During my first kick off for EA Sports FC 24, I was sending a text message. This process - essential when you’re cramming a quick Manchester City vs Paris St Germain match in when you should be looking at spreadsheets - isn’t the best way to play a game, but sometimes it’s what happens.
However, such is the depth of the game’s improvements to defensive AI over the last few years, PSG was unable to score against me, even when I was looking solely at my screen, my midfielder twiddling his thumbs while I failed to twiddle my sticks. I can write a lot about how the game nails the football, but EA has been making stellar football games since the 90s, and this isn’t really any different.
The shots feel supersonic, tackles land with a crunch and there’s a sense of kineticism to the long dribbling runs up the wing that makes even the most boring play feel vital and essential. But of course it does, EA has basically just remade FIFA 18 here, the same as they always do. Getting the football to work isn’t the challenge, the challenge was always about making EA Sports FC 24 feel like FIFA without the branding.
Here, EA has scored the winner. Most of the differences apparent in this early playtest are aesthetic: Erling Haaland (somehow only rated as an 88 Overall after a season trolling the best football teams in the world like a create-a-character with his values artificially inflated) looks just like the towering Norwegian, using his immense physicality to pressure even PSG’s world-class team.
This match takes place in the Champions League, complete with Tony Britten’s iconic theme which adds a weight to events, but as soon as you score you feel the work the developers have put in. The noise swells in the stadium and the crowd jumps to its feet, the camera shakes as those around it start kicking off, and we’re treated to a slow shot of Pep Guardiola somehow surprised that City is winning yet another match.
Digitized City fans start chanting what feels like the most sanitized Man City chant of all time, but there’s no doubt that I’m definitely playing as City here. Earlier Pro Evo titles managed to make certain players recognizable just from the way they moved, but EA Sports FC 24 has gone a long way to ensuring that this feels like you’re actually at a match.
As a lifelong West Ham fan, it seems unlikely the chants will ever stretch to West Ham’s level, but if they do I’m not sure they will include a recent fan-favorite song involving Dani Dyer, and it seems much more likely that they will, instead, opt for a safer “I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles.”
Still, is it enough? Liquid football and shiny presentation carried FIFA this far, but it would be nice to see a little more from EA for this grand relaunch that isn’t just buzzworded systems that largely equate to making the football feel a little more like football.
Either way, EA Sports FC 24 is shaping up to be yet another solid football game from EA. We haven’t yet got to see Ultimate Team in action, which will no doubt be another loot box promoting tool to make EA megabucks, but the actual football feels as sublime as ever, and you have to wonder if FIFA President Gianni Infantino might be kicking himself a bit after his recent statements claiming that the new FIFA games would be the best egame for any girl or boy.
EA Sports FC 24 will release on September 29 for PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Xbox One.
