FC 27 wants to take you through the whole season Closer to real football, more accessible for casual players, and designed to evolve throughout the year

On September 25, the new FC 27 will be released. We at nss sports had the opportunity to play it ahead of release and got a sense of what the EA Sports team is focusing on.

The line between videogames and real football is becoming increasingly blurred: there are more and more opportunities to play together and many more ways to enter the stories unfolding on real football pitches. But there was another feeling that stayed with us during the preview: FC 27 seems designed to be more immediate, even for those who don't play every day. The onboarding is quick, the different sections immediately explain what you can do and, even when moving between modes, you don't find yourself facing an endless menu of things to understand before you can start playing.

How The Grounds works

The centre of this year's game is The Grounds, the multiplayer mode where you create your own player, known as a Pro, and develop them by playing together with other people. 11v11 football also returns, with two teams of eleven players, alongside Rush, the smaller-sided format, as well as tournaments and temporary events that change throughout the season. Your Pro's progression is built around Archetypes, player profiles that allow you to specialise in specific characteristics and roles, while Amps are temporary boosts that modify some of their abilities for a limited number of matches. In practice, you can try out a boost to long-range shooting or attributes inspired by top players for a few matches without permanently changing the way your Pro is built.

For those who prefer to play solo, the connection with real football also comes through Career Mode, where you can manage a team or follow the career of an individual player. Manager Live is expanded with new seasonal Challenges and Community Driven Challenges, but most importantly, it allows you to create and share your own challenges with friends. This means you can try to change a team's fate or take on a situation created by the community without having to start a new career from scratch.

And yes, if you've always thought you could do a better job than the manager of your team fighting relegation, you can take his place on the bench and take charge yourself.

How is FUT changing in FC 27?

The mode that probably takes the most time to understand is FUT, or Football Ultimate Team, where you build your own squad by collecting player cards, upgrading them and using them across different online and offline competitions. Here too, EA has chosen to change its philosophy: less of a rush towards upgrades and more value placed on what you do throughout the season.

Cards should remain usable for longer, with more gradual updates and fewer PlayStyle+ attributes, the special traits that change the way a player behaves on the pitch. Campaigns, the main series of special cards released throughout the year, will also be more limited. The stated goal is to reduce so-called power creep, preventing cards obtained at the beginning of the season from quickly becoming unusable.

But perhaps the biggest change concerns how rewards are earned. Rivals is FUT's competitive mode, where players face each other online to climb the Divisions, Champions is the time-limited competition focused on the most competitive matches, while Squad Battles lets you play against CPU-controlled teams. All three will award more Coins directly after matches. Every eligible game will also contribute to seasonal progression and, most importantly, will continue to do so even after you have reached your weekly objectives.

Finally, playing pays off

In practice, playing should once again have a greater impact on building your squad. This is also reflected in the Store, the in-game shop where you can purchase Packs, containing player cards and other items, as well as other content: EA says it wants to make the Store more optional, with fewer promotional offers and a greater emphasis on rewards earned by playing.

The way cards are managed is also changing. The Transfer Market, FUT's in-game marketplace where players can buy and sell cards, takes on a more important role, while many more rewards will be tradeable. Holographic Items are also being introduced: special and rarer versions of certain cards that add a collectible element without changing the player's attributes.

And it is precisely the collecting aspect that becomes one of FUT's new elements. The Gallery keeps track of the cards that have passed through your club: even if a player is sold or used in an SBC, meaning a Squad Building Challenge, they can continue to contribute to your collection. SBCs are challenges where you use your cards to meet specific objectives and earn a reward. FC 27 also introduces Streamlined SBCs, which allow you to contribute players towards a target score without having to build a squad from scratch while following a set of requirements every time.

The connection with real football also returns to FUT. Season 1, running from September 17 to October 22, is built around Ones to Watch, Destined for Glory and Future Stars, three types of special content tied to the season. Ones to Watch cards can receive upgrades based on players' real-world performances, while Destined for Glory can improve based on specific statistical results achieved in the real world.

From league results to the videogame

It is a principle that runs through all of FC 27: what happens outside the videogame can have consequences inside it. The same applies to Career Mode and The Grounds, where events and content are updated throughout the season, making the experience feel even less static.

In the end, this is the direction we perceived during the preview: FC 27 is trying to bring online and offline together, regular players and people who might be returning to the game after a few years, real football and videogames. It does so by making it easier to get into the game while still leaving enough depth for those who want to spend hundreds of hours playing it.