638: Breaking Point!

[00:00:00] Hello footies, welcome along to your latest dose of football ultimate team podcasting goodness.

[00:00:06] We are FUT IN REVIEW, powered by footcoaching.com. My name is Dan Wimbush, otherwise known as Wimby.

[00:00:13] I am joined by my main man Shaq Attack and the scout Nathan Downs for today's show, which is episode 638.

[00:00:21] We're recording this around lunchtime on Tuesday, November the 12th.

[00:00:25] Thank you very much indeed for everyone being with us and what a show we have in store for you today.

[00:00:32] Has the straw that broke the camel's back finally landed on FC25 or are we all losing sight of the bigger picture?

[00:00:41] We've got content to talk about, including the first Icon SBC player of the year.

[00:00:47] We've got our thoughts on the Ballon d'Or weekend and spoiler alert, at least one of us was not a fan of that one.

[00:00:53] And so much more to come.

[00:00:56] Gents, it is an absolute pleasure to have you back.

[00:00:59] Nath, it's great that we've been able to make up and the authorities have allowed us to be in the same pod together.

[00:01:04] Yeah, thank you for having us back. It's nice to be on with my Tuesday boys.

[00:01:07] I have missed having the club together.

[00:01:10] You know, schedules and whatnot have been against us, but you'll be pleased to know, Dan,

[00:01:15] and I have finally removed those splinters from my backside.

[00:01:17] I think what's coming up will probably prove that, but it's good to be on with you, sorry,

[00:01:23] and talk all things foot for the next 40 minutes or so.

[00:01:26] More impressively, you survived the foot and review meetup in Scotland. All good?

[00:01:30] Yeah, well, I only did the Friday.

[00:01:33] The two Johns, myself and Chris, went for a nice meal.

[00:01:36] I wasn't able to do the Saturday because, unfortunately, I had my own football commitments.

[00:01:39] And after that, the daughter was being very needy and wanting daddy home as soon as she could.

[00:01:44] So a nice two and a half hour bus trip home to see her after football.

[00:01:48] But no, it was really nice catching up on everyone.

[00:01:50] It's always good to see John in person as well.

[00:01:52] So we speak to her three times a week on the phone, but it's really nice just to have a bit of time in person.

[00:01:57] You know, we talk foot, but we also just talk general life.

[00:01:59] So it's nice seeing the other side to folk, you know, that's not just Saudi, you know, orientated on FIFA, but obviously everything else.

[00:02:06] So that was really nice.

[00:02:07] It was nice to see him.

[00:02:08] And I hear he got home in one piece, which is good.

[00:02:10] I think he's probably a little bit broken after Saturday because I heard it was a bit wild.

[00:02:14] But yeah, it was good to see everyone.

[00:02:16] And that's what I was about to say.

[00:02:17] Thank you for returning him in one piece because that would have been so much more paperwork and effort for us to do over here.

[00:02:22] Shaq, you're going above and beyond.

[00:02:24] You're on your travels at the moment, but you're still with us.

[00:02:26] That's the kind of commitment we love here.

[00:02:28] I just needed to have an outlet for my frustration with the game.

[00:02:32] So I haven't been playing any, but still yet I'm frustrated.

[00:02:35] So I really needed to have an outlet and I just thought, why not chat with you guys live on air?

[00:02:40] So here I am.

[00:02:41] The pleasure is all of ours.

[00:02:43] Now, to sum up the overall state of this game, we are going to try and do our best as we do every week to bring out the positives and where we get our enjoyment.

[00:02:51] In fact, one of the questions in the mailbag from Nishant is what keeps you engaged in this game?

[00:02:54] So we're going to be doing our best to bring that.

[00:02:56] However, it would be a miss of us not to reflect the wider mood of both ourselves and the people we come into contact with.

[00:03:05] And unfortunately, at the moment is a lot more negative than positive towards FC 25.

[00:03:10] Now, to sum up where the game is and where a lot of the content creators and more hardcore elements of the game fear right now.

[00:03:17] I'm going to play a clip from Nick Rutherford Market from his latest YouTube video.

[00:03:21] Nick RTFM on YouTube and all the socials.

[00:03:24] If you're listening to this, chance I have heard of the man.

[00:03:26] Give him his dues.

[00:03:27] I don't think he'll mind us playing a little minute.

[00:03:30] You'll be able to still see us.

[00:03:31] You'll be able to hear Nick and his voice.

[00:03:33] I just want to play this for the guys.

[00:03:35] And then we'll kind of react off the back of that and get into all of the issues from the game right now.

[00:03:40] But here it is.

[00:03:41] It's a really weird spot this game is in, man.

[00:03:43] In the eight years I've been doing this, really weird spot.

[00:03:46] Like, not even that rage about EA trying to fix stuff.

[00:03:49] Like, the game is just straight up horrible.

[00:03:51] I don't know what EA is going to do, man.

[00:03:53] Because we're in November and, like, it will be really interesting to see, like, Black Friday and maybe the views that the game has then.

[00:03:58] But we've never seen collectively in this community.

[00:04:02] I would say, personally, such agreement on the state of the game and also views ultimately really reflecting where the game is at, you know?

[00:04:12] It's crazy, bro.

[00:04:13] Like, I don't know, man.

[00:04:14] It's such a weird spot, bro.

[00:04:15] I used to do these, like, best player videos, market videos.

[00:04:18] I feel like so many people are less interested in the market because they don't really care about upgrading their team because they don't want to play.

[00:04:23] People don't watch videos on rankings anymore because people know there's only 30 players that are really OP.

[00:04:28] And no matter what, center backs will outrun every single attacker so no one cares.

[00:04:32] Like, it's just – it's in that spot, man, that's so weird, bro.

[00:04:35] Like, we're like – I don't even know what EA is going to do, man, to pull off having this game be where it's been in the past.

[00:04:41] I don't know.

[00:04:42] So that is Nick Runford Market from his latest video.

[00:04:45] I think it's where he's opening Rank Rewards is where it said we're recording this on the 12th.

[00:04:50] So go check that video.

[00:04:51] And, of course, all his content.

[00:04:52] I'm a big fan of Nick.

[00:04:53] I think he's one of the more balanced people.

[00:04:55] Yes, he gets a bit of a rep.

[00:04:56] And he can rant, as everybody can.

[00:04:58] But I think he's solid.

[00:04:59] And I think his intention was good.

[00:05:01] And Matt, I'm going to link this into what Marios has sent in in the mailbag.

[00:05:04] Again, if you want to get a question into us, join the Discord.

[00:05:07] Absolutely free.

[00:05:08] You can vent there.

[00:05:09] Be positive there.

[00:05:10] All aspects of the game discussed there.

[00:05:11] As mentioned, it's free.

[00:05:12] Marios says, how do you explain all this ranting at this stage of the game?

[00:05:17] Has EA finally lost the majority of common players?

[00:05:19] And do you expect a comeback during Black Friday?

[00:05:23] So, Shaq, what was kind of your reaction?

[00:05:26] I saw you nodding away there to what Nick was saying.

[00:05:29] I think one of the things that I've noticed, and I've heard a lot of people say this as well,

[00:05:33] I think gameplay issues have always been there with the AFC and FIFA.

[00:05:37] They've always been there.

[00:05:38] And we've ignored the gameplay issues to a certain extent as long as the content kept us engaged and kept us going.

[00:05:44] And the content grind, the menu grind, and those sorts of things.

[00:05:47] SBCs trying to upgrade our teams.

[00:05:49] Because at the end of the day, most of us, yes, the game will never be perfect.

[00:05:52] But we could just make do with what we have and try and upgrade our teams or do something with our teams

[00:05:57] to actually all just do menu stuff and things that you can actually be engaged with the game.

[00:06:02] At this point in time, every single aspect of the game has become such a stretch that it's extremely hard to find some sort of balance of enjoyment,

[00:06:12] a clean balance of enjoyment where you can actually progress towards a team, care about a team, care about trading, care about coins.

[00:06:19] There's none of that happening at this point in time.

[00:06:21] And the gameplay has got its own issues as per every year.

[00:06:24] But I think there's a few more issues going on this year.

[00:06:27] So I think Nick is quite spot on.

[00:06:29] And I think one of the things that's different this year as opposed to last year is we've always had people crying for the game dying,

[00:06:35] the game being dead, the game is so dead, blah, blah, blah.

[00:06:37] But I think this is the first time there's a majority of people across the board, across social media,

[00:06:43] across everywhere that you speak to are in the same boat.

[00:06:46] And you'd find very few people that are completely on the polar extreme or even middle tier with this sort of issues.

[00:06:53] I don't see many people in the middle at this point in time.

