FC 26 Gameplay Feedback – Core Systems Are Fundamentally Broken
This is not a “needs tuning” issue. This is not “early lifecycle balancing.” This is a clear case of core systems shipping in a broken, poorly understood state, reflecting a worrying lack of competence and football understanding from EA’s gameplay direction. The game does not just feel unpolished — it feels like multiple foundational systems were implemented without consistent logic, without football principles, and without proper quality control. Below is a breakdown of the issues, all of which point to the same conclusion: the gameplay framework is not functioning as intended, and it is unacceptable for a full release. 1. Passing Logic Has No Spatial Awareness Passing consistently ignores player input and basic football logic: Wrong targets selected despite clear directional input Obvious passing lanes ignored Through balls massively overtuned, normal passing underpowered Players abuse mechanics (incisive passes) because system logic is unreliable No real awareness of angle, pressure, or body positioning This is not difficulty. It’s fundamentally broken decision logic. 2. Bounce-Back Tackles Remove Skill Reward Even perfect tackles: Often bounce straight back to the attacker Negate clean defensive actions Create artificial pressure loops Defending is no longer rewarded consistently. That reflects poor combat resolution design. 3. Overpowered Tackles From Behind & Physical Imbalance Defensive interactions are inconsistent and unrealistic: Tackles from poor angles still succeed magnetically Weak physical input wins against strong attackers Conversely, attackers lose possession instantly from minimal contact The system lacks coherent physics or balance logic. 4. Defensive AI Completely Lacks Structure This is one of the clearest signs of poor AI implementation: Centre-backs randomly abandon shape Fullbacks drift inside instead of tracking wingers CDMs fail to track runners consistently Offside line is ignored entirely. Defenders are supposed to push up. Not back into box creating space. Seriously this is so low iq its not funny. The result is chaotic defending where players fight their own AI more than opponents. This is basic football structure failure. 5. Corners Still Break Defensive Transition Logic After corners: Players are out of position instantly Clearance triggers instant counterattacks No recovery logic activates This is a repeatable systemic exploit, not realistic transition play. 6. Attacking AI Is Equally Poor Forward movement lacks intelligence: Static positioning Poor run timing Offside runs with no context No exploitation of space between defenders There is no reading of play — just scripted movement errors. 7. Dribbling & Creativity Heavily Punished Skill expression is suppressed: Random collisions and dispossessions Unreliable control inputs Exploit mechanics outperform creative play This removes agency from the player and rewards mechanical abuse instead of football skill. 8. Goalkeepers Lack Consistent Logic Keeper behaviour is highly inconsistent: Near-post goals conceded too easily Routine saves missed Unrealistic reflex saves elsewhere There is no predictable performance model. 9. “Impossible” Solo Goals Break Defensive Systems Players can: Run through multiple defenders Ignore physical pressure Score from unrealistic positions Defensive structure simply does not function reliably. 10. Reward Structure Is Poorly Designed High win requirements lock out large portions of players Near-perfect performance required for basic rewards Poor accessibility design discourages engagement 11. Pack Weight & Progression Feel Misaligned Rewards feel disconnected from effort Progression is grind-heavy and unrewarding Engagement drops due to lack of meaningful payoff 12. Server Instability & Input Delay Heavy gameplay responsiveness issues Input delay during key modes Competitive integrity breaks when responsiveness is inconsistent 13. Rubberbanding & Objective Exploits Players actively avoid gameplay via: Rubberbanding Intentional loss farming This is a symptom of low gameplay satisfaction, not just community behaviour. Core Problem: EA’s Systems Lack Football Intelligence The overarching issue is not individual bugs — it is systemic incompetence in how football logic is translated into gameplay. Nothing is consistently rewarded: Clean tackling isn’t reliable Intelligent passing is overridden Structured defending collapses Creative dribbling is punished Patient build-up is unstable Instead, chaotic, exploit-heavy play is often the optimal approach. This reflects a serious disconnect between EA’s design decisions and actual football principles. Additional Critical Issues Midfield AI ignores ball to “hold position” incorrectly Player switching causes speed inconsistencies Tactics feel ineffective and poorly implemented Negative gameplay mechanics actively disrupt control (tumbling, forced slowdowns, unresponsive passing