This is a significant year for EA Sports’ annual football franchise, thanks to a complete change in branding, but EA Sports FC 24 sadly doesn’t take that opportunity to make any meaningful changes or improvements to the series’ formula. On the pitch, where it matters most, it’s thankfully as good as it ever has been, with marginal iterations continuing to make the on-pitch gameplay a lot of fun, but everything around that is a letdown, to varying degrees.

Not only does the game not make any meaningful changes, the few changes that it does make are disappointing in their execution as well. In the end, EA Sports FC 24 is a solid football sim, but one that feels like a real missed opportunity, given the context surrounding its release.