EA Sports FC 25 Features Preview

This past weekend I had the privilege of having access to EA’s upcoming soccer title, EA Sports FC 25. Coming off the success of the 2024 Euros DLC, EA has a lot in store planned for FC 25 so let’s dive right into it, starting with the official trailer reveal featuring the new cover athlete, Jude Bellingham:

As is par the course for EA, their initial insight into their upcoming release is more of a sizzle trailer than one that provides actual insight into what the game will be like. CGI cutscenes with visuals that you’ll never see while actually playing the game is the only real takeaway that we see here, and it’s certainly not something that will get anyone hyped. Thankfully, there was more information provided so we’ll start with the core of every sports game, gameplay.

Gameplay Updates

The big headline catchphrases this year in FC 25 are FC IQ and Rush, and while information on Rush is under embargo until August, there’s plenty of information to share regarding FC IQ and how it feeds into the core gameplay.

Before we get into this year’s release, it’s important to take a step back and revisit what’s been at the core of EA’s gameplay since 2022, HyperMotion. As every release since 2022 has seen an evolution of HyperMotion, this year it’s all about “Volumetric Capture” that fuels the engine behind FC IQ. Through HyperMotion Volumetric, EA was able to grab real-world animations through its video capture technology placed in real-world stadiums across Europe. In their words, EA states that they were able to add ~1.2 billion frames of animation that will help to drive individual player personality, something that is/was lacking in FIFA/EA FC games for years.

It’s interesting to note that EA, through its partnership with OPTA, is the only football game producer that has access to real-life data that goes hand-in-hand in working towards creating authenticity, whether that be tactics or player personality. Additionally, through new technology called “MIMIC” they were able to capture full-body data when compared to last year when they were only able to capture upper body player models. According to EA, this new MIMIC technology was used to scan 1,800 players including 200 from the various women’s leagues.

Simulation Mode

If there’s one thing the offline/career mode have requested for years it’s been the addition of a simulation mode that separates the competitive folks from those who enjoy a more realistic approach to the game. Unfortunately for us offline players, there wasn’t too much information given about this mode, but the developers did mention that it will result in a more dynamic AI that utilizes tactics based off pre-match and in-game situations. This means that you could play Liverpool 10 times and have a different experience each time in terms of how the game plays out.

Additional tidbits were provided such as weather effects having an impact, which could see your players slip when playing passes (no penalty for the pass however) as well as the mode having a more deliberate and slower pace. This feature is one we’ll definitely have our eyes on as we near release.

PlayStyles

Introduced last year for FC 24, PlayStyles were touted as one of the major updates and influences on gameplay. While we spent the better part of a year figuring out how they impacted the game, EA was spending time behind the scenes working towards this year’s release and how it ties into HyperMotion and the newly touted FC IQ (more on this later).

HyperMotion > PlayStyles > FC IQ

While EA was a little coy thus far on if there will be new ones for outfield players, they did mention that there are few one new PlayStyles for keepers:

1. Footwork
2. Rush out
3. Deflector
4. Cross claimer
5. Far throw
6. Far reach

FC IQ

We’ll get back into gameplay additions later, but for now it’s important to talk about FC IQ. Simply put, FC IQ is a complete rework of the tactics system aimed at bringing us the most realistic experience to date. While there have been some tweaks to the tactical system over the years, FC IQ is being hailed as a major overhaul that trickles into how the gameplay will evolve when combined with HyperMotion Volumetric, among other additions. This year, EA focused their FC IQ efforts into two areas:

1. On-the-ball
2. Off-the ball

Hardly groundbreaking I know, but nonetheless realistic as managers will often deploy two basic sets of tactics/instructions: what you do with and without the ball while transitioning between them (think counter-attacks and defending them).