[00:06:55] So, yeah, that's my take at least.

[00:06:57] Nath, what was your kind of reaction to what Nick was saying?

[00:07:00] And again, Omaris' point, do you think EA has lost the majority of common players?

[00:07:05] Or is this just perhaps a bit of a snowball reaction amongst maybe those kind of more hardcore and content creators?

[00:07:13] Well, firstly, starting with Nick, it's really hard to disagree.

[00:07:16] The only thing, you know, we were chatting before this,

[00:07:17] the only thing I slightly disagree is it's not people don't want to upgrade the teams

[00:07:21] because naturally you play the game, you won't have the best team.

[00:07:23] I think people are a bit feared because cards are either ridiculously expensive for the top tier ones,

[00:07:31] everything sort of, we'll say, middle third and below just keeps crashing.

[00:07:37] So people like myself is a bit feared to put coins into players that could slightly improve the team

[00:07:43] to then lose, like yourself, Dan, to lose sort of 300k over a week or so.

[00:07:47] So I think that's one thing.

[00:07:49] The menu state is definitely something that I'm really, you know, disappointed with.

[00:07:55] I'm in two minds whether it's lost the hardcore players.

[00:07:59] It could be that it's lost, you know, the sort of hardcore and almost the casuals

[00:08:03] and the people that don't have hundreds or thousands of pounds to spend on points.

[00:08:07] But half of me thinks we've played this game so much over the last X amount of years.

[00:08:14] You know, am I at a point of maybe almost outgrowing it?

[00:08:17] Is this game now like leaning towards younger people that kind of do have credit card FC,

[00:08:22] if you like, or different things?

[00:08:28] The idea of what they were trying to do looked really good.

[00:08:30] You know, they changed the rewards.

[00:08:32] You know, Rush thought sounded amazing.

[00:08:34] What they said they were going to do with EVOS sounded really good.

[00:08:37] The gameplay itself has its issues.

[00:08:39] I'm not too down on the actual gameplay until this sort of Ballon d'Or mini promo, if you like,

[00:08:45] which I know we're going to go on to.

[00:08:47] So I do think it's alienating a certain large portion of the fan base.

[00:08:53] I think, you know, between everything I've just listed,

[00:08:55] the mistakes that are just constant still.

[00:08:58] No communication, things like that.

[00:09:00] I think there's a lot of work for EA to try and pull us all back in.

[00:09:04] And to be honest, I don't think Black Friday is going to be enough to pull people in

[00:09:08] because all we're going to see is they're just going to load a ridiculous amount of more promo packs in the store.

[00:09:14] They might do a few flash SBCs, but we know the pack weight is dreadful.

[00:09:19] You look at our pack pull channels in the Discord and, you know, all due respect,

[00:09:23] we're celebrating people getting a promo card, an 84 promo card, an 85 promo card, a gold card that's under 100k.

[00:09:30] Whereas previous iterations, it was, you know, people were getting top, top pulls sort of semi-regularly.

[00:09:36] And that was amazing.

[00:09:37] It's always good to see people getting pulls.

[00:09:39] But at the moment, it's like a desert.

[00:09:42] Yeah, I mean, look, there is so much for us to break down.

[00:09:45] Another thing, you know, that Nick was saying in those videos and kind of where I'm going to pivot off into the content we've had over the past few days is

[00:09:53] the interest and he noticed it in his viewing figures.

[00:09:57] EA gave everybody who logged onto the game two Team of the Year quality cards.

[00:10:02] And the interest, overall interest level in the game did not spike.

[00:10:06] It did not go up.

[00:10:07] And if anything, again, just anecdotally from our Discord and speaking to people,

[00:10:12] a lot of people didn't play because they didn't want to be in this.

[00:10:16] And my own personal experience was that was the most miserable weekend league I've played because I was facing two Team of the Year cards every single game.

[00:10:25] Most of them were Mbappe.

[00:10:26] I think I faced Mbappe 13 out of 15 games with a team that is not set up and not evolved to the point where it can easily cope with those players.

[00:10:35] So it was miserable.

[00:10:36] I just didn't enjoy it whatsoever.

[00:10:38] And that has been, again, some people are saying the Ballon d'Or was nice.

[00:10:43] I've heard a lot of the arguments from some people saying, look, I'm more casual.

[00:10:48] I'll never get to experience these top end cards.

[00:10:50] So it was fantastic for me to do so.

[00:10:52] And again, I talked about this on the Friday show with Adam because the cards have already been out for a few hours.

[00:10:57] People were saying, it's great.

[00:10:59] I get to feel the game is very best because these players are fast and responsive.

[00:11:02] Then as others, like as Nick was saying in that, like you have super fast attackers and they're still not outpacing gold centre backs and things like that.

[00:11:10] And the general gameplay quality of champs was not there.

[00:11:14] I've avoided it altogether.

[00:11:15] I've avoided rivals.

[00:11:17] I'm not playing until these loans expire because I just don't enjoy it.

[00:11:20] And we'll come to our strategies and what we do to engage with the game as we kind of wrap up this kind of overview.

[00:11:27] But I mean, Nate, your general feelings on the whole Ballon d'Or experiment?

[00:11:32] Yeah, I think it's backfired.

[00:11:33] I can appreciate it's nice to use these type of cards, but I think having these loans and champs and rivals, you know, not limited, I think is ridiculous.

[00:11:43] Like you say, the teams as a whole aren't evolved to deal with these.

[00:11:48] And I'm not saying it should be easy because when you've got cards like that, you know, most people now would probably still do the same with the 95 Mbappe as they do with the 91 Mbappe.

[00:11:55] Don't get me wrong.

[00:11:56] But I think having it free for, what is it, four or five days, I think is daft.

[00:12:02] I would be all for it if it was in, you know, the friendly mode that they've got where I think you have to win three games in the friendly for some XP or whatever it is.

[00:12:10] That's fine.

[00:12:11] Like, I'm all for that because at the end of the day, friendlies, you don't feel that, like, negativity when it gets you down.

[00:12:17] You kind of just go, right, that's fine.

[00:12:19] I'll go again.

[00:12:20] I think it's backfired massively.

[00:12:22] I was lucky.

[00:12:23] I had two of the better ones, I had Mbappe and Bonmati, but even then, like, I had to change my game.

[00:12:29] I did rivals yesterday against your own advice, Dan, when I had a few dodgy ones with my 4-4-2.

[00:12:34] I changed and went to back five just to stop the Vinnies, the Hansons and the Mbappes, which works right in the end.

[00:12:40] Rats, rats, rats.

[00:12:41] Sorry.

[00:12:42] King rat.

[00:12:43] I mean, Shaq absolutely agrees with that.

[00:12:45] I'm sure he can appreciate that.

[00:12:46] But I don't feel like you should have to completely change your setup in Rivals because EA launched a mini promo which brings ridiculous cards.

[00:12:55] And it's not even team of the year.

[00:12:57] These are almost team of the season style cards.

[00:13:00] These are what you'd expect to have in April, May time, not even just after Christmas.

[00:13:04] So I think it's backfired personally.

[00:13:06] And I can totally see the disengage from a lot of the more, I'm not going to say hardcore, I'll say dedicated people because there's a slight difference.

[00:13:13] So I don't think it's worked really well.

[00:13:15] It'd be interesting to see if there's any figures come out about engagement, which probably won't because if it is negative, EA won't release that.

[00:13:22] Well, you'll see whether they do it again, whether we see a similar thing around team of the year or team of the season.

[00:13:27] If it's been a success, we'll see the same again.

[00:13:29] And if it's not, we'll never see anything like this again.

[00:13:32] But Shaq, I want to get your thoughts.

[00:13:33] I know you've been kind of away and not really playing as much since this promo came out.

[00:13:37] But I mean, our friend Nishan in the Discord was sort of saying that it kind of felt like this was a tipping point.

[00:13:42] And the first time a promo really went against the essence of foot, that whole kind of building gradually, you know, working hard via cards.

[00:13:51] Yes, some people jump ahead by spending loads of cash and fair play to them.

[00:13:54] But this whole universal lifting of people up artificially for a few days just kind of felt against the essence of foot.

[00:14:01] I mean, do you see where he's coming from there?

[00:14:03] Absolutely.

[00:14:03] I think one of the things that really irked me and I think has really taken the fun out of the enjoyment out of the game is the fact from a market perspective as well, which is a part of foot that I always historically enjoy is with this promo that came through, the crash that happened with these cards coming through was phenomenal.

[00:14:22] And I've sent you a picture of a couple of, I think there was Sophia Smith as an example, who dropped about 300k in the past 12 days or 14 days or so.

