REVIEW: EA FC 25 features one of the biggest changes to the franchise in years, but familiar issues remain

Some welcome changes have been made, but fans will recognise familiar faults

This is the first EA football game I've played in a couple of years, and after an extended break from the franchise, FC 25 feels both strikingly different and predictably familiar to the games of the past.

More tactical control in EA FC 25 than ever before

Let's start with the biggest change: tactics. FC 25's marquee addition is its new FC IQ. Using a new AI model, powered by real-world data, the tactics of individual players can be altered and tailored through all-new Player Roles.

So, along with being able to control team-wide aspects such as pressing intensity and build-up play, you can also decide the playing styles of individuals.

For example, you can tell your full-backs to come into midfield, keep your striker high and central, order your midfield enforcer to sit deep.

This gives players the opportunity for almost-infinite variety. You could come up against an opposition with the same formation and players, but if they've tailored the individual Player Roles for each player and you haven't, you'll notice the difference.

You can set up four different pre-set tactical styles that you can switch to mid-game. The days of simply switching from balanced to ultra-attacking if you were losing - or ultra-defending if you were winning - are long gone.

Meanwhile, there are some new game modes to enjoy. The new 5v5 Rush mode is chaotic fun where you team up with three others, all controlling your own individual player.

You can build your dream 5-a-side squad in Ultimate Team™ Rush, take on the world in Clubs Rush, and control your Manager Career Youth Academy in 5v5 Rush tournaments.

There are also some welcome additions to Career Mode. Using the Rush game mode, you can develop your youth squad in-house, nurturing them from academy to first team.

Women's Career Mode has also been added to the game, and FC IQ means you can really tailor the tactics of your side to an unprecedented level.

And, of course, FC 25 is beautiful, with unmatched graphics and realism. Playing a match feels like your watching a TV broadcast. There's real-time stats, replays of goals from the point of view of the scorer, pundits interviewing players pitch-side, managers celebrating, and some nice touches like players celebrating goals with mascots or fans even making it onto the pitch if a last-minute winner goes in.

EA FC 25's gameplay remains a janky issue

So that's the good stuff. But this is an EA football game - and you can tell.

Ultimately, the gameplay still has familiar issues.

As I said at the start, I haven't played either of the last two iterations of EA FC. But within minutes, my blood pressure rose as I recognised depressingly familiar frustrations with the gameplay.

Janky, laggy, sluggish, call it want you want - defending is slow, and pace remains king

It just feels like defenders are a second behind everything else, slow to react when you switch to them, tackling just a fraction after you actually want them to.

The focus is on attack in FC 25, and defence feels like it was an after-thought. You don't get the sense that your defence is playing as a unit.

Switching players felt frustrating, sometimes having to cycle through two or three players before I finally controlled the one I wanted, by which point your opponents away from you.

The first goal I conceded in an online game was an own-goal, as my keeper made a save only to see the ball ricochet into the empty net off a tracking-back defender. Seasoned players of FIFA/EA FC will know the exact sort of own goal I mean.

There are still glitches. Commentary sometimes has nothing to do with what happened on the pitch, celebrating players will sometimes just run into the net, and every now and again the whole pitch will go pink.

I remember these being issues in the game 10 years ago. They remain in the year of 2024.

And if you're hoping for some exciting developments to the jewel in EA's crown, Ultimate Team, it's bad news - it's almost identical to FC 24. I don't need to go into the details of the micro-transaction cash-cow of Ultimate Team. We all know its issues, but the popularity of this monolithic game mode will remain.