EA Vancouver Game Reviews
Review NHL 26 (PS5) - A Small Step in the Right Direction for EA's Hockey Sim
Tee it up
Annual sports titles are generally fixated on iteration. Adhering to an annual release schedule for titles with massive scope and a general high bar for visual presentation is difficult, so the titles have to cherry-pick a few things to change for a given year and hope things improve. This approach did not end well with last year’s...
Review EA Sports FC 26 (PS5) - Flexible Football for Two Types of Players
A keeper
We suppose you could say EA Sports FC 26 is a game of two halves. For years now there’s been a push and pull between different types of virtual football players, some preferring a more true-to-life representation of the beautiful game, while others want a more fast-paced, arcade-leaning experience. EA Sports’ solution? Authentic and...
Review NHL 25 (PS5) - Another Season Mired in Mediocrity
Puck me up
In life, there are three certainties: death, taxes, and underwhelming, incremental upgrades to annual sports titles. Enter NHL 25, EA Vancouver’s latest iteration of the greatest game on ice. While EA’s hockey titles tend to fare better year-to-year than Madden or EA Sports FC, that doesn’t mean the title is always able to escape...
The same old blood Rush with a new touch
We’ve had more fun with EA Sports FC 25 than we have with any soccer sim for quite some time. Perhaps that’s because, outside of the review period, we largely abandoned EA Sports FC 24 – or perhaps, whisper it quietly, it’s because the footie franchise is in a good place. Either way, a ton of...
Review NHL 24 (PS5) - One Step Forward, Two Steps Back
Haven't we done this?
When it comes to reviewing sports titles, it can often feel like being trapped in a time loop. Much like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day, you may find yourself feeling as if you’re playing the same thing over and over each time you pick up a game. This sensation of déjà vu is very much present when it comes to EA Vancouver’s...
Review EA Sports FC 24 (PS5) - Rebranded and Refined But Not Revolutionary
New era
The high-profile split between EA Sports and football’s governing body FIFA has resulted in a dramatic rebrand of one of gaming’s biggest franchises – but not an enormous amount has changed on the pitch. That’s not to say nothing is different in this refined soccer sim, however, which is ostensibly FIFA 24 in all but name. So,...
Review NHL 23 (PS5) – The Same as Last Year, with Small Changes
Stick it out
It’s the same thing every year, isn’t it? Annual sports titles get announced, highlight a few key features, and then hunker down for a few months, hoping any sort of pushback gets swept under the rug. It hits some series’ harder than others, Madden NFL being the most noteworthy franchise to endure a rough go of things. But some...
Review FIFA 23 (PS5) - Series Ends on a High, But Familiar Frustrations Remain
Touch grass
After an incredible 30-year run, FIFA 23 had to go out on a high – and to be fair, we reckon it just about has. Fans of EA Sports’ flagship football franchise will be familiar with the formula: this is more refinement than revolution, but FIFA 22 threaded through some of the best virtual soccer we’ve seen from the juggernaut...
Review FIFA 22 (PS5) - Football Sim Makes Meaningful Strides on the Pitch
Beautiful game
Republished on Wednesday 27th April 2022: We're bringing this review back from the archives following the announcement of May's PlayStation Plus lineup. The original text follows. The biggest compliment you can pay FIFA 22 is that it feels like real football for once. EA Sports’ soccer simulator still has its fair share of quirks,...
Review EA Sports UFC 4 (PS4) - A Strong Sequel That Knows What Players Want
Stand and bang
Republished on Wednesday 26th January, 2022: We're bringing this review back from the archives following the announcement of February 2022's PS Plus lineup. The original text follows. We suppose the biggest challenge that EA Sports has always faced with its line of officially branded UFC games is that players clearly prefer to box...
Review NHL 22 (PS5) - A New Shine Applied to a Familiar Experience
We've been here before
New console generations can prove rocky for sports franchises: performance issues, bugs, and a reduction in features are routinely guaranteed. Certainly, that's the fate that awaited EA's NHL series when it transitioned to the PlayStation 4 – after all, we still have nightmares about the abysmal NHL 15. Surprisingly, EA...
Review NHL 21 - The Best Iteration of the Generation
Bardown? More like bar up
Sports games bring with them a certain expectation from fans. The titles get churned out every year, with relatively little difference, except maybe a few new ways to try and pry some extra money out of your hands with microtransactions. But you keep coming back because if you love a particular sport, there aren't any...
Review NHL 20 - A Slightly Improved Version of the Same Game
Video game misconduct
Sports games have a tendency to change incrementally year-to-year. This applies to the bigger sports franchises, let alone the smaller ones, which is what NHL 20 falls under. NHL 19 was an absolute disaster of a product, underwhelming in almost every way possible, so it's with optimism that we say this is a step forward, though...
Review FIFA 20 - Seriously Shoddy Career Mode Almost Results in an Own Goal
Wide of the post
FIFA 20 has three core modes of play: Ultimate Team, Career Mode, and the all-new Volta. However, only one of these modes stands strong as a rock solid time sink -- care to guess which one? If you said anything but Ultimate Team, then you haven't been paying attention. Once again, EA Sports bolsters the mode that makes FIFA one of...
