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FIFA 18

10 Things We Want to See in FIFA 18 Career Mode

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FIFA 17 career mode didn’t really bring much to the table that wasn’t already present in FIFA 16 career mode. They introduced ‘Total Club Management’, but that’s basically just a new menu system that shows all your season objectives in one place; nothing groundbreaking and definitely not something to get too excited about!

It’s therefore time to start looking forward to FIFA 18 career mode and consider new additions to the game that could potentially help improve the game mode and make it a more enjoyable and generally more immersive experience.

Here are my thoughts on 10 things that could be added to career mode to improve things for FIFA 18…

ONLINE CAREER MODE

The career mode gameplay can get quite stale sometimes due to its rather repetitive nature, but how good would it be if EA could introduce some form of online career mode?!

You could go up against your mates online, doing business with them and making cheeky bids for some of their up and coming talents, and it could also make the YouTube career mode community quite interesting, watching some of your favourite YouTubers go head to head in online action. Imagine how good it would be to witness an online career mode series featuring the likes of CaniSports, ChesnoidGaming, My Player master BfordLancer… And Rich Leigh, maybe? You’ve maybe not heard of him, but I hear he makes some fantastic career mode content over on YouTube…

LEAGUE EXPANSION & TOURNAMENT EXPANSION

The Chinese Super League is one league that many people would love to see added for FIFA 18, and with the arrival of new leagues in the game, it’d also be pretty awesome to see new tournaments added to the game as well. I want to be able to compete in the AFC Champions League or the CONCACAF Champions League for example. I’ve always thought that it could be quite fun to manage an MLS side in the game, but without any continental tournament to compete in, I’ve never bothered doing so as playing the same teams over and over again every season would soon become incredibly tiresome.

I’d love to see the Chinese Super League included in FIFA 18 career mode, and I’d also massively appreciate the inclusion of more continental tournaments.

YOUTH LEAGUES

At the moment, the youth system in FIFA career mode is really quite basic. At the start of every month you get an update on how the youth players are all developing and their overall stats and potential can alter, but there’s no real way to track a young player’s development in-game unless you take a screenshot at the start of every month and track a player’s progress this way.

The addition of youth leagues in FIFA 18 career mode would be absolutely brilliant in my opinion and would provide a much better way of tracking youth player progress in the game. Your youth team could go up against the youth teams of other sides in the same division and the game could offer player stats like those provided for players in the first team so that you could keep an eye on important information such as how many goals everyone is scoring, what average ratings players are getting, and how many clean sheets different defenders and goalkeepers are maintaining.

Keeping track of youth player progress in this manner would also come together rather nicely with the point I’m about to talk about next, and that’s…

THE REMOVAL OF PREDEFINED PLAYER POTENTIAL

At the moment, when a youth player comes through the system, the game initially offers you a rather vague estimation of how good this player can become in the future, and the more months they’re in the academy for, the more precise this figure becomes until ultimately you know pretty much exactly how good this player will become. Also, if you want to find out a real life player’s potential, you head on over to SoFIFA.com where the latest database information is right there waiting for you. I’d like to see the player potential system in FIFA career mode completely reworked in such a way that better reflects how players truly develop in reality.

In FIFA 15 for example, Harry Kane went from having 74 potential at the start of the game, to 84 potential by the end of it on the basis that he enjoyed an absolutely sensational season in reality. In FIFA 18 career mode, you should be able to take a relatively unknown player and turn them into a superstar by consistently performing well with them on the football field. There shouldn’t just be a static, predefined potential for that player; other factors should come into play such as a players performances and whether or not they suffer any major injuries or time on the sidelines throughout their development. You should have to nurture young talents to help them reach their full potential, not just leave them sitting there in the squad, knowing that regardless of what you do, their rating will continue to develop and they will ultimately shine.

There should certainly be some sort of base stat for potential that offers a guideline as to how good a player may become in the future, but this should be a flexible figure that can alter as a result of in-game occurrences.