under pressure) Passing under pressure becomes artificially inaccurate First touches degrade in defensive phases, suggesting forced difficulty rather than realistic pressure modelling Server & Responsiveness Decline Higher perceived latency (~30ms → ~38ms reported) Heavier input delay Dribbling responsiveness significantly degraded Movement feels delayed and inconsistent Whether server-side or engine-side, the result is the same: unresponsive gameplay that undermines skill. Final Point: This Feels Like a Lack of Competence, Not Just Bugs The most concerning part is not that issues exist — it’s that they are foundational, repeated across systems, and unchanged despite iteration. It suggests: Poor internal validation of football logic Weak quality control on gameplay systems Misalignment between design intent and implementation On a 1–6 scale, this is firmly a 1-level release in gameplay quality. At this stage, it does not feel like a competitive football game. It feels like a system that does not understand football fundamentals. EA needs to seriously reassess not just balance — but the competence behind how these core systems are being designed and shipped. Because right now, it is not fun... Just frustrating. It is structurally broken.Let’s all be honest with ourselves - EA FC 26 is terribly bad.
I am going to outline some points below in which I believe makes this year’s game horrible to play. Feel free to give your opinions on these points as well, as I’m genuinely curious to see if anyone else is on the same wavelength as me. Keep in mind these are my own opinions from playing the game quite a bit since early access launched. I’ll also add that I’m a Division 5 player on Ultimate Team - offline I play Legendary. Nothing special by any means, just a casual player. 1). Defending: This year, defending and the point I’ll detail in point 2 of this list are the main factors as to why this game is so terrible to play. If you’re left-stick dribbling, it is impossible to win the ball from an opponent. It just seems like the speed of tackling animations is too slow to handle the dribbling animations. Rarely am I able to time a tackle perfectly and win the ball cleanly and fairly. Vice-versa if I’m on the attack, as all I need to do is some tiki taka passing and left-stick dribbling to be through on goal. AI defending is equally as bad, with defenders making alien runs tracking back nowhere near the passage of play, leaving players wide open to receive a pass. Does anyone else get that weird animation when committing a defender to a challenge, the attacker can manage to get past, but your defender is trapped in a force field (like 2 opposing sides of a magnet) and can’t not within a yard of the player? 2). Too many goals: I don’t think I’ve played a game of UT this year which didn’t have a minimum of 8 goals. I had a Rivals game end 11-9 yesterday (I will attach the proof)… 20 goals in one game of FIFA? Come on man. It is way too “arcade-y”. Pass, dribble, shoot, score. On repeat. Is anyone like me that enjoys a well fought, well defended 1-0 or even a 0-0 which is hard to split? I understand it’s not meant to be super realistic, but the amount of goals, whether nicely worked or just plain BS, makes this game so boring and predictable. 3). Goalkeepers: Where do I start with goalkeepers, man? Again, I don’t think EA nailed the goalkeeper animations this year. Any keeper without the ‘footwork’ play style? Good luck getting anywhere near a low-driven, or for that matter, any shot aimed below the belt line. I feel like one game, your keeper can feel like a prime Buffon, then the next can’t get a hand to anything that comes his way. I think this has to tie in with the high scoring model for UT, which EA seem to be promoting and not willing to change. Very frustrating. Even the goalkeeper save / deflection animations are way off, like when a keeper saves a pretty tame shot and it ends up flying into row Z at a million miles per hour. 4). Kick off goals: Yeah, I’ll leave it at that. 5). Patches: This one I’m most interested in to hear your different opinions on. I just feel like you can play the game for a while and get used to the way it plays, but when a patch or a gameplay update is released, it feels like a brand new, totally different version of the game. Nothing ever feels the same and is drastically different to what you’ve been used to for the previous however long of playing, so you need to spend ages trying to figure out how to adapt as the change feels so drastic. To me, it feels more like an overhaul of changes, rather than subtle tweaks to genuinely improve the gameplay experience. Formations and custom tactics take the biggest hit for me with this one, and a full rebuild is required almost always. [CM edit - formatting]
Support Process Question: EA Help vs EA Forums
