small consolation of becoming EA FC's (or FIFA's) youngest-ever cover star at the age of just 21. EA FC 25 will be released on September 27th, 2024, or a week early on September 20th if you purchase early access. But what's new this time around? For annual sports releases, offering an enticing suite of tweaks and additions is a must to keep things feeling fresh, and with a new 5v5 mode, a completely overhauled approach to tactics, and those all-important Ultimate Team adjustments in the mix, FC 25 has a few tricks up its sleeve. So, without further ado, here are 71 changes that actually make a difference in EA FC 25. Rush 1. Rush is a brand-new 5v5 mode that is included in all formats of FC 25, including PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch versions. It isn't a standalone offering but is playable across four modes - Kick Off, Ultimate Team, Clubs, and Career Mode. 2. Rush's introduction comes at the expense of Volta, which will not be returning this year as a standalone mode but will appear in kick-off as a 3v3 match option. 3. Matches last seven minutes in total, with a further two minutes and 20 seconds of golden goal played in the scores are level. If after that things are still tied, a penalty shootout will settle it. 4. While being a five-a-side mode, Rush is actually built with four players in mind, with the goalkeeper being AI-controlled. 5. There are no fixed positions in Rush, meaning it will be up to you and your teammates to take responsibility and not just all run forward at once. 6. Unlike Volta, Rush utilises the same core gameplay as standard 11v11 matches but comes with its own subset of rules: Kick-offs have been reinvented so that each team runs towards the centre circle as the ball is launched into play. Think of it a little like the beginning of a game of Rocket League.There are offsides in Rush, but only once you step inside the final third of the pitch, as opposed to the standard halfway line cutoff point.There are no red cards in Rush, but instead blue cards are brandished for serious offenses, resulting in a one minute sin bin for that player. This time is reduced by 15 seconds for each opponent scored within that time frame. Two yellow cards result in a blue.Penalties are completely different. Taken from the "final third line", they're essentially a one-on-one opportunity with the keeper - something not too dissimilar to what we see in hockey. 7. All Rush matches take place in the custom-built Rush Stadium, built in collaboration with Nike, and shaped like the brand's line of Mercurial football boots. It's futuristic in its design, and can even display environmental effects like colourful drone shows. FC IQ 8. FC IQ is a complete overhaul of the tactics system in EA FC and it aims to give even greater flexibility to players. 9. FC 25 will launch with 31 player roles with an expectation of growing to over 50 during the course of the season. These roles are selected after you've placed a player in a position in your formation. 10. Three-to-five roles exist for each position. For example, a central attacking midfielder (CAM) can be picked between shadow striker, playmaker, and others. These directly affect both their offensive and defensive positioning on the pitch and the runs they'll make off the ball. 11. The centre forward (CF) and wing-back (LWB and RWB) positions have been removed entirely from the game. 12. Wing backs can still be manufactured, however, by selecting the attacking wing-back option when choosing your left or right back's role. 13. Through extensive Opta data research, each player has been assigned optimal roles that they will perform better when assigned. The better their familiarity with a role, the better their work rate. 14. As a result, the old attacking and defending work rate stats have been removed for FC 25. 15. Some elite players even have roles they've mastered, such as Vinicius Jr. cutting in from the left wing. As a result, he gets a "role plus" icon when positioned as an inside forward at LW. 16. Within each role, you can also choose the focus of that player's movement, whether it be attacking, roaming, etc. 17. FC IQ as a whole allows for more experimenting with formations, with player roles allowing for asymmetric formations to exist and for overloads of certain wings to be created. The half-wing role for central midfielders combined with both a winger and fullback is a prime example of this. 18. For those not wanting to get lost too deeply in the world of FC IQ, preset tactics exist for those wishing to emulate the likes of Klopp's gegenpress or Guardiola's tiki-taka styles. 19. Up to five fully custom tactics can be created and switched between on the fly during matches. These can also be shared with other players online via uniquely generated cross-platform codes. 20. A new commentary system dynamically responds to tactical shifts being made during the match. Gameplay 21. In FC 25 Hypermotion technology now allows for authentic representation of running styles, with 1,800 players now moving as accurately as possible. In 24, the upper bodies were accurate, but now the lower bodies are too. 22. Six PlayStyles are now available for goalkeepers. These include footwork, rush out, deflector, cross claimer, far throw and far reach. 23. A new professional foul button input allows you to cynically take out your opponent by dragging them down. This results in an automatic yellow card. 24. Players will now not automatically find an opponent with blindly played 180-degree passes, unless their passing stats are ridiculously high. 25. Five new skills moves are available to tease your opponent with. These are the toe drag step-over, the step-over ball, the heel nutmeg, the drag turn, and the big fade. 26. More contextual animations can be seen involving goalposts and advertising hoardings, some of which look extremely painful. If the name Phil Babb means anything to you, you'll know exactly what I mean. 27. New weather effects can affect the way you play, such as very high winds that make the ball bend a significant amount and a slippery pitch that makes your players fall over. These are available in offline play only as a matter of fairness. 