EA Sports FC 27: Better football, deeper careers

Every year, I have the same problem reviewing EA Sports FC. EA releases a new football game, tells us everything has changed, renames a few familiar features and expects us to forget that we bought almost the same thing 12 months ago. FC 27 does not completely escape that problem. This is still an incremental update rather than a revolutionary reinvention of virtual football. The annoying thing for EA is that, this time, it has done enough to make the annual upgrade argument work.

FC 27 is easily the best football game EA has produced so far. More importantly, it is probably the first FC in a while that I would genuinely recommend upgrading to, particularly if this is the game you spend hundreds of hours playing every year. The biggest improvements are, thankfully, in the place they matter most: on the pitch.

The improved movement makes attacking football feel more deliberate.

The football finally feels better

Football in FC 27 feels more deliberate. Players move with greater purpose, attacking runs are smarter and matches feel less like you are fighting against some invisible sequence of events that has already decided what is going to happen. Teammates are much better at finding space and creating passing options instead of standing around waiting for you to perform a miracle.

Defending has changed significantly, too. The game expects you to do more of the work yourself instead of allowing the artificial intelligence to constantly rescue you. Positioning, switching defenders and timing tackles properly matter much more. Initially, this can be mildly infuriating. Years of FIFA and FC have trained many of us to rely on AI defenders while chasing attackers around with a midfielder. FC 27 is much less forgiving when you abandon your defensive shape.

Once you adjust, though, it is brilliant. Winning the ball back feels rewarding because you actually did something to earn it. The same applies when you concede a stupid goal because you dragged your centre-back halfway across the pitch. There is nobody else to blame, although I still recommend blaming the controller.

It is not perfect. AI defenders can occasionally behave as if they have bought tickets to the match rather than being paid to participate in it, particularly around corners. Attacking players can also suddenly alter their runs just as you make a pass, sending the ball harmlessly towards somewhere nobody happens to be. Those moments are frustrating, but they are increasingly exceptions rather than the defining experience. Overall, playing football in FC 27 is a joy.

I played the game on an Xbox Series X running patch 1.0.1, and it handled exceptionally well. Controls felt responsive, matches were smooth and the improved movement became especially noticeable when stringing passes together or rapidly changing direction during an attack. Across roughly 45 hours of play, I did not encounter anything serious enough to disrupt the experience. The usual animation oddities have not disappeared, though. Players can still clip awkwardly into each other, while some facial animations occasionally wander into territory normally occupied by badly made wax statues.

This was not a scientific frame-by-frame technical analysis, but after 45 hours on Series X, FC 27 felt polished, responsive and stable. Online performance will obviously depend partly on your connection and your opponents, while a game this dependent on live services can change considerably through patches after launch.

Manager Career transfers now feel more like negotiations.

Career Mode creates its own stories

Manager Career gets one of the most useful updates. Transfers now behave more like actual negotiations rather than the old process where you walked into a room, selected some numbers and watched two computer-generated humans awkwardly gesture at each other.

Deals can take time. Clubs can consider several targets. Rival teams can interfere, while relationships between clubs can affect negotiations. Clubs also have broader recruitment philosophies, which makes the market feel less like every AI manager is shopping from the same list. That means you need to plan transfers instead of discovering on deadline day that you need a striker and buying one 20 minutes before the window closes.

Player ratings are more dynamic, too. Form, fitness, injuries, playing time and morale can all affect how players develop. A high-rated player is not automatically your best option forever. Someone playing brilliantly can improve, while your superstar sulking on the bench can start heading in the other direction.

These systems give Career Mode something FC has traditionally lacked: a sense of narrative. There is no proper campaign here, and nobody should buy FC 27 expecting a football version of The Last of Us. Instead, Career Mode creates its own stories. A young player becoming indispensable, a star losing form, a rival club interfering with a transfer or an injury forcing you to rethink half your squad can become surprisingly memorable.

Player Career pushes this a little further through rivalries. Your performances can be compared with other players, with objectives built around outperforming them. There are also elements involving fan reaction and personal progression, but it remains a career simulation rather than a traditional story mode. FC 27 has no meaningful cinematic narrative carrying you through the game. Its stories happen because of what takes place on the pitch and in the transfer market. Frankly, that suits a football game better anyway.

Ultimate Team remains focused on collecting, squad building and progression.

Ultimate Team remains Ultimate Team

If you enjoy collecting players, building squads and opening packs, there is plenty here. Squad Building Challenges are easier to work with, progression has been refined and the new Gallery gives collectors another excuse to hoard footballers like extremely expensive Pokémon cards.

If you already dislike Ultimate Team because of its aggressive relationship with your wallet, FC 27 is unlikely to convert you. EA has not suddenly discovered charity. Some editions include FC Points and progression-related extras, while The Grounds has its own progression systems and purchasable content. None of this stopped me enjoying the football underneath it. However, when you are already paying full price for a game, the number of opportunities EA finds to ask for more money remains impressive.