[00:14:29] And it's really hard for someone to consistently build their teams using tradable coins.

[00:14:33] That's the one end.

[00:14:34] The other end is there is no clear, smart and fast way for us to actually progress and upgrade our teams to try and get an SPC.

[00:14:41] For example, last year we had a couple of SPCs like the Blancs, the Maldinis and the Beckhams.

[00:14:45] Those came through that steadily we were improving our teams.

[00:14:48] I think Nate's a big proponent of having untradeable cards in his squad so that he doesn't have to worry about the market impacts, which is fair.

[00:14:55] But on the one hand, EA is steadfast in trying to crash the market with these kind of promos that really are not in the essence of the game as such.

[00:15:02] And on the other hand, we're not getting equivalent SPCs to actually keep us in the untradeable route that is sustainable for this level of game.

[00:15:11] So we're neither here nor there.

[00:15:13] And this has really come to a stage where I'm starting to question why do I even want to have coins?

[00:15:18] Why do I even want to do anything with the game apart from engage with it on an ad hoc basis?

[00:15:24] And that's the part I'm struggling with as well because I've always engaged with the game as frequently as I possibly could.

[00:15:31] And right now to do it on an ad hoc basis, it just feels unnatural.

[00:15:34] I'm just thinking, what is the point?

[00:15:36] And that's the part that I've never questioned that before.

[00:15:39] That's where I am right now.

[00:15:40] And it's a weird little state.

[00:15:42] I think it's a stunt that was not required.

[00:15:44] But if you had an SPC for a Rodri and SPC for a female Ballon Dogon or the Bonmartie, that's it.

[00:15:54] We would have been a lot happier with having two SPC cards, maybe plus one on those two and make them 700k SPCs.

[00:16:01] We would be ecstatic to have an upgraded, beautiful looking card in our squads.

[00:16:06] Yeah, a couple of things to pick up on from what the both of you have been saying.

[00:16:10] And Nate makes that good point.

[00:16:11] Is it just a case of we've gone around the sun too often as a group?

[00:16:17] You think about back in your childhood, you might have picked up a Mario game.

[00:16:21] But 10 years later, were you still playing Mario games or had you moved on to something new?

[00:16:25] And is this a game?

[00:16:27] I go back to things like Football Manager and I've loved Football Manager for 20 years.

[00:16:32] But I never played Football Manager all year long.

[00:16:35] I would have spells.

[00:16:36] I would have a five, six month spell, usually around the start of the football season,

[00:16:39] where I'd be like on at hardcore and then I'd drift off into other games.

[00:16:42] I'd go to Roller Coaster Tycoon.

[00:16:44] I'd go to Command & Conquer.

[00:16:46] I'd go to Pez or FIFA.

[00:16:48] I'd go to something else.

[00:16:48] And I always have that kind of balance.

[00:16:50] And I don't know ultimately whether you can continually thrive and get enjoyment out of something

[00:16:58] where you've been and done it and seen it all year after year after year.

[00:17:02] And this is the kind of point that we were making on shows when I was talking about the all-you-can-eat buffet analogy

[00:17:07] and talking about with Adam as well last week.

[00:17:09] It's that we've seen it all.

[00:17:11] EA have almost run out of rabbits to pull out of the hat.

[00:17:14] So you've really got to enjoy exactly the whole experience.

[00:17:18] You're not just going to be distracted by shiny new things because they've run out of shiny new things

[00:17:23] to sort of present you with.

[00:17:24] And what you said, Shaq, about the market and things like that, absolutely right.

[00:17:28] I mean, we talk about getting rewards and EA have talked about enhanced rewards this year.

[00:17:34] But are they enhanced?

[00:17:36] Because like you say, it's not like we're all sitting here with much more juiced teams than we were 12 months ago.

[00:17:42] We're not.

[00:17:43] Okay, maybe the very top 1%, those people that are getting rank 1 in champs and are making it to elite are doing better.

[00:17:50] I'm sure that their coin balances are probably up.

[00:17:53] In fact, I know their coin balances are up because the price of the very top tier cards is higher than it was last year.

[00:17:59] And back pay is like twice the cost and all of that jazz.

[00:18:02] But for the rest of us, this just feels like inflation because suddenly EA, yeah, okay,

[00:18:09] they're handing you a 75 by 35.

[00:18:11] Great.

[00:18:11] That's much better than, you know, getting a mega pack last year.

[00:18:14] But really is it?

[00:18:15] Because any SBC you're asked to do, you're asked to now submit two 83 and two 84 squads.

[00:18:22] And this now goes into the next part of content that has really annoyed people.

[00:18:27] The crafting upgrade.

[00:18:29] Now, when you hear a crafting upgrade, the name crafting and upgrade.

[00:18:34] You craft to upgrade your team.

[00:18:38] This can do neither because you can't really craft from this upgrade because the requirements are 11 gold commons to get three gold rares back that are rated 75 and higher.

[00:18:50] So therefore, you are a net deficit of eight cards every time you do this SBC.

[00:18:54] And that's an absolute minimum.

[00:18:56] You know, if you were to put those three cards straight back in.

[00:18:59] But how do you get the gold commons?

[00:19:02] Okay, there's gameplay objectives.

[00:19:03] There's your weekly rewards.

[00:19:04] But there is no menu way of doing that.

[00:19:07] If you want to specifically sit there and grind hour after hour, you can't do it.

[00:19:12] The other thing is, is that we had this crafting upgrade last year.

[00:19:17] And last year, you got rewards just about every 10 levels.

[00:19:21] You got Electrum packs, Premium Player Packs.

[00:19:22] And you got levels like an 84 by 4, an 80 by 10.

[00:19:26] This year, Shaq, the top reward for completing 100.

[00:19:31] So submitting 1,100 cards is an 82 by 5.

[00:19:40] It's ridiculous.

[00:19:41] Absolutely ridiculous.

[00:19:42] I think I saw something that said it's going to cost you 610,000 coins to complete 100 of those upgrade SBCs.

[00:19:50] 610,000 coins to get an 82 by 5.

[00:19:52] That's just outrageous.

[00:19:55] And I think you've hit the nail on the head because what's really frustrating me today, especially, is the fact that there has been a lot of thought behind these SBCs.

[00:20:05] It's not like they've just said, oh, let's just give them exactly what they gave them last year to keep them happy.

[00:20:10] Nor is it let's not give them anything.

[00:20:12] Let's just forget about that because we don't really care about that.

[00:20:15] There has been a lot of thought behind trying to squeeze every little inch out of these SBCs to make people engage with them if they really want to spend money or just ignore it.

[00:20:26] And that's the part that really gets me.

[00:20:28] Where is the give?

[00:20:30] It's just take, take, take.

[00:20:31] And they've taken a lot of our time, a lot of our time.

[00:20:35] And it's getting harder to give that time because they're not giving anything back.

[00:20:39] And that's the part that's – I think the thought process for them to even come out, have the cheek to say an 81 rated SBC squad in the other SBC segment that we had for the 85 plus today.

[00:20:49] The thought process behind that, the amount of work that they've had to do to actually pull that off and then to make us realize, hang on a minute, this is not 81 plus.

[00:20:58] It's an 83 and 84 plus squad that you need to submit.

[00:21:01] But the thought process behind that, they would have spent a lot of time to come up with that.

[00:21:05] And that's the part that frustrates me.

[00:21:07] They're thinking in the wrong, completely wrong way.

[00:21:09] It's like – I'm sure you've seen that meme where there's Milhouse is standing there saying, stop, he's already dead.

[00:21:16] And that's literally how the community feels right now with EA, which is being beaten from pillar to post and just keeps getting worse.

[00:21:23] Yeah, if you missed what Shaq's talking about, they released this 85 upgrade pack with the requirements of being an 81 rated squad.

[00:21:31] So you logged in and thought, great, an 81 rated squad.

[00:21:33] But they put two brick slots in and the brick slots count as zero rated players.

[00:21:38] Now, I'm still not sure whether that's just a mistake from EA or if they've done it deliberately.

[00:21:43] Either way, either they've completely messed up and they're idiots or they, as Shaq has said, they've deliberately gone out of their way to make something seem more appealing than it is and just to annoy the community.

[00:21:55] There's no real right – there's no positive answer in that.

[00:21:58] It's either, you know, it's either inept or slightly scummy.

[00:22:02] And Adam in the mailbag says, why are they killing the menus?

[00:22:07] SBCs have been way worse than previous games and that menu grind they dropped last night.

[00:22:11] It's just like, why are they making it so bad?

[00:22:14] I get that they want to drive people to the store to get paid, but the way they're doing it this year is utterly stinking.

[00:22:20] We've got absolutely awful and inconsistent gameplay and rotten menu grind slash SBC options.

