Interfering With Play – Tuesday 12th January 2010
Posted by Dan Bolas in Interfering With Play on Tue 12 Jan
Welcome to this week’s Interfering With Play. Before we go onto the usual PES and football gaming related topics for this week, I would like to take this opportunity to address two serious issues from the past week or so. Firstly, the tragic news surrounding the Togo national football team, and the death of backroom staff. I do not claim to have an advanced knowledge of African politics, but from the brief reading I have done on the subject I know that life is very different in that particular continent as to the rest of Europe and in particular the United Kingdom. I would like to extend my thoughts and prayers along with those of the PESGaming.com community to the families of those involved in the tragedy, and hope for a safe and peaceful remainder of the tournament. Secondly, and slightly closer to home, I hope that everyone is staying safe on the roads during this extreme weather. Whilst certain countries may be used to these kinds of conditions, I assure you the United Kingdom is not, and driving conditions have been horrific. If, like me, your job involves you spending any period of time in your motor vehicle, I urge you to stay safe and take care. Yes, these above points are not directly PES related, but sometimes a slight deviation away from the topic helps put things into perspective. With this said, lets crack on with another week of Interfering With Play.
“It’s Not Difficult”
Firstly this week, I would like to address the issue regarding difficulty of PES I touched upon last week. When playing alone in friendly matches, I usually play on professional difficulty. This is not because I struggle on Top Player, in fact its quite the opposite, I find that the opposition actually try harder to score on the Professional difficulty, and even sometimes hit hopeless long balls into the box, whereas possession and laboured build up is the name of the game on Top Player. This does mean teams commit fewer men forward and as a result it is harder to create goal scoring opportunities, but it also makes it less likely for you to concede a goal, resulting in many 0-0 draws.
Following my comments last week, I believe I am not alone in this suggestion, as many gamers also believe that this is the truth. If you are finding Top Player too easy, try and have a drop back to professional and see how you go. It does however drill home the issue that Konami must address the difficulty settings in future PES games, especially as the Game Play system has been so similar for the last few games. On one hand, Konami probably do not want to alienate gamers who lose every game, but they also need to realise that PES is a 12 month game, and that gamers need a challenge to progress to and aspire to beat, especially with online mode still being far from perfect.
One other topic is the so called ‘Supermen Players’. The Cristiano Ronaldo’s and Lionel Messi’s of this world that can simply turn a game with a moment of brilliance. I will openly admit that in my many years of PES gaming, I have occasionally resorted to giving the ball to one of these superstars and letting them run at my opponents, safe in the knowledge that they had the ability to provide the spectacular more than say a Gary Neville or a Wayne Bridge. This is a tactic that many professional teams use, isolating their stronger players in one on one situations against a weaker opponent, for example Robben at Chelsea playing on the right hand side, cutting in on his left foot and taking the left back onto their weaker right. This is a tactic, and if a player has that ability, why not exploit it. If you don’t like a player having that ability on your team, don’t be that particular team, but you can’t moan or complain if someone else uses it. It is less of an issue when someone is Tottenham and lumps the ball up to Crouch all day, but it is exactly the same premise, just easier to use players than are quick and good dribblers.
Football at any level is a game about speed, both physical and mental speed. Players like Fabregas may not be super fast over the ground, but their mind works so quickly, whereas stars like Messi and Ronaldo have the physical pace to devastate opposition. Anyone who has played football at a decent standard will be able to tell you how dangerous pace is, and therefore I believe this is represented accurately in PES 2010. There have been years when pace was too much of an asset and unrealistic (ISS Pro Evolution Soccer 2 for the PS One being a prime example) but this year the balance is as close to perfect as it has been for a while, so just because players are quick in real life, they shouldn’t be punished for it on the game.
“Is It Me Or…”
Two little points that I have noticed this week, mainly about the shirts the players are wearing in PES 2010. The first is the fact that I haven’t noticed any distinctive shirt pulling in PES 2010 with the matching animation, something which I was really impressed with in PES 2008 and 2009. Yes, it is slightly unethical but it is a part of football, and if Konami have removed it, surely this must be seen as a graphical step backwards. Anyone who has noticed any, please feel free to get in touch, either via e-mail or comment below.
