As I mentioned in a previous piece, I spent much of EA Sports FC 26 's free trial trying to get the dang thing to launch. I will not delete any bit of that experience from my memory banks, but I'm glad I kept trying to play it.
Of all the numerous Ultimate Team experiences in the industry, I find EA Sports FC's process for collecting cards the most enjoyable. The Squad Building Challenges are an exercise unto themselves. Constantly packing bronze, then silver, then gold cards to unlock legendary players feels like spinning straw into gold.
NBA 2K used to be way better about this, but has gotten really aggressive about not letting you get any halfway decent cards without buying packs. In one of the numerous FC Sports 26 launch pieces I've done, I railed against it locking players behind season passes, and I stand by those concerns.
One of my favorite new features is ripped from fantasy football: bounties. Players quit online matches a lot, and the best EA would do in previous years was lower coin rewards. That apparently hasn't worked.
Part of the problem is the Rivals competitive ladder can feel like quicksand once you've reached your the level that matches your skill. Bounties give you something else to play for, such as the one I just received: Play with a Team of the Week Player in your next match. I'll get a pack of cards for doing this, and we'll do anything to crack another pack of cards. I'd love to see this implemented in every other Ultimate Team mode, and suspect it will be soon enough.
One of my college professors used to refer to mistakes as "a thumb in the reader's eye." FC 26 has definitely poked me in the eye several times during launch week. But under the hood, it's got enough that I will keep coming back for both its single and multiplayer experiences.