FIFA 11 patch imminent

EA has announced that a FIFA 11 patch will be released on November 12 for PS3 and November 17 on Xbox 360.

“Thanks once more for your patience while we’ve taken in all your feedback since the game’s launch,” wrote EA’s Football Live Team. “After we received your feedback, the process began to replicate and understand what you were seeing, and then get to work making improvements.

“We’re now at the stage of that process where we are able to give you some more detail about what improvements to FIFA 11 you can expect. Sorry we’ve been a bit quiet on this stuff until now, but as you know we can’t really talk about these things until they’re locked down and confirmed.”

Patch Overview:

Gameplay

You’ll now find that the implementation of the offside rule in the game is more accurate, both in terms of when the infringement is called and in terms of player positions when it happens. Occasional strange player positioning at kick-off have also gone away, while shooting from weak volleys has been improved, too. Importantly, so-called ‘micro-pausing’ during gameplay will also be a thing of the past. Overall, your gameplay experience should now be even better.

Career Mode

There are a lot of improvements you’ll notice here, which will all further boost the realism of the mode, but in summary: Your match fixtures during the season for cups and leagues, as well as the time of day they all happen, should now be much more realistic. We’ve also improved how accurately player ratings and growth are displayed, as well as making sure the players get the awards they deserve, when they deserve them. Using an odd exploit to secure a whopping $2 billion budget has now gone away, while the emails you receive as a manager will be more appropriate and players you’ve loaned out will now be easier to see and manage.

Online Head to Head

Matchmaking will be enhanced, particularly in terms of initially connecting to an opponent, while we’ve removed a couple of exploits that people were using to gain an unfair advantage over their opponents. Also, players will now no longer be able to use Passing Power Assistance in ranked matches.

Online Clubs

We’ve already made a lot of server-side improvements to the Clubs experience, particularly in terms of matchmaking, match results and progress in Cups. With the game update we’ll be making a range of improvements to stats and league-table presentation, too, as well as improving the camera motion when your player is a long way from the ball.

Presentation

You’ll now find that cutscenes are improved during substitutions, along with a range of more subtle improvements around of the game.

Audio

Creation Centre teams will now benefit from crowd chants, while we’ve improved the custom chants area as well. We’ve also managed to enhance a few audio triggers during gameplay, meaning you’ll get an even better atmosphere as things happen during a match.

Creation Centre

The general performance of the game when it involves teams and players created via the Creation Centre has been improved. Also, you’ll now find that the formations and attributes you set on the web will now transfer more accurately to the console.

FIFA Store

We’ve made sure that Live Season will be available for multiple users on the same console. Some people who had switched from an inactive XBL account to a Gold Account were having problems seeing the content of the store – we’ve got that covered, too.

Kits

Lincoln City and Montpellier fans, your teams’ kits should now be right on the money.

Rather than release full patch notes, EA has thus far only released a summary of changes, a move which has angered the game’s vocal hardcore. There are massive threads on the FIFA forums detailing the many bugs being experienced, and fans want to know specifics on which have been stamped out.

Fans have been made to wait, too. FIFA 11 launched on October 1, almost six weeks before the patch is scheduled to go live on Xbox 360.