FC27 Realistic Mode crucial improvements

At the outset, I would like to highly praise the idea of dividing the gameplay into competitive and realistic modes for players expecting a game close to reality, which I will focus on in the further part of this post.

EA FC players greatly appreciate that developers listen to our suggestions and requests regarding gameplay. Recent years have been a time of a big step forward, however many aspects still remain to be fixed. Additionally, for many years we have observed that the creators of the game sometimes alternate positive changes with negative ones. The purpose of this post is to indicate areas requiring improvement and to highlight changes which recently were positive although probably not obvious to EA.

In the first part I will focus on problems.

GAMEPLAY

1. Lofted passes

When I switch the play to the other side, passing a lofted ball to the winger [◻], the opponent, before the ball reaches my teammate, manages to run up to the player. The CPU focuses too much on marking, reaction time = 0 – a huge problem in my opinion.

Lofted passes [L1 + △ or ◻] travel too long and are suspended too high. It often happens that when playing a so-called lofted through ball [L1 + △], the ball travels so long that players stop and wait until the ball drops to chest height. This is absurd!!

The game should offer kick-offs from the center of the pitch with long passes; currently it is impossible because before the ball reaches 30 meters into the opponent’s half my wingers are not able to get there.

Crosses into the penalty area and the endlessly repeating pattern of crossing behind the striker surrounded by two defenders, who clear the ball to a teammate’s feet, will one day drive me into a mental illness.

2. Errors, inaccuracy of passes, inaccuracy of shots, inaccuracy of clearances

There is no inaccuracy in the game, there are very few errors, too few fouls, too few fouls on crosses (CPU), too few shots from outside the penalty area, too few set pieces, too little movement in positional attack.

For a few years in this game, in defense I clear the ball with a shot because clearances by passing or heading to a teammate behind are unnaturally accurate. The same problem applies to CPU defending.

Too many shots also hit the target, especially those that should not.

It often happens that a player takes a shot by swinging through the opponent’s legs. Why is there no foul, or miskick, or the player falling over?

3. Set pieces

I do not score goals from corners; recently I used to do it regularly and it looked good in 2013 (!!).

4. More yellow cards (and red ones)

I started often using tactical fouls to increase realism in the game, but it should not work in such a forced way. Even referee strictness settings do not change anything. It has never happened to me that the CPU received a second yellow card and consequently a red card in one match.

5. Scripts

Set pieces, ball movement, player movement, CPU behavior, refereeing, limited number of ways of building attacks by the player and by the CPU cause that after playing >200 matches, a game which initially amazed us becomes boring, predictable, tiring.

-> When I play an even match and I know the match will end 1-0 or a draw, I know perfectly that I must try to pass the ball on the ground to take a shot from the penalty area. However, if I try to play like in reality, e.g. with crosses, I will rather not score a goal, and consequently I will not manage to win the match. Therefore I must create a so-called 100% chance for a goal to be scored; the game has been based on scripts for 20 years which I know by heart.

6. Weather conditions

A. Wind

strong wind in the game does not reflect reality, because such intensity occurs once every several thousand matches – this option definitely makes the game harder

B. Rain, snow

for many years playing in rain in this game means the ball stops on the pitch, whereas in reality the ball moves slightly faster in rain, balance and comfort are harder, however I am afraid that if EA developers address this issue, they will unnecessarily exaggerate gameplay in such weather so the player necessarily knows he is playing in rain, which is not the point

FREE KICKS

1. Definitely too few set pieces in the game!!

Often while playing matches and wanting to make substitutions between the 50th and 80th minute, there are no breaks in play. I cannot expect EA to magically solve this problem, but I can suggest working on gameplay changes in terms of the number of set pieces. Mainly fouls, corners or player mistakes/inaccuracies.

In every edition of the game I have hit the woodwork more times than I have taken free kicks.

2. Boring as hell.

Free kicks from long distance: I would like to have the ability to freely cross the ball from 45 meters, however player positioning causes the ball to often land either before the penalty area or out of play. The game forces short play. Sometimes I see corners or free kicks from 45 meters taken by Haaland (CPU)...

