FIFA 16 News & Discussion Thread

[aussiepesfan]

Hey guys, just wondering if someone can help me in regards to finding the free training mode in fifa 16. Has this been removed??? I purchased a cheap copy of fifa14 and I found it under the arena section?? I heard it may have been removed from this version, surely not???

 

[chiefrocka4real]

I praised online gaming a lot (online seasons, div 9 at the moment) and thought I could handle tactical defending.

Tried FUT draft yesterday with me free token and got crushed 1:6 .

In that match I had a hard time defending.
It wasn´t frustrating like in 15 where fast strikers outran my defense.

But this guy was dribbling past my defenders.
Not with tricks, just with quick movements and passings.
And to be fair, I gotta say that the goals he scored where pretty good ones.

Passing combinations and no bug or glitch using (if there are any in this game) or a lame playing style.

I use the contain button a lot and try to cover passing ways.
Try to tackle at the right time and I hardly ever use sliding.
PLaying around with the sprint button.
I don´t hold it down but if I try to overhaul the attacker, I use it for a short time.

This works offline and worked playing online seasons.
Either FUT is another story, the guy was simply better (which he obviuosly was) or I do suck at defending.

Gotta add, that my team chemistry was around 38.
Maybe that had an effect as well.
Guess I was trying to get all the good players (Suarez, Neymar, De Gea) and didn´t care much for the chemistry.

Guess I gotta practice some more.

 

[Placebo]

Hey guys, just wondering if someone can help me in regards to finding the free training mode in fifa 16. Has this been removed??? I purchased a cheap copy of fifa14 and I found it under the arena section?? I heard it may have been removed from this version, surely not???

Removed from 15 (like a few things such as creation centre/custom chants/custom set pieces etc) and hasn't returned in 16.

 

[Autogolazo]

Sligo Rovers with their 93% pass accuracy over a 15 minute match, and their 100mph one or two touch passing. Realistic my backside.

In FIFA 16 it is more apparent than ever that the CPU regardless of team passes and keeps possession ridiculously. Barcelona on steroids

 

[fernadez]

I don't actually find that the cpu does keep possession regardless. What I notice is that yes the percentage is high at the end of the game, but this is due to the fact that they actually build up play now, go across the back four, and can pass backwards instead of just relentlessly forward like last year.

I find that when they play expansive passes, through balls and passes into tight areas, they are often over/under hit, misplaced or intercepted, especially if you keep your shape.

It's not perfect at all, but again it's one of those examples where I see teams in my Saturday morning league able to do the same, so I'm not sure how unrealistic it is.

Edit: I also recall this being something that PES has been congratulated for, and something that I personally have waited to see both games introduce for a long time. I'd easily take this 'extreme' over constant counter attacking football. As a consumer I'll play what I think is the better game (although I do have a sentimental soft spot for PES....Castello you beautiful bastard) but it seems to me that somethings that are seen as 'features' in PES is considered 'broken' in Fifa, or like in the case of player individuality are lauded on one game but ignored on the other...how is it the PES needs to be given time for the intricacies to reveal themselves but Fifa doesn't?

 

[klashman69]

Klash are you even half aware of how ridiculous most of the shit you type sounds?

Spoiler

You want me to be banned for trolling and your posting abusive stuff like this?

 

[angus]

I don't even mind the midfield pressure that much, although i'd like to town it down.

How do i change that with sliders?

As I said use the CPU line length and line height sliders to widen the space between CPU FWs, MFs and DBs, this will open up the midfield. Also, if you use your team's line sliders to push your team and your back line forward, it will cause the CPU to stop with all the tiki taka passes, and instead start sending long balls forward to take advantage of your attack-oriented line setup. If you clearly want to see the effect line sliders have, try this setup as a test and play a game or two:

CPU height 0 length 100
User height 100 length 100

I have often mentioned to people complaining about the lack of individual CPU team style to simply adjust CPU line sliders depending on the CPU team. If it's an attack team with 3 FWs, an AMF etc. then raise the length slider (pushes FWs and MFs up). If it's a defensive team with 2 DMFs and only 1 FW etc. then lower the height slider (drops DBs back). And so forth.

 

[Jamezinho]

I don't actually find that the cpu does keep possession regardless. What I notice is that yes the percentage is high at the end of the game, but this is due to the fact that they actually build up play now, go across the back four, and can pass backwards instead of just relentlessly forward like last year.

