Player and Manager Career Mode has always been an ever-present feature in every game cycle. However in FC 25, EA Sports are making some exciting changes! There is going to be huge modifications to Career Mode as we know it as well as some brand-new features for us to explore such as Women’s Career Mode!
Live Start Points
This is a exciting new feature arriving in FC 25 where you will be able to take control of a team from some of the top leagues in world football from any gameweek across the 2024/25 season. The men’s leagues you will be able to do this with are the Premier League, EFL Championship, LALIGA EA SPORTS, Ligue 1 McDonalds’s, Bundesliga and Serie A Enilive. You can also do with four of the women’s leagues which are Barclays Women’s Super League, Liga F, Arkeme Premier Ligue and Google Pixel Frauen-Bundesliga. This means there is a total of 10 leagues as well as 12 cup competitions that have Live Start Points. This feature follows real world results and facilitates you to be able to join in at any point in the season, allowing you to feel more closer to the action.
Each Live Start Point will be accurate to real life stats and events such as point totals, injuries, goals scored, transfers and many more including potential point deductions!
A part of Live Start Points will be “Snapshots”. These capture important moments from the season and allow you to jump whenever they occur. The domestic seasons haven’t started yet so the current Snapshots moments are yet to be known. However, expect these to represent events such as manager sackings, underperforming clubs or maybe even huge player transfers. Live Start Points and Snapshots are set to start later in 2024 and will be available in both Player and Manager Career.
FC IQ in Manager Career
With FC IQ already heading for Ultimate Team and Clubs, it’s also set to arrive in Career Mode as well. This is due to be an extension of the previous “Tactical Vision” system. You will be able to create different tactical pre-sets which will involve using your own unique player roles and creating defensive and build-up strategies. All of tactical pre-sets will be compatible with all formations. These additions give extra meaning to coaching staff as not only can coaching staff boost attributes, they can now also raise role familiarity by one level to players who are set to key roles on the pitch. For this to occur, the coach must have a higher tactical knowledge than the natural Role Rating of the player and the player must have ability to play that position in the first place.
The majority of formations require a key Player Role per department. Hiring an expert coach can improve players. For example, hiring an expert Tiki Taka coach for the midfield department means you can improve any Central midfielder that isn’t already a Deep Lying Playmaker++. The introduction of the new tactical pre-sets and Player Roles system is created to allow for more unique ways to set up your team in Manager Career.
Player roles have also become the key focus of the recrafted “Development Plans”. These plans now include role potential which means each role will have its own Development Plan that will focus on sets of abilities and attributes. The role rating of each player will determine the potential of Key Attributes for that specific role. If a player over time is improving in key stats for a role, a role rating level up is more likely to occur. When this happens, the potential of those stats are increased.
Origin Stories in Player Career
This feature allows you to choose one of three paths for the start of your Player Career. All of which come with their own advantages and disadvantages and bring unique opportunities in your player. Here is are the brief descriptions of each of the three paths which can be found on the EA SPORTS website:
“You can start off as a child prodigy, coming from a legendary football family, to prove that you can survive the pressures of the role and create your own legacy while taking your famous family name to the next level.”
“You can also play as someone coming from humble beginnings but with an unshakable dream and loads of talent. Show everyone that it’s not about where you come from, but how hard you work if you’re going to make your dreams come true.”
“You can begin your journey as a player who has known the glories of top-class football, but has sustained a career-threatening injury and is now making their comeback. Show everyone that you are stronger than ever and ready for any challenge.”
However, if none of these descriptions appeal to you, it is possible to create your own Custom Start. In this, you can set up your own age, personality type and skill level to create your own unique player journey. If you are more than happy to start at the traditional point of a young player, then you can select a “Clean Slate” option.
Women’s Football in Career Mode
For the first time ever, women’s football has been added to career mode which adds a variety of new leagues, teams and players to choose from. There will be five leagues to choose from which are Barclays Women’s Super League, Liga F, Arkeme Premier Ligue and Google Pixel Frauen-Bundesliga, and the National Women’s Super League (NWSL). The Women’s Champions League will also be playable. Women’s Manager Career will include everything that the Men’s Manager Career has including authentic managers.
As an additional bonus, during your Manager Career you will be able to fluctuate between the men’s and women’s leagues within the same career to take up new challenges in never seen before places.
Women’s Player Career is also available with the same functions as the Men’s Player Career.
Youth Academy
The ability to scout for youth talent in FC 25 has become greater and wider as you are now able to scout in over 160 countries and up to four specific positions. Also with the insertion of FC IQ, you can now add three specific roles within the selected positions.
There is also a new way to interact with the Youth Academy with the introduction of Rush matches. You can now play with your youth side in 5v5 matches which will assist with developing the next generation of your club. You will also have the option to play with their current overall rating and stats, or with the full potential stats and rating to see how they could perform once they are fully developed. Rush matches are organised as tournaments happening twice a month. Winning these, will provide significant increase in development for your academy stars.
Finally, youth players will also begin to look older as they grow older. As their age increases, their appearance will change such as the growth of facial hair.
New Menus and Social Media
The menus in Career Mode have been redesigned to allow for easier navigation. A first new feature is the addition of The Task List. This showcases certain actions that are recommended to be completed during your career. All points of interest or potential issues will be brought up in this section.
A second and even bigger fresh feature is the addition of social media to Career Mode in FC 25. The Social Media tab will allow you to see important transfer news, match results and so much more. Teams, players and even famous journalists such as Fabrizio Romano will be seen using social media in Career Mode, so except a few “Here We Go!” posts during the transfer window!
Extra Information
- When Scouting for players in Manager Career, you can now look for players with certain roles or pre-sets. This will allow you to find players that perfectly suit your system
- The squad hub and transfer hub will now show role information about players.
- The “Morale” system has been reworked to become more of a “sweet spot” system. The sweet spot varies for different players.
- Press Conferences have also been altered so that questions now should be based on match statistics, tactical choices and the opponents setup.
- A series of settings have been created to allow you to have better control over the way you simulate gameplay. You can now change between a realistic setting which enables gameplay to act closer to real-life football and a classic which is showcases conventional FC 25 gameplay.
- A select amount of ICONs are now available to play with in Player Career. The ICONs to choose from will change over time to give us different experiences playing as some of the greatest to ever do it.
- Similar to Clubs, creating your character is more creative than ever with the use of Cranium Technology.
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