FC 26 Career Mode: How does this year’s edition stack up?

FC 26’s career mode introduces some major changes over the last game. With Manager Live, random and realistic events (or disasters), and enhanced strategic options, EA’s flagship football game has rewritten one of its most popular game modes.

In the current vacuum left behind by Football Manager, the new Career Mode has adopted an important role. With a much bigger emphasis on the trials and tribulations of a managerial career, here’s a full breakdown of all the changes and new features that make the game mode pop. 

One of the biggest new changes is the introduction of Manager Live, a live-service challenges feature that gives players the option to compete with their friends while also earning in-game rewards.

The mode introduces seasonal and weekly challenges, tasking managers with completing objectives that impact both rewards and reputation. Unlike the traditional sandbox career, Manager Live adds dynamic storylines, unpredictable minigames, and a live Manager Market, making each career feel unique.

Slowly, EA FC – and prior to this FIFA – games have been introducing narrative-driven elements into the core mechanics. This has been one of the most prominent requests from fans, though Manager Live isn’t quite there yet. Each challenge is obviously quite scripted, and there’s a sense of that repetitive, RPG-style side-quest that feels rigid and sometimes meaningless.

The new Manager Market is another addition, building off the absence of a Football Manager game this year. Now, managers can be sacked, poached, depart a club on a whim, and find themselves at a new club within days. This creates a sensation that your Career save has a bit more dynamism than before – especially crucial as FC 26 moves away from the typically scripted manager transfers of recent years.

As opposed to previous career modes, the latest game’s structure resembles the ever-changing reality of football. I think you see this the most when you’re figuring out your club’s identity. The previous manager leaves an imprint on the squad, from their coaching strategies and scouting preferences to how the players behave.

With injuries, which have always been a prominent feature in Career, and now with the added insecurity of financial issues, there’s definitely a much bigger focus on the ‘role-playing’ elements.

If all of the changes to the dressing room and training pitch aren’t your thing, then the changes to the gameplay might be. One of the most important new features introduced in FC 26 is the two new game modes – authentic and competitive.

While you’re probably going to want to steer away from competitive for career mode, the authentic mode will make the game feel like a Rainy Night in Stoke. The game slows, weather conditions make a much bigger impact, and injuries and unpredictable disasters will challenge your title run.

As always, the ball physics have improved, and rebounds feel less arcade-like. AI positioning is even better than before, which means matches flow a lot better and both defence and attack feel much smoother. However, the goalkeeper feels quite inconsistent this year – sometimes clutching the game with a fantastic save, other times pulling the same old tricks of awkward, nonsensical defending. Even though the AI positioning has improved, there are always moments that it breaks, leading to both defending mistakes and predictable attacking patterns.

Low-driven shots can now be activated by double-tapping the shoot button, as opposed to using the bumper buttons. There are other welcome tweaks to the game’s physicality as well – better collisions and aerial defending add enhanced reliability to defensive moments.

FC IQ has also been expanded with new archetypes. Marauder is a personal favourite of mine to throw on a big midfielder. These restrict some build flexibility over the previous systems of free point allocations, which can be quite frustrating at times. 

You also can toggle many of the new features so that you can disable any you think are impairing your experience of the game. 

This is perhaps the Career Mode that has seen the most significant changes in a new game. The new live features enhance the competitiveness while also building a much-needed connection between the player and manager. Despite this, it doesn’t significantly enhance replayability, as many of these features can grow stale over time.

What works the most, however, is the overhaul to the game’s mechanics that makes it much more lifelike. The ‘Authentic’ mode goes a long way to make your career as gruelling and tough as possible, which is very welcome.