As it stands, when you send a player out on loan or they transfer to another club, their potential can alter in the process, and this is something that I very much like and appreciate. A loan move can make or break a player in reality, and it can also impact upon their future in career mode as well. If you just leave a player in your squad though, their potential won’t alter, regardless of what you do, and this is something that I’d like to see changed. Consistent good performances should be rewarded with an increase to that players overall stats and potential, whilst poor performances and periods of stagnation should result in a player’s progress being hampered.

THE ABILITY FOR PLAYERS TO LEARN NEW POSITIONS

This is something that I’ve spoken about before in a video that I did with a bunch of other career mode YouTubers last year, and that’s the ability for players to learn new positions within the game. EA updates the career mode database several times per week now and players will have certain positions added and removed from their abilities throughout the year, but what I’d very much like to see is the ability for players to learn new positions throughout the course of a career mode. You can train a player in different areas and therefore make them more useful in different positions, but the game will never update a players positioning to show where they’re most useful.

Bale is one such example of a player that could benefit from this new addition to the game; in the past he has at times been listed as able to play as a striker, but right now the game only recognises him as a right winger. He also started out his career as a left back, and I have at times had some pretty solid success with Bale, once again having him operating as a full back. You can of course play people anywhere and it doesn’t really massively matter whether or not the game suggests that they should be playing there, but it’d certainly satisfy my OCD if players could learn new positions. It’d also be quite nice if when you moved a player into a different position on the pitch, their rating altered to show you how effective they are in that position. Right now, players just have a rating set for how good they are in their primary position, and wherever you put them, they’ll still show the same rating.

CONTRACT CLAUSES

At the moment, contract negotiations are very simplistic, and I would love to see much more depth added to the game in this area. When you sell a player to another club, there should at least be the option to insert a buy back clause, or maybe even a sell-on clause as well. It’s minor details like this that would really help to make career mode more realistic, immersive, and just generally more enjoyable to play.

In addition to this, I’d also like to see clauses in loan contracts as well as right now, when you send a player out on loan; that player can end up playing against you if you ever have to play that team. That never really happens in reality as there’s usually a clause that prohibits them from playing against their parent club. Add this to FIFA career mode please, EA.

STADIUM EXPANSION

For teams that don’t have their official stadium in the game, I feel that stadium expansion should be an option, especially if you’re managing a side in a Road to Glory style series. It’s all very well playing in a tiny little stadium when you’re battling it out in League Two, but once you’ve taken your team to the Champions League and are challenging for the Premier League title every season, you don’t really want to be doing so at Town Park or some other such small generic stadium featured in the game.

As you get further into the game, there should be the option to expand upon the stadium that you already have, or upgrade to a larger generic stadium that’s featured in career mode. I’m not asking for the ability to set the price of hot dogs in the stadium or anything silly like that, it’d just be nice if the game would recognise your progress in career mode and update your stadium to better suit the prestige level that your team has reached within the game.

THE ABILTIY TO MAKE CHANGES IN SIMULATED MATCHES

Simulated matches in FIFA career mode currently consist of setting your team, pressing sim match, and hitting advance. Once you’ve done that, the players start warming up and the simulated match begins. There’s no ability to provide any input whatsoever and it’s all very limited. As it stands, I don’t tend to simulate matches as the whole process is just a bit rubbish. If there was the ability to make tactical changes or substitutions during simulated matches then this I feel would provide a fantastic step forward for career mode. For FIFA 17, all EA really did with career mode was change up the way that the board expectations are presented. It wasn’t enough and we want more from the career mode experience. There’s so much that they could do to improve career mode, and in my opinion, offering increased involvement in simulated matches would be an absolutely fantastic addition to the game for FIFA 18.

PLAYER STATS FOR OTHER LEAGUES

You can find out player stats for other teams in your own league and for all of the major tournaments taking place that season, but you can’t for example, be managing a team in England and scope out other leagues like the Bundesliga or Belgian Pro League to see what players are performing best in other leagues around the world. When I play Football Manager, especially once I’m a few seasons into the game, I’m constantly sniffing around in other divisions and looking for top talents abroad. I like to find out what players have the most goals in other divisions, what players have the most assists, and also what players have the highest average ratings. I can’t do that in FIFA career mode though… ‘Scouting’ in FIFA career mode currently basically just involves looking on SoFIFA and using the filters to look for pacey, strong, or high potential players.

