FIFA is one of the most patched console games out. Dating back to FIFA 15, EA steadily increased the number of title updates from seven to over 20 for FIFA 21. This year, we’re already on title update #4 with three title updates sprinkled in as well (this article will serve as my FIFA 22 Title Update 4 impressions). While fixing bugs are an obvious target of these updates, there are usually several gameplay changes that can alter gameplay, sometimes for better and sometimes for worse.

Even this year’s FIFA 22 plays differently than when it was released, which also varies from the beta versions given out way back when. Not all title updates are important, which is why I don’t cover all of them here on Operation Sports, but Title Update #4 appears to have some significant updates to both gameplay and career mode.

FIFA 22 Title Update 4 Impressions

Keepers

It looks like a lot of attention has been given to the men and women between the posts, so it seems like a good place to start. Keepers started out strong in the beta, but the community quickly complained that they were overpowered. Instead of just tuning them, EA made them capable of both the spectacular and terrible, sometimes within minutes.

Goalkeepers have been addressed in previous title updates, but significant weaknesses still persisted.

1. Goalkeepers were sometimes unable to make saves when shots were aimed close to them, between their knees and head.
2. In some situations, goalkeepers were not making successful saves on shots that were within reachable diving distance.
3. In rare instances, a goalkeeper could deflect a saveable low shot into their own net.
4. 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.
5. Sometimes a goalkeeper could commit a foul without a referee awarding a set piece to the other team.
6. In very rare circumstances, the goalkeeper could teleport when making a diving save.
7. When making a catch, the goalkeeper could sometimes unnecessarily fall to the ground.
8. 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.

Pre-Title Update #4 – Keepers

There are some cosmetic fixes in the numbered list (#6 & #7) that make the visual animations appear more realistic, but the meat of the fixes are in bullet points 1-4. These are moments that happen to you that are infuriating because they’re out of your control and often result in goals. Even when these issues would occur in your favor, it would often make the goal feel cheap — there’s no worse feeling than a nice build-up before scoring when the keeper makes a Loris Karius Champions League whoopsie.

That unpredictability and poor shot saving on what should be routine saves is something that both off and online players can agree on. When it comes to footy games, it’s all about balance. If shooting is overpowered then EA’s normal reaction is to increase the number of world class saves and vice versa. It’s always a difficult task to fit 90 minutes of action into 10-15 minute matches, but the ease with which you can create chances often results in an insane number of saves.

Post Title Update #4 – Keepers

By far the biggest improvement with Title Update #4 is with keepers. Not only are keepers improved at their main job of stopping shots, but the animations visually look more realistic. In the matches I’ve played post-patch, the keepers have been solid but not unbeatable, especially those who are rated in the 75-85 OVR category.

It seems as if their positioning is better, which has led to them getting a hand on what used to be automatic goals from finesse shots or long rangers from outside the box. Keepers are finally back to their launch best with this update.

Passing & Shooting

This seems like the perfect transition from the goalkeeper issues. Because goalkeeping and shooting go hand-in-hand, it’s important that EA finds the right balance, not only when it comes to shooting but also with the passing that leads to those shots. Let’s take a look what EA has touched upon for both passing and shooting.

1. Driven Passes are now more likely to be intercepted by players standing in the ball’s travel path.
2. When requesting a first time Driven Pass, the Let Ball Run command was sometimes being performed.
3. 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.
4. Reduced shooting assistance when attempting a shot in situations where the goalkeeper is positioned closely to either one of their posts.
5. Added more variety to the types of shots the CPU AI can perform.
6. In some rare situations, a requested fake shot would not be performed and the controlled player would not animate correctly.
7. The CPU AI team could sometimes take too long to perform a free kick.
8. When the ball was received via chest following a lobbed pass, it could bounce high enough in the air to cause unintentional player switching.

Pre-Title Update #4 – Passing & Shooting

The first two areas of passing and shooting that EA is addressing revolve around the driven pass (ping). I’ve always thought driven passes were very exploitable in FIFA. The low trajectory of the pass combined with the speed of the ball help it bypass defensive lines, making it first on the list of many passing meta lists.

The reason why these passes aren’t attempted that much in real matches is not because they can’t be completed, rather it’s because they’re ridiculously hard to control, even for professional players who usually have tighter markers. However, EA’s update did not address the attacking side of the ball. Instead, the focus is on the defensive side, which does suffer from the occasional brain fart where your defender completely ignores the ball.

Now, with shooting where this tweak is worth repeating:

Reduced shooting assistance when attempting a shot in situations where the goalkeeper is positioned closely to either one of their posts.

EA increased the keeper’s ability to stop shots near post, so EA must have fully recognized that near-post shots were insanely overpowered. This is a pretty solid attempt at balancing out these scenarios. The fake shot animation cleanup (#6) could be a result of Hypermotion, which is supposed to have the ability to create animations on the fly.

Hypermotion seems a little disappointing in the sense that it doesn’t feel like it’s the game changer it was looking like when we saw the first glimpses of it pre-release. With any major change to the game’s core mechanics, it will take some time to fix up, so we should expect to see fixes like this for the first couple of Hypermotion iterations.

Post-Title Update #4 – Passing & Shooting

Hand-in-hand with the improved keepers that have come with this update is more balanced shooting. It’s harder to notice because it’s perhaps overshadowed by the new and improved keepers, but shooting from distance has been toned down even if auto-blocks are still as prevalent and annoying as ever.

