EA Sports FC 26 or EA Sports FC 25.5?
EA Sports FC 26 arrives as we’ve just entered the new season. A new year of total non-stop footballing action. Having to play with your favourite teams, along with a new game, is something that football and EA Sports FC fans get excited about. Now, we’ve just gotten through with last month’s beta, and it was plagued with bugs and glitches.
However, it was a beta. Therefore, it’s somewhat fair to give them the benefit of the doubt. On the flip side, with the amount of problems the beta has, how much do you think can be fixed within a month before it’s official release?
Well, now that EA Sports FC 26 is officially here, we can find out together. As a long-term fan of the franchise, I’m also eager to play the game, as well as try out some of its new mechanics and features. But, how many new changes and improvements have they made?
EA Sports FC 26 is said to have made changes, but how many of those changes will genuinely improve your virtual football gaming experience? Without boring you to death by addressing every single addition they’ve made. Instead, I’ll only mention the ones that I believe would matter the most.
The first notable change in EA Sports FC 26 is the authentic vs competitive gameplay presets that determine which gameplay you get based on what mode you’re playing in. So, for example, if you’re playing online modes such as Pro Clubs or Ultimate Team, you’ll be given the competitive gameplay, which features a faster and more arcade-like gameplay.
If you’re playing in offline modes such as manager mode, you’ll be given the brand-new, authentic gameplay. The matches, player movement, animations, and so on are much slower for a more realistic presentation to drag you much closer to the sensation of being in an actual football match.
The passing in EA Sports FC 26 has gotten better. The responsiveness, one frame passing, and so on have made passing much better, and you have much more control over your passing than before. This is especially important because previously, it was a challenge to pass, as EA had made it harder to pass with the last few titles, emphasizing accurate passing. Now, they’ve included a mechanic to handle that. It’s nice that they’ve finally fixed their own mistake.
Dribbling has become much more realistic with their apparent overhaul of mechanics for dynamic dribbling. With this overhaul, it’s easier for players who choose to move and dribble with the left analog stick. Moreover, it’s easier to stop, change directions, and get past defenders.
In EA Sports FC 26, you can place more trust in your goalkeepers, as they’ve become a lot more competent than last year. The goalkeepers are now more likely to save shots, including in 1v1 situations. On top of that, it’ll be more difficult for your goalkeeper to concede many goals. Likewise, you’ll have to perform much better if you want to overcome your opponent’s goalkeeper and score more goals.
EA Sports FC hasn’t done much to change or improve its content. Their content is almost the same as last year’s EA Sports FC 25 and the year before that, EA Sports FC 24. The large majority of my playtime in EA Sports FC titles was spent in the manager career mode. Going through the experience of a football manager is something I love doing.
And every year, I hope that they’d improve on this mode drastically. But, unfortunately, they’ve not done so in EA Sports FC 26. This new variant, called ‘Live manager’, features challenges for you to complete in a set time to obtain rewards. You get to select a custom or authentic manager to kickstart your career.
Then you select one of three available jobs. All of which have their own objectives, restrictions, requirements, and rewards. Let me give you an example. One of the challenges is called ‘off to a flyer’. I have to start the season strongly by winning five matches in the Starting League.
I’ve been set several restrictions, such as no quick simulation, cannot use Tactical View, cannot Create Your Club, cannot use Attacking Highlights, and more. One of the conditions I’ve been given is that I can only sign players on loan and not permanent deals. I can use an authentic club or with ICONS and Heroes.
But with the authentic clubs, I can only use the authentic clubs that are available in this challenge. Real Madrid, Tottenham, Chelsea, and more. If I complete this challenge, I’ll be rewarded with the USA national team’s retro shirt. With all that said, this isn’t very impressive. Although some of the challenges are immersive, and in my opinion, most of the rewards you could potentially earn aren’t worth the grind.
I’d much rather stick to playing the original version of manager mode, where your only goal is to take your team to glory. By the way, there seems to be a brand new feature in the original version that I like. If you were to select an official team at any point in the real-life season, you can be taken straight to their most recent match and kick off the season from there.
Right now, as I’m writing this review, it’s the early access release of EA Sports FC 26. And on this day, I’ve selected to play as Arsenal. Their most recent match was a Champions League clash against the La Liga team and 2023 Europa League winners, Sevilla, on September 16, 2025. I had the option to aim straight to that match and day to day.
On top of that, Arsenal’s previous real-life results, league standings, injuries, and so on in the current 2025/26 season are also in the game, and you can carry on from there. It’s all a part of EA’s gimmick to produce a real-life, authentic footballing gaming experience, and I like it. This should’ve been a thing years ago, but it’s better late than never, right?
EA Sports FC 26 is definitely fun to play, and the inclusion of new mechanics has made the virtual footballing experience much better and less of a headache. However, the changes mentioned above are just about the only things you could argue hold any ounce of significance.
The lack of noticeable changes and/or improvements in content is a significant concern. Other than the few new mechanics and this new feature in manager mode, there isn’t much else in terms of content to write home about.
To make things worse, although the visuals are great, the performance is not. I’ve noticed some frame drops here and there, and I have a Ryzen 7 9800x3d and RTX 5080 gaming rig. Also, I’d experience game crashes at certain times, especially when I’m about to enter a match. I tried restarting my PC, but it didn’t come to any avail.
EA needs to address this soon. I don’t think EA Sports FC 26 is worth getting right now. Fun to play, gameplay is better, but it still feels more like a patch for EA Sports FC 25 rather than a brand new, refreshing instalment.
