Title Update 3 for FIFA 21 is out on PC now, a couple days ahead of its rollout on Xbox One and PlayStation 4. There’s a long list of changes to EA’s annual football title – and unfortunately, none of them address the perennial cheating problem that FIFA fans face on PC. However, if you’re a seasoned expert playing at the upper difficulties, this patch may have some extra mustard for you.
Specifically, EA has boosted the difficulty of the new Competitor Mode, which is a modifier available for Legendary and Ultimate difficulty levels. It’s a new feature in FIFA this year, and it gives the football game‘s AI a better command of the box of tools available to the player – when Competitor Mode is switched on, the computer-controlled team will use skill moves more effectively, and in general put up a more complex and stiffer fight against the best tactics you can throw at it.
That mode has been given a shot in the arm in Title Update 3, and EA says you can expect to see the most dramatic changes in how the AI defends against your counter-attacks. You may have gotten the ball away from them, but the CPU’s team isn’t going to let you stroll down the pitch and lob it in.
The patch also adds Hungary, Bulgaria, and Iceland to the Youth Scouting Map, so you’ll be able to look for prospects there from now on.
The rest of the patch largely amounts to tightening up some animations in Skill Move inputs and animation, a few weird misdirects in the menu system (particularly relating to Ultimate Team purchases), and stopping players from twitching creepily in the background during close-up shots of bookings.
You can read the full patch notes over at the FIFA Forums. While it’s largely ticky-tack stuff, just about every mode of the game has seen some bugs addressed or tweaks made, and hopefully we’ll continue to see support for the title over the coming year.