FIFA 20 Career Mode is driving hardcore gamers away due to bugs

As video game systems have progressed and technology continues to advance, many people assume that the games will continue to improve. Unfortunately, that’s not the case when it comes to sports video games.

The career mode is my favorite feature in the FIFA video game series. It allows players to either compete as a manager or a footballer at a club for up to 15 seasons. There shouldn’t be a time limit to be honest. What if I want a coaching career that spans more than three decades such as Sir Alex Ferguson or Arsene Wenger? Or a playing career that lasts more than two decades such as Pele, Xavi and Andrea Pirlo? So far, only PC gamers can bypass this by using a live editor.

A big faction in the FIFA gaming community are career mode lovers like me. Prior to the release of FIFA 20, EA Sports mentioned that they were adding new additions in the manager section of career mode such as press conferences, player conversations, the ability to customize your own avatar with their appearance and gender, and a new dynamic player potential system, among other things. All these features have been the Football Manager series for a long time, but it’s nice that EA Sports were finally adding them to their game. When FIFA 20 was released, the game came with a lot of errors and glitches. If you participated in a preseason tournament for the remainder of your career mode, your opponent would never play their strongest starting 11. This led to Chelsea and Liverpool being relegated in my Arsenal career mode. An NBA superstar even complained about the game on social media.

“Can we update the rosters? Can we make sure big teams are not relegated or playing their sixth team? Update CL (Champions League), and EL (Europa League), groups? I only play career mode so let’s make me happy, thanks,” said Philadelphia 76ers three-time All-Star center Joel Embiid on Instagram.

After a few patches, EA Sports got rid of some of the glitches, but more always arose. Also, whenever a patch was created, a gamer would have to start a new career mode to be able to utilize the updates. There’s so many glitches and problems in the game that I’ll just focus on a few. In the player career mode, the AI would play strikers in the defensive midfield position and you could complete accomplishments and gain attributes, but it would not appear on your profile.

In the manager career mode, footballers recently signed would just stand on the pitch and not move, footballers that are suspended due to too many yellow cards or a red card will still ask to play. Footballers that play in your last match will say they don’t play enough. In press conferences, interviewers will ask about your form being bad even if you’re on a 10-match unbeaten streak. Interviewers will say you had a boring match even if the score was 4-3. During the starting 11 presentations, instead of showing the name of players, it says undefined. To win your league, you need at least 100 points. The ultimate difficulty makes the AI unstoppable and so much more.

The game has been out for six months now, and the complaints and glitches persist even with a countless number of patches. On March 13, Embiid this time went to Twitter to air his grievances.

“CM (career mode) is all I play. For the last two months, y’all had me thinking that I’m not that good anymore when in fact the new ULTIMATE DIFFICULTY is a little EXAGGERATED so can we give attention to CM instead of FUT (FIFA Ultimate Team)? Even if we have to pay? Just a little harder than the old one. Career mode is basically my life and it has so potential, so many ideas to make it fun. Might be too late, but FIFA 21 is approaching. It’s been a while since we made adjustments so let’s do it. BUT FIRST, can we fix the problems now? Lol.”

Microtransactions made sports video games such as FIFA, Madden and NBA 2K worse. Instead of focusing on modes that will give the games variety and longevity, developers mostly use their resources on a mode that forces gamers to spend money to try to get better players and assets for their teams. Unlike Madden and NBA 2K, FIFA has a legitimate competitor in Pro Evolution Soccer (aka PES). Unfortunately, because EA has the licensing rights to most of the major clubs and leagues in the world, most people — myself included — don’t give PES a chance.

Maybe this will be the year that I give PES a try because FIFA is now becoming unbearable. Especially if you only play career mode.

 

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