EA Sports FC 25: All you need to know about Rush Mode, FC IQ, gameplay changes and more

Like every year, EA Sports FC 25 is one of the most anticipated games worldwide and after the success of the first version without the FIFA license, the expectations are undoubtedly the highest. Thanks to an invitation from the local Electronic Arts office, we had the opportunity to go to EA Vancouver to play the new title and, above all, to talk to the developers about the surprises that this new release will bring.

The new EA Sports FC 25 cover

First of all, we have to start with the already released cover. On the one hand, in the standard version we will have Jude Bellingham, the star of Real Madrid. On the other hand, in the Ultimate Team edition, the Spanish player and current European Champion and Golden Ball, Aitana Bonmati, as well as the legends Gianluigi Buffon, Zinedine Zidane and David Beckham are added under the slogan “All for the club”.

Rush, the 5v5 mode that replaces Volta

This is undoubtedly one of the best changes we have made. In a chat we had with Sam Rivera, Senior Producer at Electronic Arts (EA), he explained to us why they made this change. We had the opportunity to try it out with other colleagues and we found it to be a lot of fun, as it reminds us to a certain extent of the classic street matches, but without losing the essence of EA SPORTS FC, as the moves are there. Regarding the rules, it is important to clarify that they have introduced the “blue cards”, which in case of being cautioned, you will leave for 1 minute, which represents a danger to the team. Penalties will be taken from the penalty mark and the kick-off will be a run from ¾ of the field to the center. Offside has also been added, but this is literally from the last third of the field, it’s a bit weird at first, but once you play it, it’s extremely fun.

This mode also features a new stadium, drone show and will be playable in Ultimate Team, Clubs, Manager, Career and Kick Off modes.

FC IQ

This is one of the additions with the most tactical depth, since it includes the already known Hypermotion V, Playstyles and, above all, Artificial Intelligence. In fact, according to the developers, it is the biggest change to the game in decades, as it seeks to modernize tactics with real-world data. To learn more, we had the opportunity to speak with Tomas Caleffi, one of the people in charge of this section, who gave us more details on how even the players themselves, based on the profiles they have, adapt to the new positions where you put them, even though they have no experience in that position in real life.

In short, there will be 52 roles that determine how players behave with the ball, and these are artificial intelligence models fed with Opta data. For example, there will be different categories of roles such as goalkeeper, full back, center back, center midfielder, defensive midfielder, or central midfielder, and there will be some more “specialized” ones that are created by the AI, while the others are created by real life models and data. Each role can be modified, leading to a total of 52 combinations that determine how the player moves on the pitch with and without the ball, taking the tactical experience to a new level.

Another way of looking at it is if we have a player who is a natural left winger and we move him to a holding midfielder, the AI or Role+ will come in and help the player understand that new position.

There will also be tactics at the team level with simpler pre-configurations, as well as summaries that allow you to see how they work, you can even adjust them at the line level. The best thing is that all this can be shared with our friends through the network by means of a code.

Something we liked a lot is that the tactics will be in a simpler way in the D-pad crosshairs and there you can put your personal strategies, focus, fast, suggested by the computer or even some based on the context of the game.

Gameplay

During the presentation of this section, we were told that the goalkeepers will have 6 different play styles and that there will be some kind of tactical fouls to stop the game without necessarily having to be cautioned, although if we insist on using them we can get a card or two.

During one of the sessions we had, we tried to generate a foul of this type and we saw that it is a kind of pull that in effect destabilizes the opponent.

New animations have also been added for the 180° turns and the blind first intention pass has been modified, let’s say that it is not so easy anymore if you are not well profiled.

On the other hand, we will have new moves:

At the animation level, defenders will already crash into the post, but one of the details that will add more realism is that there will be new weather effects, wind indicators as this affects the movement of the ball and more affectation when the field is wet. Although it is important to note that all this will only work in offline mode.

Visuals

Now the stadiums will be more alive than before, because we will be able to find mascots, events that happen on the field, more public and dynamic elements such as cameras. In fact, we were able to see an animation where a player celebrated with his mascot by doing a kind of “chicken dance”.

Another addition that will attract the attention of many is that for the first time there will be a graphics mode where we will be able to increase the resolution while keeping the standard lighting or choose the visuals with ray tracing in the ambient occlusion, individual shadows, edge lighting, better simulation of the movement of clothing and shadows in real time.

Among the new features in terms of broadcast, the first-person camera and more realistic intros have been added to all matches, as they were only present in special events such as the finals. One of the changes that we thought was very successful was that you will be able to select the cameras with the D-pad in replays, something that has not been changed in years.

Finally, we will also find a photo mode with contrast effects, vignettes and others.

As we can see EA SPORTS FC will have many changes, even those that have affected the Ultimate Team and Career Mode, but we will discuss these later in another text.

EA SPORTS FC 25 will be released on September 27th on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC and Nintendo Switch.