EA Sports FC 26’s first patch is here with a nerf to Low Driven Shots, and a fix for that Manager Career bug that had players abandoning the team

The early access period of EA Sports FC 26 appears to be chugging along nicely, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any issues to address. The game’s first official patch, version 1.0.2, is now live with a host of changes.

The bulk of the changes in this update affect AI players, as well as Low Driven Shots. Interestingly, some of the tweaks address feedback made all the way back in the game’s closed beta.

Update 1.0.2’s biggest change is a nerf to Low Driven Shots, making them less accurate when shooting with extreme power. Difficult to perform Driven Ground Passes have also been made less accurate, such as those taken at 180 degrees.

There are also a number of changes to the AI, particularly when attacking and positioning. Wingers will now make attacking runs into the box more often, and Wing Backs will stop dropping too deep in their own half of the pitch when their team is in possession.

The patch fixed a bug that would sometimes cause AI players to not make runs into open spaces when they should, too, and improved their “offside awareness.” One of the more amusing bugs that the patch also fixed has to do with Manager Career players leaving the team during sims. Read on below for the full change log:

Gameplay

• Tuned Low Driven Shots based on your feedback in the Closed Beta to be less accurate when shooting with an extreme amount of power.
• As part of our AI attacking updates based on your feedback, made the the following changes:
• Increased frequency of wingers making attacking runs into the box.
• Wing Backs will no longer drop too deep in their own half when their team is in possession.
• Improved teammate offside awareness.
• Addressed instances of players not making runs into open space when it could be beneficial.
• Improved positioning of players when playing with low defensive depth so that they’re not pushing too high up the pitch.
• Center Backs are now less likely to run wide when marking central attackers.
• False Backs now transition more intelligently to defense to better maintain defensive shape.
• A goalkeeper dive indicator now displays where an incoming shot is coming from.
• Changed the Camera Pan input based on your feedback and to avoid button conflicts.
• As shared on the EASFC Tracker, we’re continuing to work on Be A Goalkeeper updates to improve the gameplay experience. We’ll share more details in the near future.
• Improved cases of unexpected heavy touches when sprinting in wet weather Authentic gameplay based on your feedback.
• Improved instances of Ground Passes unexpectedly falling behind the intended receiver.
• Tuned difficult to perform Driven Ground Passes to be less accurate, for example, first time Driven Ground Passes taken at 180 degrees.
• Addressed incorrect shooting animations that sometimes occurred when attempting lace shots, resulting in unexpected behavior.

Ultimate Team

Addressed the following issues:

• Players weren’t always able to enter multiplayer gameplay after accepting a Co-Op invite.
• Player Item portraits were sometimes misaligned on the Squad screen.
• A stability issue could have occurred after completing the Onboarding and viewing your Squad for the first time.

Career Mode

Addressed the following issue:

• Players could’ve incorrectly left your club when simming through the calendar.

General audio and visual

Made the following changes:

• Updated some star heads, kits, and placeholder text/images.

Addressed the following issues:

• [PC Only] Adjusting display settings while in Borderless could have unintentionally resulted in performance loss.
• [PC Only] Addressed a few instances of controllers not recognizing inputs. We will continue to investigate this and other reported PC issues and provide updates in the near future.
• Addressed a number of stability issues that could have occurred.

FC 26 has been live for Ultimate Edition owners for several days now, but it officially goes live for everyone else tomorrow, or today if you’re on PC. We’ve put together a few guides to help you in these early days, such as our recommendations and tactics codes for the best formations, the best young players to sign in Career Mode (Wonderkids), the fastest players in EA FC 26 and more.