2018 FIFA World Cup Russia Content Update Available Now, For FIFA 18

wow!!! are we surprised or what!!??

Honestly, that's more than I expected considering how quiet they have been about it.
I know I'll have a ton of fun with this over the summer!

Sweet! Time to add FIFA back to the shuffle. I always love some World Cup action.
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Just hope they keep the nations already in FIFA with their current kits as well as the new World Cup kits and hopefully they'll add qualifying kits for the nations that aren't already in FIFA (Korea/Croatia/Nigeria etc) because there will be plenty of shorts clashes. I really hope in World Cup mode you can use Portugal's Teal Away kit from EURO 2016/World Cup Qualifiers.

It is a lot of content for a "free" DLC. But it's hugely disappointing to not have all national teams. WC 2010 was the best sports game of all time. But those were the days before FUT and micro-transactions.

The stadiums sound great.
The whole "creating a custom tournament" thing is pretty basic and obvious and not worth bragging about tho lol.

This is really disappointing and just another example of FUT/online having priority over the offline gamer. We get no qualifying and only get about 1/4 of teams that were in qualifying.
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It's great that they'll have all stadiums and everything for free (if you own FIFA 18), but this just clarifies one major thing to me: yearly iterations are nothing more than $60 DLC and roster updates with minor gameplay tweaks. The only reason I say this is because the World Cup editions used to be standalone games that showed improvements on the previous year's FIFA release and served as a preview of gameplay additions for the subsequent FIFA. Now it's just all thrown together in DLC and I feel STRONGLY that instead of releasing FIFA 19 as a standalone title (for example), they could very well do it by just releasing DLC that includes whatever gameplay and roster tweaks they're planning to add.

Shweeeeeeeeeeeeet.  Just happened to pop FIFA back in this weekend and was lamenting the club season coming to an end.  Now I have an excuse to play a few more months!

You are absolutely right in my opinion. It really bums me out that there will not be a standalone game. Bums me out enough that I believe they just lost a customer. You can't convince me that they'd take a loss profit wise in making a standalone game. I am sure there are other factors to this decision but free DLC means nothing to me.

This is great news to me, I would of bought the game, can t believe it's free as dlc! I was wondering though if you could edit or replace a team?  USA didn't make it in but it would be nice if I could replace somebody with them seeing that they're still in the game.

Free stuff? I take it!
I wouldn't buy a new game, so I was really hoping this would be released EXACTLY like this, hehe. Couldn't be happier.

Yes you can replace international teams that are already on FIFA 18
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It was always gonna be free. EA couldn't justify making the FUT kids mad about having to pay for another game, just to have to pay even more on packs. And that is why we were never going to get a new standalone game.
EA has too many gamers hooked on paying hundreds/thousands of dollars on a game they already paid $60 for.

I guess my only question as someone who only plays FIFA for career mode, will the world cup teams become available in that mode with the official kits or are we still stuck with only a handful of licensed teams.
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Completely disappointed. These games have been in my library since 2002. Not being able to work through qualifying and missing about 3/4 of the teams in the game.

I'm afraid this will prevent this game going into the EA Access Vault anytime soon, which will be highly disappointing.

Pros -
it’s coming to the switch ( I assumed it wouldn’t)
It’s got World Cup editor - also a surprise
12 stadiums!
Cons
No qualification??
No classic teams. (No surprise as legends are saved for loot boxes or however FUT works)

No Captain your Country mode... Sad, that was my favorite way to play.

I'm with those that are disappointed in not having qualifying. I loved taking random teams through each of their qualification campaigns. I suppose it's nice for those that already have FIFA and just want a World Cup diversion but I'm the opposite. World Cup games have been my preferred soccer/footy option since the '98 edition. FIFA was the diversion when I'd get bored with the international squads (which was usually after 2-3 years).
Doubt I'll be getting this. Or at least not until the price drops around the time 19 comes out. For those that have 18 and get it free, I'm happy for you. In the meantime, I might need to go grab WC14 and fire up my PS3 again...

Is it bad that I was ready to do a modified FIFA World Cup in June with England as the host since there are tons of EPL stadiums in the game? Heck it could have happened if it wasn’t for the bribes!
FIFA World Cup England 2018!

Haha I actually did this last year. I really had a blast and was thinking about doing it this year but I’m going to hold off and wait for the update now.

exactly....

This. This is my chief concern. I sure hope we won't have to start a new career to incorporate the extra national teams. Anyone hear any news about this?

Based on the past experience with me starting a career mode when the first game came out- some of the 3rd kits were not available until I restarted the career over from the beginning.

As far as qualifying not being incorporated the qualifying already existed in the career mode but I don't believe this is really just the stadiums, kits, and boots with updated rosters for the 32 teams in the tourney. Unfortunately that means that the updates with the exceptions of boots which can be purchased probably won't fall into any current career modes so it will be just like the Women's World Cup mode they had in the last game.

I'm not sure, but I don't think the extra national teams will be available in career mode. They'll probably be only available in the world cup mode. Why would you continue playing with national teams in your career mode when the world cup mode is available?

Because "schedules". It's kind of a storyline when it's into the career, with the world cups, friendlies, qualifiers and continental cups. Even if presentation sucks.
And I agree that the new teams will most probably not be present in career mode, because it would require the main game to have a new db which would unutilize any existing saved game.