28. You can now celebrate with official club mascots after scoring a goal in a number of choreographed routines. Who doesn't want to see Heung-Min Son doing Richarlison's El Pombo dance with Chirpy the Spurs cockerel? Ultimate Team 29. In Ultimate Team, Rush is a social space that's a break from the more competitive modes within it. You'll bring one of your player cards into the match with them to play as and there can't be any duplicates between you and your teammates. 30. There will be Rush squad requirements that change regularly, such as only being able to use La Liga players. 31. Completing Rush matches in FUT will earn you Rush Points, which can be used to complete objectives and earn rewards. 32. FC IQ aims to shake up the FUT meta on a regular basis. The sheer amount of options available, plus the steady introduction of new player roles, are contributing factors towards this. 33. Team of the Week cards can give players new player roles depending on how they performed in the game that earned them the card. For example, Bellingham could specialise in a playmaker role if he played a bit deeper in midfield that week. 34. Speaking of cards, players can now store up to 100 untradeable duplicates for use in SBCs. 35. A new upgrading system with more open requirements aims to make player evolutions more attainable, meaning you'll be able to upgrade your favourite players more often. 36. More customisation options are also being provided for evolution cards, meaning you can change their colour, choose sound effects, and add dynamic animated effects such as fireworks. 37. Matchmaking systems between rivals and friendlies have now been decoupled, meaning that friendlies should no longer feel as competitive, and hopefully, more relaxed. 38. A points-based system for weekly rewards is being added to rivals. In standard football rules, you'll gain three points for a win and one for a draw, meaning a draw no longer feels like a complete waste of time. 39. Relegations are being introduced at the top end of divisions. 40. Increased rewards distribution means that players of a higher skill level will gain even greater rewards at the top levels of rivals. 41. A new stadium has been created for Ultimate Team in FC 25 with an expanded away team section allowing you to show off in someone else's arena a bit more obviously. 42. The amount of customisation items has been decreased, meaning that you'll be wading through fewer menus and they'll have a greater impact when you swap them in and out. 43. The FUT and Clubs season passes are now being combined into one overarching pass that you'll earn progress in no matter which mode you spend more time in. You'll no longer have to prioritise playing one mode more than the other just to earn rewards. Clubs 44. Relegation is back. In FC 25, losing enough matches will trigger a one-off relegation battle where you'll need to avoid a loss to survive the drop. 45. Rush is a key component of Clubs in FC 25 as you aim to climb the Rush ranks with your team. It's also great if you're like me and struggle to find more than three friends to play with at any time! 46. There are also Rush player ranks to climb up individually in order to gain greater rewards. You'll gain points by winning matches, but also through goals, assists, etc. 47. The club manager now has the power to allocate budget toward facility cards that offer unique gameplay attribute boosts. 48. Defining your club identity on the pitch with a facility budget that grows as your club reputation improves facilities, and unlocks the power of club reputation, providing a tangible benefit for building long-term success with your club. 49. Each of the 20 to 30 facility cards comes with a one-star, two-star, or three-star variant each providing a unique attribute benefit to impact all the human members of the club and not the AI. 50. The options available to the club manager add a whole new level of importance to that manager's role within the club. Do you spend your budget on a two-star shooting coach and some finishing nets to increase the finishing of all your club mates? Or maybe you opt for a three-star weight room to maximize everyone's strength. 51. A dynamic clubhouse screen, complete with your team's colours and crest, now shows you and your teammates appear in the changing room as you arrive online for your next match. 52. You'll be able to customise your avatar in far greater detail than ever before, thanks to EA Sport Cranium, new facial sculpting tech that allows for much more variety in player models. Career Mode 53. Women's teams are available to manage for the first time ever in career mode. Five major leagues are included, as well as the Women's Champions League. Both men's and women's clubs can be managed within a single career mode save. 54. Live Start Points will allow you to start a career save from a real-life point in the upcoming season. For example, taking charge of a struggling, injury-hit Chelsea at Christmas and helping them avoid the drop through the rest of the season. 55. Live Start Points can be started in 11 of the top leagues in football and also take in the state of six major cup competitions. 56. Players can now be trained to gain familiarity with certain roles brought in with FC IQ. You can teach Haaland the movement skills of a false nine, for example, if you want him to fit more naturally into Pep's Man City system. 