[00:22:26] To me, it feels that they know it and just don't care.

[00:22:28] The game is in a bad way, worse than ever, I feel.

[00:22:32] And, Nate, this leads me to another thing that really just leaves that sour taste in your mouth and a bit like what Adam said.

[00:22:38] Do you know how many store packs there are at the moment?

[00:22:42] A lot.

[00:22:43] You did tell me just before this.

[00:22:44] You counted it.

[00:22:46] To be conservative, we thought it was at least £200 worth if you do it once, let alone the repeatable ones.

[00:22:52] I think it was more.

[00:22:54] It's a lot more in terms of – I've not even counted the cash cost of this.

[00:22:57] There are 19 different promo packs available.

[00:23:03] Plus, if you've not used them already, as I have not, there are two for you packs available.

[00:23:10] 21 different special packs for you to spend physical money on.

[00:23:15] Or coins.

[00:23:16] You can spend coins on them.

[00:23:19] 21.

[00:23:21] And, Nate, we are talking at – you know, we're only two or three years removed from the whole fact of when they had an ultimate pack in a lightning round was considered an event in itself.

[00:23:32] Now, you don't even get people really talking about this because I think people have just accepted the point that EA are literally trying to fleece you at every corner.

[00:23:41] It feels like when you walk down – I don't know if you've ever been onto, like, a touristy beachy area and you've literally got people desperately trying to flog you anything and everything in a tourist area.

[00:23:52] You know, I've got people trying to flog me mini Eiffel Towers every two seconds.

[00:23:57] In this case, it's just EA trying to flog me.

[00:23:59] Please get this pack.

[00:24:00] Please get this pack.

[00:24:01] This one's got different colors on it.

[00:24:02] This one's got a hero in it.

[00:24:05] This one's a little bit tradable.

[00:24:07] If you've got 200K, 100K, don't worry.

[00:24:09] We've got something for you.

[00:24:11] On the one hand, as Adam said, they need to – and I've always said this.

[00:24:15] They're a publicly traded company.

[00:24:16] They are out there to make money.

[00:24:19] But the optics of having 19 plus 2 store packs and then only giving you an 82 by 5 for your hard-earned grind does not feel right.

[00:24:29] Don't forget there's the other – I don't know whether you've incorporated it, but there's the ones where you can get the common players as well.

[00:24:36] They've got the two –

[00:24:37] Oh, yeah.

[00:24:37] Provision packs.

[00:24:38] Provision packs.

[00:24:53] Provision packs, yeah.

[00:24:54] I don't know, 2,000 points for completing it along the way.

[00:24:58] I'd probably try and grind it out.

[00:24:59] There's nothing in it.

[00:25:01] And that goes for the rest of the menu.

[00:25:03] The rest of the menu grind at the moment.

[00:25:05] Ali, I know you like to do your league SBCs, Dan, just because I know it gives you something to do.

[00:25:09] Even that, like – did you say it was about 25K to cycle through it?

[00:25:14] That is not worth it for me.

[00:25:15] The odds in the pack weight doesn't give you enough back to say that's worth hemorrhaging coins for.

[00:25:21] I think they've got to the point now where either they're just being blatant and trying to take everyone's money,

[00:25:27] or they've kind of lost touch with reality and lost touch with the masses where they think they can just kind of coast at.

[00:25:34] Maybe they're all – I saw a thing on – I think it was on Twitter.

[00:25:36] Someone said that the guys at EA must be loving the new Call of Duty because they've obviously too busy playing the new COD that's not released.

[00:25:43] And it kind of has that feel that it's almost like I can't really be bothered, but they expect daily content.

[00:25:49] So we're going to put out a token gesture.

[00:25:52] This will keep them quiet.

[00:25:53] And to be honest, I feel like it's having the opposite effect.

[00:25:57] And it probably will drive away people.

[00:26:00] I'm not saying I'm getting driven away because I am a creature habit.

[00:26:03] I'm probably slightly autistic that likes to keep to my routines.

[00:26:06] I will keep doing it.

[00:26:08] I'm not going to spend any money on it.

[00:26:10] I'm not going to pay for the – even use my coins in the store.

[00:26:15] But I will keep doing what I'm doing.

[00:26:16] However, I am slowly starting to realize that I have been so positive on this game for many years.

[00:26:22] And even in our own sort of Tuesday club, I have tried to be the balanced one and try and keep it going.

[00:26:27] But I just can't defend it anymore.

[00:26:29] As Shaq said to us in our group chat, it's indefensible now.

[00:26:34] Yeah.

[00:26:35] And in the past, there used to be things that you didn't really like.

[00:26:38] But there was enough other good stuff to be able to distract you.

[00:26:41] So for me, okay, I hated the fact that they took away the proper League SBCs and giving you a player at the end and things like that.

[00:26:49] But, you know, they were giving away better packs and things.

[00:26:52] And there were other ways.

[00:26:53] And the League SBC was still kind of there.

[00:26:55] So it was all right.

[00:26:56] And then, you know, you get to this year and it's like they either just don't care.

[00:27:01] Again, either they don't care and haven't realized that they've made the Premier League SBC basically more expensive and worth doing.

[00:27:08] Or it's deliberate and they're deliberately cutting you off from being able to do a repeatable menu grind.

[00:27:14] And again, either way is not great.

[00:27:16] And they're losing that distraction of the other good stuff to make you forgive the fact that.

[00:27:22] And to overlook the fact that they are shaking people down by the ankles for every pack they can possibly make.

[00:27:28] Again, the other point that Nick was making in this video is that they are very, and we've sort of theorized this on the past,

[00:27:32] EA are moving more towards a maximizing revenue per user model rather than trying to appeal.

[00:27:39] So they're not trying to get 10 million users of the game that will just buy the base game.

[00:27:44] They will be much happy or not much happier, but they will be just as content having 4 million users,

[00:27:51] but each of them spending on average 200 pounds.

[00:27:54] Because ultimately the people at the bottom who aren't spending additional revenue aren't helping them as much.

[00:28:00] And you can see that just on a very basic level by look at how the base game has been discounted already.

[00:28:05] They've already had several offers and promos.

[00:28:07] Bear in mind, the game's been out six weeks where it's been 50% off.

[00:28:12] So they're obviously not counting on the fact that lots of people are just going to casually pick up the game and buy it for the sake of the game.

[00:28:18] They're very much trying to get, again, maximized per user.

[00:28:21] And yeah, I said I can forgive having 21 plus whatever store packs out there.

[00:28:26] But when you do it and then you put out this awful crafting upgrade that you've deliberately downgraded from last year for apparently no reason.

[00:28:36] And the one benefit of the doubt and the only benefit of the doubt that I can give EA before we move on from the crafting upgrade

[00:28:42] is that maybe something is coming for the rest of this week.

[00:28:46] Maybe suddenly they'll redrop the exchanges or there will be a...

[00:28:51] Do you remember when we had those daily gold upgrades last year where you submitted a bronze and a silver squad to get...

[00:28:57] So maybe something like that is coming.

[00:28:59] But even if it does, again, why do you not release them all at once?

[00:29:04] Because then it feels even scummier to those people that have had to go out and spend their coins doing these upgrades.

[00:29:08] But yeah.

[00:29:10] So much to get into.

[00:29:11] Sorry, Shaq.

[00:29:12] I think while you were talking, one of the things that really hit me was the fact that if they really want their engagement numbers,

[00:29:18] as they want to have monetary value per user, maybe from a server point of view,

[00:29:23] they really have come down to the fact that over the next maybe 12 to 18 months,

[00:29:27] we need to have less users on the system to actually support the servers while they do whatever they have to do.

[00:29:33] So the best thing they can do is try and monetize every single user that's playing the game.

[00:29:37] So if you're not spending any FIFA points or you're not purchasing any dollars, any FC points,

[00:29:42] you're not really worth the server space at this point in time because you've already bought the game.

[00:29:47] You've already spent the initial money.

[00:29:49] That's it.

[00:29:50] End of story for you.

[00:29:51] Maybe there is a plan to that.

[00:29:52] Maybe that's what they're looking at in the next 12 to 18 months.

[00:29:55] That could be true.

[00:29:56] And I think you're quite right about trying to maximize the amount of revenue per user.

[00:30:01] Yeah.

[00:30:02] And it's important, very important for us to say that these are only our educated guesses on these things.

[00:30:07] Yeah, yeah.

[00:30:07] But again, part of this is because the direct communication from EA and, you know,

[00:30:12] you don't see them out doing interviews.

[00:30:14] You don't see the gameplay team doing out interviews.

