FC 24 Review

Reading Time: 6 minutes

Fast Facts

New Name, New Beginnings?

This year, EA have taken a bold step away from the FIFA name and licensing to stand alone in the world of Football Simulation. FC 24 brings a sense of familiarity this year, and from the first few hours you’d be forgiven for thinking you were playing last years version. 

I know for many this is the biggest concern when considering and deciding to put forward your £70 for this years football game. I’ve certainly tried to do my homework for this review, navigating subreddits and community forums in addition to many hours of playtime to bring lots of perspective on the game. I’ll also be addressing and taking into account the wider thoughts of one of the most lucrative micro-transaction feasting gaming experiences on the planet. 

FC 24 for those completely at peace with the underside of their rocks, is a football gaming experience that incorporates many styles of games into one complete package. For those that love the arcade like experience of football games of old, you can quick start matches and dive right into matches. Next up you can play Volta which is a street football style of play, smaller teams, urban terrain with neighbourhood atmospheres. Lastly the holy grail of pay to play options in Ultimate Team, with the mightiest of evolutions for FC 24.

Atmosphere & Investments

There are a few additions on show this time around, designed to bring the playing experience right down to pitch side. Overlays will pop-up during games offering statistics such as number of shots taken as well as the most fatigued player (evidenced by a % score rather than the one looking knackered by the corner flag). 

In addition there are more moments of interview segments woven into the experience. Nothing live or pitch side, but definitely designed to mirror the real life moments of watching Football on TV. For the most part these are really enjoyable additions to the experience, however there are moments over the tannoy that can get really repetitive such as the “Vehicle in Car Park C has left its lights on” or “Mr Jenkins has lost his car keys, please collect at reception on the way out”. These phrases of dialogue can be immersive when used sparingly, however Mr Jenkins seems to lose his keys every single game.

My favourite addition in this space of atmospheric enhancements is the camera view where we get to see post fouls from the referees POV. It’s quite intense and you can sense the moment with high pressure and being crowded and harrassed by frustrated players. 

Hypermotion V

The loudest feature enhancement showcased for FC 24 is the latest evolution of the EA artificial intelligence engine. Moving from Hypermotion 2 of last year, this latest motion capture technology includes Volumetric Data (Hence the V, this isn’t Rocky) of more than 180 professional football matches. The idea? To create the most realistic moments possible in a football game.

 

The idea sounds amazing, and incorporating 1100 animations in the game (double that of last year) means that each player should feel uniquely different. Couple these animations with unique body movements across major players and each game should feel like a brand new unique experience. 

The execution of this isn’t perfect, and in the weeks ahead TikTok will be full of glitches and failings from FC 24. In my games I’ve had moments of Goalkeepers punching goal posts and twitching in the net for the remaining 10 minutes of the game. There are even more subtle moments where I know that through ball played was perfectly executed and instead is veering off in the other direction. 

Which brings me to a thought on the ever evolving landscape of AI and motion technologies. If we are capturing realistic moments across a vast number of games, we are also capturing human error and in doing so this realism is asking for more tolerance for human based error. I’m not sure FC 24 gamers are quite ready for this. The bonus here however, is it can get better and I would expect it to do just this over time. 

Ultimate Team 

FC 24 has undergone the most monumental change this year as we finally see the integration of Women’s Football into this game mode. As a result there are more players on offer than ever and in doing so this means for the very first time women and mens football are playing ultimate team on the same pitch. 

It’s made the experience feel fresh and different, and I have to say a strike partnership of Erling Haaland and Sam Kerr is devastating for all they face. I have heard multiple concerns about the realism factor when it comes to balancing player ratings across the two genders. For those who share this perspective I would remind you that Ultimate Team is fantasy, and built for fun and if 54 year old Dennis Bergkamp gets a 90 overall score why can’t Sam. 

Like any other year Ultimate Team brings fresh controversy in the shape of its commitment to micro-transactions. If you were hoping to see a change or evolution here I’m sorry to say its as drab as ever. The £30 Elite Season Opener Pack which includes 45 Gold Players is a really uncomfortable thing to exist, and the FOMO and peer pressure of not engaging real money in Ultimate Team is a class battle of its own. 

One small grace this year is the introduction of evolutions, which will allow you to improve the ratings of your favourite players by completing tasks and objectives. This is a great introduction, especially if your favourite player has been a little short changed on their rating this time around, Paul Mullin I’m looking at you. 

Where Next?

There are many quality of life improvements that are great enhancements to the FC 24 experience. The addition of Guy Mowbray and Sue Smith to the commentating and punditry table are superb additions. Alex Scott heading things up on the sidelines and manager team talk videos at half time are also great additions. Taking all of these evolutions this year into account, I absolutely wouldn’t consider FC 24 a must buy. There’s just not enough innovation here, and whilst the technology has moved forward I’m not convinced this has been mirrored in the experience. 

If you’ve loved Fifa in the past and always buy the new version each year, you’ve likely done so already. For those that may like to dip in and out of football games. Or those that prefer to see these games more as party or games to play when hosting friends. It wouldn’t be a terrible idea to go and scoop up a super cheap copy of Fifa 23. Side by side there’s not enough to tell these two apart. Yet I’m hopeful for the future of the series and the dedication to evolving technology and AI. 

You can get your copy of FC 24 from the Playstation Store today