Dear EA Sports, I was advised by the EA Sports Support team (EA Help) to raise my concerns and issues with the game on the EA Forums, and I was assured that developers and relevant teams are active here. However, despite creating multiple posts outlining my concerns, none of them have been acknowledged by EA staff. I have worked in a corporate environment for over 25 years, and I must say that this level of communication falls well below the standard one would normally expect from a customer support structure. What I find particularly confusing is the process itself. EA Help, which is meant to support customers, redirects players to these forums to raise issues. Yet once customers follow that direction, it appears that no meaningful engagement takes place. From a customer perspective, this creates a situation where players are effectively moved from one support channel to another without their concerns actually being addressed. The only time I received a response was when a post included a three-letter word that apparently violated forum rules. That post received attention immediately, yet the actual concern raised in the post was not addressed in the response. This sends a rather unfortunate message that moderation is active, but meaningful engagement with the issues themselves is not. As a long-standing customer, this is disappointing. I have been playing EA football titles since the very first FIFA, well before the PlayStation era, and I have remained a loyal player for decades. Because of that, I find it difficult to understand why concerns raised by players here receive so little acknowledgement. I fully understand that companies must be careful when responding publicly. However, complete silence is also a response, and it is not a particularly reassuring one. If EA Help directs players to the forums, then the forums should function as a place where issues are at least acknowledged or discussed. Otherwise, the process risks appearing circular — players are redirected to the forums for help, but once they arrive, no help is provided. I would respectfully ask that this process be reconsidered, and that concerns raised here receive at least some level of acknowledgement from the relevant teams. I have earned badges and profile levels on this forum over time, but those are secondary. What matters far more is meaningful communication with the player community. Could EA staff please clarify whether posts raising gameplay concerns are reviewed and whether players can expect responses here? For clarity, could a member of the EA community team or moderation team please confirm whether gameplay concerns raised on this forum are reviewed by the development team, and whether players should realistically expect feedback or acknowledgement when such concerns are raised here? Understanding how this process works would be very helpful for players who have been directed here by EA Help. Thank you for your time and consideration.FC 26 Is Hands Down the Worst Gameplay Experience Yet
I’m honestly at the point where I can’t tell whether FC 26 is supposed to be a football game or a broken physics experiment. The gameplay is TERRIBLE, and every patch somehow manages to make it worse It feels like a ping-pong arcade instead of football Tackles constantly ping back to attackers like it’s scripted Ball physics are a joke—random ricochets, rebounds, and magnet touches Players feel heavy, sluggish, and unresponsive Speed means absolutely nothing Why do I have players with 95+ pace getting walked down by center backs with 70 pace? What’s the point of upgrading squads if everyone plays the same? Passing accuracy might as well be RNG Simple passes go way off target Overpowered through balls when you don’t want them Underpowered passes when you're spamming the button Tactics feel meaningless—everyone presses like Guardiola’s prime Barça Midfields disappear, defenses collapse, players wander out of position Custom tactics don’t behave consistently from match to match AI teammates are unbelievably dumb They jog, ball-watch, and never make the correct run Opponent AI defends like prime Maldini and moves like it knows your inputs FUT grind is painful and unrewarding Rivals/SB/Champs all feel like chores, not fun Pack weight is atrocious—hours of grinding for duplicate 82s Market manipulation and fodder inflation ruin squad-building One match your team feels elite Next match they feel like bronze cards in quicksand Input delay, latency, and weird animation locks ruin gameplay Same meta tactics every weekend Servers & Connectivity Lag spikes Invisible delay Players not responding to commands (But it’s always “your connection,” right?) Overall There is no identity, no consistency, and nothing that rewards actual football knowledge or skill. This should not be considered Esports. Gameplay is not there... I’m done after this year. Between the gameplay, the patches, the grind, the AI, and the pack odds, this is the least fun I’ve ever had with an FC/FIFA title. Unless EA rebuilds everything from scratch, I’m not coming back for FC 27.
