“It’s hard to know what EA’s expectations were, but it seems fine. It’s not earth-shattering, but it isn’t terrible.” On the GIBiz Microcast with editor-in-chief James Batchelor, Dring said he didn’t see a “huge amount” of marketing from Electronic Arts leading up to release. He also revealed that The Veilguard did “a little less” than Star Wars Outlaws, though it’s not far off.

The other major release of last month, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, is still performing well. It’s behind Helldivers 2 in sales across Europe and trailing EA Sports FC 25 and EA Sports FC 24, the current top two-selling games in the UK.

As for Dragon Age: The Veilguard, stay tuned for more details on its sales in the coming weeks. It’s available for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC. Check out our review here.

I talked about it on the podcast that’s just gone up. Did almost exactly the same (in the UK) as Dragon’s Dogma 2 and Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth. It’s hard to know what EA’s expectations were, but it seems fine. It’s not earth shattering, but it isn’t terrible

— Christopher Dring (@Chris_Dring) November 11, 2024

NO MORE VOLTA

It was with FIFA 20 that EA’s annual football series introduced Volta, which itself was a replacement for the previous three instalments’ story mode titled The Journey. Now, five years later, the series is ready to move on from Volta as well, with EA Sports FC 25 set to drop the mode. It will, however, be replacing it with a new 5v5 experience. Speaking of which…

RUSH

Rush is a new 5v5 experience that is technically taking Volta’s place in EA Sports FC 25, though it’s going to be much more wide-ranging. Rather than being just a standalone mode, the 5v5 Rush is going to be part of pretty much the entire game, including modes such as Career and Ultimate Team. And how exactly is it different from Volta on the pitch? It’s effectively going to be much less arcadey, with the goal being to emulate the feel of a regular 11v11 match in a smaller setting. That will, however, mean new rules exclusive to Rush, like offsides only being given in the final third of the pitch, or red cards being replaced with blue cards, which only temporarily eject players, allowing them to re-enter the game after the next goal their team concedes.

FC IQ

On the pitch, another much touted improvement this year is what EA Sports has dubbed FC IQ, which is essentially the catch-all name given to a number of new systems and mechanics meant to give players greater control over their in-game tactics and management. EA describes it as “a new AI model powered by real-world data”, and one of the key new mechanics that it will be built around is going to be Player Roles.

PLAYER ROLES

If you have played Sega and Sports Interactive’s Football Manager games, you have a good idea of what Player Roles are. As in those games, in EA Sports FC 25, a player’s position on the pitch won’t be the only thing you’ll be thinking about when selecting a lineup, because now you’ll also be setting specific roles for them in that position, with different roles bringing different responsibilities. How well suited a player is (or isn’t) to the role you’re asking them to fill may very well end up having a significant impact on how a match pans out.

DEVELOPMENT PLANS

With the introduction of Player Roles, Development Plans are also being expanded on in EA Sports FC 25. Now, in your Manager Career mode, you’ll be able to train players in specific roles. Players will level up with specific roles if they consistently show growth with attributes relevant to those roles, while what stage of their career a player is in will also impact their development more authentically.

RECRUITMENT AND DEVELOPMENT

Youth recruitment and development have always been an important part of Career Mode (especially if you’re planning on sticking with a single save over the course of multiple seasons), and that side of the game is leveling up in FC 25 as well. Rush matches will be organized once a month in Manager Career mode, and here, you’ll be able to play players from your youth academy, getting the chance to see them in action, and giving them a great opportunity to develop and grow. Meanwhile, youth players in FC 25 will now look their age, and they will continue to physically and visually change as they age- so no more 15 year olds who look like 28 year olds (or vice versa).

SOCIAL MEDIA

Here’s a minor addition, but one that many fans of the sport will like appreciate. EA Sports FC 25’s Career Mode is set to introduce a new social media feed to further immerse players in their own Career’s stories, and among other things, that feed is going to feature none other than Fabrizio Romano, the wildly popular Italian journalist. Romano will frequently show up with news, transfer activity, and the like. Prepare for many “here we go” mentions during the transfer window.