Review NHL 19 - Ice Hockey Deserves Much Better
Puck off
The NHL series is a weird one. Years ago, when 2K had its own NHL series, there was a competition for attention between the two franchises that drove both series’ forward as time went by. But without the competition that NBA Live deals with or the massive install base of Madden, NHL usually comes off as the series that is generally...
Chat crap get banged
You’ll need a strong stomach, but EA Sports UFC 3 simply feels good. Dana White’s snowballing brand of mixed martial arts is not known for pulling its punches, and the third instalment in EA Sports’ series hits similarly hard, with wince-inducing haymakers breaking noses like they’re breadsticks. Industry leading...
Bang in form
Surprise surprise, FIFA 18 is another rock solid entry in EA's footie sim series. Why wouldn't it be? It feels like the developer pretty much nailed its formula years ago, and ever since, it's just tweaked and added things little by little with each annual instalment. This year's title is no different. It looks better, it plays better,...
Signing of the summer
Another year, another FIFA review, although this time around, there's actually a reasonable amount of new stuff to talk about without having dig deep into the finer - and frankly quite boring - technicalities of tweaked gameplay mechanics. Taken as a whole, FIFA 17 is the biggest step forward that the sports series has seen in...
Returning to the first line
With NHL 17 being the second version of EA's hockey sim to be released since the shameful PlayStation 4 debut that was NHL 15, fans of puck-based sports were rightfully expecting the good work done in last year's edition to carry on through and be improved upon even further to really bring the franchise into the current...
Not a Rousey success
As the famous Greek philosopher Aristotle once said: "Kick, punch, it's all in the mind." Or, in the case of EA Sports UFC 2, the sequel to EA's first major MMA outing: "Kick, punch, it's all in the controls." See, while this year's adaptation of the popular bloodsport is as brutal as ever, the core fighting gameplay seems to...
Pace yourself
It's easy to say that with every year that passes, it gets harder and harder to review FIFA. EA Sports' annual licensed franchise loves nothing more than to stick to its guns, and with no real competition for its popularity crown, it's no surprise that this is the case. FIFA 15 was another solid, very enjoyable instalment in what's...
The icemen cometh
When EA Canada said that NHL 14 would be skipping a next generation release so that it could concentrate on making NHL 15 the best that it could possibly be, no one really batted an eyelid. It sounded like a perfectly reasonable thing and for the most part it was accepted. That is, until NHL 15 released. Hockey's first foray onto...
Review FIFA 15 (PlayStation 4)
Straight down the middle
Reviewing FIFA tends to get harder as the years pass, especially when there are no new gameplay innovations or drastic blueprint alterations to shout about. Last year's entry felt like a step up purely because of the graphical and technical improvements that came courtesy of new hardware, but FIFA 15 is obviously unable to...
Too few men on the ice
Last year, when EA made it apparent that NHL 14 would be the only sports game to be skipping out on arriving on the (at the time) next generation of consoles, some people were distraught – this author included. Why would the publisher miss out on introducing NHL to the PlayStation 4 as soon as possible? It was explained to...
Review EA Sports UFC (PlayStation 4)
Figurative knock out
From its inception in the early 90s to calls for a ban on what Senator John McCain called ‘human cockfighting’, Ultimate Fighting Championship exploded in popularity in the mid-2000s, and its following shows no signs of diminishing. As such, there have been a number of video game tie-ins over the years, but it is with the...
Review EA Sports 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil (PlayStation 3)
A place in the sun
Summertime is often a period where people like to make memories. Whether it's creating moments of happiness with friends or taking the time to clear out your ridiculous gaming backlog as the sun blazes outside, there's no time quite like it. However, what usually makes summer all the more enjoyable – especially if you're a footy...
Review FIFA 14 (PlayStation 4)
Through on goal
EA Sports' annual football franchise has enjoyed a good run of late, maintaining steady form over the past few years. The PlayStation 3 version of FIFA 14 was another solid step in the right direction, even if it was more about evolution rather than revolution, as we described in our review. Now, the game makes the jump to Sony's new...
Review FIFA 14 (PlayStation 3)
Keeping pace
Now comfortable and confident with its position right at the very top of the football gaming league, FIFA remains a solid and reliable choice this year. But with Pro Evolution Soccer slowly but surely closing the gap between itself and EA's consistent franchise, does FIFA 14 do enough to secure its lead? The short answer is yes –...
Review FIFA 13 (PlayStation 3)
Champions League
Compared to reality, FIFA 13 is pure; an uncompromised look at all the thrills that football entails, wrapped in a stylish package that wouldn't look out of place on television. Mercifully it remains focused on the core of football, free of the scandal that so often overshadows the sport presently. There are no faked injuries or...
Review FIFA Street (PlayStation 3)
Quality street
A lot has changed in the football genre since EA released FIFA Street 3 back in 2008. The mainline FIFA franchise has enjoyed an impressive transformation over the past five years and, consequentially, has knocked former champion Pro Evolution Soccer from the top of the league. It’s telling, then, that the latest FIFA Street comes...