The second point, and one that definitely caught my attention, was regarding the Sporting shirt. Before I go any further, I would like to point out that it is no longer politically correct to call them Sporting Lisbon, and therefore I will be addressing them as simply Sporting for this piece. Anyway, playing as PSG against Sporting in a winter match, I noticed that the majority of Sporting players seemed to be wearing base layers or ‘Under Armour’ shirts under their tops. I went in for a closer inspection and it definitely looked as if the players had their club shirts on with a long sleeve top underneath, as opposed to the long sleeve shirt option. Whilst this may only be cosmetic, it is a great step forward graphically for Konami as they are starting to catch up with the times regarding player styles and fashions, features which will only enhance the games realism. If you wish to make your own mind up, you can do so by playing for or against Sporting in a match set in the winter. I’ll leave that with you guys, make your own judgements.
“He’s Been Brought Down In The Box”
If I am entirely honest, I have failed to notice the mass improvements brought about by the recent patch. I have enjoyed PES 2010 since the game came out, and therefore I am not entirely sure what the patch is deemed to have improved. What I will categorically say, however, is that when it comes to penalty kicks, the referring is awful. Challenges all over the pitch are pretty realistic, with soft fouls occasionally being given and firm flying tackles missed by the ref. This is part of football, and I would go on a limb to say the refereeing from penalty box to penalty box is pretty fair. Sliders and unique refs aside, I am pleased with what little improvements Konami may have made.
In the area, however, it is a completely different story. Blatant fouls are ignored and late tackles that stop goal scoring opportunities mean nothing other than cheating is deemed acceptable. A ridiculously late challenge from Hughes of Fulham on my Arsharvin, which would have seen Hughes walk for a second yellow cost me during a recent league match. The ball was gone, Arsharvin was one on one and a tackle from behind was ignored and the ball rolled out for a goal kick! In fact, during however many matches I have played over both my PS3 consoles, I am yet to have seen a penalty during normal play, either for or against me. That must be close to 60 hours of gaming if not more and not one spot kick. There have been over 55 penalties on the Premier League, this season, yet I have not seen one on PES! This is not realistic at all, and I would go on record as to say I would rather have soft penalties as opposed to none at all!
If you have the time, I would ask you to go onto your Gallery screen, and check you own personal penalty number; I would love to see if anyone has managed to get into double figures yet! Comments and emails in the usual way! Even better, I would love to see a video of a penalty actually being given, just to prove that it actually can happen.
That’s your lot for this week. I have had to cut myself short slightly due to another project set to be released on PESGaming.com later this week. As always, interferingwithplay@hotmail.co.uk is the place to send your e-mails to, and your comments about anything you have read here are more than welcome. Double D is having some technical difficulties at the moment, and should be up and running again with a new laptop in a couple of weeks. Finally, the PES 2011 campaign and the IWP League process will both be up and running over the next 6 weeks.
Thanks for Reading
Wow 1st! 1st time i’ve ever done that – cudn’t resist Feel bad…please forgive me lol
I did noticed the difference with the latest patch. Mainly because before it PES 2010 was utterly unplayable and simply not fun. I would quit a game half way through it, even if I was winning it, because it was just so boring.
The response issues were alarmingly disrupting the flow, only fanboys could be so apologetic to such an jarring flaw.
After the patch, the game all of the sudden began to flow, it became much more entertaining. There still are response issues, mainly caused by slow and unnecessarily long animations. And the dribbling is still cumbersome and unsatisfying.
The game still does not offer the same level of action that 2009 did. I would still be playing PES 2009 if it wasn’t for the fact that every once and a while it corrupts my master league save files. But after the 1.03 patch, PES 2010 is finally playable and enjoyable.
It even feels better to PES 2009 in most aspects: Players are more balanced, super humans are mostly just human. You can rely more on your goalkeeper. The shooting feels so much more satisfying. On the other hand the through ball is practically useless and it gets worse if you use it + L1. Sliding tackles don’t have any weight and feel awkward. Corner kicks have lost their skilled precision. Changing players is awful, the worst so far, you are lucky to get a player that is in a position where he can influence a play, and when you do, you usually get it after many presses of L1, that is to say too late. When playing co-op is ridiculously worse, as you also not only never get the right player in time, but also sometimes you or your teammate are building a play and PES just changes players on you, sometimes even when you have possession on the ball. I wish the old “Manual” scheme would come back, as the “Unassisted” setting is just frustrating in co-op.
