EA Sports loves to put buzzy marketing names on new features in its games. \u201cFC IQ\u201d is no different in this regard. But there\u2019s real depth in this, serving all modes of play, and that arrives when the game launches on Sept. 27.<\/p>\n
FC IQ, put simply, is a tactical layer that allows players greater direction over their side\u2019s behavior and priorities. For three years, the game has incorporated thousands of animations and pitch movements through its \u201cHyperMotion\u201d engine, which draws on camera captures from real-life games as well advanced player analytical data from the Opta firm. FC IQ is the application of both technologies, which the player can control.<\/p>\n
In EA Sports FC 25, players can define not just the tactical approach of an entire squad, but the role every player performs within it. That\u2019s impressive, and a little intimidating, but the game will also deliver prompts throughout a match, depending on its flow, to suggest players switch tactics, should they be preoccupied with the instant action on the gamepad.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m passionate about tactics,\u201d said Thomas Caleffi, the producer who shepherded the feature into EA Sports FC 25. He played for the youth squad of Gr\u00eamio, his diehard favorite side, in his home of Brazil, even. \u201cTactics is such an important part, and in our game, it existed, it was there, but I never thought it was really integrated. It was kind of like \u2018OK, you can do the tactics, and that\u2019s cool, but if you don\u2019t touch it, it\u2019s also fine.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
In a presentation Caleffi illustrated what he meant by integrating tactics within the game. It was almost dizzying, the number of roles that could be played, and not just by the goal-scoring personnel. He showed a defensive backfield that operated on the false fullback style that Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola is known for. But from there, the left fullback had been given an attacking wing role. The central attacking midfielder was designated as a \u201cshadow striker.\u201d The forward and his strike partner had traditional finish-the-job roles.<\/p>\n
I won\u2019t pretend to understand it, as I\u2019m not a knowledgeable soccer fan in the least. But it sent a message that EA FC\u2019s AI-driven players can now push out the boundaries of their roles, such that when you switch over to them, they\u2019ll be somewhere more advantageous and useful than the old set of D-pad tactics, which was an all-unit directive that ranged from all-out attack to park the bus.<\/p>\n
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\u201cJust because you have superstars doesn\u2019t mean you have a superstar tactic in place,\u201d Caleffi said, referring to older versions of the EA FC\/FIFA series. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t mean your team is going to perform well every time. So that\u2019s where things started coming from: \u201cDo I get the best of my players? Do I make them play as a team? And do I maximize that team through tactics?\u2019 That\u2019s where it started.\u201d<\/p>\n
The important thing to remember about EA Sports FC 25\u2019s virtual professionals is they\u2019re coachable. Though they arrive with traits showing which roles they\u2019re most adaptable to, they can always be brought along into a different style of play, because coaches still coach and players, even the highest paid superstars, still learn. Tactics are not chemistry-dependent in other words, or a take-it-or-leave-it proposition that means a manager who wants to deploy a new style of offense must find go out and find bespoke personnel who fit that if it\u2019s going to have a chance of success.<\/p>\n
Players will start with three and as many as five roles, from a group of 31 overall, that define how they approach their position. These roles will have a percentage value, showing how well they can fill that type of a job.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re also specific to the position. For example, fullbacks have an \u201cattacking wingback\u201d role option, where wing forwards have \u201cwide playmaker.\u201d But they can always be groomed for a new role, it just may take some time to ease them into it. If you want to run a tiki-taka, fast-passed, quick passing offense that needs a false 9 striker, you can convert your star to that role.<\/p>\n
There are almost 20,000 players in EA Sports FC 25, so to assign these roles (and rate the player\u2019s strength at performing them) Caleffi and his team built an algorithm that analyzed the Opta data their game was already using (in the form of Hypermotion) and built a profile of every player\u2019s traits and tendencies. Any attempt to do this by hand \u2014 that is, watching a player\u2019s film and judging his strengths and weaknesses \u2014 would have been prohibitively time-consuming.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf players want to dive deep, and spend all of their time in the menus, they can,\u201d Caleffi said. \u201cThat\u2019s why there\u2019s so much depth, and different familiarities, and different roles, that players can try to maximize and play around. But also, from the beginning, we wanted to make sure that if you didn\u2019t want to spend that much time in the menus, in Ultimate Team, you can just pick a manager you like, and then you get that manager\u2019s tactics.\u201d<\/p>\n