FIFA 21 Title Update 5 patch notes: Team Press nerf, shooting delay fixed, Ping Bar improvements and more

Any FIFA game usually has its fair share of bugs, either within the match engine itself or in one of its many game modes and often, at times, both.

FIFA 21's fifth patch is now out. (Picture: EA Sports)

The real question is how quickly, if ever, do these problems get addressed with the franchise notorious for having updates that take the game backwards or introduce a slew of new issues.

FIFA 21 has had only minor updates so far, with the developers keen to give players some much needed hands on time with the game before introducing any major changes.

Title Update 5 is different though with changes to core game play and tens of bug fixes that should make the game a more enjoyable experience.

EA Sports has rolled out FIFA 21 Title Update #5 on Origin and Steam, with the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 patch expected in the next couple of days.

Team Press and high-pressing tactics nerfed

Going forward Liverpool's style of high pressing football won't be as affective in FIFA 21. (Picture: EA Sports)

It's a style of football that has dominated world football for the last few years typified most prominentaly by Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool side and that is the high-press sometimes known as gen-gen pressing.

It is a style of football that involves pressing as a team high up the pitch, putting pressure on opposition defenders to make mistakes gifting you the ball in attacking positions, and it turns out it works pretty well in FIFA 21 too.

Too well according to EA who have now nerfed the Team Press d-pad tactic. Now players can only activate it for 20 seconds having previously been able to keep it going for 20.

Further nerfs to pressing come in the form of increased Stamina cost for high press tactics, with Overload Ball Side, Constant PRessure, Pressure on Heavy Touch, and Preasure on Possession Loss all affected.

Ping Bar improvements

One change found deep in the patch notes is stated improvements to the way the Ping Bar, a visual indiction of your connection to the server in online games, displays your connection to the server.

From now the bars will represent these pings:

• • 0 to 30 milliseconds now show five green bars.
  • 31 to 59 milliseconds now show four green bars.
  • 60 to 99 milliseconds now show three orange bars.
  • 100 to 124 milliseconds now show two orange bars.
  • 125 or more milliseconds now show one red bar.

FIFA 21 Title Update #5 full patch notes

Gameplay

Made the following changes:

• Increased the distance that a ball can travel after making contact with the foot or leg of the defender during a blocking animation.
• Decreased the amount of time the Team Press D-Pad Tactic can be active for, before requiring cooldown, from 30 seconds to 20 seconds.
• Increased the impact of the Overload Ball Side D-Pad Tactic on in-game Stamina.
• Increased the impact of the Constant Pressure, Pressure On Heavy Touch, and Pressure On Possession Loss Tactics on in-game Stamina.

Addressed the following issues:

• When requesting a shot, players would sometimes take longer than intended to shoot.
• Addressed some cases of user controlled players performing an automatic lunge animation while the Pass Block Assistance setting was set to Off.
• The Bridge Skill Move could not be performed when playing with specific button remappings.
• Addressed various visual only issues during some post-match relegation and promotion playoff scenes.
• When a foul occurs which would result in a yellow card, but it is not granted due to the referee calling for an advantage, the offender could commit another yellow card offence and be shown a straight red card by the referee.
• In rare situations, a collision between the goalkeeper and the opponent’s player could have resulted in the goalkeeper being knocked into the goal with the ball, resulting in an own goal.
• These instances will now be treated as fouls.
• In rare instances, a goalkeeper would perform a diving save animation earlier than intended, followed by another diving save.
• The initial save animation did not impact the following save animation.
• In some situations, a requested goalkeeper throw could result in an own goal if the pass was aimed at a receiver too close to the goal.
• The Player Rating would sometimes take too long to update after a player scored a goal.
• Following a pass by the goalkeeper in the Advanced Practice scenario, the user could lose control of the player.
• In some House Rules match types against the CPU AI, the in-game difficulty level did not match the selected setting.
• When performing a celebration that involves picking up the ball out of a goal and running back to the center of the pitch, the celebrating player could go through the goal frame and net.
• Sometimes, Skill Moves were not being performed if they were immediately requested after the ball carrier finished turning.
• In rare instances, a player could pause a match immediately after another player’s set piece.
• Removed an unintended Skill Game from appearing during pre-match loading.
• Addressed a rare stability issue that could potentially occur during gameplay.

FIFA Ultimate Team

Made the following change:

• Club Anthem and Crowd Chant Items can now have their audio previewed on the Bidding Options screen.