The referees are utter rubbish though, specially in the box. The way they judge the severity of a foul, and henceforth assign either: no card, yellow card or red card could very well be at random and I wouldn’t notice the difference with its current state.
On the positive side, PES 2010’s Master League is great, the line up aids, tactics and training work very nicely and the transfer market feels alive. The graphics are very nice, although they still downgrade too closely to the low LOD. The presentation for UCL, and Europa League is breathtaking. And the Community game mode is great for keeping stats and doing tournaments with your buddies.
Hopefully the latest patch marks a trend for 2011, where all dubious gameplay decisions for 2010 will be addressed and all the steps forward will see it through onto 2011, when Seabass brings back PES to it’s strategic, action-packed essence, while improving and evolving in it’s own path, without keeping so worried a gaze on their immediate competition.
After the patch came out i have had no button lag and the gameplay speed has increased. The through balls seem more accurate and not always flying off the pitch.
I have had refree calling fouls on the pitch but not none in the area. And superhumans are easliy held by firming but defence. :D
**but=up
It seems that a lot of people bought PES2010 on Christmas time because now on the online mode are over 8000 users playing the game.Before christmas was under 6000 users and i believe that with the new patch all of us saw a little improvement (generaly)of the game.It’s the first time for quite some time now to see an improvement from KONAMI.
This site claims to be the voice of PES Fans with direct links to Konami… Nice to see that youre really exercising your influence over Konami…
You find the time to write paragraphs about players wearing thermal underwear yet have nothing to say about the fact that Konami have sold thousands of discs that crash after several games… On behalf of PES Fans who not only support Konami but this very site do you not think its important for you to get some answers from Konami about this fault?
Wow! Thank god you brought up the topic of players wearing thermals… Truly ground breaking stuff! Where would we be without you?
Never mind that Konami have sold thousands of games that crash every few games. I am just glad to see that this site really gets to the heart of what matters and really represents the fans who spend their hard earned cash on a product that quite simply doesnt work.
Unbelievable!!!!
Yes, the Shirt tugging effect is a step back.
Thanks for the heads up on the thermal shirts, will check it out. Is there a thread on the forum for all the little hidden novelties in the game, like Ronaldinho’s no-look pass, Zlatan back heel goals and any other cool things players have noticed in PES2010? I think that would be quite nice to see.
@ 6,7
What do you mean by saying that PES crashes after a few games because i have played 870 games together with online and it never happened to me?
@ Christos – apparently there’s a huge bug on PS3 version that, when you use a customized music playlist, makes the game crash on the tunnel entrance scene.
There’s a LOT of people complaining about that.
sick of pro level , why not trying superstar level :)
@ Neo NiGHTS I have not experienced the game crash that everyone keeps talking about on here. Maybe it is the fact that I do not use a custom soundtrack. Excellent find.
The crash aspect in the tunnel is deffinitly true! i changed it back to default in order to play it.
I originally thought that this game was a step forward.It has all the graphic quality, yet gameplay feels slow and luggish. Standard players cant turn quick enough and delay passes. over hit through balls became a regular thing. They still have the “Diving” feature , yet when are you ment to execute it ? there is no shirt pulling so what konami is trying to do with that is oblivious.
on the plus side the community aspect is brilliant. i can have a pro tournament and dont need to get my pen and paper out! online still leaves something to be desired. but the Master league is the best i think it could possibly be.
I wish they would bring back random team matches just like in Pro 6! i miss having a team of mis fits and beating a team of suerhumans!.
because of the new game i have reverted back to the older edition of Pro. its quicker, plays dont stall over desicions. The superhumans are still there but they are always going to be in any game. i have always preferred pro to fifa simply because of the gameplay, and this year it just seemed like they concentrated purely on how it looks and not how it plays like!
I have never edited any music play list or made any ammendments other than the official updates and yet my games continues to crash… pathetic isnt it?
FYI I play PES10 on PS3…
Im glad this website has finally properly talked about the penalty farce, it makes the game unplayable surely.
