My last hope is to try placebos sliders and keep my fingers crossed it brings the game back to me. I don't really pay online, so I just want it to fix my MM games in the lower leagues.
Guess there is zero chance of a patch to slow the game down now?
There will be a patch at some point (someone said 45 days post release, don't know if that's accurate), so who knows.
If you play offline, reducing your Speed/Accel sliders will slow it down.
I'd be surprised to hear that someone thinks the game plays too fast with lower league teams. I get that criticism, and agree with it, when it comes to 4-5 star teams, but for me there's a drastic difference in speed when you play with lesser quality teams.
I do think that the whole speed issue has become a bit convoluted because, I think, people are actually mixing up two separate issues:
1) The speed of player movement. IMO it's too quick when playing with teams/players from the top leagues, but the difference between top quality players and those in the lower leagues is dramatic. (If anything I feel at times like lower rated players are unfairly penalized in how unresponsive and sluggish they can be.)
One part of the problem is simply that player movement animations are too quick. Another part of this problem is with EA's failure to implement a realistic player movement physics system. It's a lot better than what it was in FIFA 10, but unrealistic player movement capabilities is still a major flaw with gameplay.
You can influence the first issue with the acceleration and sprint sliders, which simply adjusts the difficulty level of the game, but you can't influence momentum and player physics because those simply aren't built into the game for far too many scenarios.
2) The other issue is the general pace of play. This speed issue is what people are referring to when they say things like it's non-stop counter-attack, that it's far too open, that midfielders don't defend and can be far too easily bypassed.
Unlike the speed of player movement, which is very different depending upon who you're playing with, this issue is prevalent at every level of the game, no matter which mode you play or which teams you play with.
This too is a multi-faceted issue, and includes issues with the passing and defending systems, but it's been exacerbated by the upgraded attacking AI. When some people say the game plays too fast, it's this issue with being able to move quickly in transition from defense to attack that they're referring to.
The style of play is of course affected by who is playing, but IMO FIFA lends itself and even encourages a rapid attacking style of play. Also, unfortunately for us offline players, the CPU doesn't really give a damn about style of play and rarely prioritizes possession.
Solutions:
If you have issues with #1 - with the speed of player movement - you can help yourself by either a) changing difficulty settings; b) adjusting the acceleration/sprint sliders; or c) play with lesser quality teams. Personally, I find the speed of player movement to be okay on the default settings when playing with teams of 3 star or less, but of course everyone's own abilities will influence this.
If you have issues with #2 - the counter-attack, open nature of gameplay - I imagine that if there's a solution it'll be found within the positioning sliders, like marking, player runs, line width/height, etc. But I'm not sure there is a solution to be honest. If you've found a set of sliders that changes the counter-attack, open nature of gameplay, I'd love to hear them.
If all else fails and the pace of play is still too quick, I've found three cups of strong coffee to really help!
of course, I'm joking, I know this will never happen.