PRESS CONFERENCES

Press conferences were a nice novelty when they were first introduced in FIFA way back when, but more often than not, veteran players now end up entirely skipping them, because they add little to nothing (and are quite repetitive, to say the least). FC 25, however, is promising at least some improvements, with questions from the media now being focused on tactics, how your opponent is set up, match statistics, and the like. How much of a difference that makes remains to be seen, but it’s something, at least.

PLAYER MORALE

Player morale is also being tweaked in FC 25. You will, of course, have to continue to keep an eye on whether or not a player’s morale is plummeting to dangerous levels, but now, too much of a good thing is something else that you’re going to have to be on the lookout for. In FC 25, if a player’s morale is too high, they can become complacent, which in turn leads to their attributes being temporarily lowered. Finding the sweet spot with player morale will be key in this year’s game.

LIVE START POINTS

Another intriguing new addition in this year’s Career Mode is Live Start Points, which are pretty much exactly what they sound like. In both Player and Manager Career, across a number of different leagues and cup competitions, you can jump into proceedings from any gameweek within the ongoing season, with each Live Start Point accurately reflecting everything happening in the world of football at the time, including league positions, injuries, transfers, suspensions, player form, and the like.

CAREER MODE ICONS

Another major new addition for the Player Career mode enjoyers in FC 25 is the ability to play as an icon. While past games have only let you play a Player Career as either a current existing player or as a custom one of your own creation, in FC 25, you will be able to play as retired legends and icons of past years. So if you want to start a Player Career as David Beckham, you can go right ahead and do that.

WOMEN’S CAREER MODE

Women’s football has been featured in EA Sports FC (and FIFA) for a while now, but this year’s game is stepping this up in this area as well. At long last, FC 25 will finally allow players to play Career Mode with a women’s football club. Women’s Career mode will have all of the features of its men’s counterpart, while also having new features and challenges exclusive to itself.

NEW MENUS

By definition, this is a purely cosmetic change, but once every few years, this franchise likes to change up its menus and visual theming, and FC 25 is set to do that within the confines of Career mode. Expect entirely new visuals and UI (including the addition of the aforementioned social media feed), as well as a new Task List feature.

TACTICAL FOULS

This year’s game is also introducing tactical fouls, something that fans should be thrilled about. Strategically committing professional fouls has been a legitimate tactic to stop counterattacks forever, but trying to do that in past years’ games almost always led to unfairly harsh punishments from the referee. In FC 25, tactical fouls will be recognized by the game itself, and initial instances will always result in bookings. Be careful, however, because if you do it too much, you’re going to be looking at a red card promptly.

CONTRACTS

One of the bigger changes in the flagship Ultimate Team mode in this year’s game is the removal of contracts. EA says the goal is to get players back to the on-pitch action much quicker, which is exactly what many in the community have loudly requested for years, so it’s good to see the developers finally responding.

Of course, there’s more to come, with the sandbox farming title My Time at Sandrock coming June 19th for cloud, consoles and PC. Keplerth is available on June 20th, exclusively for PC, while EA Sports FC 24 is being added on June 25th via EA Play. SteamWorld Dig 1 and 2 go live on June 26th, and though both are playable on the cloud, the former is restricted to consoles, while the latter is only playable on PC.

Open-world RPG base-builder Robin Hood – Sherwood Builders caps off the month, arriving on June 27th for cloud, PC and Xbox Series X/S. Several titles will be leaving on June 30th, though subscribers can gain a 20 percent discount on purchasing them. Check out all five of them below:

• FIFA 22 (Console and PC)
• F.I.S.T.: Forged In Shadow Torch (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Stranded Deep (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Sword and Fairy Together Forever (Cloud, Console, and PC)

The report was seemingly further corroborated by Insider Gaming’s Mike Straw, who took to social media platform X to say that an announcement could be coming soon, but that no one seems to be willing to go on the record with him about the game, so details are currently scarce.