Its like a rugby union game with no scrums.
I cannot believe this isnt the main talking point every week ive gone out of my way to crunch every player in the box without winning the ball and its just ‘play on’!!!!
At first l thought is it just me has my player won the ball but no its not.
If it was Fifa that had this glaring problem we would be making EA a laughing stock on this site.
A footy game without penaltys surley that review rating should be 0 out of 10.
Life long PES fan though but oh dear Konami have well messed up.
@ 10
I wonder what it could be because I been playing PES2010 since release and it has never crashed. I have a custom songs along with the in-game tracks.
@15
Valid point, I wouldn’t go as far as “unplayable” but it does spoil what is otherwise a very enjoyable game, especially in Master League.
Side Note:
I just feel sorry for folks with no way of downloading DLC. They must feel really ripped off, Konami & EA need to make sure they start releasing complete games. I hope that they don’t think everyone has a good internet connection if any at all! For the priviledged few that have a strong connection, we still want to get a great product off the shelf!
Agreed, Refs in the box are horrible. Seen many horrible tackles missed against me.
I have played 6 seasons in the Master League.
PK called for me: 1
Pk called against me: 6
Thats 7 PKS in 6 seasons!!!
@ 15 Micky P
Agree totally with you there mate, lets hope Konami get some sort of patch out to fix this soon.
I agree with you in some aspects Dan…
I am from Chile… South America by the way… and i want to say, about the “superhuman” players…We all know that a good player, a “crack” player, like Messi, Ronaldo, Kaka, Aguero, Eto, Rooney, Tevez, Robinho…etc can turn a real match in matter of seconds… that its very true and PES has it in… BUT, its just impossible that a player like them can run all the match in “solos” one vs eleven without being injured or at least affected in their stamina by the halftime… for me the hole thing it just unbalanced…its right but unbalanced…you know what i mean?
Bye.
Saludos desde Santiago de Chile
I totally agree with the amount of decisions a ref misses within the penalty box.
Althought this is a concern over the reality of the game compared with the current premiership statistics, i would be very interested to know how many of these penalties get put away in PES.
First off the view is not right. Maybe its different for different camera angles, but i will always play on ‘wide’, and when you do happen to win / lose a penalty decision, you are forced to take / save it from a side on view. Hopefully some of you know what i mean, but it just doest look right. The view should be from behind the penalty taker, as it always has been.
I will point out that when the game goes through extra time and then pens, the view is as it should be, but during the 90mins it is different for some reason. Konami need to change!!!
Secondly, has anyone scored a penalty? Maybe im taking them wrong (i just hold square and direction – dependent on length of time held down depends on your power / direction??), but i find if you do not move your goalkeeper when playing against friends you can almost gaurantee they will sky the ball over / wide, or your keeper will save it.
I have found it very hard to score a pentaly, and continue to do so. It is very much different to 09′ version and i dont like it :-)
It will cause dirty tactics as i have found out. Refs dont give too many penalties and there hard to score when you do get one, so its worth the risk and i get wiped out when through 1v1 only to come out of it with nothing!
As far as i know the NA version of the game never crashes. Its the UK and EU versions that does this.
Wow…it’s good to see someone else has noticed the thermal layers :) I was pleasantly surprised to see them myself. There are probably several teams that have this, as I first noticed this in my Master League with Zenith St Petersburg.
I have to agree with the all the issues regarding penalties and the refereeing of them. Countless times I have cleanly beaten a player in the box, been taken down, and the ref does nothing. To make things worse, I have also been awarded quite a few penalties where my player hasn’t even gone to ground. This would often be when his heels get slightly clipped from a sliding challenge, but he remains in possession of the ball, and usually through on goal.
I’d also like to note that outside of the box, late sliding challenges on players who have just passed the ball to a teammate almost always go unpunished. I remember in an older Pro Evo, the ref would come back and award a yellow when the ball next goes out of play. I don’t know why they removed this as it seems like a major step backwards to me :(
After having played over 50 matches on PES 2010, I have not had one penalty given to me. Should have had probably 2 or 3 by now, but the ref’s don’t give it. By the way, I may have conceded 1 or 2 penalties in those 50+ matches.
