FC26：How EA Should Make a Football Game (Simplified Version)
I just bought FC26 on November 21st. I knew it had a 76% negative review rate on Steam, and I was probably in for a disaster. But out of my love for football, I still bought it—and it only took one night to prove that FC26 is indeed a total disaster!
I’ve seen countless people on forums complaining about FC26’s terrible defense. After pulling an all-nighter playing friendlies with my buddy, I can confirm it’s true. I won’t go into other issues; I’ll just focus on the parts where FC26 feels completely unrealistic, nothing like a football game.
First off, the Skill Moves (SM). This time, they’ve turned SM into "100% successful consecutive skill moves"! That’s absurd—no one on Earth could pull this off in real life, not even Ronaldinho.For one, executing skill moves should consume stamina. So the blue stamina bar should limit how often you can use SMs. Even if you want to chain them, you might only manage 2 (and those 2 shouldn’t be 100% successful either).
Second, SM success rate should be tied to a player’s balance attribute. For example, at 40, Cristiano Ronaldo’s physicality has dropped off a cliff—he’d probably trip if he tried a stepover (no disrespect, just an example, sorry). A player’s balance should also be affected by their current stamina: once the blue bar is empty, balance decreases, and SM failure rate increases dramatically!
Third, SM animation frames in FC26 are practically invincible right now. My friend’s Mbappé pulled off 3 different SMs (I can’t even name them) in my Argentine penalty area—with my CB, SB, CDM, and CM all parked the bus inside the box—and he still created space to score easily. The worst part? This isn’t a one-time fluke; it happens countless times! Sometimes Mbappé would suddenly speed up mid-SM, and the ball would accidentally hit my CB Romero’s feet—but before I could press a single button (my ping is around 30, the best I can get with a VPN), Mbappé would steal it back instantly! Later, I asked him how he reacted so fast to win the ball back. He said he didn’t—his ping is similar to mine. He just input a chain of 3 SM commands he learned from a tutorial video right after Mbappé received the ball. He didn’t even need to prepare; as long as he confirmed Mbappé’s dribbling direction, he could start inputting. Then the invincible SM animation would start with "0-frame startup," and he just waited for it to finish before pressing shoot.
OMG! Is this even football? It feels like a fighting game. He doesn’t need to think about how to break through the defense, how to trick opponents into pressing up, or how to deal with incoming defenders after beating one player. He just waits for the invincible SM animation to end. Even if Mbappé gets dispossessed while doing SMs because the penalty area is too crowded, the game will make him recover the ball with superhuman speed and reflexes mid-animation—all to finish playing the invincible SM sequence. So yes, SMs are truly unbeatable!