[00:30:16] Some of it for good reason because as John, the big boss man brought up in the Discord,

[00:30:21] that in the past we have had community managers and they just got horrifically abused.

[00:30:25] And it's not fair for anybody to be in that, but they could do a Q&A with just on a Reddit,

[00:30:32] a Reddit ask me anything with just the development team, even if you anonymize it and who you're responding to.

[00:30:38] But we don't get these communications.

[00:30:40] We don't get strategies or anything.

[00:30:42] I completely get that point that John has raised, but I really,

[00:30:45] I think I've come to a stage where I'm sick of that as an argument because

[00:30:49] why am I as a user suffering for some idiot that's done something wrong or a group of idiots

[00:30:55] that have nothing to do with me?

[00:30:57] Why am I suffering as a user?

[00:30:59] So you're telling me that whatever happens in the FIFA community is very isolated to the FIFA community.

[00:31:03] No, it's not.

[00:31:04] It happens in every single gaming community,

[00:31:06] but the game takes it upon themselves to interact with the community to get the game going.

[00:31:11] So why are we special and different?

[00:31:13] So you're telling me that the most toxic community is the FIFA community?

[00:31:16] Far from it.

[00:31:18] You know what the biggest reason is, Shaq?

[00:31:20] And again, this goes back to what I've said for five years.

[00:31:23] There is no competition.

[00:31:24] So there is no need.

[00:31:26] Every other game has to try and keep its users happy.

[00:31:29] Because look, if, for example, Blizzard absolutely alienate and really pee off everybody who plays World of Warcraft,

[00:31:36] there's other MMOs for people to go to.

[00:31:38] Quite a lot of well-developed MMOs that they'll go to.

[00:31:42] If Call of Duty annoy everybody,

[00:31:45] well, people go play another shooter.

[00:31:47] Again, they'll go to Fortnite.

[00:31:49] They'll go to, I can't even remember the other ones.

[00:31:52] What's the, I can't even remember.

[00:31:54] There's 8 million other shooters out there.

[00:31:55] They go play Halo or whatever.

[00:31:58] FIFA, EAFC, don't like it.

[00:32:00] What are you going to do?

[00:32:01] Realistically, you're going to go play PES slash eFootball?

[00:32:04] Well, they've got their own problems at the moment.

[00:32:06] Goals is pre-alpha.

[00:32:10] And UFL.

[00:32:11] UFL has had a couple of alphas and betas out that showed, as John, again, has been saying for ages,

[00:32:18] it takes a lot to make a very good football game.

[00:32:20] And they are just not there yet.

[00:32:22] So again, we go back to EA haven't got competition.

[00:32:24] They released their earnings call.

[00:32:26] Their profits are still going up.

[00:32:28] The sales are going.

[00:32:29] And I think this brings everything together in a nice little bow.

[00:32:32] The only way that we are going to change things,

[00:32:36] and I say we, but it's down to you as a listener of this show.

[00:32:41] If you are not happy, you have to just do what I have just done and just say,

[00:32:46] I'm not going to play for the next few days.

[00:32:49] And more importantly, you have to say, I'm not going to buy one of the 19 store packs.

[00:32:55] No matter the fact of how frustrated I am to upgrade my team, I won't do it.

[00:32:59] Because the only thing, if there is no external pressure,

[00:33:02] the only pressure we can exert is showing something in the metrics.

[00:33:07] So that's the only way an executive is going to notice if they go,

[00:33:11] whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute.

[00:33:12] You guys, you know, your live services, you know, your pack sales effectively,

[00:33:16] they dropped 10%.

[00:33:17] What's going on there?

[00:33:18] And then they might start doing some digging.

[00:33:20] But if you just keep continuing to spend, that's never going to change.

[00:33:24] And engagement is probably less important to them.

[00:33:28] But still, if they notice that there has been a 10% drop off in the amount of hours played over the last week,

[00:33:34] again, that might make somebody notice.

[00:33:37] So we can, it's now reached that point where if you want change,

[00:33:41] you've got to do something about it.

[00:33:43] And I'm not saying boycott the game.

[00:33:45] I'm not saying never buy a store pack again.

[00:33:47] I'm just saying show your dissatisfaction with your custom.

[00:33:52] If you didn't like a meal at a restaurant,

[00:33:54] you wouldn't just go and keep eating it and then sit there grumbling afterwards.

[00:33:58] You would go to a different restaurant or you would order less.

[00:34:01] Yes, you can tell the chef that you don't like it.

[00:34:04] But if you keep turning up, they will just keep serving it.

[00:34:07] And that is the situation I think we're in, Nath,

[00:34:09] where people need to actually make a conscious decision of showing EA,

[00:34:15] I don't like this.

[00:34:17] You need to change.

[00:34:18] Yeah, absolutely.

[00:34:19] Was it last year there was the whole bin the points campaign?

[00:34:22] And I was reading, there was a couple of streamers that were asked about it on Twitter.

[00:34:27] I can't remember the guy's name, but there's one in our host channel on Discord.

[00:34:30] And it was, the guy's kind of said that he's fed up with the negativity.

[00:34:33] So he's branching off into nice things around his life because the game's that negative.

[00:34:38] And then he was asked about what happened to bin the points.

[00:34:40] He was like, there wasn't enough traction because people aren't bothered about the game anymore.

[00:34:44] And it's that kind of thing.

[00:34:45] You know, I'm now advocating, you know, the store packs, when you look through them,

[00:34:49] there's not actually that many good store packs anyway.

[00:34:51] There's none of them that even if I wanted to go out and buy, I'd be like, I need to have that.

[00:34:56] Because you know that, you know, these ones that have got, say, minimum 84,

[00:35:01] the high chance is you may be getting 85 non-promo.

[00:35:04] The chances are, you know, of packing one of these icons.

[00:35:07] I mean, I've not actually seen a first owner Centurion's icon in any of my rivals go.

[00:35:13] Haven't seen one at all.

[00:35:15] Barely see any, I don't think I've seen any Centurion's in a team, just the standard one.

[00:35:19] I think I've packed two, and they were the 84 ones.

[00:35:23] But, you know, it's nonsense.

[00:35:24] And it kind of shows you that if you go and buy these packs, there's not really an awful lot in it.

[00:35:29] Yes, you can get lucky.

[00:35:31] But I think, you know, Dan, you've talked a lot, a lot of sense there.

[00:35:35] It seems to me that there is a bit of a point where, you know, like I say,

[00:35:38] I'm probably still going to keep playing out of habit.

[00:35:40] But there comes a time where enough's enough.

[00:35:42] And, you know, if people, we keep saying, why are people playing the games?

[00:35:46] Especially a lot of these content creators.

[00:35:47] Why are they doing something they absolutely hate?

[00:35:49] It just blows my mind.

[00:35:51] And if people hate the game so much, you know, don't interact as much, don't interact at all.

[00:35:56] It's as easy as that.

[00:35:57] And like I say, I'm not as big a hater on the actual gameplay.

[00:36:01] I quite enjoy playing the game, you know.

[00:36:03] Rush at the moment is my bugbear.

[00:36:06] It's not even because of EA per se.

[00:36:08] It's because of the user base.

[00:36:10] So I also think that's got a bit to do with it.

[00:36:12] EA clearly are greedy and they've got lots of issues.

[00:36:15] I think, you know, some of the player base has its issues as well.

[00:36:19] And everyone seems entitled, you know, I'm going to ruin this for everyone else because I want my Evo done or I just want to get the points.

[00:36:26] And, you know, that's quite negative.

[00:36:27] And I played that cup today with the, you had to get the three wins with the Ballon d'Or.

[00:36:32] And, you know, somebody scored because I made a bad pass, scored in the first three minutes of a game.

[00:36:39] Then he fully celebrated, paused three times.

[00:36:41] So I was like, I'm not quitting.

[00:36:43] Beat the guy 3-1, stuff like that.

[00:36:45] Like things like that.

[00:36:46] I just think that that just shows you like what our community can be like.

[00:36:50] And, you know, we're lucky.

[00:36:51] Our Discord is brilliant.

[00:36:53] You know, people have actually made like real friends, not just FIFA friends or not just Playmates, but real friends.

[00:36:59] And that's good.

[00:36:59] But EA coupled with some of the toxicity in the community, I think is driving a lot, a lot of people away.

[00:37:07] The biggest disappointment, before I come back to you, Shaq, and we'll kind of wrap up.

[00:37:12] Because we do want to move on to some positive stuff.

[00:37:14] We spent 35 minutes getting stuff off our chest and reflecting the negativity.

[00:37:18] We do want to, as Nishant asked the question, what keeps you engaged?

[00:37:22] And, you know, we've got the contents around up and stuff like that.