It is worth noting that this is in no way an official confirmation, and neither 2K nor FIFA itself have made any announcements. If the rumours do turn out to be true, however, this will be the first real competition EA will have seen for its football games in quite some time, especially with Konami having taken what was once Pro Evolution Soccer into a very different direction in its new free-to-play eFootball form.

For context, the last football title released by EA under the FIFA title was FIFA 23. Since then, the company has been working on football games with its own branding, with EA Sports FC 24 being the first release under the series’ new name. Going by its traditional release cadence, EA is also expected to release EA Sports FC 25 this year.

EA and FIFA’s long-standing partnership came to an end after the latter demanded the former pay over $2.5 billion to extend the agreement between the two entities by another four years. EA decided to end the partnership instead, following which FIFA confirmed plans to partner with other developers and publishers for future officially licensed FIFA titles. In March last year, FIFA president Gianni Infantino said the company’s next game was in development.

2K has secured the official license from FIFA to create the next FIFA video game!

The partnership is confirmed, and 2K will be developing a new football game series.

👀✨ FIFA 2K25 is set to launch this year, just in time for the FIFA World Cup 2K26!

Get ready for FIFA 2K25!… pic.twitter.com/3jsu2XQu2a

— MohPlay Inc🎮🎮 (@mohplay_inc_) May 24, 2024

More smoke to this. No one is willing to talk to me on the record about it, but we could be getting an announcement of a new partnership sooner rather than later https://t.co/cy6gqGGftl

— Mike Straw of Insider-Gaming.com (@MikeStrawMedia) May 26, 2024

For starters, there’s Destiny 2: Lightfall, the looter shooter’s seventh major expansion, which launched in February last year. With the next expansion, The Final Shape, coming in June, this gives players the perfect opportunity to jump in and catch up. You will, of course, require the base game to be able to play the expansion.

Joining the service on the same day are EA Sports FC 24, One More Level and 505 Games’ acclaimed cyberpunk action game Ghostrunner 2, and Zelda-inspired action-adventure indie hit Tunic.

With all four titles becoming available on May 7, subscribers will have until May 6 to claim April’s offerings, which were Immortals of Aveum, Minecraft Legends, and Skul: The Hero Slayer.

Those promotions also benefited Mortal Kombat 1, as it re-entered the charts in third place. Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate remained fourth, even with sales dropping by 27 percent. Another interesting re-entry is It Takes Two at 10th, thanks to a 52 percent sales increase.

As for Super Mario Bros. Wonder, it fell to fifth place with sales down by 36 percent. Other noteworthy re-entries include Mass Effect: Legendary Edition and Red Dead Redemption 2, though they only reached 21st and 22nd place instead of breaking into the top ten.

Check out Gfk’s top ten best-selling physical titles in the UK for the week ending January 13th below.

EA Sports FC 24 is in second place, with sales increasing by 9 percent. It overtook Super Mario Bros. Wonder, which fell to third place. Meanwhile, Mortal Kombat 11 benefited from PS5 promotions to go from eighth to fourth. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is in fifth place as sales dropped by 50 percent week-over-week.

The rest of the top ten is typical, with titles like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, Grand Theft Auto 5, Nintendo Switch Sports and Minecraft (Switch version) holding on. It remains to be seen if any upcoming new titles, including Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth and Tekken 8, will shake things up. Stay tuned in the meantime.

On the software front, EA Sports FC 24 was the best-selling game of the month, displacing November’s best-seller, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, which dropped down to No. 2. Hogwarts Legacy and Super Mario Bros. Wonder both enjoyed notable sales increases for the month, coming in at No. 3 and No. 4 respectively, while Ubisoft’s Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora debuted at No. 8. 

On the hardware front, the PS5 was the best-selling console of the month in the UK, though its sales fell 19% compared to November. Meanwhile, the Nintendo Switch saw a 39% increase in sales from last month, while Xbox Series X/S enjoyed a 6% increase. 

Overall, software sales were up 2% compared to December 2022, while hardware sales were up 7%.

You can check out the ten best-selling games in the UK for December below.