FC 26 draft cheaters
Wasted coins in draft game mode in ultimate team due to cheaters instantly disconnecting me in my first game, I spend like 5 minutes attempting to build a solid squad and then every 2-3 draft games I play I'm going up against a cheater, how can a multi billion dollar company still not manage to sort out their anti cheat and that's not even the worse thing, I can't even let support know about this because their help websites sucks **bleep** and trying to get in contact with someone is impossible, so I'm making this post in hopes that this reaches a staff member who can potentially pull their finger out and bring this issue up. Playing on EU servers on pc, I've turned cross play on to try and limit the amount of cheaters I come across. please leave a comment below if you have had this issue too hopefully this will boost this thread to the top.ADD EGYPTIAN LEAGUE AND EGYPT NATIONAL TEAM
I believe that the egyptian league and egypt national team should be in eafc 26. I understand the license issues but you guys should contact them into renewing the license so they can be in these games. Clubs like Al Ahly are one of the best clubs in african football. They were in the club world cup this year and previous years and were in the CAF Champions league. I think that our egyptian and african fans who would love to see these teams and play with them so we are more satisfied . Thank YouHere we go again... Crazy rant time to point out how much needs fixing..
Ok, heres a list of what is actually working properly. 1.Nothing Ok, and here is everything that needs imidiate attention to be fixed. 1. Passing Logic: A Beautiful Rejection of Player Input Passing in FC 26 is less about intention and more about vibes. - Aim right? Ball goes left. - Spot a clear through lane? Ignored. - Try a simple pass? Enjoy your underhit tragedy. Meanwhile, through balls have been blessed by the gods and can slice through reality itself. Spatial awareness? Angles? Pressure? Body positioning? No, no — that would require logic. 2. Tackling: Congratulations, You Almost Had the Ball You win a tackle cleanly. Perfect timing. Great positioning. Textbook defending. The reward? The ball politely returns to the attacker like it’s on a loyalty program. Defending isn’t about skill anymore — it’s about how many times you’re willing to win the same tackle. 3. Tackles From Behind & Physical Duels: Physics Has Left the Chat Defenders can now: - Tackle from behind with zero positioning - Magnetically steal the ball - Commit fouls that apparently aren’t fouls Meanwhile, attackers: - Lose the ball if someone breathes near them Also, strength stats? Decorative. Your powerhouse gets bullied by someone half the size because… reasons. At this point, just remove attributes and replace them with coin flips. 4. Defensive AI: Bold New Strategy Called “Panic” Defensive structure is now entirely optional. - Centre-backs wander off like they’re sightseeing - Fullbacks forget wingers exist - Midfielders jog back like it’s a charity walk Trying to defend feels like babysitting 10 players who have never seen a football before. 5. Corners: The Fastest Way to Concede You take a corner. You lose the ball. Suddenly it’s a 4v2 counterattack. Apparently, recovery runs are a premium feature not included in this version. 6. Attacking AI: Standing Still Simulator Your attackers will: - Stand directly behind defenders - Make runs into the most crowded areas possible - Go offside with unmatched confidence Movement, timing, intelligence — all optional. 7. Dribbling: Where Skill Goes to Die Dribbling has been redesigned into: - Random collisions -Delayed input -slowwd down animation - Coin-flip outcomes "Magnetic magical tackles to stop dribbling completely Creative play? Punished. Mechanic abuse? Rewarded. Exactly what everyone wanted. 8. Goalkeepers: Schrödinger’s Shot-Stopper Keepers now exist in two states: - Conceding from impossible angles - Saving shots that defy physics There is no in-between. There is no logic. Only chaos. 9. Rewards: Designed for the 0.1% 24 attempts. 20 wins required. Because clearly, only perfection deserves rewards. Everyone else? Thanks for participating. 10. Pack Weight & Progression: Effort Not Included Grind more. Get less. Rewards feel disconnected from effort, which pairs beautifully with already frustrating gameplay. 