So I'm one of the people who only play FIFA/FC for career mode, either player or manager. I don't touch Ultimate Team at all, I don't care about microtransactions and I never have. Before this I played a lot of FIFA 23 and was really excited to see how the career modes would change after they transitioned off the FIFA license. It should be said for EA that the addition of the player agent to let players plan out their career paths in FC 24 as opposed to relying on spamming RNG for transfers was a massive improvement and one they should get credit for. It didn't make any sense to me why they cut the match intros out for 24, but by the time I picked the game up it was late and I got it on a discount, plus players had already raised that as a problem even back then, so I didn't pay any mind. It was encouraging to see EA respond to player feedback and advertise they were going to bring the pre-match cinematics back for 25.
Good thing I managed to avoid having to pay for FC 25 to find out they'd randomly excluded the cinematics from player career again anyway for no good reason, since I got a free trial through Game Pass. But, I keep checking this forum every now and again hoping to see the problem's been fixed. I want to play this game, really, but at this point why would I? I already have FC 24, and with both games having the pre-match cinematics gutted, the career modes for both games are functionally the same experiences. The only differences are the kits and the rosters, and that FC 24 has a better user interface. I wish I could say I was hopeful that EA would show they actually cared about the section of their player-base that show up just for career, but it just doesn't look like that's the case. Dedication doesn't mean anything when FUT players can drop thousands of dollars on microtransactions a day, because of that they'll always get preferential treatment. Any problem FUT experiences will get solved immediately, the rest of these modes may as well be here in spirit only.
@mrkirkferentz, Hi, I think I had the same problem as you. I bought the FC24 on sale, but I never dreamed they had removed the introductions. When I saw it, I thought it was completely absurd, since they could have simply created an option for those who wanted to see them and those who didn't want to see them. Simple, but EA likes to screw things up. I had already resolved with myself that I would no longer buy FC, until I saw the news that they listened to the community and returned the introductions to career mode. I bought the FC25 and you can't imagine how disappointed I was that the introductions weren't back properly. A false advertisement that I still hope they fix. I didn't go back to FC24 like you did, because I thought the gameplay was better in FC25. The simulation mode is more enjoyable in my opinion, although it needs improvements. Another thing is that the FC24 has terrible lags and stutters in my setup, especially in replays. And the FC25 is practically smooth, with no problems. I also won't go back to FIFA23 because unfortunately I noticed a bug that hadn't been fixed until the last time I played. There is a kind of buffer where if you score a goal, the defense opens up, offering no resistance to the attackers, both from the AI and the Player, and a goal is scored every time, reaching absurd scores in almost every game. 6x8, 5x4, 6x5, everything like that. So I gave up on everything.
@emersonmarshall Definitely agree. I hope they fix it, I really enjoyed FC 25's gameplay from what I was able to play (the trial was only 10 hours total). It just seems like one step forward, two steps back. I don't like what 23 looks like or plays like gameplay wise nowadays---having to spam reload save files over and over and over again to get to transfer to the club you actually want to is all kinds of annoying---but at least it has the presentation.
When I first saw this was becoming a problem again I hoped EA would see the feedback and bring it back in. Couldn't be all that difficult, seeing as they do it for manager career (at least from what I can recall) and their single-player match modes, but I guess not. Personally, I thought the whole point of giving players who don't want to see the intro all the time the option to skip it was to make sure everyone got what they wanted and bring more lapsed fans back. But what do I know, I'm just the customer.
