FIFA 23 is realistic and fun—but that probably won’t last

When you brand your game as a simulation of real life, one question is sure to follow: is your game realistic? FIFA 23 players have been asking that question following the early access launch of the game on Sept. 27, and there seems to be a definitive answer.

Realism is more difficult to pull off than most gamers care to admit. We want our games to be realistic, but we also want them to be fun. How many times have we heard complaints of boring and grindy loot gathering in open-world games? Picking up spices and hunting ducks to feed your character is realistic, but is it fun?

That problem is tripled when your game’s whole premise is to be a simulation. If imaginary worlds can be too realistic for their own good, sims are doomed from the start. So, how does FIFA 23 perform in this field? Is FIFA 23 realistic? And if it is realistic, is it fun?

The answer is a resounding yes. EA has done a fantastic job of balancing the experience. Curiously, the devs have done so through means that were criticized pre-launch, namely by reducing the impact of pace.

The FIFA 23 meta has been pace all over the pitch for years. Right now, before the game is even officially out, that’s not the case at all. Physicality and strength are more impactful than ever and for once you’re not doomed if your center backs don’t have 80+ pace. Having options is fun. Not playing the same match a thousand times is fun. FIFA 23 is fun.

Now for the bad news: this has happened before. Players that come back to the series each year know that the first couple of weeks always feel a little more realistic than the previous game, which they probably last played mere hours ago.

This phenomenon is depressingly easy to explain. We feel that way because it’s true. Every new FIFA is more realistic than the previous one. To be precise, every new FIFA is more realistic than the very last version of the previous game.

That version is not the same as the launch version. It has gone through many, many updates that have morphed it into something else completely. The FIFA 22 we played yesterday isn’t the FIFA 22 we played a year ago.

Here comes the sad part. The FIFA 22 we played at launch a year ago was more realistic than FIFA 21 too—until it got patched into what we played yesterday.

We see this cycle every year. EA makes the game slower, clunkier, aka more realistic, pro players, content creators, and let’s be real, a lot of regular players complain because they can’t dribble past the whole team with their left back, and we all get patched into oblivion. We all get patched into having 80+ pace center backs or being kicked out of the competitive meta.