CPU very often plays set pieces short, which is extremely irritating and does not happen often in real life (in my opinion this is a critical problem).

CAREER MODE

Playing many seasons on one save, after the third season there are several things that strongly discouraged me:

1. Overalls

Player overalls grow too quickly and linearly. Those who play badly grow just as fast as leading players. As a result, even trying to maintain realism, players still have too high overalls.

-> After transferring Tzolis (Atletico Madrid), he played terribly, had zero stats, played little, yet in the third season he had 86 rating. Player potential and abilities should be more dynamic, both upwards and downwards. Both for players above 80 overall and especially for those below. If I bought Messi in FC22, after 3 seasons he would have 80 overall and in 2025 would end his career. In reality, players who perform well and are key players should age differently; examples: Modric, Lewandowski, C. Ronaldo, Oblak. If I am to enjoy career mode for 8 seasons, Bruno Fernandes scoring 20 goals should lose abilities much slower than a player with average contribution. The result is that the game engine, trying to mask differences, slightly makes gameplay harder for the player and minimizes CPU error margin.

2. Player development

Not every player develops linearly; there are many patches on PC fixing this flaw, developers still have not solved this.

It is normal that in season 3 most teams have squads with 84–85–88 players, but in reality only champions of TOP-3 European leagues have such squads.

2. Skill traits

There is a lack of possibility to earn skill traits such as tiki-taka/flair/dead ball and many others.

4. Injuries

Too few injuries/absences in career mode (during matches + training)

5. Inconsistency after updates

What is wrong with your testers? One time I score 60 goals and concede 45. After an update I score 35 and concede a record low 8. Such swings discourage people from playing!! Why do people you pay do their job so poorly, while I write this post over several months of observation (since February 2026) completely for free just to enjoy the game of my childhood after work?!

6. Newgen players

The characteristics of generated players are discouraging – they are short, look like children, look random, do not make the game more interesting and are just filler.

• players do not grow, almost always short, even center-backs
• traits and overalls are random and discouraging
• faces are random and unattractive, previously players even looked like women

-> Yamal grew 10 cm over the last 4 years

7. Transfers

small/medium clubs buy players that are too expensive / players with too high Overall relative to their capabilities

-> considering that the game is built on code in a program, this is incomprehensible to me. In real life, clubs promote 2–3 players from the academy per year instead of buying an adult player for 50 million. However, the FC game does not want Newgen players because this is the Achilles’ heel of Career Mode

transfer activity is too high in winter window

clubs buy multiple players for one position while lacking others

the game brings better players to the league you play in by default

-> seeing Van de Veen and Kerkez in the squad of Real Sociedad in the second season causes consternation

8. Stadiums 

Due to lack of official stadiums, the game should allow customization like in FIFA 23.

Stands are boring. No proper crowd reactions, whistles, flags – everything is passive.

Pitch:

I do not understand why many pitches (e.g. Arsenal) look so bad. Only a few stadiums are enjoyable: Santiago Bernabeu, Allianz Arena, Wembley, Allianz Stadium, Estadio Anoeta. Patch 1.4 improved this.

I have never seen any survey about player feedback on changes – maybe that is why good changes are mixed with bad ones. Below are positive changes:

• return of long pre-match intro
• anthems and atmosphere (especially La Liga)
• pitch improvements (update 1.4)
• new post hit sound
• dynamic weather
• tracking stats from other leagues
• goalkeeper mistakes
• random events in career mode
• realistic gameplay mode
• ground shots [◻ + ◻]
• drone presentation
• Selhurst Park crowd audio
• permanent removal of Training Drills

At the end I want to emphasize that this post is critical because of my hope that EA will listen. There are many things I could praise, but that is not necessary. My thanks will be buying the game at release price, knowing I will again wait months for the final version. Our goal is a final version of FC. I write this long post because I believe you will take it seriously – offline gameplay is getting closer to expectations, and buying the game is my investment in your development, although I increasingly ask myself whether this is still a hobby or just nostalgia.

#FC #RealisticMode #offline #careermode #update #gameplay