I find that when they play expansive passes, through balls and passes into tight areas, they are often over/under hit, misplaced or intercepted, especially if you keep your shape.

It's not perfect at all, but again it's one of those examples where I see teams in my Saturday morning league able to do the same, so I'm not sure how unrealistic it is.

Edit: I also recall this being something that PES has been congratulated for, and something that I personally have waited to see both games introduce for a long time. I'd easily take this 'extreme' over constant counter attacking football. As a consumer I'll play what I think is the better game (although I do have a sentimental soft spot for PES....Castello you beautiful bastard) but it seems to me that somethings that are seen as 'features' in PES is considered 'broken' in Fifa, or like in the case of player individuality are lauded on one game but ignored on the other...how is it the PES needs to be given time for the intricacies to reveal themselves but Fifa doesn't?

Nothing to add. Just wanted to say 'good post'.

 

[Pedderrs]

I don't actually find that the cpu does keep possession regardless. What I notice is that yes the percentage is high at the end of the game, but this is due to the fact that they actually build up play now, go across the back four, and can pass backwards instead of just relentlessly forward like last year.

I find that when they play expansive passes, through balls and passes into tight areas, they are often over/under hit, misplaced or intercepted, especially if you keep your shape.

It's not perfect at all, but again it's one of those examples where I see teams in my Saturday morning league able to do the same, so I'm not sure how unrealistic it is.

Edit: I also recall this being something that PES has been congratulated for, and something that I personally have waited to see both games introduce for a long time. I'd easily take this 'extreme' over constant counter attacking football. As a consumer I'll play what I think is the better game (although I do have a sentimental soft spot for PES....Castello you beautiful bastard) but it seems to me that somethings that are seen as 'features' in PES is considered 'broken' in Fifa, or like in the case of player individuality are lauded on one game but ignored on the other...how is it the PES needs to be given time for the intricacies to reveal themselves but Fifa doesn't?

Great post.

I see plenty of turn-overs on Legendary. The possession stats are usually so close because, as you say, the CPU are spending a lot of their time trying to build from the back. But they don't enjoy nearly as much possession in my half, not unless I'm playing against a very good team like Chelsea or Barcelona. It's not perfect, but it does seem relatively balanced all things considered.

 

[fernadez]

This is the most I've consistently posted since I joined the site in 2003. I keeping seeing things about how by enjoying Fifa 'I must be a certain type of player' and 'play a certain type of football', or maybe I'm not smart enough to 'understand and appreciate the vision' and though I'm not offended I will speak up for myself and others who enjoy it.

Keepers for example, the ones in PES can't save a low shot, dive after the ball and won't fully extend their arms...how is this given a free pass? I remember playing Superstar level back in the day with default players in Master League and not being able to score a goal for games on end, when you did the sense of accomplishment was immense, pretty similar to what I read people saying is now a flaw in this game (which is different to saying it's your personal preference to have high action games, everybody has this right).

I do also find it amusing that this is the most PES like game I've played since the PS2, and a little sad that it seems sometimes it's not given it's dues (I myself was the first to criticize FIfa for years, even now when someone plays with circle as shoot I give them a little abuse).

 

[Autogolazo]

I don't actually find that the cpu does keep possession regardless. What I notice is that yes the percentage is high at the end of the game, but this is due to the fact that they actually build up play now, go across the back four, and can pass backwards instead of just relentlessly forward like last year.

I find that when they play expansive passes, through balls and passes into tight areas, they are often over/under hit, misplaced or intercepted, especially if you keep your shape.

It's not perfect at all, but again it's one of those examples where I see teams in my Saturday morning league able to do the same, so I'm not sure how unrealistic it is.

Edit: I also recall this being something that PES has been congratulated for, and something that I personally have waited to see both games introduce for a long time. I'd easily take this 'extreme' over constant counter attacking football. As a consumer I'll play what I think is the better game (although I do have a sentimental soft spot for PES....Castello you beautiful bastard) but it seems to me that somethings that are seen as 'features' in PES is considered 'broken' in Fifa, or like in the case of player individuality are lauded on one game but ignored on the other...how is it the PES needs to be given time for the intricacies to reveal themselves but Fifa doesn't?