I've created a petition here for the game to fully feature all teams and qualifying.
Please help by signing and sharing.
https://www.change.org/p/electronic-arts-ea-sports-please-create-a-stand-alone-title-or-full-update-for-world-cup-2018-content-71240eb2-aaa8-427c-8de8-e5c5fb8e177d?recruiter=25060508&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_campaign=share_petition

Do you think though (maybe I missed it earlier) that if our CM had a WC tournament set up after qualifying, that we can recreate this within the WC DLC? So teams in the DLC won't be available in CM but existing teams in Fifa 18 would be available to use in WC. While not ideal, if I go through the hassle of qualifying China in my CM, it would be nice to be able to play the tournament twice, once through the original game and its blander presentation, and once through the new game with the stadia, pomp and or circumstance.

Just FYI. You will not be able to pre-download, it will arrive through the normal title update process. The file size is 5.6GB for Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC. It weighs in at 1.3GB for Nintendo Switch.

Here's a gameplay vid in case anyone wants to see: https://www.gamespot.com/videos/2018-fifa-world-cup-russia-update-gameplay-germany/2300-6444117/
And another vid and a few screeshots: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/esports/article-5779191/Watch-England-lift-Russia-2018-World-Cup-FIFA-18s-new-mode.html

The 2014 standalone game that they released for only PS3 and Xbox 360 was really good. Sad that it seems they won't be releasing stand alone games going forward. I'd definitely buy it, as I skipped FIFA this year. This update is missing the best parts of that game.
First, you could pick basically any nation in the world and play from the very first qualifying rounds. Want to try to take Antigua & Barbuda to the World Cup? You could start in the first round of CONCACAF qualifying against another small Caribbean nation and climb your way up the rounds.
The other feature I really liked was the qualifying challenges. There were about 30 moments (I think) from the qualifying rounds from around the world that you had to recreate to unlock some collectibles like kits and balls. One example was the US snow game vs. Costa Rica. Those were a lot of fun to mess around with.

I'll try it out but gameplay will still be terrible and pay-to-get Icons will rule the day.:brickwall

All of those things are why I played the World Cup games every year. THey were mong the best FIFA games ever made. That none of that stuff makes it into what is essentially just a themed World Cup tournament mode is why I won't be playing. To be honest, I'd almost rather go back to the Brazil game and play that qualification mode again.
Shame. Would've been cool. I was waiting to buy FIFA to see what the World cup mode had. I won't be buying it now.

Update is currently available on Xbox One, Switch, and PS4. Downloading for me.

I understand this was free (to drive people to the FUT portion). But this update/content is a joke. This is the last FIFA game I ever buy. I'm tired of how they handle everyone who isn't a FUT player.

Haven’t had the opportunity to play yet. Would greatly appreciate it if you could elaborate.

Its a re skin of the women's tourney mode with a link to fut on the menu.

Ughhhh. I’ll reserve judgement until I play, but if that’s true, that’s absolutely terrible.

I’d like to know if there are new trophies/achievements that come along with the WC update.

Well, I jumped the gun a bit. They've done a bit more with it than just a 1:1 re-skin. But its not what I want, and not what I'm sure many others wanted.
I want to be able to qualify. You can't. It just tourney mode. They've added some new songs and everyone has real kits. New graphics for menus. There doesn't appear to be any new commentary. You can't qualify or anything other than what you can do in the current tourney mode that was already in the game. You can play the actual groups or swap some teams out. They added a sim thing to handle how real group games are played off set and try to show real time updates. But overall its pretty disappointing. I'd rather go back and play 14 or 10 on the PS3/360 than this.

There are not. Free updates like this rarely add that.

Pulisic finally has a face scan....in the World Cup mode. Unfortunately it doesn’t also apply to the base game. This is stupid.

So disappointing -
The editor is just the ability to add a handful of teams and no qualification.
You don’t get to select a 23 man squad - you are stuck with the bloated generic squad which will effectively kill this mode for most people - the whole point of the World Cup is to select 23 players and use that squad efficiently and deal with suspensions and injuries.
Having a 30+ generic squad is just disappointing.
When I say generic it’s real names it’s just a generic selection of English players- England for example is a bloated mess of a squad.
This mode would be cool if you pick your own squad.... Bring Zlatan out of retirement for Sweden....
Take your fave young player and drop him into the national squad etc...
Deal with suspensions etc...
Also very disappointed with edit tournament and lack of “road to World Cup” option.

Is the World Cup mode a patch or some sort of DLC? In other words I'm currently at 1.08 and will I have to 'go up' to get the WC mode?
Thanks.

I don't understand why they haven't at least reduced the squads to the 23 selected to the World Cup only. Aren't all squads announced already? I won't call this a game breaker, but it hurts immersion a lot.

Exactly, precisely the reason why I was going to maybe buy FIFA18 this summer for the World Cup mode but chose not to. I think we're even better off all working together to update the squads in the 2014 World Cup game. Who cares if it's set in Brazil.

I don’t believe all of the squads have been finalized. I’m hoping EA finalizes the rosters when they’re all done.
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This is likely the case. In the standalone iterations of this game, they would release an update after the squads were announced.

So you can only play this mode as part of a tournament offline right ?
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The world cup teams aren't available from kick off mode ?
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I'm confused as to why EA would bother adding scanned faces to the game but only making them available in the WC mode. The updated faces aren't available for non-WC modes.
Pretty weird.

There is an online tournament option from the main WC menu. Right below the bit *** FUT option. You can also do online friendlies.

Is the update mandatory ?
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Yeah I think the squads have to finalized by June 1st? I also hope they're updated because many teams don't even include some players that were selected.

