Every year, a small group of friends and I reunite for the release of the latest EA Sports football game, now called EA Sports FC instead of FIFA. In the past, there’s always been a sense of excitement and nostalgia as we dive into the game’s early access, but this year feels different. The anticipation has been replaced with a shared sense of dread. As one of my friends, a former FIFA enthusiast, bluntly put it, "FIFA isn't fun anymore." Another friend added, "It's not supposed to be fun. It's a noble task." And strangely enough, that sentiment rings true for a lot of us who play Ultimate Team—the mode that has dominated our gaming habits.

The truth is, EA Sports FC 25 doesn’t feel like a new game at all. The menus, which are essential to navigating the game, are strikingly similar to FC 24, and they’ve somehow gotten worse—laggy and glitchy in ways that seem inexcusable. The graphics? Identical to last year’s. I even loaded up FC 24 for comparison and could barely spot a difference. EA has, once again, recycled the same game with minimal tweaks. Even some of the in-game cards and team kits are from last season, which feels lazy and careless.

That being said, not everything is doom and gloom. A standout addition is the new Rush mode, a 5v5 casual game mode that injects some much-needed fun into Ultimate Team. It’s a great way to mix things up, especially when playing with friends. However, it can become frustrating when random players keep messing up skill moves. On top of that, the commentary in Rush gets repetitive fast, so muting it is advisable. But like Volta before it, there’s a lingering fear that Rush could be forgotten by EA, abandoned in future updates.

Tactically, the new systems in Ultimate Team are a welcome addition, allowing for greater complexity in how players deploy their teams. I’ve personally enjoyed setting up Trent as a midfielder and Frimpong as an inside forward, creating an overload in the middle of the pitch that feels like a tactical masterstroke. The added Player Roles feature, which builds on last year’s Playstyles, also helps bring real-world authenticity to the players, making them feel more like their actual counterparts.

Still, these new features don’t feel groundbreaking. What the game really needs is a complete overhaul, or better yet, a live-service model that updates with the real-world football season rather than making us buy an almost identical game every year. But with EA’s stranglehold on the football game market, that seems unlikely to happen anytime soon.

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