So your sunday morning league team is able to pass the ball and play quick passing at 100mph and have the ability to instantly control the ball? Your team sounds very good.

I think you're missing the point. This wouldn't be a problem if this was happening against the likes of Barcelona, Bayern, Arsenal and ect. The problem is that it happens regardless of who the CPU opposition is. It's absolutely daft to see GFC Ajaccio play like that. And it goes back to what I said previously about every team and game playing out in a similar way.

As for your last point I am not sure if that is specifically directed at me (if it then you're coming across overly defensive) but none of that applies to me. I simply play the game which I enjoy the most. That's it. And neither are doing it for me this time round.

 

[Autogolazo]

This is the most I've consistently posted since I joined the site in 2003. I keeping seeing things about how by enjoying Fifa 'I must be a certain type of player' and 'play a certain type of football', or maybe I'm not smart enough to 'understand and appreciate the vision' and though I'm not offended I will speak up for myself and others who enjoy it.

Keepers for example, the ones in PES can't save a low shot, dive after the ball and won't fully extend their arms...how is this given a free pass? I remember playing Superstar level back in the day with default players in Master League and not being able to score a goal for games on end, when you did the sense of accomplishment was immense, pretty similar to what I read people saying is now a flaw in this game (which is different to saying it's your personal preference to have high action games, everybody has this right).

I do also find it amusing that this is the most PES like game I've played since the PS2, and a little sad that it seems sometimes it's not given it's dues (I myself was the first to criticize FIfa for years, even now when someone plays with circle as shoot I give them a little abuse).

You are acting like FIFA players don't say similar things about people who enjoy PES. People who have an allegiance to either game (games in general actually) will forever be stupid to me.

And in bold this is where you come across as having an agenda or simply someone who doesn't frequent PES forums and assumes things. In bold has been a constant issue that has been mentioned many times in the PES community. It's nonsense to say that is given a 'free pass'.

 

[fernadez]

So your sunday morning league team is able to pass the ball and play quick passing at 100mph and have the ability to instantly control the ball? Your team sounds very good.

I think you're missing the point. This wouldn't be a problem if this was happening against the likes of Barcelona, Bayern, Arsenal and ect. The problem is that it happens regardless of who the CPU opposition is. It's absolutely daft to see GFC Ajaccio play like that. And it goes back to what I said previously about every team and game playing out in a similar way.

As for your last point I am not sure if that is specifically directed at me (if it then you're coming across overly defensive) but none of that applies to me. I simply play the game which I enjoy the most. That's it. And neither are doing it for me this time round.

It's not aimed at anyone. I tuned up the first touch slider which negates the instant control, turned down the pass speed and upped the pass error. I've never watched GFC Ajaccio, but yes I would imagine since they've made into the game they can pass it around with relative ease under certain circumstances.

Last year I would have agreed with you, and posted exactly what you are saying myself on this forum, this year I can't do that.

Check my post history I was here, helping people get PES early when I found it in shops for example, what sort of agenda could I have. In fact my agenda is not to pay full price for games that are not the full package. I bought both games last year and played neither of them after a few weeks, and I bought both games this year. This is the Fifa discussion thread, so I'm here here discussing Fifa, in the PES thread I said my thoughts on that game and then left as I had nothing to contribute.

 

[Chris Davies]

So your sunday morning league team is able to pass the ball and play quick passing at 100mph and have the ability to instantly control the ball? Your team sounds very good.

I switch to Professional when I play against a team that shouldn't be passing it around so well. Did this last night as Liverpool against Crystal Palace, and there was no possession play from them. In-fact, I'm ashamed to say that they beat me 1-0 - I pushed forward to try and kill them off (I was playing a younger team), and they countered with a long ball and a lucky through-pass, and a placed finish.

I see your point, that upping the difficulty changes the style of play and the ability rather than just the accuracy - but you can amend that with a mixture of things (that don't require complete attribute editing like some PES players would say you need to do to enjoy PES any given year).

I've come up with a set of sliders that seems to reduce possession play anyway, but it works with Professional as well as it does with Legendary (I don't play on World Class because it's really weird, it seems to play perfect passing and then use terrible finishing to stop itself from winning).

