The new EA Sports FC is here — and there have been some noteworthy changes.

Most video games, particularly those centred around football, are prone to incremental advancements but FC 25 has features that help it stand out from its predecessor, which was EA Sports’ first football simulator since its split from FIFA.

Here The Athletic will run through what’s new in FC 25, as well as the highest-ranked players in the game.

Tactical revamp

A tactical system called ‘FC IQ’ is the headline addition. How you think about tactics and individual player roles is now different.

When deciding your starting line-up, there is a new section that lets you customise your formation, build-up style and defensive approach and the game outlines the pros and cons of each system.

There are three build-up styles: ‘counter’, ‘short passing’ and ‘balanced’. The ‘counter’ approach encourages players to make runs behind the opposition’s defence, ‘short passing’ leads to fewer runs and more support for the ball carrier, and a ‘balanced’ build-up style strikes a middle ground.

Each position has multiple player roles. For example, your wide players could be deployed as a winger, wide playmaker, wide midfielder or inside forward. After you select a player role, you can choose how attacking you want your defenders to be, and vice versa.

The caveat is, you need players suited to the roles. If you take a player who is best suited to being a target man and put him in an advanced forward role, they are not likely to perform well.

In FC 24, you could customise your tactics to an extent, but it was not easy. Now it is straightforward, and most players could pick it up and understand what to do.

The new tactics system will take a few minutes to set up, but you can then create five custom tactical presets to flick between. You can also download tactical presets, which means if there is a notable tactic helping players succeed in the game, it will be easy for you to use too.

The introduction of FC IQ is most likely to be of benefit in game modes like Ultimate Team and Manager Career where you can buy and sell players. In one-off matches, you are restricted by the players on the team you choose to play with, but there is a lot of freedom in the game modes that allow you to revamp your squad.

It is a welcome addition, but not yet a perfect science. There could still be improvements and greater flexibility around set pieces.

Overall, it makes the game feel different from its predecessor, even if the need for speed is still a predominant factor, which brings us on to the next point…

Gameplay

One of the easiest ways to win in most versions of FIFA/EA Sports FC is by having fast players and slower players remain less influential in FC 25, particularly in Ultimate Team.

Rodri is joint-highest-rated player in the game (91/100), but his pace rating is ‘only’ 66. In real life, it probably would not make sense to drop the Spaniard for a player with a lower rating with more pace, but in FC 25, a faster player in a similar role may bring more success in a game mode like Ultimate Team.

On the plus side, the ball movement in FC 25 feels more realistic and a little less robotic and deflections are less predictable, as are opportunities to win a second ball.

Each player feels unique too. The way Cole Palmer dribbles past an opponent is different to how Lionel Messi moves. The same is also true of passing and shooting. An outside-of-the-boot finish from Kylian Mbappe feels different from Kevin De Bruyne’s.

New game modes

In FC 24, there was Volta, a mode where you play a five-vs-five match. But the goals were small and it was difficult to score and it felt like a training exercise.

FC 25 has introduced Rush, which is similar, but the goals are bigger and you play on a normal pitch rather than a random and scenic five-a-side one.

Rush also helps solve a common issue when playing Clubs, a mode that allows individual players to play as one player with a group of friends.

It is still possible to play Clubs in the usual 11-a-side format, but the Rush game mode to Clubs means you can now play five-vs-five.

The issue with the 11-a-side version is if three friends play Clubs, two will occupy one position each and the other will control the remaining nine players, which often leads to disagreements. The five-vs-five version makes that less of a factor.

Rush also uses an AI goalkeeper, so you cannot create a 6ft 7in goalkeeper with the best attributes, making them hard to score against.

If you have played Clubs before, you will know it can get frustrating controlling one player only to never get the ball. Rush means more involvement for each player and, theoretically, fewer disagreements…

Rush is available to play in multiple game modes, including Ultimate Team. That means if you really enjoy playing five-a-side matches, rather than 11-a-side, it will be easier, cheaper and less time-consuming to focus on acquiring five high-value players, rather than 11.

Rush also features blue cards. So if you make a rash challenge, the player will receive a temporary sin bin, rather than being eliminated from the rest of the game.

Those scenic five-a-side pitches which you might expect to see in ‘FIFA Street’ are still present, as there is also a new three-vs-three feature, where you pick three players from a team and compete on a small pitch.

The end result is lots of goals, passes off the wall and a focus on every second counting.

The three-vs-three game mode gives lesser players a realistic chance to win when playing against those far better at the game. The chaos of playing a three-vs-three fixture levels the playing field, because it is essentially a simplified version of a regular match.

Manager career

Getting sacked in Manager Career is not fun, but in FC 25 there is a ‘no sacking’ option, which is excellent news for the bang-average managers among us. You can also make the board lenient or strict.

The scouting system in manager mode is also different, allowing you to scout players for individual roles. There is also a greater focus on youth development and you can play youth fixtures. Sending a scout to a specific area to look for young players adds another dimension to your save beyond just playing or simulating games.

It is possible to play as a women’s team in career mode while in Manager Career for the first time. You can take charge of one of the Women’s Super League teams and use an avatar of one of the 12 WSL managers.

The development plan feature in manager career lets you retrain players to play in a certain role. So if you sign a midfielder you are hoping to deploy in a box-to-box role, but they are not a natural in that position, you can put them on a training plan to help them grow into it.

However, the simulation logic still feels a little bit too random. You can have a strong team full of highly rated players, but when you simulate matches you could still lose or draw against a team with a much lower rating than yours.

Drawing and losing lots of matches you have simulated that you might expect to win is an area that could be improved. A team of players all rated 85/100 should, in theory, be beating most teams they face if a match is a simulated, but that is not always the case.

Conclusion

When reviewing a game like FC 25, which releases a new version every year, I always ask two key questions: are there notable changes and, if so, have they resulted in better gameplay?

The changes in FC 25 make the game feel different from older versions, but they are not seismic. The new tactics system is fun and superior to before, but the core fundamentals of the game remain similar to FC 24.

Overall, FC 25 is more realistic, there is more customisation and, most importantly, it is a more enjoyable experience (that is until I get ahead of myself, turn off that ‘no sacking’ rule and have to rethink my priorities once again).

The top 25 highest-rated men’s players

The top 25 highest-rated women’s players

(Top image and all images and screengrabs: EA Sports)