At the heart of FC IQ are player roles, with EA touting 50 unique roles and combinations. For example, we have the following roles:

• Goalkeeper – Traditional & Sweeper Keeper
• Fullback -Traditional, Falseback (inverted), Wingback, Attacking Wingback
• Centerback – Defender, Stopper, Ball-Playing
• Center Midfielder – Box-to-Box, Holding, Deep-Lying Playmaker, Playmaker, Half-Winger
• Defensive Midfielder – Holding, Center Half, Deep-Lying Playmaker
• Wide Midfielder – Winger, Wide Midfielder, Wide Playmaker, Inside Forward
• Attacking Midfielder – Playmaker, Shadow Striker, Half-Winger
• Winger – Winger, Inside Forward, Wide Playmaker
• Striker – Advance Forward, Poacher, False 9, Target Forward

Each role has been powered by EA’s partnership with OPTA, which supplies EA with the data for their player role models. Player roles are now comprised of the aforementioned roles as well as the player personality as described by EA as:

HyperMotion + OVR + PlayStyles + Player Roles

Inside of each role is “Role Familiarity” which is how familiar your player is with the role you have assigned. For example, if you assign the “Poacher” role to your striker, the player will need to be familiar with that role in order for you to get the best out of them.

Role familiarity is comprised of four elements and can be trained:

1. Role (base) – The player can play in the role
2. Role+ – The player is accomplished in the role
3. Role++ – The player is World Class in that role
4. Out of Position – The player is not familiar with that role and is thus “out of position”

Each role has pros and cons, with you having the ability to change the focus of the role (aka changing it to “Attacking” or “Defensive”).

Put together, these player roles feed into team tactics, again powered through the data provided by OPTA to hopefully deliver real world playing style and unique gameplay experiences. Furthermore, these new player roles and tactics come with an “Activity Map” to show you what areas of the pitch the role will primarily occupy (again powered by OPTA heat maps).

Team tactics are supposed to simplify all of these features and display it in a way that easy to navigate and ultimately map it to the D-pad so you can manually trigger tactics throughout the course of a match without having to pause the game. Lastly, when it comes to tactics, there will be a code system to give players the ability to share tactics with each other, a huge plus for roster makers.

Dribbling

Now on to some of the new gameplay features we’ll see in FC 25, starting with some tweaks to dribbling, specifically turning and the lack of responsiveness we experienced in EA FC 24. This year, EA is touting new refined left-stick (LS) dribbling, cleaning up some of the animations that can result in unnatural changes of momentum. Whether or not this cuts down on the player skating is still yet to be determined from the early footage I’ve seen, but it looks to be an improvement upon last year.

Professional Foul

Pep Guardiola’s fingerprints are all over the modern game and have found their way into FC 25 via the professional foul because no one loves an attack-stopping foul more than the current Man City gaffer. Using the RB+A command (R1 + X on PlayStation), you can now stop attacks dead in their tracks, but just know that if you successfully pull this off you will see a yellow card. While this isn’t a game-enhancing innovation, it’s nonetheless a nice feature to have.

Passing Accuracy Revamp

This is one new feature we’ve heard about before (only to be disappointed with it not being strong enough in the game), but EA has highlighted it so it’s worth mentioning. EA FC/FIFA is one of the most patched sports games out so this could change as the year goes on, but according to EA there will be more punishment in terms of pass accuracy for playing passes blindly and/or when your body position is out of whack.

Think of all the times you’ve seen another player on the AI play a 180-degree pass perfectly placed to an attacker out wide. Well, supposedly this passing revamp will lessen the accuracy of those passes and force players to think twice about the risk vs. reward of these types of balls.

Player Awareness

Before you get too giddy, let me explain what player awareness updates mean with FC 25. We’re not talking about players being more aware in terms of positioning. We’re specifically talking about players being able to interact better with their environment when it comes to things like ad-boards, goal posts, and so on.

Five New Skill Moves:

For those who like a good skill move, EA has added five new ones to the game:

1. Toe drag step over
2. Big feint
3. Step over ball
4. Heel nutmeg
5. Drag turn

Bottom Line

It’s still early days for FC 25 in terms of information, but if there’s one thing we can’t knock EA for it’s their commitment to providing us with detailed information via their Deep Dive series. So far, insights into updates such as simulation mode and player roles have definitely caught my attention so they’re worth keeping an eye on. From here, make sure you’re locked in as we’ll cover the updates to presentation and modes in future articles.