We’ve already heard plenty about the tweaks FIFA 20 will be making to its on-pitch gameplay, while new modes in Ultimate Team and the brand new VOLTA Mode have also been revealed by EA Sports over the last couple of months. But the one mainstay of FIFA for years has been Career Mode, which, sadly, has become largely stagnant over the last few years.
With FIFA 20, though, it seems EA Sports are looking to make some important changes to it- more specifically, to the Manager Career Mode. Posting a new Pitch Notes update on its site, EA Sports took a dive into the changes we can expect to see in Career Mode this year.
For starters, manager avatars are going to be a lot more customizable now. Rather than making players choose between a limited number of presets, FIFA 20 will feature extensive customization options, using which players can change various aspects of their manager’s appearance. Notably, this also includes being able to choose the gender of your manager. You will also be able to change the outfits and accessories of your manager at any time in the Career Mode.
Dynamic press conferences and player conversations are two more things EA Sports is highlighting. While press conversations and one-on-one conversations have existed in FIFA Career Modes for a while, FIFA 20 is taking these two elements a bit further. Pre and post-match conferences will see a better and more dynamic visual representation, where you will be asked questions by the journalists in attendance based on a variety of things, such as the match’s result, your opponent, goals scored, the time of season or the stage of competition, and more.
One on one conversations will see you interacting with players in your club through a messaging-app-style screen like before, but will give you more options in how to respond. Both press conferences and player conversations – and how you handle them – will affect things like your manager rating and the morale of players in your club.
Which brings us to player morale, which has also received a bit of an overhaul. Factors such as the team’s performance, how much match time a player is getting, what their wages are, and how the player is performing will all have an impact on morale, with morale in turn influencing players’ attributes in upcoming matches. Meanwhile, potential overall ratings for players have also changed, and will change dynamically based on how they have been performing.
There are a lot of other changes, big and small, that the developers have talked about, so I encourage you to read through the Pitch Notes at the link above for a more comprehensive explanation of improvements being made to Career Mode. This is a mode that players spend a lot of time in that sadly hasn’t seen many improvements in recent years, so FIFA 20 is probably going to be an important moment for the mode. Here’s hoping it pays off.
FIFA 20 is out on September 27th for the PS4, Xbox One, and PC. The Nintendo Switch will also be receiving a Legacy Edition release.