A little background on myself before I give my impressions. I joined this site about a year ago, right before PES 2010 was released. Last year's game was my first foray into videogame football. I had played both the FIFA and PES demos extensively, and just felt that PES was a more enjoyable game. Football (at least the non-American version) is a relatively new sport to me; only in the last couple of years have I really developed a love for it.
I spent a lot of time on this forum in those early days, and I was one of the few people who vehemently defended PES 2010. Like I said, I was new to footie games, and had never played any of the earlier iterations of PES, so I didn't have much of a reference. Of course, the more I played PES 2010, the more I began to see the flaws that most others were complaining about, but I still got quite a bit of enjoyment out of that game. Eventually though, the frustrating aspects became too much, and after a good 200 hours or so with that game, I finally had to call it quits. Since then, I've spent less time on this forum, but I've still been stopping by from time to time, though I haven't posted anything in quite some time.
This year, I've downloaded both the PES 2011 and FIFA 2011 demos, and over the past few days, I've spent quite a bit of time with each, though much less with FIFA. First, let me say that FIFA does seem to play a bit better than it did last year, but not much. I have managed to enjoy a few matches, but it's still missing that special magic that I look for in any videogame, football or otherwise.
The PES 2011 demo on the other hand, is quite good. Like many have already said, I think the passing is the biggest improvement; and while it takes some getting used to, it does go a long way to helping this game achieve a whole new level of freedom from last year. I haven't even begun to experiment with the manual passing, so I can't comment on that, but the regular passing is brilliant.
Shooting is taking some getting used to, and at first I felt like the physics were off a bit; but the more I play, the less strange it feels. Also, getting off a good shot is very much dependent on positioning and such. From what I can tell so far, the finesse shot is going to be much more important in this year's game.
Graphics are an improvement over last year, though not a huge one. The main difference is, of course, the animations. They are much better this year, I think. Aside from that, the overall look of the game seems a bit crisper, and kits and player likenesses look better. I will say that the graphical improvements in PES are much more noticeable to me than FIFA, which doesn't seem any different.
Finally, after watching a video last night that someone posted of the so-called "cross bug", I had to test it out for myself, and I'm sad to say it does seem to be an issue. Basically, if you run the ball down the wing, the CPU defence will back off as you near the goal line, and you can get a cross in every time (or at least it worked every time I tried it). This doesn't result in a goal every time, but the cross does seem to land right in front of the 6 yard box without fail, and last night I scored several goals using this method. I really hope Konami are aware of this, and have sorted it out in time for the final release.
Aside from that, this game is looking very promising, and I have pre-ordered it with confidence. Only time will tell if most of us will get lasting enjoyment out of it, or if a list of annoyances will hold it back from greatness. But any thoughts I had about giving FIFA a chance this year instead of PES have disappeared.