As I stated earlier though, I’d like to see the removal of predefined potential in career mode. I want player potential to be more based around a players performance and whether or not they get knocked back by injuries or long spells in the reserves or on the sidelines. This kind of change to the structure of the game would make player stats for other leagues extremely useful. We could find out how players are getting on in other leagues around the world, scout them further if interested, and make decisions from there as to whether or not we wish to sign them. I love looking at players’ stats in reality, enjoy this method of seeking out players in Football Manager, and would also love for this to become a part of the process in FIFA 18 career mode as well.

TEAMS WITH AN INDIVIDUAL IDENTITY

When you play FIFA 17 career mode, teams don’t really have any sort of identity or game plan that separates them from the pack. Sometimes smaller teams will park the bus, but that’s about all the variety you really get from the career mode experience right now. Every team plays in the exact same style, just to varying degrees of success. If teams like Barcelona, Real Madrid and Bayern were brilliant and lower level teams were poor, this would be one thing, but that’s not even usually the case. You can be playing Barcelona in the Champions League one week, Bolton Wanderers in the EFL Cup the next, yet it’ll be Bolton that provide you with the sternest test. Bolton will be passing it around with precision, turning their backs on you, successfully shielding the ball at every opportunity, whilst Barcelona will play in the same style, but worse.

It’s not always the way that the big teams are poor and the smaller ones are excellent, but it’s often the case nonetheless. I think I’ve probably been beaten by Sunderland more times in career mode than I have Manchester City… And why is it that Jonjo Shelvey always seems to score against me as well? Stop it. Just stop it.

Anyway though, back on track… I want to see teams given more of an individual identity in career mode. Different teams should have different game plans and play in their own distinctive style. Not only would this make things more interesting, but it’d also make the game more difficult as well as right now, once you figure out how to play against the computer and find a style that works; that style will basically work against every team in the game. You don’t really ever have to vary the way that you play the game and unlock the opposition, as right now, CPU controlled teams never really operate any differently. When you go up against someone online, there’s always that battle of reading the way that they play the game and working out how best to stop them, a constant contest of skill and brain work as you look to stop the other person’s attacks, block off their passing lanes, and vary your own game as well so as not to make it too easy for them to work out what you’re going to be doing next.

Right now CPU controlled teams have no real unique identity and this brings me full circle in crying out for some form of online career mode. If EA aren’t going to improve the artificial intelligence, please let us put ourselves to the test in career mode against other real-life humans. I don’t ask for much in life, but I definitely want to battle my mates and all the good friends that I’ve made in the FIFA community, negotiating transfer deals with them and just generally having a bit more fun with career mode. Make it happen, EA. Just make it happen.

So these are some of the things that I’d like to see changed for FIFA 18 career mode… What additions and new features would you like to see present in the next game? Leave me your thoughts in the comments section down below and I very much look forward to hearing from you!

10 Things I Want to See in FIFA 18 Ultimate Team

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FIFA 18 won’t be released until late September, but the beta will no doubt be available a few months prior to that and it’s therefore time to start looking forward to the future and working out what needs to be done as we move towards the release of EA’s next football title.

The following is a list of 10 things that I personally would absolutely love to see included in FIFA 18 Ultimate Team:

BETTER REWARDS FOR WINNING

At the moment, the rewards for winning games and divisions as well for that matter are really quite feeble. It takes a pretty long time to build up coins from playing matches, and currently it’ll set you back several games worth of match coins just to pick up a healing card.

More coins should be offered for matches, especially if you win them, and in my opinion; the prize money should also be a lot better for achieving glory within the game. Right now, if you win Division 1, you get a mere 15,000 coins. Hold your position in the top division and you’ll get an even less; 7,500, enough coins to buy ONE premium gold pack. You do get automatic qualification for the Weekend League in both of these cases as well, and the rewards from doing well in that are admittedly pretty good, but not everyone has enough time at the weekend to compete in 40 matches and reap the full rewards that the Weekend League experience potentially has to offer.

