FC 25 is one of the most anticipated sports games of 2024, and Ultimate Team is by far its most popular game mode, so it's easy to see why players couldn't wait for the FC 25 Ultimate Team Deep Dive.
The FC 25 Ultimate Team Deep Dive gave players a look at the new features coming to the mode, and what EA Sports did to make the mode more enjoyable.
Unfortunately, that wasn't a lot, and this is one of the most underwhelming Ultimate Team Deep Dives ever!
A Copy Paste Game Mode
As mentioned above, the FC 25 Ultimate Team Deep Dive was underwhelming, not introducing a single feature that players can truly get excited about, and that will make the mode more immersive, or enjoyable.
Rush is the main feature of FC 25 Ultimate Team, and even though it has some interesting aspects, it's pretty much a re-skin of the Volta mode. Furthermore, Rush is a mode that appeals much more to Clubs players, than the Ultimate team player base.
Most Ultimate Team players will play the game mode a couple of times, and then they will go back to grinding Rivals for the rewards and the Fut Champions points. Rush will become an afterthought a few weeks after FC 25 is released, at least for most Ultimate Team Players.
But it's still a new game mode, so let's give them that. EA Sports introduced a new game mode that allows Ultimate Team players to have fun with their friends and also earn some rewards in the process. Not bad.
The problem is that pretty much everything else that was added to Ultimate Team feels like something we could have got in an update, with some of these "new features" being laughable.
A Whole Lot of Nothing!
This deep dive also introduced FC IQ, which allows you to have "greater control over your team's strategy, both on and off the ball", which is basically an update to custom tactics. That is also the case for player roles, which just feel like a slight update to the player instructions feature.
According to EA Sports, player roles will "guide the way players think and behave on the pitch, resulting in more authentic tactical intelligence and movement off the ball". Wasn't that what the player instructions feature was for?
As part of FC IQ, we also have the Manager Presets, which means manager cards now come with their tactical presets, making it easier to emulate their style of play.
While this is a new feature, it's not groundbreaking, nor does it feel it will have a huge impact on the game. Although it will be funny to see how your team plays under Sean Dyche.
Evos card will be less restrictive, which is good, but what really matters is that you can now customize the card, so you can play with your red Evo Bellingham, which I'm sure is what every Ultimate team player really wanted.
The cherry on top of the cake was that EA Sports FC finally heard the community, and is making some huge changes, changes the community has been asking for five years or more. But hey, better late than ever.
Player contracts were removed, a storage system for duplicate cards was added, the Rivals rewards system was updated, and relegation is back.
These are great news, but they aren't huge features, and the community has been asking for a way to store duplicates and use them on SBC for years, and that's the same for the removal of player contracts.
The fact that EA Sports introduced these features as "community requests", saying that they listened to community feedback, for things the community was asking for before the game was even called EA FC, is appalling and will certainly leave veteran FC fans fuming.
These don't feel like new features, and even if you want to consider them as such, they certainly aren't groundbreaking or will have a huge impact on the Ultimate Team experience.
FC 25 is a brand-new game, and players will pay a good amount of money for that game, so users were expecting some significant features or big changes to existing ones.
That's not the case for Ultimate Team, which let's face it, it's the main reason players will buy FC 25. Couldn't all of these "new features" be added to a game in an update? Apart from the Rush mode, it certainly feels like it, and that's very disappointing.
It feels like Ultimate Team in FC 25 will almost be a carbon copy of the mode in FC 24, with the changes feeling inconsequential, and underwhelming.
What do you think about these new features? Let us know in the comments below.
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