EA Sports FC 26: PS5 Review

Every year the beautiful game gets an outing - and every year there's a desperate scramble to see what's new and improved.

The latest iteration of EA Sports FC 26 is one for the books though, with around 750 clubs, 35 leagues and over 20,000 licensed players. But what's more remarkable is that this latest has listened to what the community wanted and then used that to inform decisions on the 2025 release.

As a result, there's been some minor tweaks and a change on what to expect depending on how you're playing.

For offline, the Authentic mode aims more to provide a sedate pace of gameplay, which concentrates more on rewarding those who want to pass the ball, improve their skill and generally score goals, but feel more like their style of play has built to a reward thanks to tactics, rather than a kick and hope. 

For years, this mode's been the more fun one, with offline at home play with either AI or the family providing a level of gaming that is suited to the game. 

But for online, the Competitive mode is the one that boosts anyone looking for a quick fix and the idea that scoring is the main goal. IT's also more remarkable for the fact that rage quitters who take their toys and run after a moment of madness are penalised for doing so. Certainly that's a welcome touch to those looking at ensuring their efforts don't just go into the online void.

Graphically, the game is smooth and the gameplay is fine. It's not damning them with faint praise to say it's harder to find the visual tweaks but some small touches have made the game feel a bit more alive, even if the cliched commentary continues to grate.

The game's Ultimate Team mode has been tweaked to include changes over levelling up goalkeepers, a levelling out of online tournaments (The all-silver ones) and the chance to build stronger squads to tackle what's ahead.

The enjoyable five-a-side mode of Rush is also back, an addictive kickabout that builds goals, but also feels more urgent than many of the other modes. It's a real adrenaline-fuelled mode that allows for plenty of fun, a bit of luck and a lot of one-on-one madness.

All in all, there's no denying that EA Sports FC26 is an extremely solid package, one that keeps both fans of the annual sim happy and one that welcomes newcomers to the fold as well. It's well worth diving in, whether it's for a long stretch of matches or just a kickabout, this remains a superlative package that shows the franchise continues to be worthy of its genre.