The only thing Fifa and PES have in common now is the moment animations, PES sold out a few years ago with that and now it's in no mans land unfortunately, when it comes to mastering the art of turning like a bus Fifa does it better in my opinion because they've been fine tuning this shit method for years, where as the old PES games didn't have it at all and the players felt responsive and crisp when you turned.
To be honest I haven't a clue what's going on any more and by the looks of things neither does the developers at PES. To do so much so right and then throw it all away experimenting with the main selling points of the game is just beyond me.
They just seem to mix things up completely every year and hope to get it right, changing and removing everything that worked fine in the meantime.
You have not explained WHY the shit method exists... but what you briefly explained, that is the bottom line,
PES copied FIFA, and FIFA has been perfecting an OUTDATED concept; which means that, PES just replaced an outdated concept for yet another outdated concept...
PES used to be responsive because it was based on the d-pad, the d-pad had little to no depth, and thus it needed to be responsive because the amount of animations which can be implemented into a d-pad based video game is very limited...
And thus, instead of implementing next gen animations, you can only implement the basics: run in different directions... but no dribbling animations, no passing animations, no shooting animations, etc, etc; because the d-pad does not have the range of movement required to implement different type of animations into the game.
The problem that we now have, is that FIFA simply copied PES5 and PES6, and they took the d-pad concept that PES6 used, and they transferred the d-pad concept into the left analogue stick; and they branded it as "360 DRIBBLING" so that it sounds like something new... when in fact it's just a d-pad with more directions attached to it.
This is why we have the mentioned problem, because EA Sports has simply added more directions to the old d-pad concept which was used in games like PES5 and PES6; but the obvious problem is, that the d-pad and the left analogue stick are very different buttons...
Mixing the left analogue stick button with a d-pad concept... is like trying to surf with one of them short boards: it will not feel right, a short board is not engineered for standing on top of it.
And this is why PES11 and FIFA11 do not feel quite right in terms of dribbling, because the left analogue stick works like a d-pad when it shouldn't; and as a result, you get unresponsive or sluggish gameplay.
This flaw of lack of animations was necessary when PES was based on the d-pad; however, now that PES is based on the left analogue stick... the flaw should be fixed.
Unfortunately, Konami has not fixed the flaw with PES11, instead, Konami has copied FIFA once again.
I think that's my main disappointment and my main concern with PES11; that although it is a significant improvement, and although it might give the impression of being the stepping stone towards a new era of football gaming... I don't feel it is revolutionary...
I can see Konami saying that PES12 is a great foundation, and then repeating the same thing with PES13; how many times have we heard the phrase "great foundation for the future" only to find that the game is identical 3 years after?
I see far too many similarities with FIFA, not in feel or look, but in how the game functions: the left analogue stick concept is the same in PES11 and FIFA11, and the left analogue stick is the heartbeat of everything.
The differences between PES11 and FIFA11 are trivial as far as I'm concerned, at their core, both games revolve around the very same one-dimensional left analogue stick concept.
I'm hoping PES11 is the stepping stone towards something better... but I simply don't see enough innovation from Konami.
Between PES11 and FIFA11, I prefer PES11 and I will not buy FIFA11; but the bottom line for me is that Konami and EA Sports are adding details to a flawed concept... instead of actually replacing the outdated concept once and for all, both games are overrated and outdated in my opinion.
And the reviews from magazines are a waste of time, always deviating into the trivial and always ignoring the few relevant things that can be discussed; for instance, your brief criticism has been far more relevant, than the 3 page reviews that we read in magazines.