Unfortunately, the driven passes are still overpowered and not in sync with first touches unless you do some serious slider adjusting, which only affects offline play. Player awareness when in the passing lanes as balls are pinged has been heightened, but the ease with which defenders control these balls is highly unrealistic.

There’s still a lot of work to be done to passing in FIFA 22 to make it a more simulation experience, but it’s going to require a lot work in other areas to tie it all together.

Defending

There’s a lot to tackle here, so let’s detail what EA was planning first:

1. 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.
2. Improved AI teammate defensive marking during short corner scenarios.
3. In a situation where a Jockeying defender is nutmegged, they will no longer perform an animation in which they slip while turning.
4. Reduced the frequency of CPU AI slide tackles.
5. Removed some lunging animations that could occur when the controlled player was attempting to block a Ground Pass or a short Lob Pass.
6. 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.
7. The Team Press meter would unintentionally decrease while Team Press was starting up after its activation.
8. When playing matches with the Defensive Depth Custom Tactic Slider set to 7 or above, defenders could unintentionally drop too deep into their own half.
9. When standing up after a slide tackle, a foul could be incorrectly called on the player standing up.
10. 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.
11. The defending player could unintentionally decelerate when chasing after an air ball.
12. The Next Player Switch Indicator could sometimes unintentionally switch from a Center Back to another player in inappropriate situations.
13. 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.
14. When performing a Clearance, the ball would not always travel as far as intended.
15. Players could sometimes stumble in inappropriate situations.
16. In some situations, the CPU AI team would not attempt to win the ball back.
17. When attempting to perform a right stick Player Switch to a Center Back, a different player could sometimes be switched to instead
18. Sometimes, a foul was not called following a tackle that was clearly late.
19. When losing the ball, in a rare situation, the original ball carrier could become stuck in place.
20. 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.
21. 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

Let’s start with tackling (#4, #9, #18). EA’s response to the offline crowd’s call for more fouls was to increase the amount of AI slide tackles. While that does technically increase the number of fouls, it’s at the expense of either contact that should be a foul or the inability to not get near attackers to even foul them. Referee logic (#9 & #18) also plays a part in this, but if you can’t get near an attacker the ref isn’t even a factor.

Issue #1 is an interesting one, especially for online and Pro Club players that experience getting countered far too easily on corners — so much so that the strategy in Pro Clubs is often that a teammate will stay on the halfway line in case of a counter.

Issues #3, #11, and #15 are animation bugs that have needed sorting out for quite some time. The dreaded “stumble bug” has been an issue for slider makers for years, as has the the “slowdown animation” issue.

These situations are killers and often lead to conceding goals, so it’s unfortunate that it’s just now being examined. Switching is one of the most important mechanics in a soccer game.

Post Title Update #4 – Defending

Apart from #18 (fouls not being called on late tackles), #15 (stumble bug), and #11 (defenders slowing down on “air balls”), not much feels like it has changed with this update. CPU defenders still rashly dive in to you, especially in player career mode where it feels as if you have a target on your back.

Sadly, these are pretty much the only fouls that are called, which doesn’t allow for that many set piece opportunities apart from corner kicks. Speaking of corner kicks, when the AI plays them short your AI teammates still don’t properly react. It’s up to you to select the nearest defender and make a mad dash towards the corner where you’re almost always outnumbered.

Career Mode

Career mode players who have been clamoring for the dreaded skinny arm bug fix for years rejoice with me.

Yes, it’s only a visual issue, but it’s one that can dampen the mood. Youth Player names and numbers not appearing on kits during matches should have been addressed much earlier on, but beggars can’t be choosers. The remaining fixes are a mixture of cosmetic bugs and player career tweaks (#3 & #4). There’s still a laundry list of bugs within career mode, as well as glaring issues with transfer logic, contract negotiations, and managerial expectations that can result in you getting sacked. However, it’s unlikely that we’ll see tweaks to those this year.

1. Youth players could have been generated with unrealistically proportioned arms.
2. Youth player names and numbers did not appear on their kits during matches.
3. In player career, the Pro’s OVR and positions could be unintentionally changed after editing them.
4. When coming on as a sub in player career, the team’s tactics, play style, and difficulty level could get reset.
5. Youth Players born after 2005 were showing a 1980 birth date when being edited.
6. Youth Player progress could sometimes become unintentionally stuck.
7. In some cases, renewed contracts could apply to players with 1 year less than what was agreed upon in negotiations.
8. Editing a player’s boots could sometimes result in them wearing gloves.

Post Title Update #4 – Career Mode Thoughts

Most of the issues addressed in career mode with this update were to fix bugs, many of them visual. These fixes were well overdue, but the poor starting XI logic that has plagued career mode for the past two years is still prevalent. Players are still played out of position far too much with center backs as fullbacks and attackers stuck in the midfield. Sure, Pep Guardiola might be audacious enough to try these positional changes, but seeing the likes of Leeds’ Rodrigo, an out-and-out attacker, playing defensive midfielder is discouraging.

Overall, career mode is still better than eFootball‘s Master League, but before EA rolls out any new updates it would be wise to address the logic behind transfers and the starting XI.

Bottom Line

Overall, Title Update #4 takes FIFA 22 to a better place. Improved keepers alone are worth the price of admission. Regardless, FIFA 22 is still a game that looks good from a distance but has glaring issues with the in-game AI, player movement mechanics, and career mode logic.