57. Over 90 countries have been added to scouting, meaning over 160 nations can now be looked at for the next big talent. 58. Youth players now look more like men (or boys) of their age and will grow older over time, get taller, and gain facial hair, etc. 59. You can now play matches with your youth development players, but only in the Rush mode against other youth teams. These are tournaments that happen every two months and consist of three matches each. 60. You can choose to play with these youth players at their current overall rating or their projected full potential, just to see what they might be like 10 years down the road. 61. Social media transfer guru Fabrizio Romano has made his way into the in-game social feed to announce signings made in career mode. Get ready to be absolutely sick of seeing the words "Here we go". 62. You can now start a player career save as one of a few select Icons. At launch, you can choose from Andrea Pirlo, Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Theirry Henry, and Kelly Smith. Those who pre-order will also gain access to Zinedine Zidane, David Beckham, and Ronaldo (the better, Brazilian one). More Icons will be delivered to career mode throughout the season and you can play with them at any club of your choosing. Eusebio at Grimsby Town is no longer the dream it may once have been. 63. There are three new ways to start a player career, thanks to origin stories. These backstories start you at different points in a player's life and include the pressures of being the child of a legend, someone bursting onto the scene from the streets, and a player coming back from a serious injury. Presentation 64. There's more action than ever on the touchline as sideline moments are cut to during the match broadcast. These can be extended celebrations, or perhaps Mikel Arteta and his subs getting annoyed at yet another act of perceived injustice. 65. For the first time ever, FC 25 will offer graphics mode options that can be switched between, but both offer 60fps. 66. The default is Enhanced Visuals mode offers enhanced lighting, including ray tracing, and graphic details, and will upscale to 4K resolution. 67. Favour Resolution mode uses the standard lighting setup, but renders at native 4K. 68. Time will progress throughout the course of a match. You may start a game as the sun is setting, but end it under a pitch-black sky. 69. More POV angles will be built into the broadcast this time around. These short cutscenes may play before corners, penalties, and kick-offs. 70. Sizzle montages remain before games, but now you have the option to opt in and watch a full match intro if you really want to build the atmosphere before a big game. 71. The previously mentioned EA Sports Cranium tech has allowed generic faces to mostly become a thing of the past. Now players who haven't had an official scan put into the game still look a little like their real-life counterparts. And those are 71 exciting things coming to EA FC 25. We'll have plenty more about the beautiful game coming to IGN over the next few months. Simon Cardy will watch football endlessly, even if it only brings him pain. Follow him on Twitter at @CardySimon.

FC 25: 71 Changes That Actually Make a Difference - IGN

All of the new gameplay, Ultimate Team, and career mode details you need to know about FC 25. Jude Bellingham may not have sealed the perfect season by lifting the Euro 2024 trophy with England, but he does at least have the small consolation of becoming EA FC's (or FIFA's) youngest-ever cover star at the age of just 21. EA FC 25 will be released on September 27th, 2024, or a week early on September 20th if you purchase early access. But what's new this time around? For annual sports releases, offering an enticing suite of tweaks and additions is a must to keep things feeling fresh, and with a new 5v5 mode, a completely overhauled approach to tactics, and those all-important Ultimate Team adjustments in the mix, FC 25 has a few tricks up its sleeve. So, without further ado, here are 71 changes that actually make a difference in EA FC 25. 1. Rush is a brand-new 5v5 mode that is included in all formats of FC 25, including PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch versions. It isn't a standalone offering but is playable across four modes - Kick Off, Ultimate Team, Clubs, and Career Mode. 2. Rush's introduction comes at the expense of Volta, which will not be returning this year as a standalone mode but will appear in kick-off as a 3v3 match option. 3. Matches last seven minutes in total, with a further two minutes and 20 seconds of golden goal played in the scores are level. If after that things are still tied, a penalty shootout will settle it. 4. While being a five-a-side mode, Rush is actually built with four players in mind, with the goalkeeper being AI-controlled. 5. There are no fixed positions in Rush, meaning it will be up to you and your teammates to take responsibility and not just all run forward at once. 6. Unlike Volta, Rush utilises the same core gameplay as standard 11v11 matches but comes with its own subset of rules: 7. All Rush matches take place in the custom-built Rush Stadium, built in collaboration with Nike, and shaped like the brand's line of Mercurial football boots. It's futuristic in its design, and can even display environmental effects like colourful drone shows. 8. FC IQ is a complete overhaul of the tactics system in EA FC and it aims to give even greater flexibility to players. 9. FC 25 will launch with 31 player roles with an expectation of growing to over 50 during the course of the season. These roles are selected after you've placed a player in a position in your formation. 