So when I play a team that's one star level or more below me, I switch to professional. Otherwise I leave it on Legendary. This also means I know I'm going to come up against a wider variation of team styles - playing Crystal Palace, I know they're more interested in counter-attacking, whereas playing Manchester City will be much more balanced.

Plays great, for me. Realistic and fun.

There's always going to be issues but for me, there are less with this game than there ever have been before (or, if you like, the great bits outweigh the shoddy bits).

Personal opinion, though, of course.

 

[Autogolazo]

It's not aimed at anyone. I tuned up the first touch slider which negates the instant control, turned down the pass speed and upped the pass error. I've never watched GFC Ajaccio, but yes I would imagine since they've made into the game they can pass it around with relative ease under certain circumstances.

Last year I would have agreed with you, and posted exactly what you are saying myself on this forum, this year I can't do that.

Okay but you were asking a question so I figured it was addressed to someone.

I have not given the sliders a look yet but the fact I have to do this rather annoys me. Why is it a difficult task to simply have teams resemble what they are like in real life?

GFC Ajaccio should be able to pass the ball around with relative ease if I were to simply back of them, and not even attempt to get the ball of them but when I am doing the opposite I don't expect them to keep the ball and pass it about with speed in tight areas so precisely.

I still stand by my comment that it is the worse it's even been in FIFA 16. It was much more believable/realistic in 15.

 

[fernadez]

Okay but you were asking a question so I figured it was addressed to someone.

I have not given the sliders a look yet but the fact I have to do this rather annoys me. Why is it a difficult task to simply have teams resemble what they are like in real life?

GFC Ajaccio should be able to pass the ball around with relative ease if I were to simply back of them, and not even attempt to get the ball of them but when I am doing the opposite I don't expect them to keep the ball and pass it about with speed in tight areas so precisely.

I still stand by my comment that it is the worse it's even been in FIFA 16. It was much more believable/realistic in 15.

I guess it's quite hard, I mean you have a range of difficulty levels, how do you differentiate between them apart from making players and teams perform above/below their 'natural' level? Also, what is this level, some days people play better and some days worse, Ronaldo hadn't scored a free kick for how long...but he obviously can do it. You could have a game with no difficulty levels at all but how popular would that be. Difficulty plus sliders seems to be the best of a not great bunch of solutions.

 

[Kije]

I switch to Professional when I play against a team that shouldn't be passing it around so well. Did this last night as Liverpool against Crystal Palace, and there was no possession play from them. In-fact, I'm ashamed to say that they beat me 1-0 - I pushed forward to try and kill them off (I was playing a younger team), and they countered with a long ball and a lucky through-pass, and a placed finish.

I see your point, that upping the difficulty changes the style of play and the ability rather than just the accuracy - but you can amend that with a mixture of things (that don't require complete attribute editing like some PES players would say you need to do to enjoy PES any given year).

I've come up with a set of sliders that seems to reduce possession play anyway, but it works with Professional as well as it does with Legendary (I don't play on World Class because it's really weird, it seems to play perfect passing and then use terrible finishing to stop itself from winning).

So when I play a team that's one star level or more below me, I switch to professional. Otherwise I leave it on Legendary. This also means I know I'm going to come up against a wider variation of team styles - playing Crystal Palace, I know they're more interested in counter-attacking, whereas playing Manchester City will be much more balanced.

Plays great, for me. Realistic and fun.

There's always going to be issues but for me, there are less with this game than there ever have been before (or, if you like, the great bits outweigh the shoddy bits).

Personal opinion, though, of course.

Please would you share your slider settings with us, have not find some they are fitting me...

 

[Autogolazo]

I guess it's quite hard, I mean you have a range of difficulty levels, how do you differentiate between them apart from making players and teams perform above/below their 'natural' level? Also, what is this level, some days people play better and some days worse, Ronaldo hadn't scored a free kick for how long...but he obviously can do it. You could have a game with no difficulty levels at all but how popular would that be. Difficulty plus sliders seems to be the best of a not great bunch of solutions.

You are right to be honest as it's probably very complex I imagine. It's rather frustrating to me personally because everything else about FIFA 16 is fantastic.

I will look into what Chris Davies has mentioned (thanks by the way!) I am also interested in which setting of sliders you use.

 

[fernadez]

You are right to be honest as it's probably very complex I imagine. It's rather frustrating to me personally because everything else about FIFA 16 is fantastic.