You can prevent the update by not being online while playing fifa.

Man I always want the updated squads
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Is there any way to select all teams and host like a cpu vs cpu tourney without simming? I tried but it says I have to control on of the teams. Is there any work around?

If you're on consoles, shamefully not.
If you're on PC, modifying sideselect.big might work (it worked in past iterations), but I have no idea of how to do it.

Popped it in for a minute just to check it out- as someone who really enjoys different kits and boots I was disappointed to find that there was not an edit player option on the DLC as you have to go into the FWC section of the menu. I also noticed and hope they add them closer to the WC but no new boots that have been advertised for over a month now. Hopefully this gets added to truly embrace the World Cup atmosphere

You can just pick one team and sim all the games.

This guy I played can never show his face in Spain.

Free update but a lazy one. No road to WC or even qualifying. Isolated a lot of people who's nation wasnt involved.

Does anyone use a team other than Brazil? Jeez. That’s all I’m running against.

Do the updates to kits and teams apply to them outside of the mode? Or does career mode get none of the new stuff?
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The base FIFA 18 game is untouched. This is treated as a full standalone where you select World Cup option and it’s entirely separate from the main game.

Neither are the stadiums. So dumb!

From what I understand, the EA was only allowed to use the stadiums in World Cup mode because of copyright. The kits are probably under copyright as well. I don't know why the face scans other than Salah and Griezmann can't be used in any other modes though.

They have licenses for most of the WC national teams. "Copyrights" for kits couldn't be an issue for them.

I just played one game Brazil vs Germany lost 1 - 0 after updater on Legendary default sliders. Seem pretty fun and good. probably because I haven't played in a month or so. I will start world cup mode now though and play some friendlies with friends.
we should start a OS world cup tournament and draft teams

ha .. that's the first team I selected! Subbed out Jesus for Firmino
if you want to counter Brazil online.. use Germany... and if you don't like that then use France Spain or Belgium .. Brazil is fun to play with

Noticed that Poland's home kit has white shorts, surely they should be red? and Germany's away kit has green shorts, surely they should be white? Germany in all green looks stupid.

This brief review is being written with the context that we knew what we were getting, i.e. no complete standalone game. Like many others I was disappointed. Some of my finest gaming experiences have been with the past World Cup games qualifying with teams like Latvia or Ireland. I think my first World Cup game was on the SEGA Saturn. The PS3 versions were awesome (South Africa and Brazil).
• The patch level is 1.13, weighing in at 5.5 GB. The size may have been larger for me since I was still playing on 1.08.
• The update installed surprisingly fast for its size.
• The interface is ‘nice’ to use and the game looks good.
• All my franchise settings stickied in with no time spent on configuration.
• There are 17 teams that did not qualify available. More than I was expecting.
• I started out with a friendly between Brazil (me) and Canada. (I know, don’t flame me I haven’t played FIFA 18 much lately due to binging on MLB The Show and I wanted an easy time of it).
• Right from the beginning formation setup Canada ‘parked the bus’. I found this interesting.
• Gameplay didn’t seem any different, if you like FIFA 18 you’ll like this. If you don’t you won’t.
• Same for graphics.
• I did run into some sort of funky glitch; I paused the game and was looking at settings and when I came out I had this weird camera angle, it might have been goalkeeper cam. (It felt like I may have fat fingered something trying to resume the game.) I could not seem to shake loose out of this although that is something I never mess with and am not familiar with. At one point my keeper was way out of the box as well. As it was getting late and I had seen enough I quit and went to bed.
All in all, this met or exceeded my modest expectations. Well worth the price!

Brazil in a 424 on all out attack is crazy fast.
Spain, Portugal, or Belgium would be my counters. Bottom line, though, you cant outrun Brazil.
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Of all teams to get wrong, Germany? Their play testers were probably all playing Brazil and no one ever noticed the other teams.

This clip makes me miss Clive Tyldesley and Andy Townsend announcing the international games. I always loved the different atmosphere brought by the change in announce teams.

This is the last EA game I buy. And I love FIFA.
But Origin is unbearable. Mine just won't load. It logs in but the home page won't open, so I can't access anything. I'm having this problem for days. Yesterday I downloaded the offline installer, reinstalled everything, cleaned the cache and only after almost 2 hours refreshing, Origin client's home page miraculously loaded.
My biggest mistake was turning the computer off to resume the download today. Now Origin won't load the home page at all, no matter what I do. I'm stuck in the middle of the download. This software is the biggest pile of garbage I had to deal in my whole life. As long as EA keeps it mandatory to play and download their games, I'm never buying them again, that's it.
BTW, my download size was only 3.9 GB, for whatever reason.

Love the update but the rosters are WAY off. Argentina’s squad has players that aren’t on the World Cup roster. Does anyone know how to bring an edited roster into WC mode. It wont let me after I fix the National squads in the main menu. Annoying.

Most WC squads so far are preliminary lists. Some teams are confirming their final 23 man squads today and others throughout the next few days. I'm hoping before the start of the actual World Cup that EA will do a roster update.
Speaking of the rosters, is there a way to have more than 7 subs per match for WC Mode? I don't see any option to change it in the Game Settings.

Griezmann and Salah have got their new faces already but there will be a squad update on Friday for us folks who have console's.
PC users can download this (it includes all 46 faces from the DLC).
mediafire.com/file/wsyomwn054pjyzr/World_Cup_DLC_Faces.zip/file
and follow this guide soccergaming.com/index.php?threads/how-to-make-the-wc-faces-available-in-career-mode.6465444/

Sure would of been nice to have qualification.