10. Three-to-five roles exist for each position. For example, a central attacking midfielder (CAM) can be picked between shadow striker, playmaker, and others. These directly affect both their offensive and defensive positioning on the pitch and the runs they'll make off the ball. 11. The centre forward (CF) and wing-back (LWB and RWB) positions have been removed entirely from the game. 12. Wing backs can still be manufactured, however, by selecting the attacking wing-back option when choosing your left or right back's role. 13. Through extensive Opta data research, each player has been assigned optimal roles that they will perform better when assigned. The better their familiarity with a role, the better their work rate. 14. As a result, the old attacking and defending work rate stats have been removed for FC 25. 15. Some elite players even have roles they've mastered, such as Vinicius Jr. cutting in from the left wing. As a result, he gets a "role plus" icon when positioned as an inside forward at LW. 16. Within each role, you can also choose the focus of that player's movement, whether it be attacking, roaming, etc. 17. FC IQ as a whole allows for more experimenting with formations, with player roles allowing for asymmetric formations to exist and for overloads of certain wings to be created. The half-wing role for central midfielders combined with both a winger and fullback is a prime example of this. 18. For those not wanting to get lost too deeply in the world of FC IQ, preset tactics exist for those wishing to emulate the likes of Klopp's gegenpress or Guardiola's tiki-taka styles. 19. Up to five fully custom tactics can be created and switched between on the fly during matches. These can also be shared with other players online via uniquely generated cross-platform codes. 20. A new commentary system dynamically responds to tactical shifts being made during the match. 21. In FC 25 Hypermotion technology now allows for authentic representation of running styles, with 1,800 players now moving as accurately as possible. In 24, the upper bodies were accurate, but now the lower bodies are too. 22. Six PlayStyles are now available for goalkeepers. These include footwork, rush out, deflector, cross claimer, far throw and far reach. 23. A new professional foul button input allows you to cynically take out your opponent by dragging them down. This results in an automatic yellow card. 24. Players will now not automatically find an opponent with blindly played 180-degree passes, unless their passing stats are ridiculously high. 25. Five new skills moves are available to tease your opponent with. These are the toe drag step-over, the step-over ball, the heel nutmeg, the drag turn, and the big fade. 26. More contextual animations can be seen involving goalposts and advertising hoardings, some of which look extremely painful. If the name Phil Babb means anything to you, you'll know exactly what I mean. 27. New weather effects can affect the way you play, such as very high winds that make the ball bend a significant amount and a slippery pitch that makes your players fall over. These are available in offline play only as a matter of fairness. 28. You can now celebrate with official club mascots after scoring a goal in a number of choreographed routines. Who doesn't want to see Heung-Min Son doing Richarlison's El Pombo dance with Chirpy the Spurs cockerel? 29. In Ultimate Team, Rush is a social space that's a break from the more competitive modes within it. You'll bring one of your player cards into the match with them to play as and there can't be any duplicates between you and your teammates. 30. There will be Rush squad requirements that change regularly, such as only being able to use La Liga players. 31. Completing Rush matches in FUT will earn you Rush Points, which can be used to complete objectives and earn rewards. 32. FC IQ aims to shake up the FUT meta on a regular basis. The sheer amount of options available, plus the steady introduction of new player roles, are contributing factors towards this. 33. Team of the Week cards can give players new player roles depending on how they performed in the game that earned them the card. For example, Bellingham could specialise in a playmaker role if he played a bit deeper in midfield that week. 34. Speaking of cards, players can now store up to 100 untradeable duplicates for use in SBCs. 35. A new upgrading system with more open requirements aims to make player evolutions more attainable, meaning you'll be able to upgrade your favourite players more often. 36. More customisation options are also being provided for evolution cards, meaning you can change their colour, choose sound effects, and add dynamic animated effects such as fireworks. 37. Matchmaking systems between rivals and friendlies have now been decoupled, meaning that friendlies should no longer feel as competitive, and hopefully, more relaxed. 38. A points-based system for weekly rewards is being added to rivals. In standard football rules, you'll gain three points for a win and one for a draw, meaning a draw no longer feels like a complete waste of time. 39. Relegations are being introduced at the top end of divisions. 40. Increased rewards distribution means that players of a higher skill level will gain even greater rewards at the top levels of rivals. 41. A new stadium has been created for Ultimate Team in FC 25 with an expanded away team section allowing you to show off in someone else's arena a bit more obviously. 42. The amount of customisation items has been decreased, meaning that you'll be wading through fewer menus and they'll have a greater impact when you swap them in and out. 43. The FUT and Clubs season passes are now being combined into one overarching pass that you'll earn progress in no matter which mode you spend more time in. You'll no longer have to prioritise playing one mode more than the other just to earn rewards. 