I would love to see more match coins awarded for successfully completing matches, and a more generous offering of coins for doing well in Divisions would make progression through the league system far more appealing. Maybe you could get a 100k pack for winning Division 1 in addition to some sort of coin reward? Even if it was untradeable, at least this would provide a bit more incentive to work your way up the ladder and ultimately strive to win Division 1.

CHEAPER PACKS/CHEAPER FIFA POINTS

Moving on from that last point about receiving better rewards from winning things; another thing that could do with being addressed is the cost of packs. If you’re playing matches to make coins, 7.5k is a fair amount to save up for a Premium Gold Pack where a Squad Fitness Card is probably usually the most valuable card in there.

If match rewards were better, then pack prices maybe wouldn’t seem so steep, but right now; the price of packs is just far too much, which makes taking the FIFA Point route a much more appealing method, as at least that way you’re not eating into your hard earned coins. FIFA Points are expensive though; 12,000 FIFA Points cost about twice as much as the game itself does in the first place. £79.99 if you’re in the UK, or £71.99 if you have EA Access. This makes Premium Gold Packs about a quid each, or 90p each if you’re signed up for EA Access.

Whether you’re paying with coins, or paying with FIFA Points, FIFA Ultimate Team packs are incredibly expensive and in my opinion, the price of them should be much lower.

LEGENDS ON PS4

At the moment, Microsoft have an exclusive deal with EA and Legends are therefore only available on Xbox. Potentially that exclusivity period is coming to an end though and the likes of Pele, Gullit and Okocha could well be arriving in FIFA 18 Ultimate Team for PS4 users as well as those on Xbox. Maybe David Beckham will be introduced as a new legend for FIFA 18 as well? I live in hope.

IMPROVED TRANSFER FUNCTIONS

At the time of writing this, squad fitness cards are selling for about 1,000 coins each, yet if I search for Gold fitness cards between 950 and 1,000 coins buy it now, I have to scroll through pages and pages of regular fitness cards before I come across the items I’m actually looking for.

It’s a similar sort of issue with in-form player searches as well; you can search for a player’s special card within a certain price range, but if that player has more than one in-form card, you can’t narrow that search down to simply look for the card that you’re interested in. You can hit ‘Compare Price’ once you do find the card you want, but it then displays EVERY card for sale on the transfer market, regardless of their listing price. Oh, and if you want to find a specific stadium on the transfer market? Good luck with that.

Another thing that’s slightly frustrating right now is the lack of a rare/non-rare filter on the transfer market. This would be a useful addition to the game and I for one would definitely appreciate the inclusion of such a filter.

I definitely feel that the search function could do with some improvements, and the same goes for selling items as well. Throughout the year, I tend to pick up hundreds upon hundreds of contract cards and fitness cards. Occasionally I’ll have a clear out and get rid of them en-masse, but this can be quite a long-winded experience as you have to go through and list up each item individually. It would be quite a nice time saving feature if you could set your price, then list multiple items at this price point at the same time.

SQUAD CONTRACT CARDS

Some people would like to see the complete removal of fitness and contract cards, which is fair enough, but if they are here to stay; something that I’d definitely like to see added to the game for FIFA 18 is squad contract cards. When your team are looking a bit tired, you can happily apply a squad fitness card and restore the team to their full effectiveness, but sometimes multiple players run out of contract at the same time and it’s just a bit frustrating having to go through and offer them all fresh contracts individually before you can hop into your next game.

Squad contracts would provide another fantastic time saving feature, and a smoother, more hassle-free experience is surely something what we’re all ultimately striving for.

THE RETURN OF ONLINE TOURNAMENTS (BRONZE/SILVER ETC.)

Presumably they took away the old online tournaments to encourage more people to get involved in the Weekend League, but personally I’d love to see the return of regular online tournaments. I’ve always been a big fan of trying out different players within the game, and in FIFA 16 I absolutely loved playing the online bronze tournaments. Putting together a team of bronze beasts and going up against other people seeking to get the best out of their bronze beauties.

