AFL 26 will release in May this year, according to a listing on JB Hi-Fi. The game will be developed by Melbourne’s Big Ant Studios, the team behind the previous entry, AFL 23.
New to the series is a Player Career mode, allowing you to take control of a rising star and lead them through the struggles of an AFL career on their way to personal and premiership glory. There was talk of such a mode being included in AFL 23 but it never came to fruition, so it will be exciting to see how this finally takes shape.
Also touted are full AFL and AFLW lineups, Coach Mode and Pro Team, the AFL equivalent of FIFA’s Ultimate Team mode.
I had a pretty rotten time reviewing AFL 23, ultimately giving it the lowest score in Quest Daily history. The game launched in an unbelievably buggy state, making basic gameplay often impossible. Advertised modes were missing, matches would crash at the final siren and there were visual glitches aplenty.
With that said, Big Ant Studios continued working on the game since launch and while it still has problems, it’s perfectly playable today. On top of this, they released another solid entry in their most reliable franchise with Cricket 24 and I’ve personally found Tiebreak to be one of the most impressive tennis games of the last decade.
Am I crazy for actually being excited about this game? Will I inevitably be let down by another shoddy launch? I can’t wait to find out when AFL 26 releases on May 8th on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One and PC.
