The long-running FIFA series of games from EA and I have an interesting history. I began the series with FIFA 13, and continued yearly for four years, skipping FIFA 17, playing FIFA 18 and FIFA 19, skipping 20 and 22, while playing FIFA 21 and 23, and now FC 24. Through that time, I have seen the good and bad times in the globally beloved series, and with all the changes that EA has told us about, I was surprisingly keen to get into EA Sports FC 24 and see exactly if the game lived up to the hype.  

There is a lot to be excited about in this year’s game. Some significant quality-of-life updates, new game-mode features like Playstyles and Evolutions, as well as visual and engine updates involving the Frostbite Engine and HyperMotionV Technology. 

First and foremost, HyperMotionV Technology is employed in FC 24 to give the players the best possible animations on the field. Thousands of hours of real football matches, gathering data about all the players, have allowed EA to give 1200 individual players in Ultimate Team true-to-life movement in-game. What all of this translates to is new ways to play the beautiful game.

New ways to defend, using Advanced Defending to shield the ball or separate an attacking player from the ball without committing to a challenge; new ways to attack and create space, allowing a shot to be taken from a distance or up close. Off-the-ball movement will also benefit from this feature, allowing players to make runs or defend runs more easily.

The Frostbite Engine has been updated in EA Sports FC 24 as well to bring the best visuals the series has seen yet. Seeing things like the kit your players wear changing position or rippling from the wind while running is spectacular, even if it is only really noticeable in close-up camera views. What it also brings is an insane amount of detail when it comes to features on the players themselves. Player models are more lifelike and realistic than ever, and it really shows in goal celebrations and the little cutscenes in the build-up to a corner or penalty kick.  

“We can now freely place a player in any of their available primary or secondary positions, and FC 24 will automatically change them to that position!”

Playstyles and Playstyle+ are brand-new additions to the series in FC 24, and they have the potential to be absolutely game-changing this year. Essentially, a Playstyle, of which there are a whopping 34 available, is an attribute that a player can have that enhances their style of play. For example, Darwin Nuñez has two playstyles: Rapid and Quick Step.

The former allows him to reach a higher sprint speed while dribbling and has a reduced chance of an error when sprinting or performing knock-ons, and the latter allows him to accelerate faster during Explosive Sprint. Playstyle+ is essentially a higher increase to the regular base Playstyle. Both Playstyle and Playstyle+ are available in every game mode except Volta Football. 

As always, when one begins a new sports game, especially an EA game, we are expected to designate our country and favourite club team, and as always, I selected Canada and my beloved Manchester United (GGMU). From there, I jumped right into my preferred game mode: Ultimate Team.  

Like Diamond Dynasty in MLB The Show, Ultimate Team (FUT) is my most played game mode in EA Sports FC 24. I love the team building, using my favourite players, discovering new players and finding out my best playstyle in both an online and offline game mode. I was happy to learn that EA did not change too much to make the mode unrecognizable but managed to change just enough to make it play vastly different.

“Playstyles and Playstyle+ are a brand-new addition to the series in FC 24, and they have the potential to be absolutely game-changing this year.” 

My absolute favourite part of Ultimate Team this year is the inclusion of women players. Team building has just been taken to a whole new level and opened up hundreds of new players to use in your team. Players like Chelsea superstar Sam Kerr, Megan Rapinoe, Fran Kirby, and more can all be used in your Ultimate Team squad alongside their male counterparts. These women and men players will get chemistry similar to last year’s game but will not get league chemistry.

So, for instance, I am currently using Fran Kirby in my team, and she plays for Chelsea in the Women’s Super League in Britain; I also have Enzo Fernandez, who also plays for Chelsea in the Premier League. They both give chemistry to each other through their club affiliation, but not league, despite them both playing in the top division in England.  

Also new in Ultimate Team are Ultimate Team Evolutions. This is a very interesting idea where you can level up a specific player by completing specific tasks with them. Levelling up these players affords you attribute increases, overall card-rating increases, and potentially even Playstyle upgrades. While I was building my team, I needed a striker, so I managed to get Darwin Nuñez in the team and chose him as my first Evolution player. He has now been upgraded significantly and will likely remain my go-to centre-forward unless I somehow manage to acquire Erling Haaland or someone similar.  

Honourable mention to the Ultimate Team quality-of-life upgrades is in squad-building: no longer do we need to get position-change consumables to put players in the correct positions. We can now freely place a player in any of their available primary or secondary positions, and EA Sports FC 24 will automatically change them to that position! 

“I am thoroughly impressed with EA Sports FC 24 so far.”

I have to make a quick mention of the menu system in Ultimate Team, and indeed, the rest of the game. To put it simply, the UI update looks incredible. EA Sports FC 24 looks so much cleaner than past games, making it much easier to navigate to the areas you want to go to. It is a great improvement and saves me from having to go through 3-4 sub-menus to find what I want.

In clubs and Volta Football, there are notable new additions as well, including one that fans of the mode have been begging for: crossplay. That’s right, crossplay is finally in Clubs and Volta Football. Players on current-gen consoles and PC can all play together, and players on last-gen consoles can play together. A new club season, playoff format and club progression system round out the new features for Clubs and Volta Football. I didn’t spend an awful lot of time here, simply because I didn’t have any friends playing EA Sports FC 24, making it a bit of a challenge to dive in as much as I would have liked.  

I am thoroughly impressed with EA Sports FC 24 so far. The new content is spectacular, and while the gameplay remains largely the same (there are still some little annoyances, like making a tackle for the ball and having it fall back to the opponent’s feet three times in a row), there is a lot to be happy about here. Every year, there is a ton of content to consume in this game, and I really hope that EA manages to maintain the momentum of this title throughout the year.