EA Sports has pushed its latest title update for FIFA 23 and, in doing so, has “nerfed” one of the game’s most welcomed features.
Lengthy players, such as Alf Inge Haaland, who have proved extremely popular since the game launched have had their devastating abilities reduced – resulting in FIFA Ultimate Team once again favouring faster-paced strikers and wingers.
This was an issue with previous FIFAs, which turned into a landgrab for the players with the most pace, while making slower equivalents less effective no matter their real-life success. The new HyperMotion2 engine included a technology that redressed the balance – acceleRATE – which allowed stronger, less pacey players to still burst through defences thanks to extra short sprint pace. That has seemingly been greatly curbed with the latest patch, however.
Experienced FUT players are reporting their taller players are no longer working as well and are ditching them onto the transfer market in favour of replacements with more pace. Was good while it lasted.
Strangely, the November title update changelog doesn’t include the tweaks to the acceleRATE system, but does feature a “lengthy” list of other improvements and fixes:
Title Update 4 (November) patch notes
FIFA Ultimate Team
Made the following changes (as per the official FIFA 23 website):
- During away matches, players will see their own equipped pitch line colors instead of their opponent’s.
- Updated Transfer Market and Stadium search filters to match the look and functionality of the Transfer Market Player Quality search filter.
Addressed the following issues:
- Addressed further instances of some players seeing an initializing message when attempting to matchmake in Division Rivals, and not finding an opponent.
- In some cases, Team Management options could not have been adjusted during a Division Rivals match.
- In a rare scenario, players were not able to enter the FUT Champions menu.
- Some SBCs UI elements did not display correctly.
- The match UI did not display an image for some Player Items when displaying the Players To Watch overlay.
- Images on FUT Heroes Player Items did not always display correctly.
- Flair Shots were not always being counted towards Objective progress.
- An Event countdown timer incorrectly displayed when no Event was active in the Objectives menu.
- The progress bar on the FUT Champions Play-Offs tile did not always display correctly after losing a match, this was a visual issue only.
- The FUT Champions preview screen did not always display its navigational tabs correctly.
- A placeholder UI element was unintentionally available in the menus and could have generated a message regarding Finals Qualification when selected.This was a visual issue only and had no other impact on FUT Champions.
- The Captain of a Co-Op lobby could not select the Edit Squad option while they were the only player in the lobby.
- The in-game Friends List button callout could sometimes not appear.
Gameplay
Made the following changes:
- Driven Passes are now more likely to be intercepted by players standing in the ball’s travel path.
- Some dribbling animations triggered by moving the left stick which include the ball carrier taking small touches to avoid a potential tackle will now only occur when the Contextual Agile Dribbling setting is set to On.
- When defending a cross with the Auto Switching setting set to Automatic, On Air Balls and Loose Balls, or Only Air Balls, an automatic player switch will occur slightly faster than before.
- Reduced shooting assistance when attempting a shot in situations where the goalkeeper is positioned closely to either one of their posts.
- When playing matches with the Defensive Corners Custom Tactics slider to 1 or 2 bars, more players will now be positioned outside of the box and at the halfway line.
- Improved AI teammate defensive marking during short corner scenarios.
- Added more variety to the types of shots the CPU AI can perform.
- In a situation where a Jockeying defender is nutmegged, they will no longer perform an animation in which they slip while turning.
- Reduced the frequency of CPU AI slide tackles.
- Removed some lunging animations that could occur when the controlled player was attempting to block a Ground Pass or a short Lob Pass.
Addressed the following issues:
- Goalkeepers were sometimes unable to make saves when shots were aimed close to them, between their knees and head.
- When playing matches with the Defensive Depth Custom Tactic Slider set to 70 or above, defenders could unintentionally drop too deep into their own half.
- When attempting to perform a right stick Player Switch to a Center Back, a different player could sometimes be switched to instead.
- In some situations, goalkeepers were not making successful saves on shots that were within reachable diving distance.
- When performing a right stick Player Switch, the Next Player Indicator could sometimes appear over an unintended player as opposed to the player that was originally switched off of.
- A white placeholder UI element could have sometimes displayed near players during matches.
- In rare instances, a goalkeeper could deflect a saveable low shot into their own net.
- Sometimes, a goalkeeper could commit a foul without a referee awarding a set piece to the other team.
- The Team Press meter would unintentionally decrease while Team Press was starting up after its activation.
- When activating Player Lock, a Player Switch could not be requested until the player let go of the right stick input and then made a Player Switch request.
- Sometimes, a foul was not called following a tackle that was clearly late.
- When losing the ball, in a rare situation, the original ball carrier could become stuck in place.