11. Servers & Input Delay, år meta tactics: The True Skill Gap Gameplay now depends on: - Input delay -Server responsiveness Whether your commands actually register -whether u choose right or wrong tactic cause ur tactic magicly affect if ur player feels like he is running in mud. Nothing says competitive like guessing when your inputs might work. 12. Rubberbanding & Quitting: A Mystery Solved Players aren’t engaging properly. Shocking. Almost like the gameplay isn’t enjoyable. 13. Counterattacks: The Only Consistent System Counterattacks are elite because: - Defensive AI doesn’t track runs - Offside lines are optional - Players react too late It’s less “counterplay” and more “free goals with extra steps.” 14. Speed nerfs... A 99 speed defender getting caught up by a 66 pace defender. There is no point in speed or skill anymore. Its a passing simulator and terrible at that... It cant do simple passes even. 15. Simple bugs like the players having a bad touch and start running like a snail game 1 meter to get the ball. How is it possible this is still in the game. 16. Enforcement & Anti-Cheat: When Legit Players Get Flagged The issues don’t stop at gameplay. Players are being flagged for “coin distribution” despite only using in-game mechanics and staying within allowed price ranges. Normal trading behavior — like listing items higher and occasionally selling — can be interpreted as cheating by automated systems. The result? Legit players get restricted No clear explanation is given Appeals return generic responses No transparency on what was actually “wrong” This creates a system where players are effectively treated as guilty based on patterns, without context or proper review. If enforcement tools cannot reliably distinguish between cheating and normal gameplay, that’s a serious problem. Because at that point, it’s not just the gameplay that’s broken — it’s trust between the game and its players. And right now, that trust is not in a good place. Core Issue: Football Intelligence Not Found Right now: - Reading the game isn’t rewarded - Good defending isn’t rewarded - Creativity isn’t rewarded - Patience isn’t rewarded But exploiting broken mechanics? Oh, that’s thriving. Bonus Features (Because Why Not) - Players randomly slow down - First touches become disasters for no reason - Simple passes become complicated - Tactics turn players into either statues or Olympic sprinters It genuinely feels like the game is actively working against you. Servers (Again, Because It Matters) Ping has gone up. Gameplay feels heavier. Responsiveness is worse. What Needs Fixing (Short Version: Everything Core) - Passing logic - Tackling outcomes - Defensive AI - Attacking runs - Dribbling responsiveness - Goalkeeper consistency - Counterattack balance -Reward structure -Banning algoritm -Server performance -Players moving like trucks -The overpowered speed neerf So… minor tweaks. Final Thoughts If the goal was to create a football game that doesn’t understand football, then honestly, impressive execution. If not… we might have a problem. Right now, FC 26 isn’t competitive. It isn’t realistic. And most importantly — it isn’t fun. On a scale of 1 to 6? This is a confident 1. If I ever wanted to remove everything enjoyable from a game, I’d definitely study this. There is simply no way to fix this mess. U need a new game engine and u need to go back to the roots for inspiration...HeavySluggish Gameplay Input Delay Despite 4ms PingWireGuard Setup (PS5)
Hello EA Team and community, I’m an engineer who has optimized my setup as much as possible, but the sudden collapse in gameplay is making the game almost unplayable for me right now. My setup: My ISP gives me strict NAT Type 3 by default. As an engineer, I set up a home-to-cloud WireGuard tunnel through my Asus gaming router using a new VPS located in my local EA data center. This gave me a stable NAT Type 2, 4ms ping, 100 Mbps speed, zero jitter, and everything was perfect. Players felt responsive, passes connected, defending was solid, and I was winning games consistently in Division Rivals (I was comfortably in Division 5). What happened a few days ago: Even with the exact same clean WireGuard route still active (4ms ping, 100 Mbps, wired LAN on PS5), everything collapsed. The gameplay suddenly became extremely heavy and sluggish: My Evo’d centre-backs (VVD, Konaté, etc.) can no longer mark properly, average opponents are running past them easily. My Evo’d pacy strikers feel slow and heavy; they can’t run, turn, or complete simple passes (3 out of 5 passes fail or go in the wrong direction). Inputs feel delayed (0.5–1 second), dribbling is unresponsive, and my players are constantly overwhelmed. I’m now