I will look into what Chris Davies has mentioned (thanks by the way!) I am also interested in which setting of sliders you use.

I posted mine in the sliders thread earlier today mate. Give them ago if you like, hopefully it'll sort out some of the issues you're having.

 

[Autogolazo]

I posted mine in the sliders thread earlier today mate. Give them ago if you like, hopefully it'll sort out some of the issues you're having.

Will do cheers mate

 

[aussiepesfan]

Removed from 15 (like a few things such as creation centre/custom chants/custom set pieces etc) and hasn't returned in 16.

ooh that sucks. Like they couldn't have left it in. But thanks for letting me know, cheers

 

[mfmaxpower]

I don't even mind the midfield pressure that much, although i'd like to town it down. It's the cpu passing the ball around constantly with me being unable to get it back is what puts me off. All teams do that. Even the shitty ones.
And all goalies as well, they are calm when put under pressure and make perfect passes in any situation.
Most goalies would canon the ball out the stadium.

How do i change that with sliders?

As you can see by the recent discussion, the way the CPU is playing this year and it's increased ability to control possession is quite the controversial topic, but I totally get where you're coming from and find it extremely frustrating too.

To be honest, I haven't committed myself to slider adjustments yet this year because I'm waiting for the first patch to come out. Something feels off right now when you play against the CPU on the higher difficulty settings, with this issue being a big part of it, and I'm hoping they tweak it.

The experiments I have done with sliders are tweaking the line settings like angus pointed out. You could also try decreasing pass speed for the CPU, as well as increasing their pass and first touch error.

Unfortunately this is like last year's poor defensive AI in that we have limited capacities with sliders to "fix" the issue but hopefully people can mitigate the worst of it. I find sliders to be highly subjective and variable, but if you're not up for tweaking them yourself, you could always head over to opertationsports and use of the slider sets there.

 

[mfmaxpower]

I praised online gaming a lot (online seasons, div 9 at the moment) and thought I could handle tactical defending.

Tried FUT draft yesterday with me free token and got crushed 1:6 .

In that match I had a hard time defending.
It wasn´t frustrating like in 15 where fast strikers outran my defense.

But this guy was dribbling past my defenders.
Not with tricks, just with quick movements and passings.
And to be fair, I gotta say that the goals he scored where pretty good ones.

Passing combinations and no bug or glitch using (if there are any in this game) or a lame playing style.

I use the contain button a lot and try to cover passing ways.
Try to tackle at the right time and I hardly ever use sliding.
PLaying around with the sprint button.
I don´t hold it down but if I try to overhaul the attacker, I use it for a short time.

This works offline and worked playing online seasons.
Either FUT is another story, the guy was simply better (which he obviuosly was) or I do suck at defending.

Gotta add, that my team chemistry was around 38.
Maybe that had an effect as well.
Guess I was trying to get all the good players (Suarez, Neymar, De Gea) and didn´t care much for the chemistry.

Guess I gotta practice some more.

Haha I've wimped out and only used my draft tokens for offline 'cause I'm scared I'll only make it one game before getting knocked out too! Do you still get worthwhile rewards if you only play one game?

But yeah, team chemistry is huge and 38 is really poor. If you're up against someone who knows what they're doing, and if they have decent chemistry, you'd stand no chance.

 

[Chris Davies]

To be honest, I haven't committed myself to slider adjustments yet this year because I'm waiting for the first patch to come out. Something feels off right now when you play against the CPU on the higher difficulty settings, with this issue being a big part of it, and I'm hoping they tweak it.

I don't think they will, sadly.

I don't remember anyone else agreeing with me about World Class being weird/broken last year, but it's the same this year. Passing accuracy (and speed) is boosted even more than you see when playing Legendary, but shooting seems crippled to "balance it out". The end result is really bad.

I played a game against Elfsborg in the Europa League on World Class by accident, and the stats at the end of the game were shocking.

They had 12 shots (2 on target) to my 3 (3 on target), 62% possession to my 38%, and even though I won 1-0 (and was playing a younger team), I was outplayed as if they were Manchester United.

The same match on Legendary produced a different game - a 0-0, 4 shots (1 on target) to my 6 (2 on target), 49% possession to my 51% (which isn't ideal but the way I see it, you're watching a highlights package and not a full match, so possession and passing accuracy can be off a little bit - when you watch Match of the Day, the stats you see are based on 90 minutes where nothing happened for 80 minutes, whereas if the stats were based on the exciting 10 minutes, they'd be wildly different).

