Seasons Mode Has Not Been Fixed In EA Sports FC 25

A new era of 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:EA Sports FC is upon us, and it 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:feels largely like the last era. And the era before that, even though it was called FIFA back then. And so on, and so on. I'm always torn on how big a criticism this really is - EA FC is one of the few games that seems truly born for a live-service model, and yet as someone who is always wary of that approach, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:it feels alien to go to bat for it.

A live-service EA FC would♊ probably be better value for money, but would also likely focus even more on Ultimate Team alone. Then again, seeing how Seasons has been abandoned by EA, I'm not sure that would feel all that different.

There's More To EA FC Than FUT

An image of Jude Bellingham's card in EA Sports FC 25.

I'm a rare breed of FIFA/EA FC player, at least amongst those who regularly post about the game, as I don’t play FUT at all. If my edition came with packs I will dip in, open them, shrug, then never visit it again. It's not that I hate anything new in the game - I gave Volta the best chance I could,ꦿ dipping in every now and then but finding no one online to play with, and I think Rush offers the perfect supercharged EA FC experience. I just find FUT to be pointless (the players are already in༒ the game in all the other modes), and expensive (see above). So I mainly spend my time in Career Mode and Seasons. For better or worse, it's the same as last year.

I'm retracing my steps in Career Mode. Sean Longstaff and Miguel Almiron, once again it's thanks for the memories but time to say goodbye. I finally got the Marc Guehi deal over the line, and as revenge for Elliot ꧒Anderson and Yankuba Minteh, I signed Morgan Gibbs-White and Kaoru Mitoma too. Hello, hello, we are the Geordie Boys. This is my soothing, happy place. For added realism, I tweak the difficulty up when playing The Big Six (well, not Spurs), but mostly it's a chill time building the perfect Newcastle squad on the road to Bruno lifting his first trophy with the Mags.

But I'm not made of stone. EA FC is not entirely a happy place game. Sometimes you want a competitive edge. You want to smell the sweat of your prey, ♊taste it in your throat. You need Joelinton to crash one in the top corner against a real person, as entertaining as it is to see the CPU Mikel Arteta shout obscenities at the fourth off🌺icial in disgust. This is where most people would turn to Ultimate Team, pouring more time and, more importantly, more money into the game in order to compete. But instead, I go to Seasons. And increasingly, it feels like I can't even do that.

Seasons Is Supposed To Have A Wide Array Of Teams

Cole Palmer cold celebration in EA Sports FC 25

Seasons pits you against other real people playing online, using real teams. No cards, no transfers, no assembled squads, just the current roster of whichever team you choose. Newcastle United with Miguel Almiron and without Marc Guehi. There's a general progression system with climbing or dropping leagues depending on how many games you win w𝔍hich acts as pseudo-SBMM, meaning you should always play players who are about as good as you. And, with restrictive matchmaking, you should also play teams who are about as good as you. The problem is this system doesn't work.

It shouldn't be a surprise - it didn't work on EA FC 24 either. Right now, no matter who you choose to 🍬play as, you get matched to a five star team, usually Man City or Real Madrid, who have firmly replaced PSG as the boring go-to for people who find paprika too spicy. I've tried finding games with everyone from my own Newcastle United (four and a half stars) to Wrexham (two stars), and each time was ജmatched with a five star team. I double checked, restrictive matchmaking was active. It just wasn’t working.

I don't think the issue is necessarily that you always match with five star teams, for the record. Right now, as I suspect was the case last year, it's entirely random. But because the vast majority of players use five star teams, that means it's 🐎almost always the random result. In turn, this makes everyone who would otherwise experiment with lower ranked teams pick five star teams because they need to compete.

It takes away what makes Seasons unique. In FUT, a meta forms andღ dictates which players (or at least which sort of players) you pick. In Seasons, you could come up against anyone. Yes, certain teams will lean into meta tactics more, but without the ability to sign new players, no team will be perfect. As Rafa Benitez said, football is a short blanket. Add in the range of ability levels you can play, and it should open you up to a world of possibilities, completely different from the routine of knowing your best eleven and rotating in the cups in Career Mode.

Instead, there's less a meta and more a 'do you know how to play as Man City or Real Ma🎀drid? Do you know how to stop Man City or Real Madrid?' conundrum. If you can figure out a way to say yes to those questions, you have beaten Season Mode. Hurrah. Better players will still win, and there𝐆's some bite to seeing how different teams stack up with the overloaded defensive options of City and massive wealth of attackers at Real, but it has reduced the entire collection of teams down to a simple duo of the last two Champions League winners. Seasons should be the most expansive mode in the game, but yet again, it's the most restrictive, and changes don't seem to be coming.