Forum Discussion

amnesty457's avatar
amnesty457
New Traveler
6 days ago

CRITICAL FEEDBACK: Broken Physics, Logic & Input Damping in Seasons online

To the EA Sports FC Development Team,

I am have been playing for ~30 years of fifa and I am officially done with the constant, unannounced "Stealth Updates" that fundamentally break this game every 48 hours it seems.

  1. The "Mud" and Movement: Every time I turn on the console, there is a new meta. The "Mud" is back with a vengeance. Professional footballers are not freight ships; they have explosive quickness. Stop forcing "Inertia" that makes the game feel like a chore.
  2. Defensive Paralysis: My defenders literally stand still during transitions. They don't track back, they don't close the 15-yard gap, and they have no spatial awareness. After 30 years of development, how is the defensive AI worse than it was in FIFA 13?
  3. The Skill Gap is Dead: You have created a game that rewards parking the bus and anti-football. By making movement this sluggish, you have inversed the skill gap, making it impossible to break down campers because the players can't turn on the ball or move with any explosiveness. Passing and shooting takes a month for the player to wind up sometimes. 

This is one of, if not the worst iteration of the franchise I have ever seen. It is not fun; it is a frustrating, broken mess. Fix the "Spaghetti Code" and see that the "Authentic" experiment has failed. Move on to a more physics based approach - less top/down scripting.

Other issues - 

  1. The "Pace Cap" and Recovery Speed Bug: You have made it functionally impossible to beat a defender 1v1 on the ball. World-class sprinters like Mbappé and Vini Jr. can no longer outrun or even maintain a gap against lower-paced defenders. You have baked in a hidden speed penalty for the ball-carrier that is so aggressive it negates the point of having high-pace players. This isn't "simulation"—it's an artificial handicap that kills the excitement of the sport.
  2. The "Ghost Win" Pandemic: In the last week alone, I have had 5 rage-quit wins fail to register. If an opponent quits while I am winning, the server must anchor that win. To have my time wasted and my progress deleted by your "Match Under Review" loop is the definition of technical bankruptcy.

I have reached the point where I am no longer playing for fun, but out of habit, and that habit is breaking. I am eagerly awaiting the launch of the FIFA 2K soccer simulation.

As a long-time player of NBA 2K and PGA 2K, I know what a game feels like when it actually rewards user inputs. In those titles, there is no 'Mud,' no 'Ghost Wins,' and no artificial damping of a star player's speed. If 2K delivers even a fraction of that responsiveness in a football game, I will be leaving this franchise behind. We are tired of 'Corporate Capture' and 'Managed Sluggishness.' We want a game that plays like football, not a freight ship simulation."

Also, at this point, Goalz and UFL may even be in the running for competitive titles since the bar seems so low. I cannot understand how someone at EA plays this iteration and is like, oh ya, this is good.

Finally, let’s address the elephant in the room: the blatant Scripting and DDA in the penalty area. It is surgically impossible to ignore how different dribbling feels in the box versus the open field. You have turned the 18-yard box into a 'High-Friction Zone' where elite players suddenly lose their ability to control the ball.

My players take heavy touches, their agility drops by 50%, and the ball 'magnetizes' back to defenders after successful tackles. You are manipulating the physics engine to create 'fake' drama, and it’s insulting to anyone who actually understands the game. Stop the scripting and let the user inputs decide the outcome.

Thanks,

1 Reply

  • Freightliner FC update

    I recently wrote a scathing review, but after an 8-9 'basketball' scoreline in Seasons, I have to double down. This game is officially in its worst state in franchise history. We aren't just fighting a bad patch; we are fighting 30 years of legacy code that is fundamentally collapsing on the PS5 Pro.

    1. The 'Ghost' Defenders (Patch v1.5.0) The recent nerfing of defensive AI reaction times has turned elite center-backs into traffic cones. There is a documented 'Stun' animation that locks your defender for 0.5s after any collision or skill move. It’s not 'free-flowing'—it’s an artificial lobotomy of the defense to force high-scoring engagement.
    2. The PSSR 2.0 Disaster FC 26 is arguably the only major title that cannot handle the new PSSR 2.0 system update. On a brand-new console, we are dealing with 50ms of added input delay as the AI upscaler fights with unoptimized code. Turning it off helps the major lag and input delay but the underlying engine latency remains.
    3. Blatant Scripting & DDA An 8-9 scoreline at 70ms ping isn't a simulation; it's a series of scripted dice rolls. You can literally feel the 'Momentum' shift as your 99-pace players turn into freight ships while the opponent’s strikers phase through tackles like ghosts. The ball doesn't have mass anymore; it has 'magnetism' that only activates for the losing player.
    4. Broken Fundamentals From the 'Ghost Trainer' bug that forces UI icons onto the pitch to the missing DDA on tap-ins (where it should actually help), the game is technically bankrupt. EA is trading input integrity for 'spectacle,' and for anyone who values a true sim, it’s unplayable.
    5. Defensive AI remains absolutely abhorrent. I can read a vertical run (usually up the middle) from 5 seconds away and still not have the pace to match them or stop a breakaway run - the nerfing of the speed of defenders has ruined the game more so - artificially creating breakaways is not free-flowing football. When there's a counter - whole team stands still - you have to select a player to track back so out of the 10 field players, maybe 1 or 2 actually jog back, it's a complete joke.

    If you want a football game that respects your inputs, this isn't it. This is a 2015 engine held together by duct tape and microtransactions.

Featured Places

Node avatar for FC 26 General Discussion

FC 26 General Discussion

Discuss the latest news and game information around EA SPORTS FC™ 26 in the community forums.Latest Activity: 35 minutes ago
5,456 Posts