I’ve been an EA Sports FC (formerly EA Sports FIFA) fan since the 90s, on and off. This has now become a WWE situation, where I used to watch WWF as a kid, but now we refer to it as WWE no matter if we’re talking about the past or present? Should I just say EA Sports FC and not acknowledge the twenty plus years of EA Sports FIFA?

I owned and played many EA Sports FIFA games during the Super Nintendo, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5 eras. I really got into it with the World to the World Cup game in 2006 on Xbox 360. That was the gateway drug into yearly releases of EA Sports FIFA. Ever since the Xbox 360 era I have mostly stuck to playing a Manager Career with my favorite club, Chelsea FC.

EA Sports FC 26 features many game modes to fit any player’s needs, both offline and online. Ultimate Team is the big money maker for EA Sports in all their games — or MyTeam in 2K Sports games (NBA 2K, WWE 2K). I don’t mess with Ultimate Team, even though I’ve been obsessed with cracking packs in real life for TCGs (Trading Card Games). Something about doing it digitally feels icky and not as rewarding.

Seasons allow for players to figure out their online ranking before competing in other online modes. Tournaments are a quick offline way in knockout tournaments (both real and custom) with your chosen club. Clubs and Player Career gives you control of a single player on the pitch.

I started a Player Career with Chelsea FC all-star, Cole Palmer, but didn’t make it very far. There was too much admin work and real-life decision making — like hiring a bus for fans or building an in-home movie theater. I don’t have time for all of this, I just want to get into the matches.

The Kick Off section features some new modes — or new to me. There’s the usual quick play mode, where you pick your teams and start a one-off match. There’s now a section for House Rules, which includes modes like Long Range shots only, Survival Mode, Headers & Volleys, Mystery Ball, and other outrageous ways to play EA Sports FC 26.

RUSH Mode

There is one mode in the Kick Off menu that I have become obsessed with, and that is RUSH!

RUSH is a fast-paced, arcade-style five vs five mode. Each team has their goalie and four players on the pitch. The field is much smaller and the commentary is closer to Monster Jam than your traditional broadcast, which is featured in every other game mode.

This mode is almost like going back to the days of EA BIG, like FIFA Street and NBA Street — although, not quite as arcadey, but it is a start. If you mix-in the House Rules section with RUSH, you may get even closer to those good ole’ glory days.

RUSH has quickly become my favorite game mode in EA FC. It’s like my obsession with EA NHL 25’s Threes mode last year. These are both hybrid arcade/sports sim modes. The crowd is loud in RUSH. Corner kicks have higher stakes. There’s more one-on-one matchups and breakaways. Dribbling techniques are highly useful in this mode.

The one problem with RUSH is that it is only offered in one-off Kick Off matches or as an online mode. Playing offline from the Kick Off menu, you get to control the whole team. Online you are stuck playing as a single player, so the experience depends on how friendly or selfish your teammates are.

What I need is a RUSH season, tournament, or career mode. EA NHL 25 featured a Threes regional season mode, where you unlock teams as you defeat them by region. I would love something like that. Imagine playing RUSH and defeating teams league-by-league, country-by-country. You’d then unlock players from these teams to add to your own superteam roster. This could even become a separate spin-off game, EA SPORTS FC RUSH.

After playing RUSH online one time with each person controlling one player, I realized that I was basically playing the EA Sports FC 26 version of Rematch (from SloClap). Am I just asking EA Sports to recreate their own version of Rematch? No, because I don’t want the online, single player controlled experience. I want an offline RUSH experience that features progression with my team, real or fictional.

Difficulty

I always thought of myself as someone who is pretty good at EA Sports FC. During my time in Ad School, there was an Xbox 360 in the lobby where students would play EA Sports FIFA against each other. This was the most popular game since we had international students from South America, Europe, and all over the world — Soccer is the universal language. I hadn’t owned an EA Sports FIFA game for some years, but this got me back into the series. Even in my absence from the series, I still whooped some ass.

EA Sports FC 26 gave me a test match to check my difficulty level. I was clocked at the Semi-Pro level, which I thought was not too bad. That sounds like All-Pro in Madden, so I must not be at the tip top level, but pretty close. The matches were too easy. I’d spend full matches with possession, scoring goal-after-goal. Any time my opponent touched the ball, I’d quickly steal it and take another shot.

That’s when I decided to check the difficulty settings because there was something off. I noticed that EA Sports FC has six difficulty levels — Beginner, Amateur, Semi-Pro, Professional, World Class, and Legendary — as opposed to Madden’s four — Rookie, Pro, All-Pro, and All-Madden. 

I thought I had been killing it on Hard (but not Super Hard mode), I was actually only playing EA Sports FC 26 on Medium. I have since moved up to Professional. I might see some World Class in my future, but definitely not Legendary. The matches are tough, but I’m having more fun on this higher difficulty.

What Comes Next?

I have now begun my Chelsea FC Manager Career in EA Sports FC 26, as I always do. Let’s see how far I can make it. I also came across a Youth Tournament early on in my Manager Career, which was basically a three-round knockout RUSH tournament. It was great. The only problem is I need to wait for these to come up during my career. I cannot just prompt one.

I’m sure I will continue to play many one-off RUSH matches in EA Sports FC 26. I’ll be on the lookout for a more thought out RUSH mode in next year’s EA Sports FC 27.

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myVGBC.com was given an EA Sports FC 26 review code from EA Sports.