- When requesting a first time Driven Pass, the Let Ball Run command was sometimes being performed.
- In rare situations, play could continue for a short period of time after a penalty kick was called.The correct penalty kick would eventually be awarded.
- In a rare situation when passing with a goalkeeper in Co-Op play, the goalkeeper would remain the selected player until a manual Player Switch was requested.
- When standing up after a slide tackle, a foul could be incorrectly called on the player standing up.
- In situations where a defender would make an unsuccessful attempt to block a shot, an animation could occur which involves the player moving their leg away from the ball.This was a visual issue only and did not affect the outcome of the situation.
- In rare situations when the ball was far from the ball carrier’s feet, a requested Pass or Shot could take too long to occur.
- The defending player could unintentionally decelerate when chasing after an air ball.
- When rushing the goalkeeper towards an incoming ball, sometimes the goalkeeper would get close to the ball without reacting to it, resulting in a loss of possession.
- The Next Player Switch Indicator could sometimes unintentionally switch from a Center Back to another player in inappropriate situations.
- In some rare situations, a requested Fake Shot would not be performed and the controlled player would not animate correctly.
- In very rare circumstances, the goalkeeper could teleport when making a diving save.
- Sometimes, the Drag To Drag Skill Move could have been unintentionally requested.
- When making a catch, the goalkeeper could sometimes unnecessarily fall to the ground.
- The ball could travel through a defender in a rare situation when the ball receiver would make a touch on the ball, prior to the defender attempting to make contact with it.
- When performing a Clearance, the ball would not always travel as far as intended.
- Players could sometimes stumble in inappropriate situations.
- A goal celebration could rarely get stuck repeating over and over, resulting in a delayed continuation of the match.
- In some situations, the CPU AI team would not attempt to win the ball back.
- The CPU AI team could sometimes take too long to perform a free kick.
- When the ball was received via chest following a lobbed pass, it could bounce high enough in the air to cause unintentional player switching.
- Addressed potential stability issues that could occur during Penalty Shootouts.
- Addressed an issue with a Competitive Master Switch, which allowed players to play online with Contextual Agile Dribbling, Assisted Jockey, Auto Clearance, Auto Shots, and Auto Flair Pass turned on, which was not intended.
Career Mode
Addressed the following issues:
- Youth Players could have been generated with unrealistically proportioned arms.
- Youth Player names and numbers did not appear on their kits during matches.
- In Player Career, the Pro’s OVR and positions could be unintentionally changed after editing them.
- When coming on as a sub in Player Career, the team’s tactics, play style, and difficulty level could get reset.
- Youth Players born after 2005 were showing a 1980 birth date when being edited.
- Youth Player progress could sometimes become unintentionally stuck.
- In some cases, renewed contracts could apply to players with 1 year less than what was agreed upon in negotiations.
- Editing a player’s boots could sometimes result in them wearing gloves.
Volta Football
Made the following changes:
- During matches, the Skill Meter now displays which actions contributed towards its build up.
- Added 2 new Stadiums. These will only be available following a server update.
- Added 4 Party Games to Volta Arcade. These will only be available following a server update.
Addressed the following issues:
- In rare situations, some players could not matchmake in Volta Squads when grouped together.
- When viewing the Season Progress pop up, the correct level was not highlighted on the UI, this was a visual issue only.
- The Season Progress button callout was not always present in the UI.
- When attempting to trigger a run, a Simple Skill Move could have unintentionally been performed.
- The Closest To The Pin and Bucket Ball party games could have sometimes used an unintended camera angle.
- In some instances, a Volta Arcade tournament did not begin until at least one player left before the first party game took place.
- The Season Progression post-match screen did not always display correctly.
Pro Clubs
Made the following change:
- Slightly reduced the reactions of CPU AI teammates when attempting to contain a player who is dribbling.This change only affects CPU AI teammates on teams with human players and does not affect Practice Matches.
Addressed the following issue:
- The Customise tile did not display correctly.
General, Audio, and Visual
Made the following changes:
- Updated some kits, stadia, sound effects, celebrations, ad boards, sound effects, broadcast packages, stadium announcer lines, crowds, and balls.
- Added and updated a total of 124 star heads. These will only be available following a server update.
Addressed the following issues:
- [Xbox Series X|S Only] When a USB keyboard was plugged into the console, it could appear in-game as an unselectable input device.
- When changing the right stick input in Accessibility Settings, some parts of the UI could not be navigated.
- Some typos were present in the UI.
- EATV videos did not always have sound.
- Some main menu tiles did not always display the intended content.
- The Parental Control Settings were not always available through FIFA Playtime.
- Addressed some potential stability issues.
