Career Mode, a neglected game mode desperate for a revamp, and with FC 24 reaching the final stage of its cycle, perhaps now is the time to start looking ahead to the future of football gaming.
FC 24 has been a content-crazy game, with Ultimate Team seeing lots of action including the current Make Your Mark promo, and although many players still commit hours to their Career Mode saves, many fans feel like the love has been lost on their beloved game mode.
FC 25 Career Mode Wishlist
It is no secret that Career Mode has become a game mode that has been put to the back of EA's mind over the past few years, and with Ultimate Team receiving so much interaction, and earning insane amounts of money, there is an understanding there that the online mode will receive more attention.
Despite this, many FC 24 players still immerse themselves in Career Mode saves with a large chunk of the community strictly working on taking their chosen club to glory.
With rumors of a FIFA 2K game in the works, this could give EA the push they need to keep fans on their side, and a much-needed update to Career Mode could be the game changer for both the developers and fans alike.
We have selected five features that fans would like to see in FC 25 Career Mode from a thread on Reddit, and will go into detail on each of the features discussing what they would bring to Career Mode, and whether they are possible.
Youth Academies Update
One special thing about Career Mode is the ability to turn young players into world-class superstars by developing them through time. Youth Academies are an important step in a player's development and they need a complete overhaul in FC 25.
The Premier League 2 is a real-life league strictly for academies of teams in the English top division, and would make for a great addition, to give the young players in your club the chance to play games and develop without being sent out on loan to a random Romanian team, or stagnating on the bench.
Even an unlicensed youth league for each country would be beneficial and help develop all the young players in your club to become first-team ready, whilst also keeping up to date with the team's results and player progress throughout the season.
For example, if an 18-year-old striker has scored 20 goals in the youth league, then perhaps they will be brought into the first-team on the bench or would then be worthy of a loan to a club fit for them.
We think this could be a possibility with the UEFA Youth Champions League added to the game for realism, as EA has the rights to all other UEFA competitions, and this also opens the door for more youth products, aged 17+ to be added to Career Mode.
More leagues
This is a pretty basic feature that fans seem to be screaming out for year after year, however, with FIFA 2K rumored to be entering the football gaming sphere, now is the time for EA to work their magic and secure as many leagues as possible.
Fans are desperate for new teams to use in Career Mode, so EA should broaden their horizons to leagues worldwide.
According to Global Football Rankings, there are four leagues in the Top 20 leagues in the world that EA no longer has the license for, yet some incredible players belong in these leagues.
The Brazilian Serie A, Liga MX, Russian Premier League, and J League have all featured in previous FIFA games and would be welcome.
Many fans would also like to see the likes of the English National League added, along with second divisions for the likes of the MLS, Liga Portugal, and the Eredivisie.
Club Reputation
This being fixed gives fans hope for more realism within Career Mode, and makes complete sense to make such a change.
Club Reputation is a feature missing from Career Mode that would be beneficial for the realism of the game mode, and teams with less reputation would make for a more challenging save compared to the difficulty in FC 24.
For example, playing with a team lower down the football pyramid, it would be more realistic if stadiums weren't sold out each week, and performances would help increase that, also meaning income from matches would fluctuate.
This would mean taking a team like Wrexham from League 2 to the Premier League would actually be more of a project, rather than just signing young players who will develop into superstars over time.
Another example of this would be reaching a play-off final, and seeing a club with a reasonably small fanbase fill out Wembley Stadium, which if you watch a League 2 play-off final, isn't always the case.
Historical stats and stats update
FC 24 Career Mode is a shell of the true potential of the game mode, and there are so many small details that EA could add to the game to make it authentic and add to the realism and feel of the game.
One suggestion would be historical stats, where a player could become the all-time club top goal scorer or appearance maker, which could also benefit the player by earning the leadership trait so that they can captain the club without a message appearing suggesting a captain change to be made.
On top of that, fans would like to see the stats from other leagues, not only the league table but every small detail, including top goal scorers, assist makers, and even most tackles in a certain league. These finer details would be hugely beneficial not only for authenticity but for the scouting of players too.
This is something we think EA could do fairly easily, with stats for every team in the game available on the internet, it wouldn't be too hard to find what's needed to create a database of historical stats, and would also work with the AI breaking records, for example, Dominic Solanke becoming Bournemouth's all-time top goal scorer after a season or two.
VAR and updated football rules
The final feature that fans would love to see in FC 24 Career Mode would be an increase in realism within the rules of football.
VAR being implemented into Career Mode would be a fun addition with vital goals being disallowed for being slightly offside, and reviews on bad tackles.
On top of that, features like a bigger bench or a certain amount of homegrown players would only benefit the Career Mode save.
Fans are still frustrated that the use of only seven substitutes is allowed, even though that number increased to nine several years ago.
Once again, we believe that these changes are entirely possible within Career Mode, but feel as if the game mode is being forgotten about with how big Ultimate Team has become for EA.
Most of these features are already in Football Manager, and if FIFA 2K comes into play, then EA could lose a lot of fans if they don't make the right moves for Career Mode in the next edition of EA FC.
What features would you like to see in FC 25 Career Mode? Let us know in the comments below.
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