I’ve summarised everything you need to know about the career mode for the global release of FC 25. The many new settings are central, followed by the biggest changes: Rush youth tournaments, youth academy, FCIQ tactics system and the new gameplay. Here is an overview of the most important changes.
New Rush mode for youth players
The new Rush mode will be introduced in career mode, allowing players to improve their youth players in a 5v5 tournament. These three-game tournaments take place every two months in the in-game calendar and offer the opportunity to collect experience points for the youth players. The exciting thing here is that you can play the players both with their current strength value and with the maximum possible potential value.
The youth players also look much younger and change their appearance over the years. It also shows which and how many playstyles a young talented player can get. If you win a youth tournament, the teenagers receive a huge boost for their development. This is incredibly fun and helps to increase their fitness.
Also new: you can now scout from 160 countries, including exotic dwarf states. From Vanuatu to Lesotho and San Marino.
All to Rush mode in FC 25 here.
Realistic or simulation gameplay
With the new simulation mode, you can set the gameplay as you know it from the AI – or it reacts variably to the decisions of the players, changes the strategy and thus comes closer to the behaviour of human players. This feature can be switched on or off at any time. Dynamic gameplay in particular fundamentally changes the game, the AI skilfully and unpredictably behaves.
Weather and time of day conditions are also integrated into the gameplay. For example, players can slip if it rains too much. The game starts in the late afternoon when it is sunny and ends at night when it is dark. Or the weather changes. All of this can also be switched on and off.
Live Start Points
One of the most significant new features is the ‘Live Start Points’, which make it possible to start a career at any point during the real football season. This is based on the actual results and events of the major leagues, including transfers, player form and injuries. However, this feature will only be available once the game has launched.
Which stands to reason – the live start points only make sense once a few real games have been played. But hopefully not until Christmas, dear EA …
FC IQ and tactics revolution
The new ‘FC IQ’ system brings a tactics revolution to the career mode. Player roles and tactical adjustments take centre stage to make the game even more realistic. You can choose from 50 player roles and completely redefine the individual positions. You can also search for players with roles that match the game and tactical system when scouting.
This is certainly the biggest change – because the player roles are decisive for the game system. How does the AI behave without the ball? You have to look at scouting to see whether the player fits into the system. Even in the youth academy. That changes the depth of the game decisively.
Revised menu and social media integration
The career mode menu has been revamped, inspired by the Ultimate Team quick menu. In addition, the presentation of the news has been modernised with a social media design and the integration of real media experts such as Fabrizio Romano to increase authenticity. The German version features kicker reports. Fans or even the real players comment on Scoial Media.
There is also a to-do list that summarises the manager’s most important tasks. And a nice visual representation of the team of the week. However, there are also a few things to criticise: Hansus criticises the fact that you can’t see your team directly in team management, or the Pro in the player career. The menu is confusing at first glance, but in some places it is organised more sensibly than before.
Feel free to discuss with us on discord.
Press conferences and morality system
The interview questions have been expanded to include questions on tactical decisions. What’s new is that these answers have a direct influence on a new morale system. If you praise players, their morale increases, but if you praise them too much, they become arrogant, aka ‘complacent’. This finally makes the interview more varied, with the questions being adapted to the respective game by AI.
So many setting options
Yay: You can now switch off board objectives, and according to Hansus, you can also set that you can’t be fired. So games without redundancies. That’s a big step forward, because until now the board goals were often completely unrealistic. You can also switch training plans on and off or control their effects.
You can also automate training plans. Or switch off training exercises. Or you can set how much older players can develop and how much and how quickly youth players can progress. You can also switch transfers on and off completely or for several years.
You can also deactivate scouting completely – then you can see all player values immediately. You can also speed up scouting so that new players are fully scouted in just a few days.
Player career with icons
In the new career mode, players can now play with legendary football icons such as Pirlo, Thierry Henry, Zinédine Zidane, David Beckham and Van Nistelrooy. These icons are available in the player career, and some, such as the ‘real Ronaldo’ (R9), Beckham and Zidane, are available as pre-order bonuses.
Here you can choose how far your personality development has already progressed. You can have the icons play together with the current professionals. And you can play three types of story careers: Great expectations with a young talent, from the bottom to the bottom, a comeback as a fallen star after a crisis, or a son of great parents.
Women’s leagues and Women’s Champions League
Women’s leagues are integrated into the career mode for the first time. The available leagues include the Google Pixel Women’s Bundesliga, Barclays Women’s Super League, National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL), Liga F and D1 FFF. The Women’s Champions League is also part of the game, which increases the diversity and inclusivity of the game. What’s particularly cool is that you can switch back and forth between men’s and women’s teams as a coach.
Women can win the Golden Ball.
Conclusion: The career mode is changing!
EA is finally focussing on the career mode and is now getting a whole range of new features. Above all, the wide range of customisation options, women’s leagues, Rush youth tournaments, social media – after many years of almost complete stagnation, career mode is finally getting a major update. The gameplay has also been given a huge boost and is now much more realistic, the ball runs more randomly and less on a string.