Adam Armstrong scored so many goals for me in online Ultimate Team tournaments last year; he was one of the most clinical finishers I ever used in the game and always seemed to place the ball into the top corner against the opposition bronze keepers.

This year though, bronze and silver tournaments only exist for offline action, and who really plays FIFA Ultimate Team offline? I don’t think I’ve used any bronze players whatsoever this year, possibly not really any silvers either, and the lack of these kinds of tournaments has made me far less adventurous in my team selections. I play most of my matches with a pretty regular Premier League side, but further incentive to play with more bronze and silver players again would definitely be much welcomed. Perhaps Bronze and Silver drafts could become a thing in FIFA 18 Ultimate Team? The entry fee could be lowered to reflect the different levels of Draft and this could be an interesting new expansion to the FUT Draft experience.

GENERATIONS CARDS?

On Futhead you can put together a Generations squad and use cards from any version of FIFA Ultimate Team. You can have a bit of fun building together teams featuring some of your favourite players past and present, and it would be absolutely brilliant to see these generations cards brought into play in FIFA 18 Ultimate Team. Maybe not in regular packs, but perhaps there could be a new Generations FUT Draft game mode. There was so much hype around the FUT Draft last year, but with the introduction of the Weekend League this year, that all seems to have died down a bit.

A Generations FUT Draft could be a good way of restoring more interest in the game mode again though, and could provide a fantastic opportunity to play with some of those old cards that you loved so much in years gone by. I’ve only played one draft this year, but a Generations Draft would definitely get me involved in the game mode again and I could certainly see myself spending a lot of time and potentially money on it, too.


ABILITY TO CREATE YOUR OWN BADGE/KITS

You’d probably end up with a LOT of ridiculously ugly kits, and a fair amount of badges featuring poorly drawn penises, but the ability to create your own kits and badges in Ultimate Team could be quite a nice touch. You name your team and you can use any kits and badges featured in the game that you like, but allowing people a little bit of creativity like this could be absolutely awesome.

Currently when you pre-order the game you get a few special edition kits, but maybe in future, instead of doing this, pre-ordering the game could grant you the access to start putting your own design work and creativity to the test, producing a couple of kits and a badge that you can choose to use in the game? Personally, I’d love that.

ABILITY TO LOAN OUT YOUR PLAYERS

Loan players obviously already exist in FIFA Ultimate Team, but not in this manner and a cool new feature for the game could perhaps be the ability to loan out your players to other clubs. In addition to the transfer list, there could be a new loan list where you could search for players available for loan. Different loan lengths would be available, so maybe you could take a player for one day, three days, or one week, and you could use the filters to search for your desired loan length.

We’ve all been there where we’ve splashed out big on a new star player for our side, only to get into a few games with them and find that they don’t suit our play style whatsoever. You instantly want to move them on again, but then of course you get hit with that 5% tax. A try before you buy system like this could be a good way of experimenting with different players, and could also provide a nice additional way of making a few coins when you’re away or unable to play the game for whatever reason.

Also, sometimes you get a really good untradeable player, but for a league that you don’t actually play with and so that player largely goes to waste. If you could loan them out though then they’d at least serve some sort of purpose.

POSITION CHANGES FOR PLAYERS THAT CAN PLAY MULTIPLE POSITIONS

Despite the fact that he plays there on 7 chem, Moussa Sissoko has been an absolutely insane centre mid for me this year in FIFA Ultimate Team. He’s big, he’s strong, he can defend pretty well, and also has some very nice finishing ability as well when he’s venturing forward. Also, if you look at his positioning in-game then you can see that the game does actually recognise him as a CAM as well as a right mid.

What I’d like to see for FIFA 18 Ultimate Team is the ability to switch players into another position that they’re capable of playing. You could switch regular Ronaldo for example from a left winger to a striker, or stick super Sissoko through the middle without the need to have him on 7 chemistry. You can already turn a CDM into a striker… Why not allow it so that players can play other positions that the game already recognises them as able to play?

If you’ve got any thoughts on what you’d like to see changed for FIFA 18? Let me know your ideas in the comments section down below!