EA FC 24 Brings New Features but Keeps its Essence.
Focusing on club football, EA FC 24 brings a handful of new features with Ultimate Team and HypermotionV as its cornerstones. The game comes out on September 29.
EA FC 24 is the direct successor to FIFA 23. Many were speculating if EA would pay the consequences of not renewing its license with FIFA, however, the game will not suffer regarding teams and leagues appearing in the game.
The new and upcoming football game goes beyond a simple name change, it follows on the solid foundation that FIFA 23 laid in terms of gameplay and technologies implemented like HyperMotion.
EA's Vice President, David Jackson boasted that the game will feature more than seven hundred teams playing accross more than thirty leagues in more than one hundred stadiums. All the big names are there: The Premier League, La Liga, the Bundesliga, Ligue 1, and despite not having all the licenses for Italian teams, the Serie A is present.
Teams like Manchester City, Real Madrid, PSG, and more will appear across the different leagues, and will compete for European glory in the UEFA Champions League.
We also saw teams like Boca Juniors fully featured with the iconic Bombonera and many more. Unfortunately, nothing was mentioned about the Brazilian league which has featured generic players in recent years.
Despite this, the Copa Libertadores will be fully licensed and the Brazilian teams in it will have their real rosters present.
Players will still feature likenesses, and HyperMotionV paired with Play◆Styles will make their movements even more realistic than ever. Each player has a unique running style, each one excels in various aspects like dribbling, shooting, defending, and much more.
HyperMotionV
The V stands for Volumetric. EA will collect volumetric data from more than 180 top tier matches from competitions like the Champions League, the Premier League, and La Liga to recreate authentic player motions.
During the presentation, we saw how EA implemented HyperMotionV to recreate Haaland's acrobatic goal against Dortmund during the 2022 UEFA Champions' League group stage match.
During the presentation, they mentioned that they will be able to recreate new motions within weeks of it happening during the ongoing seasons. For instance, Vinicius could score a majestic goal with Real Madrid in La Liga, and HyperMotion V technology will be able to fully recreate his movements and finishing, adding them to the ones already present.
Looks like EA FC 24 will be getting consistent updates and seamlessly improve the gameplay's realism without much hassle. HyperMotion is certainly one of the best technological advancements made by EA and it has set the base for future iterations.
Ultimate Team: Revamped
Ultimate team will feature 3 main changes: Player Evolution, Play◆Styles, and Womens' Football.
Player Evolution
Ultimate Team Evolutions will allow you to upgrade your squad players in a comparable way eFootball already does it. This means that you can get any player and upgrade his/her stats and OVR.
You can choose players that fit the Evolutions criteria and complete a set of objectives to improve their individual skills
This is an attempt from EA to keep players' squads varied and not force them to acquire meta players like Mbappe or Donnaruma.
Play◆Styles
EA says that PlayStyles go "beyond overall ratings, allowing you to build your squad based on your knowledge of the players." This means that you must play the likes of Vinicius close to the touch line and try to run inside the box.
PlayStyles+ will let you know the strengths of each player so you will play them accordingly. Players like Benzema are good at moving outside the box, so why would you play him as a target man inside the box?
Women's Football
The game will feature new ICONs and Heroes, pioneers of the women’s game. Top tier and legend female football players are now available on FUT. It is a peculiar addition but considering it's a video game, this sort of thing is plausible.
It will be fun to see players have a mix of men and women's football players in their squads.
What about Career Mode?
Looks like the changes for Career Mode this year are marginal, EA's official website only mentions 'new training features'.
Other improvements worth mentioning
Among the many improvements, EA FC 24 will feature the major women's football leagues like Liga F in Spain, NWSL in the US, the D1 Arkema in France, and of course the Barclays Women’s Super League in Britain.
Clubs and Volta will feature same-gen cross-play. There are some changes in the season's structure; you will now have to make it to the playoffs if you want to lift the trophy. Another change is that Play◆Styles can be used for your Pro, giving you more realistic player development, and more customization than ever.
Frostbite implements SAPIEN, which will provide more realistic player models, and even their kits will ripple and move.
Another thing worth mentioning is that if you play the game before November 1, you will be part of EA's FC Founder, the main feature is that you will be able to unlock benefits throughout EA FC 24.
Wake me up when September ends
It is still a long way to go until the end of September, the game comes out on the 29th, or 7 days earlier if you pre-ordered the Ultimate Edition. On the meantime, you can check the gameplay trailer.
What do you think of EA FC 24? Does it meet your expectations? Are you getting the Ultimate Edition? Let me know in the comments below.
Happy gaming.