This update is an absolute joke. I thought FIFA went to a new level when it released the stand-alone World Cup game in 2010. It was great to have access to EVERY country, to be able to qualify as ANY country, and be able to create custom 32-team tournaments. The soundtrack to the 2010 World Cup game was fantastic, the stadiums and atmosphere was great, and the elevated enthusiasm commentary for WORLD CUP games was better in my honest opinion with andy townsend and clive tyldesley than the more subdued Martin Tyler.
Then the 2014 World Cup game came out and I thought it was fantastic. Constant updates and downloads available leading up to June/July, great qualifying campaign feature, rock solid soundtrack, and still good commentary. Graphics and overview where good too.
This 2018 "update" World Cup Game by FIFA is a complete cop-out and a slap in the face to a significant number of FIFA people.
I'll always buy FIFA because of the licensing superiority it has over PES, and the career mode which is great for buying/selling players and all the different leagues.
But... If you TRULY want a great experience playing international soccer, then PES is the ONLY way to go. UPDATED KITS and SQUADS which are easy to download and apply through sites like PES Universe, the game play is SLOWER, BETTER, and MORE FLUID instead of worrying about 1,000,000 different FIFA Slider Settings, and the commentary is adequate enough with Beglin and Drury. Not having the World Cup Stadiums, and a lack of a true World Cup atmosphere, are big negatives with PES, but frankly the gameplay, true kits, and MORE INTERNATIONAL TEAMS makes up for it.
FIFA has really taken a step back, and I hope the backlash from a lot of soccer fans out there will force FIFA to at least re-consider some of the great features/gameplay it once had.

I'd like to think EA's FIFA team can't go any lower than this shameful insult to the World Cup and the legacy of the wonderful 2010 game, but I thought the same thing after FIFA 17. I am seriously concerned about the future of this series I used to love so much. FUT is a poisonous cancer that has ruined on the best video games there was. I am dreading what FIFA 19 will be.

In addition to no qualifying and additional kits, the update also automatically all club squads to default. I downloaded the latest squads and this morning when I continued my World Cup gameplay, the rosters were again reset to default.

And to think I was pissed when they only released the 2014 World Cup game on the previous generation instead of current gen. I'd take a full 2018 game on the 360 vs this junk. I played through the World Cup with Germany yesterday and today and now it's like "welp, nothing else to do."
Tis a shame that EA Sports has a very unhealthy "FUT" obsession. :34:

https://kotaku.com/eas-fifa-18-world-cup-patch-is-a-nice-surprise-1825671486
Remind me never to read Kotaku again. Seriously, they were pleasantly surprised that the update was free. Like EA was gonna charge the UT kids money just to even access a World Cup UT mode. Cmon. And it being free more than makes up for the lack of qualifying and all the other stuff? I can't with this bull****.

I'm surprised Kotaku staff was able to pull themselves away from their 540th playthrough of Witcher 3....

Germany World Cup Away Shorts are WHITE not GREEN
Russia World Cup Away Shorts are BLUE not WHITE
There are way too many short clashes
Also every time you update domestic squads then play world cup, all domestic squads are set back to default.

The real question here is if they did a full cost/benefit analysis of earnings from FUT and earnings from a standalone game, and came away with FUT earning more money(which is plausible)

And Russia's change "blue" is almost black on my TV. And the socks should be red not white.
Switzerland should have white shorts for home and red for their change kit.
Serbia should have white socks for the home kit.
Colombia's change kit should be orange, not redish.
As was stated in an earlier comment, Poland's shorts are wrong on both. Should be red on the home and white on the change.
Mexico should have white socks for their change kit (not green).

But those things don't make people buy FUT points, so who cares, right.

Stop complaining, at least you're not denied to even download the update by EA's atrocious DRM software as I am.
I feel robbed.

Hell after I finish this World Cup, I'm never playing it again as it automatically resets all team rosters to default so if I'm gonna play international games, I'm just gonna play with the nations already in then redownload all the squads and work on next season's squads since I'm not getting FIFA 19 and on the EA Forum they aren't fixing the week 1 Bundesliga glitch in Tournament Mode.

I'm done with FIFA it has become the Fortnite of Sports games...nothing but kids and teenagers spending third parents money...I have been playing FIFA for 15 years and it's so sad it has come to this.
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I'm sure EA has past stats and made decisions accordingly. This is a small update and one that aims to pretty much give a feel for the upcoming World Cup. How many people are going to play this mode enough times to justify even adding it in the first place? Beyond that, while I agree that more depth to the mode would be ideal, where would the stopping point be before breaching into standalone territory? Qualification? Stadiums for lesser known nations? Regardless, people would complain about something and still, statistically speaking, only a minority would actually go through the grind of qualification. Example: Brazil/Uruguay/Argentina/Colombia played 18 matches just to qualify for the World Cup Finals. I'd love to see EA's stats on how many players even play 18 games offline, against not so popular teams at that.

To your point it was mentioned from the outset that they wouldn't have qualifying so this shouldn't be a surprise. I think if they did include it I probably would have given it a go. But like you mentioned for this free update the aim seemed to be to give more of a feel of the WC vs what others have said comes with the basic game.
To that end I was hoping that I'd be able to re-create my base game world cup groupings in the WC download. However, I think what I am hearing is that we can set up a custom tournament with international teams in the cup as well as the 17 additional teams but say a team like Bolivia, who was included in the base 18 game but not in the add-on WC DLC can't be added to a custom tournament (?). However if I am wrong then for me it may be worth getting online again, and updating to the latest version. Then I'd play out the real Cup and my custom cup and it cost me download time. My other issue is that I'm a few updates behind because I got the game playing the way I want; so updating means more than just the free content but retuning some of my settings again (though Matt10's team always comes through for me).

