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It’s an exciting time for the soccer game audience: EA Sports will launch its first EA Sports FC title this year, leaving the historical FIFA branding behind, and Konami’s eFootball, well, exists. However, a bunch of potential rivals looking to capitalize on these changes are waiting on the sidelines – the likes of Goals and UFL want to build their own base of players in the heavily EA Sports-dominated genre.

UFL has now released some gameplay from its ongoing alpha tests. The footage was shot in a game build from January 2023, according to the developers. “It may feel raw, but we’re making progress & will deliver an update once we finish implementing the new animation system,” they added.

These gameplay scenes proved a bit divisive among the target audience, however. Animations, gameplay speed, and passing options are being both criticized and lauded online with people rightly pointing out that this is still alpha gameplay and so subject to change.

Still, critics are a bit worried about the arcadey feel the game seems to have, as they had hoped for a more realistic soccer experience from UFL and the other non-EA Sports soccer games in general. While EA Sports’ product has the reputation of being arcadey and unrealistic, it’s overall the best choice right now for anyone looking to get an authentic soccer game experience behind the controller.

The industry giant is currently running the FUT Birthday promo in its popular Ultimate Team mode, celebrating the cash cow’s creation over ten years ago.

Soccer game enjoyers aren’t the only ones looking for salvation from EA Sports’ dominance at the hands of smaller developers: Football fans have their eyes set on Maximum Football, which tries to tackle Madden.