[00:37:24] But I think for me, the biggest disappointment right now, just overall, comes with the fact that EA can have their cake and eat it.

[00:37:34] They can.

[00:37:35] They were making billions last year, releasing a good crafting upgrade.

[00:37:43] Why are you so scared to do it?

[00:37:48] But are they in such a desperate spot that they are now scrabbling to try and sell these 21 store packs?

[00:37:56] Is that the reason?

[00:37:58] Is there a greater issue that maybe we're not realizing now and that's the reason for it?

[00:38:02] Or is it just a, well, we made 3 billion last year.

[00:38:06] We need to make 3.5 billion to get our targets.

[00:38:09] How can we squeeze a little bit more out?

[00:38:11] Because to me, you can have your cake and eat it in this day.

[00:38:14] No one is going to begrudge you.

[00:38:15] You're a company.

[00:38:16] You've got costs, expenses, shareholders, employees.

[00:38:19] We're all happy for you to make some money.

[00:38:21] Everyone's happy.

[00:38:22] It's the way the world works.

[00:38:24] But when you are, as you said, I think, Shaq, when you are taking, taking, taking, taking, taking and not giving stuff back, there comes that straw.

[00:38:33] Again, as I said at the top of the show, the straw that broke the camel's back.

[00:38:37] It's not that this crafting upgrade is so bad I want to quit the game.

[00:38:40] It's not that the gameplay is so bad I want to quit the game.

[00:38:43] It's not that the EA mistakes are so bad that I want to quit the game.

[00:38:47] It's not the lack of icon SBCs.

[00:38:49] It's everything.

[00:38:50] It's on top of each other, top of each other, top of each other.

[00:38:53] And that is where the whole straw that breaks the camel's back analogy comes from.

[00:38:56] Because the camel is very strong.

[00:38:58] And it can take so much weight.

[00:39:01] But then there is the tipping point.

[00:39:03] And when the tipping point comes, it only takes something very, very tiny.

[00:39:07] The straw packs would make a lot more sense if they'd released, I know they're not going to release a Cruyff, but, you know, released a top end icon.

[00:39:16] And people are going, actually, I'll buy a straw pack because I want to get better players.

[00:39:20] But at the moment, the straw packs aren't great.

[00:39:24] There's nothing really to grind towards.

[00:39:27] And like we said, the pack weight's that poor.

[00:39:30] It's kind of a lose-lose because unless you're that one in probably one in 100,000, it's going to get that, you know, that Liao, that Sun or whatever.

[00:39:39] Yeah.

[00:39:39] Like there's not a lot in it apart from absolute disappointment.

[00:39:44] I think one of the things I was mentioning to Dan in our group chat was the fact that last year they actually experimented with having SPCs and supplementing those SPCs with store packs.

[00:39:52] So, for example, to complete a large segment of the SPC, there would be people that would open a store pack to get some fodder to complete an SPC.

[00:39:58] I think they experimented with that last year.

[00:40:01] And some of the metrics probably would have shown that that's not the most lucrative from their point of view.

[00:40:07] Because if you have a big whale spender, there's no point for them to spend any money apart from just completing that, maybe a pack or two to complete Eusebio, for example.

[00:40:15] I'm just giving, I know Eusebio came in December, but just as an example.

[00:40:18] Whereas this year, they just want you to try from the store end and try keeping your luck going with trying to pack the Liao.

[00:40:25] So you spend more money in trying to chase that Liao as opposed to spending a few dollars to get certain fodder to complete an SPC.

[00:40:31] That will be in your squad for a while.

[00:40:33] So you don't have to worry about the store pack.

[00:40:34] So if you remove the SPC aspect, there's no need for you to worry about it.

[00:40:38] Just go to the store and keep spending as much as you can.

[00:40:41] That's probably what the metrics are telling them, which is probably right from a logical point of view.

[00:40:44] But from a user-based point of view, we're suffering.

[00:40:48] Yeah.

[00:40:49] And we will never know what the silent majority of you.

[00:40:52] So there are millions worldwide that play this game.

[00:40:54] And EA will have all the data.

[00:40:56] So they will be using that to drive their strategy.

[00:40:59] We can only reflect the voices we hear, the things we read, and our own experiences.

[00:41:03] So if you're sitting there listening saying, none of that bothers me, absolute more power to you.

[00:41:09] Please enjoy this game.

[00:41:11] It is a game.

[00:41:11] You should be enjoying it.

[00:41:13] And you should be doing it.

[00:41:14] Yeah, there are going to be tough times in any game.

[00:41:16] That's part of the challenge of getting better and improving.

[00:41:19] But overall, it should be bringing you pleasure and joy.

[00:41:21] And if that has stopped, stop yourself.

[00:41:26] Go and do something else.

[00:41:27] Because I promise you, you will find something that may not be completely as satisfying as this.

[00:41:32] But you will get there.

[00:41:33] You will get there.

[00:41:34] Right.

[00:41:35] We talked about SPCs.

[00:41:36] We spent 40 minutes deconstructing the wider world.

[00:41:41] Let's talk about some of the content.

[00:41:43] I'm afraid we're probably not going to be overly positive on this content, but we'll talk about it.

[00:41:48] Nathan, we did finally get an icon SPC.

[00:41:50] It was one Sebastian Varon.

[00:41:52] You as a Manchester United fan, well, you're both a Manchester United fan.

[00:41:56] Ideal for your United past and present.

[00:41:58] But again, not getting the most positive reviews this one.

[00:42:01] No.

[00:42:02] When I heard he was coming, I thought this might be all right if it was fairly priced and had the right stats, right play styles.

[00:42:08] But when you've just had a Sissoko card for about 25k, I know he's not got the icon links, but he's not a lot better than that.

[00:42:15] He's got a couple of face stats better, but incisive pass is fine.

[00:42:19] Pace is fine.

[00:42:21] Defensive is fine.

[00:42:22] I think fine probably sums up this card.

[00:42:23] He's never the most meta card to use in FIFA anyway.

[00:42:27] He's not one that I potentially would be buzzing for.

[00:42:30] And I think price at 400k, there's so many better options.

[00:42:34] You know, even we've had that Evo that comes out, I think it's 100k or something for the Ballon d'Or.

[00:42:40] Rodri could do that.

[00:42:42] You could do even the Bonmartie Evo.

[00:42:44] You could get better plays, like I say, Sissoko or whatnot.

[00:42:46] Or even the French boy from, is it Turam?

[00:42:49] Kef from Turam from weeks ago would probably feel better in game than this.

[00:42:53] So I think, again, unfortunately, I'm going to have to say it is another miss from EA on this one.

[00:43:00] Yeah, certainly not what I'm going to be doing.

[00:43:03] And Shaq's shaking his head, so I don't think he's there as well.

[00:43:06] Let's move on to a more meta player.

[00:43:07] Anaki Williams got an SBC released.

[00:43:10] I mean, Shaq, this is a card that has caused us nightmares.

[00:43:12] What was it?

[00:43:13] A Trailblazers card back in FIFA 22.

[00:43:16] It seems to be in everybody's team.

[00:43:19] Plenty of versions of this card over the years.

[00:43:21] Even the gold card that started this year has terrorized us.

[00:43:25] But I think people are complaining that he's already had an Evo out that's better than this card.

[00:43:30] Exactly.

[00:43:31] Exactly what I was going to say is that I've played against the Evolution card right at the start of the game.

[00:43:35] And he was so overpowered back then that if you have a love for Anaki Williams and you have that Evolution card,

[00:43:41] there's no reason for you to upgrade to this one.

[00:43:43] And I think all they had to do was probably give a playstyle plus.

[00:43:46] And with the same price, it would be a great addition.

[00:43:49] Something that you can aspire to.

[00:43:51] And also, I think some of the Evolutions, like the Correa Evolution as well as the Alvarez Evolution,

[00:43:56] you could actually upgrade those cards to be really good cards in La Liga.

[00:44:01] So it's a bit of a miss.

[00:44:03] But if you're a huge fan of Anaki Williams, you could probably go ahead.

[00:44:06] And the funny part is he doesn't have a strong link to his brother,

[00:44:10] even though they're in the same club, they're a different country.

[00:44:13] So it just doesn't work out.

[00:44:15] But I think he's a decent card.

[00:44:16] That 152-odd K is okay if you have the quarter, but it could be a miss as well.

[00:44:21] I mean, it's not a must-do at all.

[00:44:24] Yeah, I mean, he's one of the few right midfielders with inside forward plus plus.

[00:44:27] And he does have quick step and rapid and 95 pace.

[00:44:31] So look, if you are looking for someone to bring on as a super sub and none of the other SBCs in your dupe storage is full,

[00:44:36] I don't think this is too bad.