getting destroyed in matches I should win scores like 9-2, 13-4, 15-2 have become normal. I went from Division 5 down to Division 7 and I’m at serious risk of further relegation. Last FUT Champions weekend: Out of 15 games I lost 14 and won only 1. This is not my normal level, I’m not an elite player, but I was competitive before this started. I have already tried every standard fix (DNS changes, MTU 1473, router QoS/UPnP, full restarts, clearing cache, rebuilding database, off-peak queuing, etc.) and nothing has helped. The issue is clearly server-side or netcode-related because offline modes (Squad Battles) feel normal, while online FUT Rivals/Champs is pure mud. EA servers currently show as Online, yet this heavy/input-delay wave is affecting many players (I’ve seen dozens of similar threads in the last few weeks). Can the dev team please investigate this desync/heavy gameplay issue, especially for players with low single-digit ping on local data centers? Any acknowledgment or fix timeline would be greatly appreciated — this has completely ruined my enjoyment of the game. Thanks in advance!Daily reminder on how bad this game is
This gameplay has rock-bottom football IQ. Not “needs tuning.” Not “rough around the edges.” Just flat-out unintelligent at a foundational level. Nothing in this game understands football. Passing logic is brainless—constantly selecting the worst possible option, firing the ball straight into opponents like the engine has no concept of space, angles, or basic decision-making. You’re not misplaying passes—the game is making catastrophically dumb choices on your behalf. And the bounce-back tackles are the clearest proof this was designed without thought. You read the play, time the tackle perfectly, win the ball cleanly… and the game immediately gifts it back to the attacker. Over and over. Tackling doesn’t end attacks anymore—it politely inconveniences them. That’s not realism, that’s low-IQ system design. Defensive AI is embarrassingly stupid. Centre-backs randomly abandon the line to follow attackers, deliberately creating space behind them for no reason whatsoever. No awareness. No shape. No understanding of risk. Just defenders actively sabotaging their own team like they’ve never seen a defensive line before. Corners turning into instant counterattacks again is pure incompetence. This was already a known issue. Already criticized. Already “fixed.” And somehow it’s back—unchanged. That alone screams how little intelligence, memory, or accountability exists in the development process. Attacking runs are equally clueless. Players either stand completely still or sprint directly into defenders. There’s no timing, no anticipation, no reading of play—just random, low-effort movement that looks like a placeholder AI that never got replaced. Dribbling being nerfed into uselessness finishes the job. Creativity is punished, skill is irrelevant, and everything devolves into clumsy collisions and coin-flip outcomes. The game doesn’t reward thinking because it clearly isn’t doing any itself. This isn’t difficulty. It isn’t realism. It definitely is not fun. It’s a football game built on bad logic making bad decisions at all times. The most shocking part isn’t how broken it is—it’s that someone, somewhere, looked at this and decided it was acceptable to ship. That level of football illiteracy being signed off on is honestly staggering. Breaking passing, defending, tackling, dribbling, and attacking AI simultaneously shouldn’t be possible—yet here we are. If this is the intended experience, then congratulations: you’ve successfully created one of the dumbest-feeling football games ever released. Edit: Forgot to include the insanly stupid overpowered tackles from behind. Or the just stick out a toe that has superglue on it and your winger loses the ball. They have nerfed any fun out of the game. Anything that requires any skill that isnt a exploit has been destroyed.Broken game
Im deeply shocked at how bad the gameplay is. The overpowered breakthrough passes. Overpowered countersttacks. Overpowered tactics I just had a guy wip the ball up from 20 meters 2 times and score on me. The defence mechanics are horrible. The work rate your players to to come back. At this state im only playing for rewards but dont want to. Like really dont want to play. If u are listening to the players then listen to this. The game is broken and you need a serious fix. Just reload the Fifa 17 game engine. Cause u are losing players. This is NOT fun and NOT what u advertised.