*digital data unavailable

Without further ado, here are our picks for the 15 most disappointing titles of this year.

Forspoken

You could argue that Forspoken didn’t have much hope due to lackluster marketing and delays. Nevertheless, this was the newest title from Luminous Productions, with many of the team having worked on Final Fantasy 16 and a PS5 console exclusive for two years.

Unfortunately, after the demo and with the game, Forspoken revealed itself to have shallow dialogue and irritating banter, a bland open world and an unlikable protagonist in Fray (which is a shame given how interesting the story becomes later). Such was the response to Forspoken that Luminous shut down and merged into Square Enix after its DLC, In Tanta We Trust.

Redfall

Hi-Fi Rush and Starfield often come to mind when talking about the major Xbox exclusives this year. It’s not that everyone forgot about Redfall, but that they did so without much effort. At launch, Arkane Austin’s first-person co-op shooter had a suitably macabre setting and aesthetic to work off of but squandered it with tedious gameplay, completely barren environments with little to nothing going on, copious bugs, performance issues and a terrible plot with poor characterization.

Its quest design and so-called immersive sim elements are also an embarrassment. Subsequent updates have improved the experience, but Redfall is still a huge step down for Arkane Austin, especially after Prey.

Quantum Error

For all the strong survival horror titles that hit the mark this year, several missed the mark, and Quantum Error unfortunately qualifies. Despite some great lighting, the stealth gameplay feels tacked on and awkward, while the shooting is as generic as they come. The story could have been better if it wasn’t presented so poorly with its amateur cinematic angles and shoddy voice acting. Quantum Error ultimately feels like it warranted much more than the developer could deliver, bringing the whole product down.

Flashback 2

Microids’ sequel to the classic 2D platformer from Paul Cuisset shouldn’t have turned out this bad, but alas. Almost everything about the title is riddled with issues when it’s not just bad. Though the animations and aesthetics can be decent, the multitudes of bugs, horrendous aiming in combat, terrible dialogue, baffling armor mechanics, and half-hearted cover-based gameplay make you question everything. Perhaps the only mercy is that it isn’t too long…unless your save gets corrupted and you have to start over.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

It’s a meme of sorts to expect anything from Call of Duty, much less Activision, but this was a new Modern Warfare title. The previous two entries in the reboot trilogy offered some intriguing mechanics and memorable campaigns, even if the cracks were starting to show in the second entry. By comparison, Modern Warfare 3’s campaign falls apart almost immediately.

It’s mind-numbing Open Combat missions with boring objectives, a story that’s so by the numbers you can practically paint them in, a distinct lack of polish and embarrassing short playtime. This is from a franchise known to deliver quality cinematic campaigns more often than not. Zombies is slightly better, while multiplayer buckles under the weight of skill-based matchmaking, packet bursts and horrendous spawns.

Payday 3

At first, many were disappointed at being unable to play Payday 3 due to servers going – and staying – down for days at a time. However, after finally getting into matches, even as crashes and disconnects occurred, many were let down by the challenge-based progression, the lack of a pre-game chat, no offline play while solo, no lobby browser, a clunky UI, etc. Though it’s received updates to alleviate several issues, like finally awarding Infamy Points on heist completion, Payday 3 is still far from reaching the same heights as Payday 2.

The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria

Return to Moria, at least the start, is brimming with potential. This is a new adventure in The Fourth Age, with the Dwarves retaking their home and facing a shadowy curse as they explore its depths. Some mechanics were also pretty unique, but it all fell apart due to jank, poor combat, terrible AI, lack of freedom when mining and some shoddy building mechanics. What could have been a Valheim-esque adventure in Middle-earth is instead an awkward meandering.

Crime Boss: Rockay City

Proof positive that loading a game with Hollywood actors doesn’t equal success (and many of the performances aren’t even all that great). While the shooting isn’t terrible, it comes at the price of stealth and missions that encourage going guns-blazing more often than not. Throw in all the bugs, terrible writing, repetitive objectives and general lack of polish, and you have a disastrous title that’s more like Takers than Heat.

