The FIFA 19 Closed Beta has been in full swing for the last week now, and with it set to end in just under three days' time, it's apt to begin work on the autopsy. Of course, betas never represent the final product, and today, titles can change in drastic ways even after release. However, they do offer our best indication of what a game'll look like come release day, and well... FIFA 19 is a bit of a mixed bag.
There are gameplay improvements - certainly - and while some changes are likely to be divisive for a variety of different reasons, attention among the game's online community has shifted to Career Mode, a staple of the series and a feature that many believe to have been overlooked in recent years, with only marginal improvements having been made during FIFA 17 and its successor.
For those who took part in the Closed Beta and were given access to Career Mode, the picture being painted is mixed. On one hand, the cosmetics have never looked better - on the other, it looks as though FIFA 19 is overlooking the career once more, and it's something EA have to address come release.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
