FIFA 14 Title Update #2 Available Now for 360, Later Today PS3

[RaychelSnr]

The second title update which arrived earlier this week to PC is now live for 360 users and should be live for PS3 users at some point later today.

Here is what the patch addresses:

• Balancing lofted through balls.
• Balancing attacking headers.
• Balancing finesse shots.
• Improved defender switching during crosses.
• Freezes while making substitutions during gameplay.
• Freezes while entering and exiting Leaderboards.
• Improvements made to Dynamic Camera.
• Corrected crowd sections in Signal Iduna Park.
• Corrected “Any” and “GK” filters in Pro Clubs.
• We've responded to the community and upgraded FIFA 14 cover star Stephan El Shaarawy to 4* Skills in Online Seasons, Head to Head, and Career Mode using EA SPORTS Football Club Match Day. Since the FIFA 14 Ultimate Team ratings and database are separate from the Match Day Update, he will be assessed and potentially upgraded in FUT at a later date.

The FIFA Soccer team is still working on addressing more freezing issues which pop up.

Have you downloaded the patch? What do you think?

[NaturalSelected]

Will be playing tonight on 360 to see the difference. Curious what people see during the day today (esp. in terms of tuning on those passes).

[inkcil]

what about fouls? or are people good this year?

[BL8001]

Initial thoughts...

Fired up the xbox this morning and downloaded the update. Jumped right into a kickoff match day match RC Lens (me) v SM Caen (cpu).

I played just one game so here we go. Game loaded to the PK skill challenge and after my first shot my immediate thought was wow it actually went where I was pointing the control stick. Played out the rest of the skill game and set a new record.

On to the match...game was faster, I have it on slow or at least I did before the patch. I say that because some other things were weird, like my player and power indicators above the player heads were turned off. I don't know if the patch reset my sliders and options or if I need to reload them.

Gameplay overall was faster and crisper. I hit a few ground passes that would creep to the player before but now they fired across the pitch with some pace so that is a good sign. Shots were still a little haywire. I honestly think that is just a way for EA to keep the user scoring down a bit. Doesn't matter because it looks fairly realistic. On the other end the CPU got some shots and like before the patch they still only shoot under perfect conditions so their shots (when taken) are more accurate.

I hit some through balls that felt better than before the patch. Mostly just that the weight of the pass matched what I did on the controller which is exactly how it should be.

Something I did not like was it felt like the CPU was all over me even more. I tried some of the skill moves and RT/LT moves that worked pre patch and was stone walled every time.

Also I quit counting the CPU blocked shots when it passed a dozen. This might be down to SM Caen tactics though because they played extremely narrow and had multiple defenders in the box.

This opened up the wings but the RB and LB were more adept at getting out quickly and pressuring me that I never was able to get a cross off.

I scored my first goal in a way that I had not seen pre-patch. I won a corner and served a nice ball into the box and headed it on goal. The keeper parried it up and back out to the same player who headed it again into the goal. Pre-patch I rarely got any second chance tries on goal so this is a good sign. After the goal it cut short my celebration time and never showed X for instant replay. I thought oh no...but after my next goal everything played out like Pre-patch. Celebration time and then X for replay.

Now I didn't like the fact that the CPU seemed more amped up and more hell bent than pre-patch about getting in front of every shot.

But like I wrote before..I am not certain it didn't reset my sliders and options.

I am a little scared here because if it played like this with my slider changes pre-patch that should have loaded then FUT is going to be a night mare. Because I could tame the CPU with my sliders and only had to deal with it getting ornery under non-slider use modes. Weekly challenges and FUT matches. If the CPU is in my face and hyper with sliders...

So on a positive note...it felt like the things I did on my controller were reflected better in the game. It felt less like why did that pass happen? why did a shot where I just tapped the B button go flying into the 50th row?

Obviously I need to play more matches and make sure my options and sliders are loaded next match.

[BL8001]

Also shielding felt way way way way better. As in it worked in quite a few more situations than pre-patch.

Edit: Also EA fixed the FUT issue where your listed xfers didn't show remaining time. Good job EA.

[BL8001]

One other thing I was hoping EA would somehow patch is the fatigue system.

I am reading patch reviews and see that nothing has changed with fatigue.

I just think if it was better implemented then playing against the hyped up CPU would calm down as the match progressed. Basically if you weathered the storm the cpu would eventually begin to back off pressure so as not to fatigue too early.

[Gonira]

i noticed a change in fatigue levels after the patch, but not in how high pressure affects fatigue as everyone wants. it seems like stamina has been toned up, actually.

after the patch, only after the 65th-70th minute one or two players of a team start to get their energy bar into the "yellow" level. before the patch, the entire team would be in the yellow after the 65th minute almost always.

[BL8001]

I just saw that in the match I played too gonira. I am gutted. I don't understand this change one bit.

Also, and I hope this doesn't open up a can of worms...but I popped 13 in and tried out the same Lens vs Caen match and what amazed me immediately was how much more in control of everything I felt. Player movement, crosses, passes, dribbling...

In fact I had a nice run at goal where from about 35 out I swapped sides with a beautiful ball across the entire pitch from left side to right side that was trapped down nicely, I then turned diagonally towards goal and fired a nice cross to the left side of the D (top of the box) then controlled it down and fired a shot that was parried by the keeper to the feet of another one of my players who just missed the net.

Ball friction also feels a lot better in 13.

I am going to play some more 14 to compare in about an hour.