Addressed the following issues:

• Adjusted Division Rivals matchmaking logic for Placement Matches in order to further avoid potential Skill Rating disparity when matchmaking.
• Some Ball Items did not display shadows in-game.
• When trying to access the Objectives screen through the button shortcut on the Team Event screen, after the Team Event finished, an error message would appear and the game would transition to the FUT menu.
• When returning to the FUT menu after viewing an Objective that was close to expiring, the Time Remaining counter and Take Me There button shortcut were sometimes not displaying.
• Some Celebration Items did not display their correct names.
• Button sound effects did not trigger in the Co-Op Lobby and the Co-Op widget.
• Juan Roman Riquelme’s Player Item Bio did not display correctly.
• The Community Tab incorrectly referred to Tiers as Levels.
• Adjusted the background of the FUT Store tile.
• Loan Player Items did not display a loan indicator icon on the Season Progress screen.
• Some placeholder text was present in Live FUT Friendlies.
• Updated FUT Pack art on the RIvals Mastery Objective.

Career Mode

Addressed the following issues:

• During negotiation scenes, two incorrect and identical manager models were being used.
• When entering the Transfer Hub through a Loan Offer in Notifications and selecting the appropriate player, the Accept option was missing.
• The Achieve a High Finish Board Objective incorrectly displayed as the Qualify For Europe Board Objective.
• The Golden Boot Award News story sometimes displayed incorrect text.
• A News headline could sometimes incorrectly swap the club name’s position with a player name.
• The Jump Into Sim option was incorrectly labeled as Sim Rest Of Match in the in-game pause menu.
• When playing with a real player in Player Career, Harry Armstrong’s model did not display correctly.
• The Player Of The Match was sometimes missing from a specific post-match scene.
• When a Youth Player became unsettled, two emails would be sent to the player controlled manager instead of one.

Volta Football

Made the following changes:

• Adjusted length of pre-match loading screens to give players more time to read the information presented.

Addressed the following issues:

• Addressed additional cases of players finding a Squads match and being presented with an “Unable To Setup Match” error message.
• When cycling through views in the My Squad screen, the Avatar portraits could display an incorrect background, making it hard to read the information presented.
• When entering VOLTA FOOTBALL, the News tile was not automatically selected.
• Addressed visual corruption that could occur when playing a Real Madrid player in Featured Battles.
• Some Star Players displayed an incorrect OVR.
• Some clothing items were displaying incorrectly on Avatars during certain scenes.
• In My Squad, the Team Chemistry description was cut off.
• Updated textures for multiple clothing items.

Pro Clubs

Made the following changes:

• Group, Team, and Camera celebrations can now be performed.
• The camera will now slightly zoom towards the goalscorer when celebrating.

Addressed the following issues:

• Saved Custom Tactics and Game Plans did not apply in-game.
• The Directed Runs indicator found in the FIFA Trainer Settings was not visible during a match.
• Incorrect commentary referencing Online Seasons could sometimes play during a match.

General, Audio, and Visual

Made the following changes:

• Updated how the Ping Bars display in online Match Lobbies to be more representative of the in-game experience:
  • 0 to 30 milliseconds now show five green bars.
  • 31 to 59 milliseconds now show four green bars.
  • 60 to 99 milliseconds now show three orange bars.
  • 100 to 124 milliseconds now show two orange bars.
  • 125 or more milliseconds now show one red bar.
• This is a visual change only and does not impact the online gameplay experience.
• Added new menu tiles for the upcoming FIFA Playtime tool which will be available at a later date.
  • FIFA Playtime is a new suite of tools that enable players to have more control and visibility over how they play, and can be accessed through the main menu, FUT, and VOLTA FOOTBALL.
  • Follow the EA SPORTS FIFA Tracker (http://ea.com/EASFTracker) to learn when FIFA Playtime will become activated.
• Added 25 Player Star Heads.
  • These will only be available following a Server Release. Please follow the EA SPORTS FIFA Tracker for updates on when these will be live in-game.
• Updated some badges, kits, and ad boards.

Addressed the following issues:

• In some instances, players could be missing from celebration scenes following a Penalty Kick Shootout.
• In Online Seasons, the in-game Substitution selection was not always the same as the pre-game Team Sheet.
• Updated typo found in EA Tracks.
• Updated some album art in EA Tracks.
• Incorrect commentary could occur in Online Friendlies matches when one player failed to secure the series victory.
• Addressed an instance of missing audio during a handshake scene in Kick Off.
• The CONMEBOL Libertadores competition had an incorrect home and away schedule for some fixtures.
• In rare instances, a match could load without the appropriate textures.
• When browsing players through the Club Transfers screen, the Weak Foot and Skill Move Star Ratings were not displaying correctly.
• Various stability issues.
• The Switch To Goalkeeper control was not listed in the Basic Controls menu.
• Addressed some instances of audio cutting out during a match.
• When performing Cristiano Ronaldo’s signature celebration, other players would use his voice sample.