My point being...

World Class is really weird, and it worked the same way in FIFA 15 (I said it a few times on here). It's no different now, so I doubt they'll do anything to tweak the difficulty levels. I think all the work went into Professional, which plays an entirely different game to last year, and to any other difficulty level (and which I find really handy for matches against teams who wouldn't attempt to keep hold of possession in real life).

 

[mfmaxpower]

I switch to Professional when I play against a team that shouldn't be passing it around so well. Did this last night as Liverpool against Crystal Palace, and there was no possession play from them. In-fact, I'm ashamed to say that they beat me 1-0 - I pushed forward to try and kill them off (I was playing a younger team), and they countered with a long ball and a lucky through-pass, and a placed finish.

I see your point, that upping the difficulty changes the style of play and the ability rather than just the accuracy - but you can amend that with a mixture of things (that don't require complete attribute editing like some PES players would say you need to do to enjoy PES any given year).

I've come up with a set of sliders that seems to reduce possession play anyway, but it works with Professional as well as it does with Legendary (I don't play on World Class because it's really weird, it seems to play perfect passing and then use terrible finishing to stop itself from winning).

So when I play a team that's one star level or more below me, I switch to professional. Otherwise I leave it on Legendary. This also means I know I'm going to come up against a wider variation of team styles - playing Crystal Palace, I know they're more interested in counter-attacking, whereas playing Manchester City will be much more balanced.

Plays great, for me. Realistic and fun.

There's always going to be issues but for me, there are less with this game than there ever have been before (or, if you like, the great bits outweigh the shoddy bits).

Personal opinion, though, of course.

Honestly the more I play the more I think there's something "off" with all the difficulty settings and the balance of play against the CPU.

I just had an experience on Professional like you mentioned with World Class. It was me as Bayern against Bayer Leverkusen. Now, first of all, Bayer's custom tactics are set to play high pressure, and holy shit I could barely get out of my own half! Regardless, I won the game 4-0 but I got totally dominated - Bayer had something like 4 times the amount of shots that I had, and won the possession battle by a small margin, but they lost simply because their shooting was terrible.

It was if EA programmed the game to be really challenging but then were like oh shit, this is way too tough so we'll just make the CPU miss all their shots.

I'm at the point now where I'm just really hoping for some tweaks with a patch. If they don't adjust things, I'll use sliders, but I'm not trying to make massive changes because I don't like having drastic differences between the multiplayer and single player gameplay.

 

[mfmaxpower]

I don't think they will, sadly.

I don't remember anyone else agreeing with me about World Class being weird/broken last year, but it's the same this year. Passing accuracy (and speed) is boosted even more than you see when playing Legendary, but shooting seems crippled to "balance it out". The end result is really bad.

I played a game against Elfsborg in the Europa League on World Class by accident, and the stats at the end of the game were shocking.

They had 12 shots (2 on target) to my 3 (3 on target), 62% possession to my 38%, and even though I won 1-0 (and was playing a younger team), I was outplayed as if they were Manchester United.

The same match on Legendary produced a different game - a 0-0, 4 shots (1 on target) to my 6 (2 on target), 49% possession to my 51% (which isn't ideal but the way I see it, you're watching a highlights package and not a full match, so possession and passing accuracy can be off a little bit - when you watch Match of the Day, the stats you see are based on 90 minutes where nothing happened for 80 minutes, whereas if the stats were based on the exciting 10 minutes, they'd be wildly different).

My point being...

World Class is really weird, and it worked the same way in FIFA 15 (I said it a few times on here). It's no different now, so I doubt they'll do anything to tweak the difficulty levels. I think all the work went into Professional, which plays an entirely different game to last year, and to any other difficulty level (and which I find really handy for matches against teams who wouldn't attempt to keep hold of possession in real life).

You might be right. The only reason I'm expecting changes is because there are a TON of people out there expressing frustration.

And even if they don't do anything specific to the single player gameplay, there's enough frustration out there regarding multiplayer, and how much more difficult attacking is this year, that I wouldn't be surprised if they make changes with that in mind. And if they do, that will influence the single player experience.

