By far the most frustrating thing about Career Mode this time around, however, is that it repeats all the old mistakes from the series' older entries. There is so much obvious potential for Career Mode, were EA to take pointers from their competitors, and yet it's been rolled out with changes that could've been introduced in updates to FIFA 18, never mind a fully fledged sequel.
Criticisms that EA don't innovate the FIFA franchise are as old as Essam El-Hadary's goalkeeping career, but with 19 it's particularly noticeable. It just looks as though the cosmetic upgrades (which were a given anyway) are the only incentive being provided for players to fork out their cash this year, where they'll be taken into a sequel that prioritises Fifa Ultimate Team at the expense of other game modes.
So yes, while FIFA 19 ticks all the boxes for just another FIFA game, it's high time that the franchise strove for bigger and better things - Champions League license and all.
What do you think of the FIFA 19 Closed Beta? Post your thoughts down in the comments below!
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.
