EA Sports activities FC 24: hands-on preview of the brand new FIFA

We’ve had a preview of the brand new recreation’s options and hands-on play, and EA’s FIFA alternative seems and feels prepared for its place in gaming’s premier division.

The strategy is shifting barely, with EA pushing that EA Sports activities FC could have a much bigger give attention to innovation than the previous FIFA. But there’s not a lot in FC 24 that’s going to startle the horses or remodel the way in which you play console soccer. As a substitute, it takes what was nice about final yr’s FIFA 23, however pushes the motion and realism to a complete new degree.

Does EA Sports activities FC 24 nonetheless have actual gamers?

Sure. EA has made key offers internationally of males’s and girls’s soccer, with rights to greater than 19,000 gamers, 700 groups, 100 stadiums, and 30 leagues.

All the important thing groups and gamers needs to be in there, together with the Premier League, the EFL Championship, League One and League Two, Scotland’s Cinch Premiership, and the Barclays Ladies’s Tremendous League.

We’re a great distance away from the West London Blues and Yorkshire Whites of the older Professional Evolution Soccer video games.

Does EA Sports activities FC 24 nonetheless look and play like FIFA?

It does on the floor, however there’s loads of new tech behind the scenes, and it makes an actual distinction to the way in which the sport seems and performs. The place the FIFA video games relied on motion-captured information from footballers enjoying in a studio, EA Sports activities FC 24 makes use of a brand new system — Hypermotion V — that captures movement and animation from video of real-world matches, shot by cameras positioned across the pitch.

EA Sports activities claims this has enabled them to seize super-realistic animation from the world’s greatest gamers enjoying on the highest degree, utilizing information from greater than 180 totally different matches, then use AI to convey that movement immediately into the sport.

Which means much more selection within the animations and extra genuine, plausible digital variations of particular gamers, with the AI studying how, say, Erling Haaland pumps his arms when he runs, then making use of that very same movement to his in-game mannequin. Similar cope with Sam Kerr’s post-goal acrobatics. What’s extra, EA Sports activities FC 24 combines this with new know-how that makes use of much more motion-captured information to simulate the majority and motion of gamers’ muscle groups, and even how the material of their package flows and ripples throughout play.

This doesn’t simply imply that FC 24 seems higher in these essential close-up replays, however that its digital gamers now have their real-world physiques, giving Adama Traoré his intimidating bulk as he tears proper by your midfield. You’ll be able to recognise Haaland or Mbappé by their construct and run alone, with out having to verify the participant identify within the nook of the display screen.

These modifications aren’t superficial, as FC 24 goes even greater on the reasonable bodily interactions between gamers that we noticed in FIFA 23. When there’s an interception, a sliding sort out, or a collision over the ball, issues can get messy quick, and you could take into consideration the way you make house for that run, or the way you cease a rushing striker breaking by. It’s typically onerous to retain possession, however equally onerous to steal the ball. Tough or dangerous challenges have a tendency to finish in a yellow card.

FIFA 23 set a excessive bar for in-game graphics, however EA Sports activities FC seems even nearer to real-life soccer, and in addition provides extra dynamic pre-match intros and post-match sequences to construct up a correct match-day environment. You’ll be able to even see post-match interviews and pundits speaking to the digicam whilst you work by the menus.

How else does EA Sports activities FC 24 transfer on from FIFA 23?

Past all that motion-captured animation, EA Sports activities FC 24 is all in regards to the play kinds. EA Sports activities has labored with OPTA — a specialist in sports activities information analytics — to determine the important thing traits of the world’s main gamers, and put them straight into the sport.

You’ll be able to see this in motion in the way in which {that a} participant like Mbappé can create their very own house after which pace by defenders, holding onto the ball as they cost in direction of objective. The highest gamers even have their very own signature Play Type Plus to present them the benefit once they’re intercepting, passing, or dribbling — or simply blasting the ball into the web.

Total, FC 24 feels rather a lot like FIFA 23, however with new instruments you should use that will help you energy by the opposition, or cease them dominating on the pitch. Should you had been apprehensive that EA Sports activities may attempt to repair what wasn’t damaged, don’t.

Does EA Sports activities FC 24 nonetheless have Final Group?

EA wasn’t going to ditch its massively profitable dream team-building recreation mode, and EA Sports activities FC provides a brand new layer of depth. For the primary time, gamers can select the way to improve and evolve their favorite soccer stars, constructing their abilities and attributes to benefit from their potential — and be sure that their Harry Kane or Neymar received’t play fairly like anybody else’s. You’ll be able to even assign them their very own Play Type strikes.

What’s extra, they received’t appear to be anybody else’s, both, with extra beauty upgrades and branded objects, plus much more for stadiums, with hearth cannons and lightweight banks so as to add drama to these massive match occasions. Evidently, EA Sports activities might be betting on gamers forking out massive bucks to get these must-have upgrades.

In the meantime, ladies’s groups make their Final Group debut, and you may even create your personal mixed-sex squads. To assist this occur, club-based chemistry works throughout each males’s and girls’s groups in the identical membership. There’s an actual sense with EA Sports activities FC 24 that girls’s soccer isn’t an afterthought, however a core element of the sport.

What different modes can we count on?

There’s no phrase of any story mode this yr, however FC 24 nonetheless has the traditional Participant and Supervisor profession modes, they usually get their very own massive updates. Managers now get coaches that convey new tactical or abilities boosts to groups and gamers, together with a brand new system of ‘tactical visions’ that change how your staff works collectively on the pitch. You may also now put together for particular person matches by choosing drills designed to counter an opponent’s strengths or exploit their weaknesses.

In the meantime, the Participant profession mode is all about changing into the best you might be, with brokers to information you in your transfers and your contracts, and a brand new profession path with goals you could prioritise whilst you’re on the market on the pitch.

Lastly, the multiplayer Golf equipment mode returns with added cross-play, in order that gamers enjoying on totally different consoles can work collectively to construct a profitable staff. Six-week-long league seasons ought to maintain the competitors fierce all year long, and there are extra instruments to stamp your personal identification in your membership, together with stadium and package customisations. And, should you favor a extra informal model of on-line footie, the Volta avenue soccer 5 vs 5 mode can also be again.

So, is EA Sports activities FC 24 principally FIFA 24 with a special model identify? In a method, but it surely additionally appears like a recreation that’s discovering new methods to shake up console soccer. If FIFA 23 noticed the previous collection leaving the pitch on a excessive, FC 24 comes off the bench raring to go, and desirous to tackle FIFA’s mantle.