Rematch's first major patch is here, but there's no sign of crossplay yet

While I'm admittedly not grinding quite as hard as I was in its opening couple of weeks, I'm still very much enjoying dipping into the occasional game of Rematch. Ball-hogging teammates aside, it's a rapid, slick, and stylish take on a soccer sim that's a real breath of fresh air compared to my usual vice, EA FC. Now, Rematch's first major update is here, and while it sadly doesn't deliver the main feature everyone's been calling for in crossplay, it does make loads of fixes and improvements - plus, it finally lets me customize my controller inputs. Huzzah.

While Sloclap has peppered Rematch with several hotfixes since its launch last month, this is the first proper patch for the game. As mentioned, controller remapping has arrived - albeit in a "quite basic" form, for the time being. The patch notes explain that this remapping feature "doesn't allow [you] to create combinations of inputs," but basic, one-button commands can now be tinkered with.

While some players have found Rematch's preset control schemes fairly easy to pick up, I'm one of the many that have found it a bit confusing and awkward. Likely due to two decades of playing FIFA, PES, and EA FC, I've found it hard to unwire my brain from the typical soccer sim control schemes - now, I should be able to align things a little better. This was one of the main sticking points keeping Rematch off of my personal list of the best sports games around right now, so I'm glad it's been addressed.

Elsewhere, another major pain point has been tackled - goalkeeper hit detection. Sloclap says it's "fixed an issue where the ball would be deflected instead of being caught by the goalkeeper in certain situations: the ball speed was not correctly evaluated to decide whether to catch or deflect." It also promises more improvements in this area are arriving soon.

A colorblind mode has also arrived. As of today, you'll be able to change the kit colors of teams prior to kick off to make them clearer. Sloclap says it will extend this feature to the entire screen in a later update.

While I won't go through every single bug fix here (you can consult the patch notes for that) I'll highlight a couple of important ones also arriving with this major update. It should now be easier to body block opponents thanks to a fix that targets player contact physics. Sloclap has added another layer of polish to various animations, including volley shots and diving. Shots blocked or intercepted by an outfield player's defense stance now have "a wider angle" which should mean less annoying instances of it bouncing straight back to the attacking player. On top of all that, fixes have been rolled out to stop camera jitter during celebration sequences.

Despite all the positive additions and changes, Rematch's first big update sadly doesn't feature crossplay. Knowing this may disappoint players, Sloclap says in the patch notes: "Please remember that some major priorities like netcode or crossplay are the work of specialists in their domains (gameplay replication, server infrastructure, user interface…), and that we can't put all our resources on these topics to make them happen faster - that being said we are making very good progress on these topics, more news soon!"

For some more amazing soccer experiences, check out our best football games list. To get the edge, you can also pick up one of the best PC controllers from our expert guide.

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