Much-needed FIFA 18 patch stamps out kick-off goals

EA has issued an update for FIFA 18 that makes some much-needed improvements to the game.

Chief among them is an attempt to rid the game of its problematic kick-off goals glitch. I've reported on this before - essentially, loads of players were scoring straight from kick off because of the way the players set out and react upon the referee getting the game underway. As you can imagine, this caused problems online.

The patch makes the defending team more compact after kickoff. You should notice the defending team's attacking players are less aggressive in pushing up the field, and their defensive players close the space between them and their attacking players to reduce the gap and limit the attacking team's space.

Meanwhile, EA has tackled a problem with goalkeepers that saw them unnecessarily clearing the ball when it was passed to them in certain situations. Again, you can imagine this caused problems online.

The update makes a number of key changes to the FIFA Ultimate Team Champions Weekend League. From now on, all matches will take place in the FeWC Stadium, with the time of day always set to night and weather always set to clear.

This change is important because some stadiums are a nightmare to play on because of the shadows cast onto the pitch. And as you'd expect some weather effects can hamper play and cause randomness. For a game mode with so much riding on it, players have called for Weekend League matches to be played at the FeWC Stadium for some time.

Elsewhere, the pre-match screens will no longer display which team is the home team or away team. Instead, you'll always see your team on the left side of the screen, with your opponent's team on the right side.

This change comes hand in hand with another: you will no longer see your opponent's kit in either gameplay or the pre-match screens. Instead, your opponent will wear your unselected active kit (for example, if you play the match in your home kit, your opponent will play in your away kit).

These changes are clearly designed to target allegations of cheating among the Weekend League's top 100 players. Some of FIFA's best players are accused of avoiding each other online, and one of the ways to do that is via kit recognition during the pre-match screen. In short, they'd quit the match if they spotted a familiar kit. With any luck, this change to the way kits work will tackle this problem.

The patch is currently going down well within the FIFA 18 community, which has long-called for more communication and game updates from EA. It's out now on PC and will be released for the console versions soon. The patch notes in full are over at EA's website.