The Grounds gives Clubs a more social home.

The Grounds gives Clubs a proper home

The biggest new attraction is The Grounds, which expands Clubs into a more social experience. Rather than selecting Clubs from a menu, you enter a shared football hub where you can meet other players, develop your Virtual Pro and take part in different activities. There are 1v1, 2v2 and 3v3 matches, Rush, full Clubs games and various smaller activities.

Up to 100 players can occupy an instance, and the ability to watch other matches from the sidelines makes the whole thing feel considerably more alive than the menus where Clubs previously lived. It feels a little like EA looked over at NBA 2K’s homework but, thankfully, did not copy every answer.

I like The Grounds. The smaller games are perfect when you do not have enough time for something more involved, while tying everything together makes Clubs feel much less buried than before. Progression across the different activities also gives you a reason to jump between them instead of repeatedly grinding the same mode.

Its long-term value is difficult to judge this early. The Grounds depends on other people being there, so whether it remains busy months from now will depend on EA keeping it populated and supporting it with worthwhile content. The Grounds and the reworked Clubs experience are limited to PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch 2. If you are playing on PS4, Xbox One or the original Switch, one of FC 27’s biggest additions is not available to you.

Presentation and atmosphere remain among the series strengths.

Presentation remains a major strength

Presentation has always been one of this series strengths, and FC 27 gets very close to recreating the atmosphere of watching football on television. Stadiums feel busy, broadcast overlays look convincing, crowds react appropriately and the sound of a packed stadium can add genuine tension when a match is close.

Commentary does a respectable job of giving matches context, although you eventually start hearing repeated observations. There are only so many different ways a virtual commentator can tell me I have made a terrible pass before it begins to feel personal. Crowd noise works particularly well. Goals, missed chances and big tackles get the appropriate response, while the changing noise of the stadium makes important matches feel important.

The soundtrack continues the series tradition with 120 tracks from 36 countries. There is a good chance you will discover something you like and an equally good chance there will be something you immediately skip every time it appears.

During matches, FC 27 can look spectacular. Stadiums, lighting, animation and presentation combine beautifully, and from the normal gameplay camera it can occasionally look frighteningly close to a television broadcast. Then the camera zooms into somebody’s face. Some players look excellent. Others look like someone tried to reconstruct them after receiving a description over a bad phone connection.

The user experience is generally good, although FC has accumulated so many modes, currencies, options and systems over the years that the menus can occasionally feel like navigating the website of a bank.

Strong accessibility options

Accessibility is considerably more comprehensive than I expected. There are difficulty settings and gameplay assists, simplified one- and two-button control schemes, some button remapping, colour-blind filters and adjustable brightness and contrast. Subtitle size, colour, background and drop shadow can be changed, while menu narration, text-to-speech and speech-to-text are available in supported regions. Audio levels can also be adjusted independently.

There is even an accessibility filter in the settings menu that gathers relevant options together. I did not comprehensively test these features with players who rely on them, so I am not going to declare FC 27 an accessibility masterpiece based purely on a settings screen. However, there is a genuinely substantial selection of options available, and that is worth acknowledging.

How much does FC 27 cost?

The UK Standard Edition costs £69.99, while the Ultimate Edition costs £99.99. The Ultimate Edition includes FC Points and bonuses across Ultimate Team, Career and The Grounds, including better scouting and coaching options in Career and progression boosts elsewhere. Some bonuses can accelerate progression or provide an easier start, even if they do not fundamentally change the football itself.

EA Play members can also use a 10-hour trial, which is probably the best option if you are still unsure whether enough has changed. Subscription availability and discounts will evolve throughout the game’s life, so you do not necessarily need to buy it immediately.

Should you buy EA Sports FC 27?

For once, I think the answer is yes. This is still an EA annual sports game. FC 27 has not reinvented anything, and I still think there is an argument for turning the series into a continually updated platform instead of selling us another full-priced game every year.

Unlike some previous releases, though, FC 27 does not make me want to reinstall last year’s game simply to remember what changed. The improvements to defending, attacking movement and general responsiveness make the actual football noticeably better. Career Mode includes changes that genuinely affect how you manage a team. Player Career’s rivalries give an individual journey more personality. The Grounds gives Clubs a proper home, while the presentation and accessibility options show signs of meaningful refinement.

It is evolution rather than revolution, but this time the evolution has gone far enough. If you only occasionally play football games and FC 26 still keeps you happy, you do not need to rush out and replace it. However, if FC is one of your regular games, or you skipped the previous edition, FC 27 is absolutely the one to get. EA has finally managed something unusual: it has made its annual update feel worth buying.