[00:44:38] And I might even complete this card for that reason.

[00:44:40] I really like the idea of bringing him on on one flank and Adama on the other and really terrorizing defenses.

[00:44:47] They get a bit tired.

[00:44:48] But yeah, you can see why this hasn't really tickled the fancy of many within the community.

[00:44:54] Other content, again, we've mentioned the crafting update upgrade plenty so far.

[00:44:58] So don't need to go into that.

[00:44:59] The Icon SBC came back.

[00:45:01] Very slightly lower requirements.

[00:45:02] But it's still coming in at what?

[00:45:04] Best part of 350k, Shaq?

[00:45:06] Yep.

[00:45:07] 350k for an SBC that is still capped at 88.

[00:45:10] I mean, if you have the fodder, I think most of us do have the fodder lying around.

[00:45:14] Do we wait and hope for that internal SBC to come by?

[00:45:18] Or should we just gamble away the way Ea likes to do it?

[00:45:21] Or what do we do?

[00:45:22] I think if you really have the fodder, you can try and do it.

[00:45:26] But I'm just personally, I'm just going to wait, wait, wait till I get an SBC that I want to do.

[00:45:30] I'm not doing any more gambles.

[00:45:32] Yeah, it's actually dropped down to just under 300k.

[00:45:34] Because again, fodder in general has just tanked partly due to this whole Ballon d'Or promo.

[00:45:42] But it's a good time to actually pick up and do.

[00:45:44] I think Pateas is well down as well.

[00:45:46] But yeah, I think, again, I've resisted because I keep hanging on, waiting for the perfect player SBC to arrive.

[00:45:53] And it just hasn't.

[00:45:54] But I'm standing firm.

[00:45:55] I'm probably not going to gamble.

[00:45:57] You know, it's not worth it when even Nate isn't bugging me to do it.

[00:46:01] Yeah, that's so true.

[00:46:03] I was thinking of that.

[00:46:04] Yes.

[00:46:04] I've done all the road to the knockouts and the rush promo sort of party bags.

[00:46:09] But heroes, I think I did the first one and got disappointed when I had a duke for the only other hero that I had.

[00:46:15] This icon, I think I had Owen out of one.

[00:46:17] But when you look through the list, there's not really that many.

[00:46:20] And I think it's always important to look at your team compared to what you could potentially get.

[00:46:24] And there's not millions of icons that capped at 88 now that are going to improve the majority of teams out there.

[00:46:30] If they upped it to, even if they just open-ended it, there's a chance you'll still get a low-rated one.

[00:46:35] But that would give you more input to do it.

[00:46:37] Or bring in some of these Centurions.

[00:46:40] Even capped 88 Centurions might be a little bit nicer.

[00:46:43] Or 89 Centurions or something.

[00:46:44] But I think it's very wayward for me.

[00:46:48] There's nothing been released that I'm like, I must do.

[00:46:51] There's no EVOs.

[00:46:52] There's no SBCs, really, that I'm like, oh my word, let's rush out and do this.

[00:46:56] What do you guys think?

[00:46:57] So at the moment, it's a no.

[00:47:00] Yeah.

[00:47:00] And again, we go back to Nishant's question of what are some of the elements of the game that keep you engaged?

[00:47:05] I'll get your two thoughts on that shortly.

[00:47:08] But for me, and I've said it, EVOs.

[00:47:10] And they've had lots of EVOs released over the past few days.

[00:47:12] We've had the team of the, sorry, the Ballon d'Or winner of Rodri.

[00:47:16] Ballon d'Or winner of Bon Mati.

[00:47:17] We've had the 100 Club and Titans Guard.

[00:47:20] Some frustrations from, many frustrations with EVOs come in two parts.

[00:47:24] And I mentioned this with Adam on Friday.

[00:47:26] The amount of games we're being asked to play, especially for the paid EVOs, is a joke.

[00:47:31] But the other problem is, is that people are finding the stat limits just to be just so limiting.

[00:47:38] Because whilst the stats are being capped, the overall rating of these cards is going up.

[00:47:43] So you're often finding an 86 rated card that's not actually 86 rated.

[00:47:47] For example, with the Titans Guard one that came out for defenders.

[00:47:51] And it's got things like a pace requirement on it, but it's not even boosting pace.

[00:47:55] So why have you got a pace requirement on it?

[00:47:57] Again, I don't think EA have still really delivered on their goal of giving your wider pool of players to EVO.

[00:48:05] So we're six weeks into the game and I still can't do anything with Chloe Kelly.

[00:48:11] Or I think Fran Kirby has had one, she's an 84 rated card, has had one EVO that she fits into.

[00:48:16] And these aren't massively overpowered cards.

[00:48:19] Even if we have slight, you know, the whole idea was that you should have been able to put these cards in

[00:48:23] and just boost a couple of areas of them.

[00:48:25] Even if it's just by two or three points on a couple of face stats.

[00:48:28] But we're just not getting that at the moment.

[00:48:30] But they are still keeping me engaged.

[00:48:32] I will say that my Reading EVO team is a lot further along this year than where it was last year.

[00:48:38] So I will give a thumbs up to EA on that.

[00:48:40] And again, my advice to everybody is wait as long as humanly possible to pick who you're going to put into these EVOs.

[00:48:47] Because the longer you wait, the more chains open up.

[00:48:50] So that is my advice there.

[00:48:52] But Nave, what's keeping you engaged right now?

[00:48:55] To be honest, it's only really a habit that's keeping me going.

[00:48:58] But like I say, the EVOs, I was having a bit of a rant before we hit the record button.

[00:49:03] And I did Rashford, DeLow and Mainu early doors.

[00:49:08] And I thought that you'd be able to put them into some of these EVOs and obviously just knock out all.

[00:49:12] But, you know, put Mainu into one of these that goes up to the 86 and he would be boosted to the 86.

[00:49:17] Doesn't happen because he doesn't meet the requirements.

[00:49:19] I don't understand why not because, you know, you can do a different EVO with a base Mainu that's better than the one I've got.

[00:49:25] Why can't we just push that?

[00:49:27] So that's for straight in.

[00:49:29] I'm quite competitive as well.

[00:49:30] So, you know, I got into Dev 2 last time.

[00:49:33] I pushed.

[00:49:33] I'm halfway through Dev 3 just now.

[00:49:36] That's the only real thing that's kind of keeping me going.

[00:49:38] It's what I do.

[00:49:39] So that's why I'm doing it.

[00:49:40] I can't really say there's, you know, a potential grind that I really want.

[00:49:44] And obviously there's the hope of getting that very good pull or even now a promo tunnel.

[00:49:49] But that's not very forthcoming.

[00:49:52] So I can't really put my finger on why I'm still doing it.

[00:49:54] But I still am at the moment.

[00:49:56] Well, at least you're honest.

[00:49:57] You know, you've not given that false positivity.

[00:49:59] Shaq, I know one of the things that you might want to add something else to it.

[00:50:02] But I know one of the things that does keep you engaged or at least did is the market.

[00:50:06] And I want to use this as an opportunity to bring in Ingrid's question.

[00:50:10] Is basically on the line of, do you think we've already had the Black Friday crash?

[00:50:14] Because of these Ballon d'Or cards?

[00:50:16] Or do you think that the big traditional Black Friday crash is still to come?

[00:50:21] And maybe just briefly explain, is that what this Black, when we talk about the Black Friday crash is for those who might not have been through it?

[00:50:27] I think the mega crash with all the forwards and strikers has already happened over the weekend as soon as the Ballon d'Or cards came out.

[00:50:35] But I don't see the market thriving from here.

[00:50:37] So essentially, there's always panic that happens before Black Friday.

[00:50:41] Because the expectation is that there will be a lot of packs opened around Black Friday.

[00:50:45] There will be, traditionally, it used to be the first round of lightning rounds for Black Friday.

[00:50:49] But we get mega packs from day one.

[00:50:52] So it really doesn't really quantify.

[00:50:55] It doesn't equate to how it used to be in the past.

[00:50:57] But regardless, I mean, the patterns don't lie.

[00:51:00] And there will be a recession as such for the next maybe a week and a half or so.

[00:51:04] And you won't really see cards flying out of the door.

[00:51:07] But I think as soon as Black Friday hits, there will be some, the market will have confidence that everything will be okay from here on in.

[00:51:13] And you would see that the market will start doing well, I think, as soon as, maybe a couple of days before Black Friday actually hits, the market will start picking up.

[00:51:21] And depending on, I think if you remember last year, Thunderstruck was a very, very, probably the most popular promo that came through last year.