44. Relegation is back. In FC 25, losing enough matches will trigger a one-off relegation battle where you'll need to avoid a loss to survive the drop. 45. Rush is a key component of Clubs in FC 25 as you aim to climb the Rush ranks with your team. It's also great if you're like me and struggle to find more than three friends to play with at any time! 46. There are also Rush player ranks to climb up individually in order to gain greater rewards. You'll gain points by winning matches, but also through goals, assists, etc. 47. The club manager now has the power to allocate budget toward facility cards that offer unique gameplay attribute boosts. 48. Defining your club identity on the pitch with a facility budget that grows as your club reputation improves facilities, and unlocks the power of club reputation, providing a tangible benefit for building long-term success with your club. 49. Each of the 20 to 30 facility cards comes with a one-star, two-star, or three-star variant each providing a unique attribute benefit to impact all the human members of the club and not the AI. 50. The options available to the club manager add a whole new level of importance to that manager's role within the club. Do you spend your budget on a two-star shooting coach and some finishing nets to increase the finishing of all your club mates? Or maybe you opt for a three-star weight room to maximize everyone's strength. 51. A dynamic clubhouse screen, complete with your team's colours and crest, now shows you and your teammates appear in the changing room as you arrive online for your next match. 52. You'll be able to customise your avatar in far greater detail than ever before, thanks to EA Sport Cranium, new facial sculpting tech that allows for much more variety in player models. 53. Women's teams are available to manage for the first time ever in career mode. Five major leagues are included, as well as the Women's Champions League. Both men's and women's clubs can be managed within a single career mode save. 54. Live Start Points will allow you to start a career save from a real-life point in the upcoming season. For example, taking charge of a struggling, injury-hit Chelsea at Christmas and helping them avoid the drop through the rest of the season. 55. Live Start Points can be started in 11 of the top leagues in football and also take in the state of six major cup competitions. 56. Players can now be trained to gain familiarity with certain roles brought in with FC IQ. You can teach Haaland the movement skills of a false nine, for example, if you want him to fit more naturally into Pep's Man City system. 57. Over 90 countries have been added to scouting, meaning over 160 nations can now be looked at for the next big talent. 58. Youth players now look more like men (or boys) of their age and will grow older over time, get taller, and gain facial hair, etc. 59. You can now play matches with your youth development players, but only in the Rush mode against other youth teams. These are tournaments that happen every two months and consist of three matches each. 60. You can choose to play with these youth players at their current overall rating or their projected full potential, just to see what they might be like 10 years down the road. 61. Social media transfer guru Fabrizio Romano has made his way into the in-game social feed to announce signings made in career mode. Get ready to be absolutely sick of seeing the words "Here we go". 62. You can now start a player career save as one of a few select Icons. At launch, you can choose from Andrea Pirlo, Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Theirry Henry, and Kelly Smith. Those who pre-order will also gain access to Zinedine Zidane, David Beckham, and Ronaldo (the better, Brazilian one). More Icons will be delivered to career mode throughout the season and you can play with them at any club of your choosing. Eusebio at Grimsby Town is no longer the dream it may once have been. 63. There are three new ways to start a player career, thanks to origin stories. These backstories start you at different points in a player's life and include the pressures of being the child of a legend, someone bursting onto the scene from the streets, and a player coming back from a serious injury. 64. There's more action than ever on the touchline as sideline moments are cut to during the match broadcast. These can be extended celebrations, or perhaps Mikel Arteta and his subs getting annoyed at yet another act of perceived injustice. 65. For the first time ever, FC 25 will offer graphics mode options that can be switched between, but both offer 60fps. 66. The default is Enhanced Visuals mode offers enhanced lighting, including ray tracing, and graphic details, and will upscale to 4K resolution. 67. Favour Resolution mode uses the standard lighting setup, but renders at native 4K. 68. Time will progress throughout the course of a match. You may start a game as the sun is setting, but end it under a pitch-black sky. 69. More POV angles will be built into the broadcast this time around. These short cutscenes may play before corners, penalties, and kick-offs. 70. Sizzle montages remain before games, but now you have the option to opt in and watch a full match intro if you really want to build the atmosphere before a big game. 71. The previously mentioned EA Sports Cranium tech has allowed generic faces to mostly become a thing of the past. Now players who haven't had an official scan put into the game still look a little like their real-life counterparts. And those are 71 exciting things coming to EA FC 25. We'll have plenty more about the beautiful game coming to IGN over the next few months.