Gameplay improvement needed

Let me give a disclaimer, early on. I am 50 years old. Playing footie games is probably the only reason I have always owned a Playstation. I know the series (VERY) well since 1994. I have watched over 30 years of progress in football simulators, and I have to say, I am really, really disappointed.

If you think about it, FC 26 is not all that different from. let's say, FIFA 18. Especially if you watch a YouTube video. If you simply watch the match, it will be hard to see any differences. And for sure, you will not notice any breakthroughs.

Now, I am willing to let go and totally forget about any atmosphere-related improvements (and, in fact, I do concede that some of that has been introduced).  You know: fans, referee, substitutes, crowd, cut scenes, and that kind of stuff. There's been some effort but, In reality, it's dull, repetitive, and at times, looking stupid for a 2026 version of the game. I mean, come on, have someone who know football help you out: teams who lose 5-0 on the 85th minute of a match will not celebrate if they score a goal!

But again, I am willing to let go of all that. If gameplay balance is somehow achieved.

In the past few years, we mostly witnessed the FIFA franchise trying to be fun (with players going through the entire opponent team like rockets, or performing unbelievable tricks with the ball, or scoring out-of-this-world goals). There has been an effort to rectify this, up to the point where, in FC26, dribbling past an opponent is simply impossible.

In the past few versions, there has been an effort to balance this out with the sliders, but, I don't see that working out effectively.

Today, the game lacks realism altogether - slow speed is NOT realism. The real problem is that EA doesn't seem to be able to simulate a 90-minute game so that it looks realistic when condensed in 10 or 15 minutes.

• You can't have a team finish the game without any fouls.
• You don't seem to understand the on/off mechanics. A football game is often divided into periods. A team might press high and be really aggressive for 10-15 mins, but then they have to slow down, they can't do it for 90 mins. A team may be very offensive for a while, create 2-3 chances in a few minutes and then back off. This is how it works - it is not a constant chase down.
• Yes, there will be cases where a goalkeeper will save everything, but, in most cases, if a keeper is faced with more than 10-15 shots on target, at some point, he will concede!
• Goals must come from various sources: a cross and a header, a through ball, a mistake in the defense, a corner. Understand that, there cannot be more saves on the goal line than goals. In almost 8 months of FC26 I have seen more headers saving goals on the line than goals from corners.
• Sometimes dribbles work, some times they don't. Football is not a question of "never dribble" or "always dribble", not a question of "long shot" or "pass until you are close to the goal" . Your task is to make the game realistic, so that ANYTHING that happens in a match is:
  • proportionate to a real match
  • believable to the eye of the beholder

What we need here is a realistic but fun football simulator. Today, FC 26 lacks BALANCE.

A final word on assisted controls: I understand a growing number of users go for manual, but casual play is still the basis of a fun, realistic football simulator. Today, asissted passing is a mess. FIX the passes. Go back to FIFA 15, probably the best of the franchise in terms of gameplay. Your objective is this: make the player think "Yes!, that's what I was trying to do". Don't try to fix the result, fix the intention.

Thanks for reading.

NCK.