@15
Regarding the penalty problems i have to admit sadly it is ruining the game for me, without knowing it l wait to challenge in the box so i get away with it, its human nature.
I tried to ignore it as l enjoy the graphics and the goals look great but it is broken in many areas such as penaltys, online, dribbling, near post shots, i could go on.
Has the game been play tested! or did they spend all there time on the graphics, i dont know but for the 1st time ever it is slowly starting to gather dust.
I use to respect this blog but saying “but this year the balance is as close to perfect as it has been for a while, so just because players are quick in real life, they shouldn’t be punished for it on the game” , it became kind of a joke to me…
How can you say that man???? How often have you seen ronaldo running all the way with a.cole , Terry and Essien behind him on 70 yards??? How often have you seen Messi dribbling 5 times the whole inter defense each half time????? Even if you stop them , they take back the ball like they were maldini.
I do agree that they are skilled but all they can do is 9 or 10 extra ordinary actions in a season not each game playing like if it was their best. Any idiot can take Real Madrid and press turbo when Ronaldo has the ball
are they going to fix this problem with a patch i think this will the last pro evo i ever buy
I never had problems with so called superhumans. they dont bog my defence 5 times in a single half or act maladini.
They play the way they are.
Ronald is able ot get the ball back thats bacsue of body balance , but messi sure is muscled out.
work on ur defensive abilities on your joypad :P
@ AKU probably cause you are one of the 5 people still playing pes…
PLAY FOOTBALL
I agree that the balance in player speeds is almost spot on in PES 2010. Yes, Ronaldo can easily skin a lone isolated defender, but that is fair enough. However, even against a skilled player, if you defend sensibly you can easily steer him away from goal or double up on him and win the ball.
The only problem I have is the frequency at which players can go on these long runs. The drain on stamina is nowhere near what it should be. I would like to see players get noticeably punished for sprinting too much – perhaps not tracking back after losing the ball on a long run, and they should certainly be much slower towards the end of a game after running the length of the pitch 10 times!
@20 Tottenham fan – totally agree with the penalties, without putting the ball down the middle it’s nearly impossible to score!! It’s almost inevitable that if you draw in extra time and it goes to penalties then your gona lose.
Really enjoying the game though especially master league, although it has it’s faults for £30 I’ve had my moneys worth already!
On the note of the under layers, Bordeaux also have them! Not too sure but there seems to be a pattern with Sporting, Zenit and Bordeaux…they’re kit manufacturers are Puma?!
regarding player speed i have to disagree in sayong that I think that Konami have got it wrong. I play as Tottenham 99% of the time and more often than not when Lennon has just taken the ball passed the full back and his making his way to teh bye line that same defender will manage to catch him up and make a tackle…
I challenge any defender in the “real” world to chase back and catch up with Lennon once he has already gone passed them… It aint ever gonn ahappen!
1.The refereein is appaling. mainly in the penalty area. 2.Also they have no sense of when to let the play go on or when to bring it bak. Fifa do it brilliantly.
3.and they give offsides when the ball gets nowhere near the player. sometimes screwing up great counter attackin opportunities. Annoying.
Many other problems but these r just with the refs.
As for messi ronaldo and co. They arent too gud. they are containable defo
Online is really annoying, sometimes it just feels impossibe to win like you cant score and your players are slower and weaker than your opponent, my connection is green btw, anyone else having these problems also its like the players are statues and switching players is very poor sometimes you cant get the player you want.
Have you lot been playing online?? Loads of penalties are given! I dont know why everyone is moaning. I admit a few fouls go unpunished in the box, and some penalties given are dubious, but i feel the balance is spot on. Also i find the new system for taking penalties far more rewarding and if you cant score from them you must be ****.
I have PES 2010 on PS2 and despite it obviously losing out on graphics to the next gen versions, it seems as if it definately makes up for that with the features it has retained and added to! Penalties are actually given (!), and the view used for taking/ saving penalties remains behind the taker, as it should do. Play is bought back and retrospective bookings are made when appropiate. And the gameplay feels as good as ever! Only 2 problems really, the masters cup doesnt mix together teams that have qualified from their individual leagues, i.e. if everton, fulham, man city and liverpool came 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th in the league, then in the following masters cup tornament they would all play each other in the 1st and second round of the tournament!! rather than the teams from different countries being mixed up. Also, in the domestic cup tournaments some players can accumulate 5 yellows b4 a suspension, and others only 2 yellows before a suspension?! seems totally random and inconsistent to me! Anyone else find these problems? apart from that we shud all go back to ps2 to play pes! it still clearly isnt right for the next gen yet!!!
