Every year, a new copy of the popular video game, FIFA, is released with hundreds of thousands of players excited to play. In 2020, over 500 thousand copies of FIFA 20 were sold all over the world. While the previous copy, FIFA 20, was a disappointment for most who played it, expectations have been high for the new copy, which was released this year on October 6th. The question on every player’s mind is: is FIFA 21 worth the cost?

Electronic Arts Sports, more commonly known as EA, like to make changes to their games each year; otherwise, players get bored quickly of the same game and repeat the same functions for years on end. The expectations for FIFA 21 are high, as the previous game was not very enjoyable, game-wise. 

Diving into the changes, the first noticeable change was the lobby theme. Last year, it followed a white, pink and cyan clash, with white being the dominant color. This year, they went for a more black and purple scheme, with black being dominant and purple being a highlight throughout the game. EA claimed for there to be many changes compared to last year, with the addition of stadium customization, which allows one to set up what they want their stadium to look like. From stadium themes to trophies to crowd songs and crowd chants, everything is up to you.

EA has always been known to have good content. Over the past few years and the past few games, EA has found a way to hook people in and keep them coming back to play and spend money on the game. Some of the content that has come out this year on FIFA Ultimate Team has been the “ones to watch” promotion, which follows new real-life transfers worthy of watching, hence the name, ones to watch. Every time a player gets an upgrade, their “ones to watch” card gets upgraded. The most recent promotion that has come out is the road to the final promotion, which contains one player from each team in the champions league. Each time their team advances to the next round in the competition, their card also gets upgraded. Hundreds and thousands of people worldwide are waiting to see what is going to come next and are excited for what may come. 

With FIFA 20 being less of a success than many expected, lots of controllers were broken and there was lots of shouting and confused yelling. FIFA 20 was nowhere near a good game, so many people were looking forward to what would entail this year. Unfortunately, EA has not lived up to those expectations. I can say from experience that this year’s game is way worse than last year’s. The same tactics are still being applied, running down the wing and passing it across the goal to pass it in. Long shots never work because the computer automatically stretches players beyond their own limits to reach and block a ball that would never be blocked in a real-life situation. The game is still classified as a pay-to-win game. Everyone who has money to spend will eventually get the best players and try super hard to win on a virtual, unimportant video game. These tryhard players make the game less fun for everyone else, making people try way harder to get meaningless wins and spiraling down the rabbit hole of having to put blood, sweat and tears into this waste-of-a-time game. 

If you are still deciding whether or not to buy the game off of EA sports, I recommend that you not buy the new FIFA unless you are a very patient and optimistic person. If you have 60 dollars to spend, buy something else more worth your time. Over the past few years, I will say that FIFA 17 was definitely my favorite version of the game. While the content might hook you in and make it seem like a fun game, trust me, it is not worth your time. From good content to bad gameplay, the cons outweigh the pros for FIFA 21.