After about 10 games or so...
Liked:
- New graphics. Looks great. Field looks great. Looks better than FIFA imo.
- It feels more than ever now like the ball is actually separate from your player. You can't make some of the ridiculous moves anymore. You don't always trap it perfect or can lose it right away if the defender is all over you. The ball will also take more realistic deflections and redirections more often, imo.
- Overall the defensive AI/ability seems to be better. I've seen maybe one questionable break down on defense, but that's it.
- Keepers much more aggressive. Haven't yet seen a play where a keeper should be getting the ball and just stands there and watches like was a common problem in '09.
- Slide tackles. I've seen some wicked challenges that just destroyed guys and no foul was called because the defender got the ball before he got the man. I like that.
Disliked:
- Twice I've seen the keepers make very bad errors. Once on a very weak header he was in position for and could have easily caught the ball but he just pushed it over top of the bar for a corner. Second time a relatively slow cross was coming into the box. Keeper could have caught it normally, dove for it instead, and half punched it/half dropped it (?, couldn't really tell what happened) to the top of the 18 where it was promptly put in the goal by an opponent.
- Twice I'd told a keeper to try to get to a bouncing ball outside the box with an opponent close by. Both times the keeper slid feet first at the ball as soon as they got outside the box and didn't come close to winning it. What is that about? Just run through and head it or clear it.
- I have not yet been able to get a player to strike a shot first touch. They always want to trap it and then shoot.
- Players still don't seem to do a very good job making off the ball runs into open space when you're mounting an attack.
- While most of the time the defense has been good on corners I have seen two absolutely atrocious break downs that both lead to goals. The first I ended up having a player run in completely unmarked and just head it in from around the penalty spot. He didn't have a defender within 5 yards of him. Second time the players were marked but when the ball was struck two offensive players moved towards the center of the field while the men marking them moved away. The first guy was wide open and just put it past the keeper, but even if he didn't get the ball the man behind him was wide open as well.
- Free kicks. I had a free kick from just inside midfield. With the exception of one or two players lined up short directly in front of me, everyone else was lined up directly in front of me clustered around the 18. Why don't the players spread out more? At least width-wise, if not length-wise as well.
Like/Dislike
- I have had a ton of shots blocked by defenders. If you're shooting into a crowd of like more than one it's almost always blocked. While shots were rarely blocked in the past, it almost feels like it happens too much now. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this yet.
I definitely like it better than FIFA, and plan on buying PES at this point, but I would definitely like to see the problems I saw addressed if possible. At the very least the GK issues. Nothing worse than giving up a goal because of a stupid, unrealistic, mistake by the GK.
