EA Sports FC 26: Ultimate Edition

EA Sports FC 26’s on-pitch gameplay is the best it's been in a long time, but its overly aggressive Season Pass is also EA at its most money-hungry yet.

EA Sports FC 26 suffers from a few growing pains with its shift to two distinct playstyles, but there are enough improvements throughout to consider it a positive step forward for the long-running series

Phenomenal on-the-pitch gameplay is marred by an awkward UI and lots of faff.

For the majority, however, a new FC game all comes down to Ultimate Team – and this year it's going to prove more divisive than ever. Not, for once, because of its pack-opening mechanic, but those tweaks to gameplay speed, and fatigue, and any hope of smart, sound defensive play. The community has spoken, and EA has answered with all the pace and tricks and goals demanded of it. The move is, in one swoop, both understandable and deflating. Online, FC 26 is categorically not a game for the footballing purist – but how many of them are actually left?

In a franchise that doesn't change much year-to-year, EA Sports FC 26 takes that to the extreme. While it's by default the best football game on the market, and competing at the highest level of Ultimate Team remains enjoyable, we expected a more revolutionary entry. Promoted as the game that would fix years of issues that have plagued players, most of them remain. Cynical changes to Ultimate Team make the mode worse for free-to-play players, and the game's other modes are barely looked at.

By truly dividing the gameplay between two very distinct presets, EA Sports FC 26 is trying to appeal to everybody. The more methodical Authentic toggle will attract offline Career mode tinkerers, who want to work hard for those scrappy 1-0 wins. Meanwhile, the snappier Competitive option is built for online sweats, who want to force their opponents into submission by burying them in goals. Both feel good in their own ways, and when paired with several new features and refinements, you get a flexible game of football that should please everyone – well, aside from those who simply can't jive with the franchise's over-reliance on monetisation.

EA's Switch 2 football debut is a night-and-day difference from its half-hearted Switch one, setting a great precedent for the future of the series. EA Sports FC 26 delivers a fully-featured version of the game, and while it only runs at 30fps and has a gated-off Ultimate Team mode which doesn't tap into the series' larger crossplay community, it still plays a fantastic game of football and offers more game modes than you'll ever know what to do with.

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EA Sports FC 26 promised to address long-standing fan feedback, and to its credit, several key areas are refreshed. The new gameplay presets border on game-changing, and the franchise's impressive authenticity remains unrivalled in the sports video game scene. Sadly, FUT rewards extra player spending more than ever, and the menu design is awful.

Discover the thrilling gameplay, immersive presentation and extensive game modes that make EA SPORTS FC 26 a must-play for soccer fans.