FIFA 23 World Cup 2022 update First Look

FIFA 23 released its much-awaited World Cup 2022 update earlier this week and if you haven’t, you can update your game to get all the new features that come with the update, and there are quite a few. The update is not paid downloadable content (DLC) but a free update for all FIFA 23 buyers. I tried the new update on my copy of FIFA 23 (PC) and here’s a quick look at all the new features and game modes on offer here.
What’s new?
On PC, the FIFA 23 game gets a new icon inside the EA Play window with the World Cup trophy on it. The game gets a dedicated tab that takes you straight to the World Cup game modes after treating you with a stunning visual of the Qatar World Cup 2022 logo.
The new World Cup modes are all nested in a dedicated tab on the main screen. (Express Photo)
EA has also mentioned that a number of other additions including new cinematics, player head scans, contextual match commentary, new songs and more are part of the update. Entering the dedicated World Cup mode, you also see a new layout for the favourite team selection screen, where users can also read up on some facts about the team they choose along with a display that shows their best result in the World Cup over the years.
Here are all the new game modes you can try out. (Express Photo)
New game modes
Ultimate Team
While I don’t play a lot of Ultimate Team, FIFA 23 has brought a number of new changes to Ultimate Team as well with the new World Cup update. These include temporary and permanent player cards that users can earn and add to their squads, as well as many other changes that will stick around till the tournament ends and after.

Check out all the new changes in the video below.
” id=”yt-wrapper-box” >
FIFA World Cup Live
The Live mode lets you play FIFA 23 immersively with the real tournament once it kicks off on November 20 this month. This mode follows real matches as they unfold during the tournament and will feature three more game modes. With featured quickplay, users will be able to pick any ongoing or past fixture of the world cup and play the match as it is/was actually played in the tournament, with elements like the team lineups taken straight from the actual matches.
FIFA World Cup Live mode matches will be best enjoyed once the tournament actually starts later this month. (Express Photo)
You can enjoy this mode either against the AI or a friend, while online quickplay lets you enjoy the mode against online friends. The ‘Your FIFA World Cup’ mode will only start once the World Cup does and will allow you to, as FIFA suggests, rewrite hory with the team of your choice. I think this will be a mode that gets more popular once the tournament progresses and more favourite teams are knocked out.
FIFA World Cup 2022 Tournament Mode
The tournament mode will feel familiar to legacy FIFA players who have played the World Cup matches in older games like FIFA 18 or FIFA 14. It lets you pick a team and go through the entire tournament.
Tournament Mode lets you quickly pick a team and compete against the AI through the group and knockout stages all the way to the final. (Express Photo)
You can sim matches that you don’t want to play and progression is also determined AI-driven progression of the group stage, the round of 16 and other stages, where other teams will also be knocked out as you progress. Players can also use this mode to organise a custom tournament to also include teams that didn’t qualify or shuffle the group stage lineups as they like.

FIFA World Cup Kick Off 
The Kick Off mode is as simple as always, allowing players to select two teams from the tournament and jump into the action right away. You can use Kick Off to play against a friend offline or simply play against the AI at a difficulty level of your choice.
Kick Off is the same as it always was, allowing users to challenge the AI or local friends in a quick game. (Express Photo)
Players can also choose to play a group stage match, the round of 16 matches, quarter-final, semi-final or the World Cup final. Elements like the commentary and pre-match and post-match cinematics will change accordingly.
Online Tournament
Similar to the regular Seasons mode of the game, the Online Tournament mode lets you play the tournament tree selecting a team and playing against random online players.
Some FIFA bugs still remain
The update does bring a lot of new game modes and features to FIFA 23, but some bugs still remain. On the PC version, the progress of the game fails to save every time you exit the game, which means you lose all tournament progress and must start over once the game is shut. Other elements like camera settings, controller settings and match settings are also reset.

There are also some minor bugs like the ball continuously spinning in hand instead of being stationary when a player scores a goal and carries the ball to the halfway line as a celebration. While this isn’t troublesome, and more of a visual glitch, the game still needs fixing on PC.