Will EAFC Ever Truly Replicate the Realism of Football?
Do you think EAFC will ever truly replicate the realism of football? Click here to find out.
EAFC, formerly Fifa, got mixed reviews when it changed its name. Why did it have to change something that was/is so perfect?! Well, we can tell you why – it lost the rights to its name because it didn’t renew it in time. Very awkward Fifa, sorry, EAFC. Most of us, by now, will have played EAFC 24, with EAFC 25 soon to be released.
Still, back to the topic at hand, whatever they call it, will this game ever replicate the realism of football? Read on to find out more.
AI-Driven Player Movements
Of course, EAFC had to integrate AI into its gaming – who isn’t dabbling in AI now? Experienced EA has switched to volumetric video capture and analyzed video footage from actual matches and players like Erling Haaland and Bukayo Saka. This technology lets the game add those movements to the game, creating a lot of interactions. Still, we bet the players still don’t do what you want them to do.
Still, this AI-based solution brought the game light years ahead in approximating match play by the flow of the game, but then again, it is still falling short of the real deal. Football is perhaps the most difficult sport to simulate. It doesn’t matter how good AI is, it’s still impossible to guess a player’s decisions.
In earlier versions, some human animators were required to bend the ball movements to some degree to help it look more realistic. As it is now, there are vision-based machine learning techniques that study the way the ball travels and looks at internal and external factors, resulting in better considerations of fewer bounces and spins. Even if it can’t replicate the realism of football, it is trying.
Growth of eSports Betting
It’s not just about replicating the atmosphere on the pitch or the mechanics of the game; there’s a lot more to football than its most obvious elements. With sports betting representing a dominant force in the world of sport – and, particularly, football – this is a core aspect to introduce onto consoles.
Over recent years the growth of betting in sports, with the ease of access via virtually any device – mobile or static – has grown exponentially, and is linked to online gaming. Consoles have long been the one device that has yet to be explored by iGaming, but that is likely to change with demands and innovation accelerating change with each new generation of console. We may see casinos and bookmakers available on consoles soon.
Gaming and sports betting are growing together, thanks to eSports. In 2023, the global eSports betting market size was $432.3 million. And EAFC tournaments are becoming more popular, called FC Pro, with the average viewers per game rising to 79.7K. It’s not exactly Premier League numbers, but it does show how eSport and eSports betting are growing together. Who knows where it will lead, but one thing is for certain, the pairing of the two is definitely not going to go away.
Bringing In Women’s Teams
This is one we love – it’s about time that EAFC introduced women’s football. There has to be more equal rights between men and women in football. EAFC 24, especially, was hugely vocal in support of the addition of the first women’s Ultimate Team.
Gender divisions within a team suddenly no longer exist as people can make teams with or without female footballers, bringing out the essence of women’s football’s relevance. These features in the game are sizable because they enable EA to fight for diversity and inclusion.
Women’s football is certainly growing – there’s no denying that, but we all know there’s a long way to go. In comparison to the men’s, they’re massively underappreciated and underrepresented. However, in comparison to the men’s game, players and teams from this sport are still underrepresented in the games.
What We Don’t Like About EAFC24
Of course, there’s always something we won’t like about the game. It’s not perfect – at the top of the list is that they changed the game’s name. Even as EAFC 24 is a revolutionary game – it’s definitely better than Fifa with its AI-sophisticated gameplay – there remains a major drawback in the realness of the games.
Gameplay has been enhanced in a way that players can generate movements, but these moves are still mechanical. The applied techniques of the AI do very well to display ball physics, yet the day-to-day occurrences of a real football match seem to be absent. Do you think that’ll always be the case? We do.
The strategic moves in the game by the AI opponents tend to be less surprising when compared to real teams that are in control of the time. Or maybe that’s because we’re the ones doing them.
And there’s one thing it’ll always be missing – actually being there and watching the players play. There’s nothing like being next to the pitch, seeing how the players move, and watching the game for yourself. It’s at the side of the pitch that you can tell the true difference.
What do you think about the realism of EAFC and football? Do you think it matches? We think there’s still a long way to go, but there definitely has been an improvement in EAFC24. It’ll be interesting to see what EAFC25 brings. Apparently, it’ll be even sharper and more realistic gameplay, but they say that every year, don’t they?