I love the fact that all of the WC presentation elements were included on the Switch version. But also makes me wonder why the Switch version didn’t/couldn’t include Premier League, LaLiga, Bundesliga, and MLS specific presentation elements.

I think some of the people very angry with this update are ones who actually thought they were releasing a World CUP 2018 like their previous world cups games for free with a download. Why would anyone expect that? In the past they release the World Cup games and everyone complained they released a separate game to get make more money... now they give you something for free and still complain that it's not enough like the game they paid for in past. I never expected anything special with this update. I just expected just like a normal fifa update accept they would be adding world cup options to it. this is about what I expected and it's nice to have in a free update and I don't even like EA. lol

and they did lay out more or less what they were going to provide, so it should not have been much of a surprise. The team rosters and maybe some of the uniform colors may get corrected with updates too.
I'm fine with what they are providing; my only issue is that I like my game play now, and is it worth going back online to get the free content if my gameplay gets messed up.

Does anyone have any idea whether the scanned faces are going to be added to CM this Fifa?

The World Cup edition were my favorite games. I could care less about having "all 32 world cup teams" as if that were a lot. Used to get all the nations. Used to be able to play the full road to the World Cup with any country big or small. That's what made it fun. Why are sports video games so much worse than they were a generation ago? We used to have Creation Centre or whatever it was called, that's gone from FIFA games too. We don't have a good boxing or tennis game, no NCAA football (at least that has an explanation), and the games we do get have less features than before.

I just confirmed a bug.
In the group stage, the game doesn't consider head-to-head as tie-breaking criteria. I never noticed, but it seems to be the same in main game's International Cup.
For PC users that want to fix it, the error is in the file "settings.txt" in the folder dlc\FootballCompEng\data\compdata\world_cup_18 (accessing from the Legacy Viewer in Frosty).
The file has these lines:
0,standings_sort,POINTS
0,standings_sort,GOALDIFF
0,standings_sort,GOALSFOR
0,standings_sort,WINS
While it should be like this:
0,standings_sort,POINTS
0,standings_sort,GOALDIFF
0,standings_sort,GOALSFOR
0,standings_sort,H2HPOINTS
0,standings_sort,H2HGOALDIFF
0,standings_sort,H2HGOALSFOR

Well, after finally being able to play (thank you for the wait, Origin!), what jumps to my eyes:
1. Player animations are fantastic. Smooth and pleasing, I'm loving how the game plays on this mode (despite the still clueless AI). The main game, even if gameplay itself really is the same, feels clunkier now, twitchy animations. I have to find a way to mod this stuff so it works like this in the whole game, I'm loving it.
2. I liked the color filter a lot too. A bit more saturated than Premier League's I guess, but it's pretty. The entire game could look like this, I wouldn't mind. (Edit: I just realized it's the same as the MLS, FWIW)
3. No player lock. Why on Earth?! I can understand missing the qualifiers, as it would be hard work, but why also scrapping Captain Your Country out? We can have player lock in regular Manager Career already, this would be as hard as putting the option in the menu, nothing more! I'm really upset, I would be playing this mode a ton if the option to lock into a single player was there. Missing this feature makes absolutely no sense.

It doesn't seem like an oversight that the new scanned faces aren't available outside of the WC mode. The game probably treats those as a new player database only available in the WC mode. It's pretty stupid.

I checked on PC and can confirm, yeah, there's a separated database for the World Cup, it doesn't communicate with the regular game in any way.
Nothing would stop EA from copying the new faces to both databases if they wanted it, though.

That's the curse of MUT/FUT (ultimate teams) & virtual cards and licensing. Majority of the gaming revenue is generated from virtual cards in games like Madden, FIFA etc. which are dependent on licensing. Thus a lot of smaller devs are left behind as they have no chance of competing with likes of EA in getting licenses, and who will play a variation of ultimate team with made up player cards? It's a vicious cycle and that's why you see sports gaming dominated and monopolised by EA and to a lesser extent 2K.

Can I just say, at the risk of sounding ungrateful for "free" content, the presentation is seriously miles and miles behind the 2014 and 2010 World Cup games. Those games focused on the national team managers on the sideline, fans in the crowd, and they even had cut scenes showing crowds watching on big screens from the nations involved in the matches. The atmosphere was off the page in those games.
Sadly, the current product is built for UT kids (broken record, I know), with players who go through these matches like zombies, skipping all cut scenes and replays, probably barely enjoying themselves, playing 50 matches a day, etc.