It is interesting how well Professional plays compared to WC and Legendary. In the past I pretty much always skipped over Pro and went straight to WC because Pro was just a joke. This year it actually plays a pretty well balanced game for me, with way more realistic variety than the other difficulties... it's just in the end I always win by 2-4 goals. For me, Pro difficulty is pretty much perfect in the middle of the pitch but in each final third it's way too biased in our favor.

 

[Chris Davies]

I'm at the point now where I'm just really hoping for some tweaks with a patch. If they don't adjust things, I'll use sliders, but I'm not trying to make massive changes because I don't like having drastic differences between the multiplayer and single player gameplay.

I know exactly what you mean, but then some of the online modes have weird differences anyway. Playing Online Seasons feels totally different to Ultimate Team to me (and I'm talking about bronze level players, I haven't even tried a match with gold players yet). Defending feels totally different, I'm much better in Online Seasons than I am in Ultimate Team.

Also, if it's the only way to "fix" it, then I'll take it. I'm having a blast with a slider-modified game, I don't feel like all the teams are playing the same way by any stretch.

The poorer teams have their play implemented improperly, admittedly, but again I think that ties into the difficulty level (which is bad) - the game is intelligent enough to know that it can't win by trying dangerous passes with a poor team, so they keep the ball (far too well) and do what they can to win, which results in a less realistic game. But switching to Professional solves that for me, and they're still capable enough at beating me with the sliders I use.

Basically, the difficulty level seems to relate to the intelligence of the guy sitting next to you with a controller, as opposed to the team itself. Professional is like playing online against someone who thinks he's playing FIFA 15 (it feels human but slightly stupid), whereas World Class is like playing against someone who's amazing at passing but who's been put on manual shooting by a mate playing a trick on him, and Legendary is like playing against someone who knows the only way he'll get a point with Accrington Stanley is if he passes it in a circle for 90 minutes.

EDIT:

This year it actually plays a pretty well balanced game for me, with way more realistic variety than the other difficulties... it's just in the end I always win by 2-4 goals. For me, Pro difficulty is pretty much perfect in the middle of the pitch but in each final third it's way too biased in our favor.

There you go then - play Professional, put semi-assisted passing/shooting on, tweak the CPU accuracy sliders up by 20% or so. Job done!

(I say that, but I tried that, and found that increase only applies to the passes and shots where the CPU is "really trying". It still makes silly decisions until it gets to X number of passes/shots, where it says "right okay, you've got away with enough now".)

 

[elfie]

As you can see by the recent discussion, the way the CPU is playing this year and it's increased ability to control possession is quite the controversial topic, but I totally get where you're coming from and find it extremely frustrating too.

To be honest, I haven't committed myself to slider adjustments yet this year because I'm waiting for the first patch to come out. Something feels off right now when you play against the CPU on the higher difficulty settings, with this issue being a big part of it, and I'm hoping they tweak it.

The experiments I have done with sliders are tweaking the line settings like angus pointed out. You could also try decreasing pass speed for the CPU, as well as increasing their pass and first touch error.

Unfortunately this is like last year's poor defensive AI in that we have limited capacities with sliders to "fix" the issue but hopefully people can mitigate the worst of it. I find sliders to be highly subjective and variable, but if you're not up for tweaking them yourself, you could always head over to opertationsports and use of the slider sets there.

Started experimenting with the line height settings as Angus suggested.
It does give you a bit more freedom in midfield. It also tones down the constant passing of the cpu.
Now i need to try and find balance.
But it's an improvement.

 

[chiefrocka4real]

Haha I've wimped out and only used my draft tokens for offline 'cause I'm scared I'll only make it one game before getting knocked out too! Do you still get worthwhile rewards if you only play one game?

But yeah, team chemistry is huge and 38 is really poor. If you're up against someone who knows what they're doing, and if they have decent chemistry, you'd stand no chance.

Yeah man....that players were too seducing .

There´s an update out.

What does it do???

 

[Placebo]

Apparently it fixes the game breaking career mode bug that's on all systems whereby if you sign a player on deadline day there's a high probability he will corrupt and if you try to start a match with him in your lineup the game will crash (someone already reported this on PS4 right?) funnily enough I literally minutes ago hit this same bug and was looking for a solution, will test now and report if it's fixed...