Exoprimal

After playing the open beta, Exoprimal looked like it had potential as a dumb hack and slash heavy co-op game. However, the lack of content forced PvP, and somewhat repetitive objectives remained concerning up to the full release. Due to how the story works, events can feel disjointed, while the dialogue ranges from awkward to unfunny. There are some positives for those who want to smack dinosaurs and various improvements courtesy of patches, but Exoprimal feels like it could have done better with a stronger focus on pure co-op PvE.

Immortals of Aveum

A single-player-focused magical first-person shooter with an epic scale, talent like Gina Torres and an extensive campaign, that too with striking visuals? Immortals of Aveum seemingly promised it all and delivered on some fronts (Torres was quite good) but suffered with many others. Lackluster story-telling and graphical issues, particularly with HDR, made playing a headache in several ways. The shiny presentation couldn’t save the below-average gameplay with its damage-sponge enemies and an annoying gear grind. It’s a better experience technically after several patches, but far from delivering on the hype.

Atlas Fallen

You have to feel bad for titles like Atlas Fallen. Developed by Deck 13 of The Surge fame, it’s an action-adventure title with a double-A budget, a unique world and unique movement options (like sand surfing). The premise is wasted with underwhelming writing, and the combat, the most important aspect of the experience, is sluggish and shoddy. It also doesn’t help that the world doesn’t have much going on, even with some strong aesthetics on display.

EA Sports FC 24

It’s probably not that surprising in retrospect, given how the FIFA franchise fared over the years, but EA Sports FC 24 was an opportunity for a fresh start. However, while the gameplay remains enjoyable, it doesn’t improve enough, much less advance the status quo. Career Mode is still a rote affair, the new interviews are incredibly lackluster, and the presentation feels like it’s slumming in certain places. Some positives, like PlayStyles and the new UI, are worth mentioning, but if you’re a hardcore FIFA player hoping for some evolution, EA Sports FC 24 disappoints.

Layers of Fear (2023)

Layers of Fears, renamed Layers of Fear, is a remake of Layers of Fear and Layers of Fear 2. Sounds confusing? It’s also a sequel with a new character, The Writer, who must link the stories together while dealing with the oddities of the Lighthouse. While the visuals look good, as Bloober Team’s other Unreal Engine 5 titles have, the bland gameplay and story-telling don’t form a cohesive whole. It’s not the worst horror game out there (Stray Souls would like a word), but many issues undermine the entire experience.

The Last of Us Part 1 (PC)

You’re probably wondering, understandably so, why The Last of Us Part 1, a remake of one of the greatest games ever made, is on this list. The answer lies in the PC version, which launched in a catastrophic state. Shader compiling took hours upon hours, broken textures rendered characters into monstrosities, performance issues abound, glitches, bugs, crashes – the list went on and on. It made for good comedic material, but those wanting to experience the classic on PC for the first time were far from amused (especially for the $70 price point). Months and months of continuous patching finally put it in a good place, but not without some questioning Sony’s PC porting efforts.

Sonic Superstars

After Sonic Mania and Sonic Frontiers, I looked forward to Sonic Superstars, with bright 3D visuals and gameplay in line with classic titles. While it felt good to play, some inconsistent Zone design, irritating boss battles and gimmicks overpowered the experience to an annoying degree. Other issues like the underwhelming music, boring Battle Mode and the new Special Stage also made it hard to warm up to. While not the worst game in the franchise (that honor still goes to Sonic ’06), Sonic Superstars is underwhelming – a definite plateau in quality over more recent titles.

Most of the physical sales for Hogwarts Legacy were on PS5, followed by PS4 and Nintendo Switch. The open-world action RPG also topped Gfk’s top-ten charts for the week ending December 30th. Super Mario Bros. Wonder, close to eclipsing the sales of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 the week prior, remained second, with sales dropping by 63 percent.

Meanwhile, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 rose to third, while Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 remained fifth. Though sales dropped by 76 percent for EA Sports FC 24, it’s still in sixth place. Check out the full top ten below.