World Cup Russia: A pitiful attempt to create something everyone is looking forward to. A free offer for anyone who loves FUT, and arcade football. But it's free and who will not try it ?. Ok, that was not for me, but can I remove it, no!. (it has always been the same attitude with updates). To me, it's this approach that says more about EA's tacit customer service and arrogance towards their users than instead of, as some think it's a great deal to give it away for free. But I think most people are aware of EA gives nothing away for free, only indirectly and with the purpose of another earnings. But it does not get any better, on the contrary. FIFA 19 will be the last release that will be on a physical medium. EA shakes up, CL, more stadiums and leagues, and if you're crazy about the game, it's only good. But I have the feeling that it is at the expense of game play. I am convinced that EA could create your simulation game if they wanted to, but they will not. Attack after attack game play is based on what the majority of users want = FUT. And the defense part is a disaster not least since Frostbite came on the field,the problem is that Frostbite should get used to EA, and not vice versa . There is no structure in the game code, not least the defense section (clumsy clash, lightweight player kicks a balloon out of position, etc.) We can moan from here to eternity, and at every release we hope now it happens but it does not, and yet we buy the game again. So with a little self-esteem, which I tried to describe with the image (was removed ?!), It is our own choice, we support them and moan a circle that repeats year after year. until the man breaks out of it!. I have had 3 crash in the World Cup and had to restart the game. For me there is not a noticeable change in gameplay, can see more believe it has, ignorance is bliss or placebo ?. I think I'm starting the ps3 and playing Fifa World Cup 2010 and remember the days when EA had staff who had influence and love the game more than money.
(R.I.P you know who).

With final squads due today, any word from EA regarding a roster update?

Agreed. I'm speculating here, but like San Diego Studios for MLB, I'm sure that EA has the statistics for these things. SDS greatly reduced the length of certain cut scenes because statistics indicated that most players just skipped anyway. Note: I was a fan of at least leaving scenes in to mirror a real broadcast, thereby leaving the choice to the user, but alas more and more games are catering to casuals. That said, it is a business after all.

FOR GOD'S SAKE EA, I PROMISE I'LL NEVER SAY ONE MORE SINGLE BAD WORD ABOUT YOUR CRAPPY WORLD CUP DLC ANYMORE, BUT BRING CAPTAIN YOUR COUNTRY BACK, IT'S HALF A DOZEN LINES OF CODE, YOU'LL LOSE NOTHING!

I think it was 2K that gave/gives you the option to select “replay frequency”. Always liked having that the option.
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Kinda amazing that you can't edit a roster, save that roster, and then use that roster in the World Cup tournament.
That's a pretty basic option. It really is incredible how game companies have decided that you play their game, their way.

The match might be a team from the moon against another from Mars and Martin Tyler would still be saying every single time how he feels sorry for South America because they don't have many qualification spots. It gets kinda ridiculous after a while.
BTW, South America has 4 to 5 spots for 10 teams, it's more than enough, stop moaning.

Got a new patch on X1 a few minutes ago. Anyone else? Haven't seen it mentioned anywhere. 4GB.

Haven't seen it on the PS4. Hopefully it fixes some of the glitches and problems.

The 7-sub bench is a HUGE mistake. They didn't want to change the number of subs in the FUT so they simply ignored the fact that in the WC you can have 12 players on the bench. What a terrible mistake.
The other huge mistake is having a 40-man roster available to be used during the tournament. Again, they didn't want to limit the number of players for FUT users nor create some type of "squad selection" before the WC starts.

I'm seeing a major issue with added time. Twice I've seen added time posted as like 2 minutes and had it go on for 8-10 min for no reason. Bizarre.

I've only seen it happen when there's a lot of consecutive corners for the same team.
It doesn't make this right, anyway. There's no rule in football (not even a custom) saying a game can't be finished before a corner kick.

And what about VAR, and the 4 man substitutes in overtime?.

I didn't even expect EA to include such features, especially the VAR.

No, that was not expected. But then they should not come with their authentic game that wants to recreate a World Cup. If you are making a football game or any sport game, the first priority should be to recreate the game rules, not least up to date !. Focus is on FUT and earnings the rest is just filling. They could have created it if they wanted. VAR is not new anymore they have had time to create it, and 4 man substitute and as you mentioned 12 players available upon substitute a pretty simple adjustment. For a person like me, an authentic game is crucial to the overall experience. It is repulsive with what arrogance they do not care about such important details!.

I see little point in adding VAR to a game where the assistants never get any offside wrong. And it isn't like they would be able to see fouls that the engine wouldn't see otherwise. All I see you're asking when you talk about this is to some (possibly painfully) long cutscenes to be added.
4th sub in ET should definitely be there though.

The Roster is all over the place....

Yeah that's been a thing in football games seemingly forever. I think it's way worse in PES tho.
What I'm seeing is it'll be way past the added time and the ball will get cleared to midfield and play will continue. I had one match with 2 min added to the 1st half go legit over 10 minutes.

Totally a glitch. Haven't seen it tho.

Yes and no. Referee does not make errors of judgment in FIFA. But there is no one who forbids them to think out of the box and be inovative, or is there?, of course you could change it (sometimes, not every time, find a balance, they could just make it turn off if you do not want to use it, simply not?). The question would just be how ?. An example could be you have scored and the referee should then judge whether it is approved or not ?. If you are really naughty, they could use it as a mistake margin instead of momentum, or along with it, or other options. It's arrogant just to say that we can not make when it's part of the game and is here to stay. Yes, it takes time with VAR, but they are getting better and better. Speaking of Series A whose maybe licensed in 19?, authenticity would be inadequate if it's not part of the game, especially in Italy though there are arguments on both sides. One can not just ignore something because it does not fit In one's concept.

I’ve seen many many wrong offside calls in FIFA 18. Of course the game never acknowledges they are wrong. Hopefully missed calls will feature in 19, that would drive FUT kids insane.