You know whats sad Ive been on the same fixture the past 2 weeks in real life, everytime I try to play PES again i just get frustrated and quit, there are many small things in the gameplay that piss me off, the fact that full backs can catch up with lennon in my 2nd season, late fouls not called and getting penalties, forget about it. Also the through balls are really bad this year.
The AI has really poor intelligence on the pitch, im on top player and they always try to work the ball around to get a goal, they will even have the ball right in the box with a clear shot and will pass the ball out to the wing for a cross that is cut out, I dont know my stats but my goals conceded are the best out of all the teams in every league.
I guess back to FM2010 for now.
Hi. Has anyone played PES 2010 on Wii using just the classic controller? I just wondered how it played?
memo man, oh memo man whilst your points are true and valid you seem hell bent in boring the recipient of your regurgatated dictionary waffle to death. No body on here cares about your further education or your words most of us dare not even try to use. So if you could just dumb it down a bit that d be great. cheers
Hi,
So far, in 60 hours of gameplay (excluding online), I have been awarded a grand total of 0 (zero, zip, null, nada, zero, rien) penalties.
It’s ridiculously ridiculous!
PES 2010 only crashes when you’re signed in to the Playstation Network I’ve noticed. Now, this still shouldn’t happen but at least it’s fixable i.e. don’t sign in if you’re playing offline..
How about konami just pull there finger out of there ass and build a game thats fresh and innovative and offers a new experience or one thats closer to fifa10 rather then the same game we have had for the last 10 years thats getting more basic and flawed by the year.
Can seabass and his team actually do anything more then just improve the graphics and move away from this stale old ps2 template because the evidence of the last few years proves the latter.Do pes productions and seabass really believe what they have produced in the last three years is good enough because pes now has lost even its soul which was always its biggest feature.
Pes2010 is jerky,boring,hugely flawed and mostly unplayable and if you play fifa10 for more then a month going back to pes2010 is like going back to 90s.The feel of pes has gone,the timing and the joy of dribbling and even the enjoyment of build up play and shooting because everythings preset.
A ball that doesnt arc or curl,preset passing channels,last gen animation and physics,horrible ai with the worst animation clipping and collision detection that is very ps1.Fifa10s not perfect but it still offers much more then pes does now and ever has.
What seabass has done to pes is identical to what konami did with iss/perfect striker towards the end of its lifespan they are sucking the control away from the player handing crucial discisions to th ai and making the user a mere passenger to cpu.
The year is 2010 its time for a revolution pes needs a overhaul and its got to come this year because 3 times bitten we the fans are not going to swallow konamis bull**** pr for another year.
p.s a hundred patches arent going to help pes2010 its list of flaws span the last ten years and are getting worse not better,we all know whats wrong with pe2010 and the direction it should be heading.
You only have to look at the ideas from last year for pes2010 listed on this site and many others to see theres ample ideas from the fans that konami could take on board which would massively improve pes but they just dont listen instead there to obsessed with window dressing and there flawed teamvision ai.
I said it before but it certainly feels very relevant now pes is a victim of its own success and a company thats scared to take it outside the walls and confines they have created instead choosing to recycle the same idea year in year out with so called improvements that will only lead to its demise.
Dear seabass and pes productions
Iss and perfect striker on the n64 and ps1-2 was a better game then pes has ever been,wake up before its to late and bring this game into the 21st century because ea have in fifa10 and you can to this year with pes2011.Give us the user a game of football we can control again with animation and physics to boot.
Dear seabass and pes productions
Iss and perfect striker on the n64 and ps1-2 was a better game then pes has ever been,wake up before its to late and bring this game into the 21st century because ea have in fifa10 and you can to this year with pes2011.Give us the user a game of football we can control again with animation and physics to boot.
Dan – I will take your suggestion and try playing some games on Professional then get back to you with my thoughts on the effect on the difficulty level.
