Bought FC25 - worst 100 minutes since a long time

Disclaimer:
I play football games since around 25 years, including the Kick-Off Series, PES 4/5/6 and then all FIFAs from around 2010 to 2024. Never made it to any Elite/Premium/Platinum Leagues and would consider myself an "average player", who has limited play time per day due to job, family etc.

Actual post:
After around 40 games on UFL i bought FC25 yesterday for around 30€ on Steam. Spent 1 hour to get the game to start on PC (Stuck on loading screen - feel free to google :) ). I then started playing Ultimate Team as in every other FIFA since its introduction. Got matched up in Div9 in my first game with two people playing together and controlling a team with Mbappe, Haaland, Icon Zidane etc. So easily a team worth Millions of Points. I got 2 penalties which i both missed beacause controller inputs were registered about a second late. And yes, i normally know how to take a penalty in FIFA :) I ended up refunding the game via steam.

Coming from UFL the gameplay was like an arcarde game made for hyperactive 13 year olds. I forgot how slow the buildup and speed in UFL is in comparison to FC25 and i mean that in a very positive way. In the menus you get bombarded with special cards, special events, special packs, special this and that. This all just felt wrong coming from an reduced interface and menu like in UFL. I also know that people get frustrated over how strong headers in UFL are but i rather concede a goal from a 1,98m Djuric than from people flicking the ball up and scoring overhead kicks from 20 meters and further (like in some past FIFA Metas).

I also remember that every year the FIFA player base requested one feature for Ultimate Team - make some kind of XP-system to advance your players. And guess what UFL introduced? Excalty that. You could theoratically buy the players you like and develop them in a way you like. This might not be very meta but for the vast majority of the player base this is a valid approach, including me.

Summary:
UFL is the freshest approach to football game i know since a very long time and it is FREE TO PLAY so i don't understand all the negativity towards the devs. You did not pay anything to play their game. If you don't like it, don't play it. The version number is 0.60.2 at the time of writing this post so it is most likely internally still considered a beta-version. And for an advanced beta version the gameplay is good.

This is not intended as another "toxic positive" post and the game has its weaknesses, for sure. But here i wanted to focus on the positive aspects of the game which is free in comparison to a yearly 70€ game.