I think you hit the nail on the head so to speak mentioning the momentum change as a reason they it may not be something they would add to the game unless you could also turn it off for FUT games and 'games for prizes' as I could see that crowd getting angry about a random VAR reversal. In Madden this year I was told that they removed defensive holding, more or less an off the ball foul, which happens frequently in real life, but the MUT players and online competitive players complained that it was ruining their experience. So I think EA is cautious about upsetting that crowd in general.
MLB the Show has this kind of 'missed call' system already in their game and has had it for years. Before the game you can select if you want the umpires to be perfect or if they will follow their traits and may miss some calls (I think it is mainly the strike zone). I'm still playing Madden 12 and, while poorly implemented on the CPU side, they have replay review and the cut scenes take about 30 seconds to 1 minute. So this type of thing has been implemented in other games it is just a matter of if EA chooses to do this and then of course how they add it to the game. I do think that it would be important to allow the user to turn such an option off if they didn't want to play with it. However I think once players lose goals and the chance for prizes in tournaments due to the random addition of VAR actions to the game, even if at a frequency that you'd see in real life, EA will remove the feature or dumb it down severely.

Any chance EA does a Catalogue update with the World Cup boots that are being used?? Anyone hearing anything?

Just a suggestion. During world cup team selection, control all teams. This will ensure that all teams use players only from the world cup roster. It also allows you to see the eventual champion if your team gets knocked out.

I don't play the world cup mode since it automatically resets all rosters to defualt and sets all renamed stadiums back to default.

Are you saying that if your team is eliminated you can't even simulate the rest of the tourney to see who won?

No you cannot. You can't see past the round you lost in.

EA is always finding new ways to make the game worse for offline players, incredible.

Mate, you kinda sold me on that. It could happen and maybe it would be nice. I wouldn't like to see resources going into this though instead of trying to improve gameplay and simulation aspects that I prioritize more (but they almost never work on them anyway, so whatever).
But I 100% guarantee that the crying of the FUT pre-adolescent community would be louder than a trillion vuvuzelas, and only because of this now, I still don't see it happening.

Well, I think that settles the debate I was having with myself (a far too frequent occurrence) and I'm not going online again just to get this DLC and update the main game from several versions back. I dislike that most gamemakers (not just EA) decide that if you are eliminated from a tournament, that you can't let the game play out the rest of the tournament CPU v CPU or at least view the finals. At least now I have a way to do this in The Show and Madden. But to not even simulate the tournament once you're eliminated is truly poor. I'll stick to my CM off of the internet for now. I know it is free but the things I hear about it, it isn't worth my time to download.

Nah, it's **** but it's free, still worth it. The only reason I wouldn't get it is if I had the game in a version with a different gameplay (so patch 1.08 or before) which I liked or if I had a nice PC mod installed. No updating means no squad updates. And career mode itself is untouched so at least you have nothing to lose.
You can trick the game into simulating the World Cup to the end if you pick every team in the start of the tournament and just simulate the other matches. Kind of a hassle, though.

Momentum relative to VAR is an example I agree that would be problematic to make. But if you can turn it off, What is the problem ?. VAR is and becomes a part of the game and if Intentions are "realism" it has to be introduced in some way. What I see and hear is personal attitudes to VAR, that's not the core of my debate.

Well you misread MY attitude toward VAR or other things that are in the games for my comments on how EA may view and implements these things. I'm at a loss as to how my explaining to GaloVingador that sports games (including EA Madden) have been able to implement 'error in judgment' systems such that EA Fifa should be able to do it (and as you indicated, if given the option to turn it off should make everyone happy)but that EA has, in other games, eliminated or toned down random elements to satisfy the competitive 'stick skills' crowd is interpreted as saying I don't think VAR should be in the game or should be used in the sport. In fact, re-reading my post, I don't think I give an opinion about VAR at all; rather, I focus on EA's implementation of things that the user doesn't control (like off ball fouls, and possibly use of VAR at a frequency seen in real games) and how they err more toward satisfying the stick skills base over those who prefer to see these to give the games more realism, which, maybe is just my opinion.

Yeah that's the debate as I'm on I think 1.07 and it plays nicely for me. Maybe I should just take the attitude of "In Matt and company I trust" and update to the latest game version. Oh, again, another debate I will have with myself! :)

It`s cool coach. What I'm referring to is generally attitude from some in here, I did not say specifically, your attitude, but mishaps happen I have understood your point. To me, one of EA's "problems" as for others is a strength that they use referance from the different games. Before I start a discussion with half of this forum. I understand why they do, but I see a problem when trying to combine items of football with soccer or similar. Judging what works on the one works on the second, or vice versa. Therein lies one of several of their weaknesses, the way they see "soccer". This is not soccer but futbol. But perhaps I should let the EA boss Wilson put it in his own words. Just let me add something about how little that man has contact with the vagueness, or correct the greatness of madness. And let me just add - nothing happens!
The best example EA has right now of actually delivering on this is FIFA Ultimate Team, which pulls in real world player data to move the game forward. It's gone on to become the most popular part of FIFA in recent years, and now informs the way that EA's studios think about other games – and not just sports. "What if the data doesn't come from a professional, but from what you do in your life?" Wilson asks. "What happens if the data from the virtual world starts to influence the real world? What happens if we have 20 million players playing tens of thousands of Premier League seasons on a day to day basis? What happens when managers start to look at what the community is doing? We already know that scouts in Premier League teams and NFL teams use our games stats database to think about what kinds of players they need to go and look for and how they might find or attract these players. We already know that football clubs like Man City use FIFA in their youth program to help build better football IQ among their youth players. Once you get to a point where the experience exists in the cloud and streams to every device you own – then the experience is governed not by the local processing power but by how big the screen is, the control format, and how much time do you have to play – that's when you start to see a shift in gaming experiences."