On the other side of the coin though, if you haven’t already I would suggest you try playing the game on Top Player now that the patch has changed the way the AI responds. They still don’t attack enough, but you might find it enjoyable. Also, I could be wrong, but the fact that you are playing on pro may also account for some of why you aren’t noticing the changes due to the patch as much (or are you actually saying you aren’t noticing them at all!!!???).
I have personally noticed about five major improvements in the game post patch, but the refs are only slightly better IMO. I definitely have noticed a change in the way the refs make calls, but it is only slight. For me though this is far, far, from a game breaking issue. Personally I would rather see an improvement in overall difficulty than for them to make the refs stricter with a subsequent patch or World Cup edition (though they should be doing both obviously). Part of why we have such varied opinions on the refs though is that it really comes down to your individual experiences (and luck). Some people I have heard say they saw two pens in one game on the first game they played after the patch, others basically zero. For me, I have seen more post patch, but only a handful. It partially also depends on your playing style I think. Moreover, people’s opinions will vary greatly if they have been terribly hacked down in the box and not recieved a pen (like you have). Personally I haven’t had that experience which is why it is such a small issue for me, maybe even a non-issue at the moment..
Dan,
I tried playing on Professional instead of Top Player last night and here’s what I found:
First game lost 3-1 to Man U. Vela for Man U was unstoppable. They really passed the ball around well and I was very impressed with the attacking mentality they showed. It was a wild game, very fun, full of chances for me to score but they took advantage of the key moments. All in all, I was blown away at how the game is not easier on Professional. Clearly it’s not that cut and dry… Infact I found it more difficult to tell the difference between professional and Top Player than I did between the pre and post patch Top Player gameplay. Very similar all in all, but yes I would agree that the game is more free flowing and more goals are going to be scored in a game on Professional, by both sides.
I played four more games after that on Professional. Unfortunately I eventually got the hang of it and the difficulty didn’t remain. In my last game I beat Chelsea 5-1. Still, though, I can see how some players would think that Pro is the more difficult level to play on. However, I would also say that it may be more fun, less frustrating, but also a bit more casual, so I’m back to playing on Top Player now.
The main reason I’ve gone back to Top PLayer however is a simple one. As far as I could tell, and I tested this as much as possible, the headed goals are still too easy on professional, enough so to lead me to believe that the patch did not change this on professional difficulty. I scored at least 3 headed goals in that last game against Chelsea, maybe four, and 1 or 2 per game in the previous matches… Then I went back to Top Player and against much weaker oposition I found that headed goals are miles more difficult. There’s simply not going to be players wide open in the box on Top Player like there are on Professional, and even when they do get an open chance they tend to miss the net more. It’s definitely not impossible to score headed goals on Top Player, but I woudl say it’s about 4-5 times more difficult (not including goals from corners, which are about the same). The result is that Professional plays a lot like PES 2010 did for me before the patch. Headed goals are always there for you, and if you’re down a goal in an important game you can always keep flinging in the crosses (which are easier to get in on Pro)and there will be a very good chance that you will get one back eventually. On Top player you don’t have that certainty, and why I’m going back to it is because what that means is that you are forced to be more creative and the result of that, of course, is that you score more unique and special goals. Are you going to save the replay of a cross into the box/header even if it is in the last minute to win the Champions League final? Well, on Top Player I actually might, because I know that the chances of pulling it off were very high, but on Pro I woudl be left feeling a little empty…
I would love to hear your comments on the above. Email me at the usual place if you would like.
PEACE
How come what i think deeply, comes here? lol, anyway I need to dig more deeper now :)
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my question : how come “player A” with lower dribble speed goes fast on-ball , than ” Player B” with higher top speed off-ball while chasing ? Is AI cheating or in reality this happens. Does this have any other possible reason? Does game difficulty alter the speed levels?
Please answer, I want your opinion.
Just a quick one for you all regarding the “thermal layers”, all long sleeved puma shirts this season have this look, it isnt a thermal layer, the long sleeves just appear under the short sleeve area.
i agree with the pens, im my legend mode for instance, i am now 26 so have had 9 seasons and only ever has my team won 1 penalty, for argentina and i was taking it, nearly died of shock was so surprised i hit it down the centre, but luckily scored!!