In FIFA 17, we saw the most drastic changes to the Ultimate Team game mode since its inception in FIFA 09 thanks to new features such as FUT Champions/Weekend League and Squad Building Challenges.
It's clear that Ultimate Team has become the most popular game mode, and as a result EA Sports have gone big once again with their FUT 18 Live event in Chicago on Tuesday unveiling a host of new features.
Icons:
The biggest news which has seen a frenzied reaction on social media, is the introduction of 'Icons'. We'd seen legend cards in the game before, but it is not just the name that has changed as each legend, sorry, Icon, will have three different versions representing different points in their career.
The trailer below does a decent job of explaining how it's going to work.
You may have noticed a certain buck-toothed Brazilian in there, and yes, Ronaldinho is now in the game.
All three versions of El Gaucho are ridiculous, but the 'prime' Ronaldinho, which represents him at the peak of his powers at Barcelona, is something every FIFA player is going to desperately want to play with.
Wow.
So... How do you get him?
EA Sports confirmed that all icons will be available in packs from day one, except the peak version, those are being released periodically over the season as 'Throwback Thursday' items on select weeks. At the moment, it looks like if you want the prime version you are going to have to include one of the previous versions in a Squad Building Challenge, but they should be available in FUT Draft if you don't fancy saving up the coins.
This 97 Ronaldo looks like an absolute freak too, by the way.
Also, if you pre-order the game you're going to get loan items of both Ronaldo's, Cristiano and Il Fenomeno, so you can try them out at the very start.
The New Pack Opening Animations:
Regardless of how you feel about the hyper-active OTT pack openings you'll see on YouTube, it's still bloody excited to open a pack of your own and see what greets you. The 'walkout' animations in FIFA 17 were a huge hit, but this year they are on another level.
Any time you pack a rare, high-rated player, you'll see him celebrate as he bursts out to fireworks and flares.
Big fan of the Dele Alli wave.
Champions Channel:
This is a cool new addition for anyone who enjoys watching others play the game, either on YouTube or Twitch, as you can now do it directly from FIFA by watching full matches or highlights from featured players in FUT Champions Weekend League.
That means you can pick and choose from the very elite players in the game and see their recent matches, which is a great way to get better at the game by watching who they are using and what they are doing.
Squad Battles:
Single-player fans, you have not been ignored. Squad Battles is an offline game mode where you can take on featured squads to win points (more points the more difficult squad and difficulty you play against) to be placed on a weekly leaderboard.
Like FUT Champions, the higher you are on the leaderboard, the better your rewards, so this is a great way to grind single-player and get build your squads up by playing regularly.
There will be many more features revealed over the coming weeks, but this is a fantastic start for Ultimate Team fans.