[00:51:28] So if you have something along those lines with a lot of re-releases, I think we had 83 tens, if I'm not mistaken, that were repeatable every day.

[00:51:35] And if you have that sort of content coming up, I think we're in for, the market might take a hit early doors, but it will start to thrive straight up.

[00:51:43] I think early December is when you'll see the market doing bits.

[00:51:48] Excellent.

[00:51:48] And is there anything that is keeping you engaged or any kind of positivity that you wanted to bring up?

[00:51:53] Absolutely.

[00:51:54] I'll be frank and honest.

[00:51:55] Absolutely nothing.

[00:51:55] I'm traveling right now.

[00:51:56] I have a trusty iPad and I've got my controller right next to me to try and jump on to play if I could.

[00:52:02] And I couldn't be bothered.

[00:52:03] I don't want to be.

[00:52:04] I did squad battles before coming.

[00:52:06] I finished Elite 3.

[00:52:08] I finished my 20-year rival or whatever, the rival points before I came and opened the packs.

[00:52:13] And it was so meaningless that I thought, no, I'm not going to bother.

[00:52:17] Again, I can only say thank you for your honesty.

[00:52:20] So I know you've not been playing to do a player in review, but we would be remiss.

[00:52:25] It's just an excuse, basically, for me to play this.

[00:52:31] Player in review.

[00:52:34] I heard you there, Shaq.

[00:52:35] Don't worry.

[00:52:36] We'll get you recording a version of it.

[00:52:38] I love it.

[00:52:38] I love it.

[00:52:40] Bernadette, anybody that you wanted to bring up?

[00:52:43] No, I mean, the new ones are obviously the two Ballon d'Ors, Mbappe and Itana Bonmati.

[00:52:50] But I don't really think it's worth reviewing them because they'll be disappearing, thankfully, in a number of hours.

[00:52:55] The other one, which I don't think we've touched on, is the Evo Mendy.

[00:53:00] Even though the Evo has expired, it's very, very worthwhile just bringing up.

[00:53:04] So just a quick one on that.

[00:53:06] He's solid.

[00:53:07] He's very, very good defensively, very good pace.

[00:53:11] He has scored a ridiculous amount of set pieces, which I am loving, by the way.

[00:53:15] So not just free kicks, but he is incredible at scoring direct from an in-swinging corner when people move the goalkeepers.

[00:53:20] It's my new favorite thing to do because people can't quite figure it out.

[00:53:24] So was he worth 100k for the upgrade?

[00:53:27] Probably, because he'll stay in the team for a while.

[00:53:29] I have to say thanks to Shaq because I forgot I even had him in the club and he said,

[00:53:32] why don't you go and buy him?

[00:53:33] And I thought, I'm not going to pay 100k for him and then 100k for the upgrades.

[00:53:37] But luckily, he was in this club already.

[00:53:40] So he's very good.

[00:53:42] He'll definitely fit in for a while, being French and Real Madrid with some of the other players that we've got.

[00:53:47] Yeah, the only player I want to highlight is Trailblazers Cole Palmer.

[00:53:50] If you need a shallow striker cam, this guy is excellent.

[00:53:53] His price fluctuates ridiculously.

[00:53:57] He'll crash one minute to 320k.

[00:54:00] The next minute, he'll be back at 450k.

[00:54:02] He's back to 400k at the moment.

[00:54:04] But definitely a noticeable improvement from his Player of the Month,

[00:54:09] if only due to having that four-star weak foot as opposed to three-star weak foot.

[00:54:13] Bangs in the goals, creates, does everything.

[00:54:17] So if you need a cam and you have got a little bit of a bigger budget, I do recommend Cold Palmer as my player in review.

[00:54:25] And I think that just about ends the show, Chaps.

[00:54:29] I think we've covered everything in the mailbag.

[00:54:33] We've opened our hearts and honesty as to how we feel about the game.

[00:54:40] And again, we are here to admit that it might be us.

[00:54:44] And if you are somebody out there that is disagreeing with what we are saying and you're like,

[00:54:49] oh, you're being overly negative.

[00:54:52] It's a criticism that I can accept.

[00:54:54] And I understand there will be people out there that are determined to roll on the positivity.

[00:54:58] And I think if you are after that positive slant on things, the fact that we've not totally given up the game and walked away

[00:55:06] shows you that there is still something to it.

[00:55:09] I am still doing some of these crafting upgrades.

[00:55:11] I've complained about it, but I'm still doing it with some off-league commons.

[00:55:14] I like the Evos.

[00:55:16] I love building up a Reading team.

[00:55:17] I've not given up on FC25.

[00:55:20] But I can't ignore the flaws.

[00:55:25] And I think ultimately it goes back to what I said.

[00:55:28] I think if we want to affect change, our behaviors need to change.

[00:55:32] And I use our in the widest possible circumstance because unless they do, you give EA zero reason to change, Shaq.

[00:55:40] Absolutely.

[00:55:41] 100% agree with that.

[00:55:43] I think just to add on to something, a callback from earlier on is from my perspective,

[00:55:49] the last straw that'll break my metaphorical camel's back is the fact that if EA go down the route of having time-blown SPCs for players, I'm done.

[00:56:00] I'm not going to have any more time-blown SPCs.

[00:56:03] Oh, dear.

[00:56:04] I think that may be on the horizon.

[00:56:07] Nate, anything you wanted to add before we head off?

[00:56:11] No, I was just interested.

[00:56:12] How many store packs do we have, Dan?

[00:56:14] I wasn't sure.

[00:56:16] It's 19.

[00:56:19] 19 plus two for you and then plus the provisions packs and your gold packs.

[00:56:25] Needless to say, you could spend all of your Christmas money in the EA FC 25 store.

[00:56:32] Absolutely.

[00:56:32] No, hopefully this time next week, if we've got the Tuesday Club back together and our schedules are out,

[00:56:38] then I'm hoping that we'll be able to bring a slightly more positive view.

[00:56:42] Once these Ballon d'Ors have gone and we kind of see what the next play is, I'm hoping we'll be able to have a little bit more positive and fun, uplifting type discussion.

[00:56:52] But, you know, don't hold me to that.

[00:56:54] Please don't bookmark this because we don't know which way it's going to go.

[00:56:58] Look, everybody out here is hoping fun.

[00:57:01] Everybody out there is hoping for better.

[00:57:04] But overall, we realize as a trio and as a wider group that the game is not just for us.

[00:57:11] EA do not owe us a particular type of game that suits us.

[00:57:16] They owe everybody out there the best possible and widest possible experience for getting fun because it's a video game.

[00:57:23] And there is a, as I said, there is, to me, there is a much better way to have your cake and eat it if you are EA.

[00:57:30] And I think right now they are too busy eating cake than serving cake.

[00:57:37] My brain is now completely fried.

[00:57:39] And on that note, we are going to leave it there.

[00:57:42] Gents, thank you very much.

[00:57:44] Again, if you want to get better at this game, go use foot coaching.

[00:57:48] Despite everything we have just said, there is a way for you to ease your frustrations.

[00:57:53] And that's by getting better at the game.

[00:57:54] And you'll get better at the game by using that fantastic service, footcoaching.com.

[00:57:58] Again, please consider joining our Patreon, patreon.com forward slash foot in review.

[00:58:03] You get a host of benefits.

[00:58:05] And as I keep saying, you also make us just feel good because you are putting your hand in your pocket and showing your gratitude in the best way possible with that cold, hard cash.

[00:58:14] And that's what makes the world go round.

[00:58:16] You know, we would love a little bit of extra money to buy upgraded equipment, to buy new software, to go and do this, that and the other.

[00:58:24] And so we very much thank those of you who do go that extra mile.

[00:58:27] But for those of you who can't, and we understand that again, go leave those five star reviews.

[00:58:32] Join the discord.

[00:58:33] It's absolutely free.

[00:58:34] Just follow us on social media at footcoaching and at foot in review.

[00:58:38] Spread the word.

[00:58:39] Tell your mate about us.

[00:58:40] And that will be very, very good.

[00:58:42] But, gentlemen, one last thing for us to do, Nath.

[00:58:47] Drop it.

[00:58:48] Shaq, drop it.

[00:58:50] We are going to drop it.

[00:58:52] Drop it.

[00:58:53] F.

[00:58:54] U.

[00:58:54] T.

[00:58:56] F.

[00:58:57] U.

[00:58:57] T.

[00:58:59] F.

[00:59:01] U.

[00:59:01] T.

[00:59:04] F.

[00:59:04] U.

[00:59:04] T.

[00:59:05] T.

[00:59:06] In review.

[00:59:08] U.

[00:59:08] T.

[00:59:09] U.

[00:59:10] T.