For anyone interested, I was playing FIFA 18 today and decided to give in to the World Cup fever and played my first time in the Russia 2018 mode, had a few kickoff matches Russia vs Iceland, Brazil vs Germany etc. One thing I noticed is they have now updated the kit numbers for the teams I saw, I noticed this was a big problem and something that made me not want to play my own world cup, but all the numbers for the 23 man squads are now out so you won't have any starters with numbers 24+. Don't take my word on it but it was accurate with FIFA's team page for Russia, Iceland, Brazil, Germany, Switzerland, France, Poland, Australia, Argentina and Saudi Arabia. They are the only teams I looked at while playing matches but they are all correct.

Can somebody tell me how to swap a team that didn’t qualify into a new tournament? I can’t seem to figure it out.
Thanks.

Press "down" on the team select screen. The options are "Qualified" and either "non-qualified" or "rest of world" can't remember which.

Your right it's no-qualified.
I don't get this game at all. You release the rosters with this 12 subs things. Fix the rosters and what did you think people were going to do. Not put those players back in the line. Because you let them. I'm so tired of seeing Oscar and David Luiz on the Brazil squad and others

I agree. They should just have the official rosters for the World Cup squads, at least for online play. And it's equally as baffling that they include certain players on the reserves while omitting others (like Benzema). It makes no sense. They should go all-in one way or another.

Wish they would put this in EA access.
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The Wc update on pc has transformed the game. Fifa 18 on pc has some of the worst fifa gameplay and scripting i have ever seen in a fifa game. I have been using gameplay mods and editing the locale.ini the make the game better.
EA have made a real mess of fifa 18 on pc because of their obsession with FUT and money making match fixing(scripting)
Thankfully, the wc update finally makes the game more balanced. I am still using the mods etc.
Using the OS sliders for Run Frequency at 1/1 makes the game totally dull. I have them at 65/40.
I have the goalies at 15/15 and they still play like gods. Changing the sliders for goalies makes absolutely no difference to the way the play. Have them at 1/1 or 100/100 and it makes no difference.
I am world class mode because its harder then legendary(another ea mess) and even with Brazil im am struggling to get past the group stage. I like the game very tough.
EA scripting still kicks in big time even with the mods. For example i played as Spain and had an incredible 3-3 draw with Portugal. Next game against Iran i got whipped 3-0. Iran played like gods and i wouldnt have been allowed to score if id played for a year. Next up i beat Morocco 6-0. So EA are clearly adding some spike to the game.
Overall the game is a massive improvement with wc mode.
Dont forget, the game plays very differently on pc to console. Sliders posted here are probably for console and don't work the same on pc.
I am playing at 4k with everything maxed out and on my new 65 inch screen that adds a hdr upscale. The game looks truly amazing on pc.

Anyone else use the end-to-end camera? I've used it in previous iterations of FIFA (mostly online) and tried to stay away from it this year to keep the game feeling "fresh." Needless to say, I could only take about 20 or so online games against Brazil before going back to end-to-end. It just provides a much better view of the entire field and makes defending so much easier.

After watching the real World Cup:
1. The red-white-blue stadium lights for night games were fake news, it seems.
2. If they were gonna add only one extra song, it should have been Seven Nation Army instead of that crap.

I perceive a fairly visible difference between 46 and 48.

Sliders have like no effect since the WC update, this game was at least fun before the update. Now the CPU just swarms you, they never get called on fouls so it’s one sided and just knock you off the ball. I tried Hum/cpu margin at a 10 differential and the cpu is still beating me to balls all of the time. I have marking at a ten differential and cpu is still on me with zero openings. So I just uninstalled it, it’s not worth the frustration

Pull back out fifa world cup 2014 with 200+ teams, WTF only 49 teams at WC Fifa 2018 and a world cup roster you can't change

I really wish they would have released a full game separately. I know it's asking too much from a company that frankly doesn't care about providing an authentic product that they're proud of since it'd risk alienating their precious FUT consumers. However, I just feel like FIFA is becoming a glorified mobile game.
That one world cup song they've added makes my ears bleed and the commentary is atrocious (at least in online). They introduce every game the same (wearing national team colors, players not really knowing each other, etc...) and the absolute worst part of it is that they don't even know they're commentating a World Cup match. They refer to the home supporters and home team, even when it's a match between Brazil vs Argentina, which happens to be 99.99% of the matchups you get online.
I miss the old times when they'd release a new World Cup game with a ton of gameplay and graphics improvements, new menus, top-notch presentation, etc... Just go back and play World Cup 2006 and compare it to FIFA 06.

Is there a reason why we can't play with Ivory Coast or Bolivia in the World Cup add on?
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Yeah that is a bummer; i asked about that a while ago, as I thought the advertising indicated play as one of the 32 qualifiers or other international teams in FIFA18; from what I'm hearing instead the Db are separate and the DLC added a bunch of teams that didn't qualify and those are who you could use. I was considering replicating my career WC in the DLC but that doesn't seem feasible.

How do I use a created player on the US squad in the world cup mode??
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You can't. The World Cup squads are completely seperate and can't be freely edited like that. It's just the typical roster nonsense from EA. They want you to play FUT and then pre-order FIFA 19.

Wow, it's really exciting! Both the FIFA 18 and the new game! It's a pity that Croatia didn't win in the final but they are always the best in my heart!