EA Sports FC 24

Yeah, i was going to skip this year. I did put an awful lot of hours into 23 though.

Slower sounds good, put you know by the end of the year they will pander to the pace merchants.

Are the skill moves op this year?

I got this at weekend too, and already on the FUT grind. A few changes to FUT which are nice, like Evolutions where you can evolve a normal card through objectives to make it better. Locked to certain lower rated cards currently. Good in early game, I've evolved Danjuma and Martial. Got this German girl Popp who is high rated, and she is an absolutely deadly striker! 12 goals in 7 matches.

Gameplay-wise I am probably not the best to comment, as an old gen pauper, so probably disregard a lot for PS5 gameplay. But yeah, it seems slower than last year. Some things feel less assisted than in the past now too, and when you look at the settings things like through ball are now 'semi-assisted' or 'manual' now. While stuff like shooting is still assisted, or manual if you want. Defending seems harder, or more skill based perhaps. Timing tackles is now more important, whereas before you just ran into the attacker and it auto tackled. Dribbling seems very good with R1, in between sprints. Skills seem pretty similar to last game I think.

Got Ultimate edition. Played FIFA 23 until the World Cup finished and then didn't touch it until the end of last season.

EAFC is a more slower build up, rewards good passing and movement off the ball. If you hold Run all the time, you can always be cut off.

The Advanced Defending is a good edition. It allows you to keep pace side by side with players, and then time your tackle to win the ball.

I am a little underwhelmed by the lack of SBC's/Objectives but it's very early days. I want my Silver Stars!

Thought I'd give this years PES a try or whatever they're calling it. Fucking hell, I don't know how but the menu's are even worse with more button presses.

There's something off in the gameplay too, kind of feels like a mobile game with a few added bits for console. Every now and again you'll strike the ball and it feels like PES but those moments are pretty fleeting.

I didn't realise there was still a PES. Years ago I would be all over it, reading the pre-release hype etc.

I'm enjoying this new Fifa though. I haven't tried online yet so maybe it is that, but it seems fairly different this year, slower and more like a real game - especially if you try and dribble around players a bit, take a man on, etc.

It's good but the online is abysmal. Given it a fair shake and got to Div 5 last season but every single game is just wing play looking for a cutback from the byline using pacey wide players. There's absolutely no space in the middle of the pitch to play.

Squad battles on World Class has been brilliant for me though. Really nice balance to the AI for once in a football game.

It's absolutely gutting tbh. PES was such great game, foibles and all.

Yeah, cut backs are the sweaty goal of choice, but you can defend them, using 2nd man press (using R2 to press with the 2nd man and use your selected player to cut the easy pass option).

There is a bug for PC players have exploited, where they can hang the game, but you can't quit the game on Console. It locks the menus even when the match has finished, you have to force quit your game and then it registers as a loss, which is massively frustrating.

It's so weird having the teams mixed gender. Not even saying it's a bad thing it's just weird.

Having a bit of a mixed time with it this year, tbh. My team's okay, given that everything is grinded in-game or through SBCs (i.e. no pack buying at all), but I've had really lackluster pulls so far.

I mainly plays Rivals and Squad Battles, as I don't typically have time on the weekend for Champs. Online play is a bit of a mixed bag, as usual: the meta stuff really just begins to make it a slog once you get a bit higher up the divisions, and I effectively lose the same goal every time lol. Squad Battle AI is as awful as ever, possibly even worse this year: I play on Legendary and typically win most by a couple of goals, but there are still those occasions where you can literally feel the DDA kick-in, like a switch has been flicked, and all of your players suddenly feel heavily nerfed while their 55-rated Bronze LB is doing Berba-spins and McGeady-cancels before hitting 35-yard power shots into the top bag

That Rice SBC, btw. I did him after reading so many positive things. He's been such a disappointment for me. Maybe a skill issue, I don't doubt, but his defensive AI and interceptions honesty feel like they are just not activating in the majority of scenarios. Had much better time with either Kimmich or even Tchouamei in the stay-back/cover-centre CM role.

I love Kimmich in this. He is pretty bad on the ball, and I've been caught out a few times waiting for a runner, but his long ball playstyle is amazing and really fun pinging balls to the wings quaterback style. Even better if you can time it with a runner who then gets in on goal. Never leaving my team, and a cheeky full chem link with Neuer.

Picked this up for the eldest at Christmas. Struggling to find a huge amount different to 23 but it's good fun. The refs are bastards though.

Not packed many tbh, only just started a UT. Best one so far is TAA.