Yeah, I'm not bothered about the harder defending, but they had to make defending very unrealistic to do so. A player in real life can recover directly from a missed standing tackle, by just start running. The difference in attacking AI and defending AI is way too big, ruïning the experience. If you nerf the defending AI, you have to nerf the attacking AI aswell. The only reason they nerfed the defending to begin with, was because streamers were complaining. Now the streamers are satisfied, but everyone else is frustrated.
Another terrible move is that you basically have to be an addict to earn relevant rewards. You have to play atleast 15-20 Rivals matches to get somewhat interesting packs out of it, you have to play 18 matches in Squad Battles, atleast 10 matches in live events, 10 matches in Rush and you need to play 14-15 matches in Champs and 5 for Challengers (which is a completely useless event with terrible rewards). I haven't even mentioned the offline and online draft and events like Gauntlet, which are terrible to play for casuals. That's 60 matches a week at the very least. That's absolutely ridiculous.
FC25 was described as the biggest moneygrab, but FC26 is way worse. Every aspect about the online play circles back to you spending your money. The pro's do it straight away and for casuals the rewards and the difference is player quality is so big that it's just not fun. The cliché statement: "Pay-to-win" might be a bit annoying, but it actually applies to this game.
Ultimate Edition also is a terrible scam this year. The EVO's are utter crap, meaning the extra spot is useless up until this point and the amount of games and coins is making people not do the EVO's at all. I've done one or two and I don't even use those players. They also nerfed the store packs, so those 6000 FC Points aren't even worth the money. The only reason why they're handy is for the drafts and for the Season 2 pass. And shocker: They nerfed the first Season Pass rewards, so it was utter garbage.
Even though FC26 is better gameplay-wise in attack, I have less fun playing FC26. All in all it's still an absolutely aweful game, especially since they barely upgraded the game graphics-wise. They had an entire year and what was released, is an unfinished game that had quite a few glitches, that still needs weekly gameplay updates, some new event modes and that's it. EA FC is a complete scam and nowhere near worth the 100 or so euro's it cost for the Ultimate Edition. In FC25 you could atleast focus on upgrading your squad through grinding SBC's, which were actually somewhat fun compared to the gameplay last year. There's just nothing left anymore.
Last subject is the very obvious presence of DDA and/or scripting. Something has been off with EA for a while now regarding FIFA/FC. Obviously they're never going to admit it, but the game is illegal. DDA gets very dodgy when the game is being monetized and micro-transactions are available. It becomes a casino. That's why EA will never admit it and proving it with physical evidence is quite hard, since they have multiple versions of the game they can use to proof it's not in there. It doesn't matter though. I think the gameplay patch that FC26 is (it's certainly not a new version) does in fact please some streamers, but for casuals I think DDA Scripting is why FC25 was so terrible to play and why FC26 is terrible also. For me: I don't mind losing. I am however someone that notices patterns, so when I see the patterns that suggests DDA, it's very hard not to believe them. The signs are too obvious and I don't know if it's because FC26 is faster or the gameplay is bringing it out more, but it's more annoying in FC26. I don't really enjoy the games I win, I don't enjoy the games I lose, I just don't enjoy the game at all at this moment. It's one big toxic cocktail of incompetence of the DEVS (or the unwillingness to actually make something good), the greed of the company itself and the lack of progress in the last five years, especially if you compare it to games with way less of a budget.
It definitely is my last FC and I've already drastically reduced the amount of time I spend on the game and I don't see that changing. I doubt I'll play this game in two months. I think by the time Christmas hits, they've already lost a ton of players, just like last year. They'll never learn. They don't care (unless it hits their wallet) and they can't even keep their players without any competition. The moment FIFA partners up with a big developer like 2K or something, EA is screwed. They won't be able to handle a big competitor at the moment and given the fact that the progress of formally FIFA and now FC is quite slow compared to game development, it's not that hard to catch up. Just look at UFL and they have a fraction of the budget EA FC has.
