your right about the wing play, I play a passing game so i didnt notice quick enough...............back to top player midway through this ML season. how long do you think it will before i start moaning again.
Id say after this next game, its Valencia.
And I was right, final score 1-1, they must have had ONE shot on Target the entire game, this is how they score...
I pass it back to valdes and hammer the ball, it goes off the strikers head, but instead of fizzing away, it drops like a bowling ball straight back to him and he somehow half volley's it in with an outside of the foot animation!!!, I smacked the ball at him at about 200mph and it bounces about 1 yard away from the point of contact.
I just had to laugh, it was SO BAD. Also, I dont give a fuck what anyone says, the shooting on top player is controlled by the CPU, all of a sudden one on one with messi Slightly tapped shoot and a tiny bit of angle, ball goes fizzing wide, Villa cant hit the target from 4 yards out anymore, its ridiculous.
Im not even sure scripting is the right word, but play on professional on master league then up it to top player, of course you can still win most of the game on top player anyways if you try, but the games are SHIT, the CPU just rushes you non stop and spams the 1 in a million throughball, but what it does is it controls your players and makes them do stupid shit. As soon as I changed the setting to top player, cursor changing was worse, shooting took ages, im telling you, the CPU does this to keep games tight.
It comes down to what more important, winning or a good game of football, Before this new patch played about 150 games on top player and had like an 85% win ratio (im not a good player, i just know how to play against the CPU most of the time) but the games were horrible man, shooting just feels like a lottery to me, there is no difference from me finishing one chance, and missing the other other than if its a crunch game and the CPU decides my shot goes in.
Im not even gonna get mad, im just gonna put the game away and hope they patch it, to be honest, football games these days are shit anyways, hasnt been a top one since fifa 09 and that was dodgy too, probably just best accept the golden days of football games are over.
And that's the reason why I returned the game, because we still have no control over the SCRIPT.
SCRIPT: the nine dots or targets that surround you.
Having more directions in terms of passing the ball, means little, when you have zero control over the SCRIPT that determines the effeciveness of your passes.
We have no control over the SCRIPT, which means that the game NEEDS to be SCRIPTED; does it affects both sides equally? I would say yes to that question, but above all, the fact is that the user does not really play Football because the COM is the one whom is pulling all the important strings, basically pre-determining the reactions of the user: our reactions are always pre-determined by the COM, the COM dictates the circumstances and the USER reacts to the COM-determined circumstances.
After years of experiencing the same old automatic and pre-determined concept, it simply feels outdated in this day and age.
Konami and EA Sports should really take a look at how the pressure sensitive L2 button could be put to good use; and more importantly, the way the left analogue stick functions.... for fucks sake.... why does it still functions like it functioned ten years ago?
The fact that the R1 sprint button does not serves its purpose without the assistance of the left analogue stick -- this is the key flaw of the game.
Passing: I direct the pass by directing the left analogue stick, but the left analogue stick automatically produces or triggers running animations; so when I affect the direction of the pass, I also affect the direction in which the ball carrier runs with the ball.
Shooting: I direct the shoot but the player was badly positioned and as a result the shot on goal was very weak and pathetic; fair enough, but the real problem is, that I can barely affect the positioning of the player without also affecting the direction in which the player runs with the ball, which greatly restricts the freedom or variety of the shooting animations that the left analogue stick can produce.
Dribbling: by directing the left analogue stick without the assistance of the R1 sprint button, without the assistance of any other button, you can cover spaces of over 50 feet of distance; in other words, you can effectively run without the assistance of a running button. As a byproduct of this flaw, you cannot affect the direction in which you dribble or feint with the ball, without also affecting the direction in which you run with the ball + the distance covered with the ball.
Tackling: you can measure the direction of the pass with one button and you can measure the power of the pass with an entirely different button; on the other hand, when you tackle in an effort to intercept the pass, you do not have the same accuracy at your disposal, because you cannot affect the direction in which you tackle with any button, and you cannot affect the "power" or distance of the tackle with an entirely different button, since you do not even have a button for determining the direction of the tackle. Who decides when you successfully intercept a pass and when you fail to interept the pass?
The same problem affects man-marking and the rest of the game: the left analogue stick is very sensitive but lacks a lot of precision and depth, too sensitive for the amount or variety of precision it offers.
In many instances, when you play at the highest difficulty: the COM will decide that Lio Messi was badly positioned to shot on target or to shot with power.
It is fairly simple, you cannot affect the body-position required to shot with power and to shot on target, without also affecting the distance covered with the ball and the direction in which you run with the ball; so the COM will position Lio Messi at a specific distance betweem Messi and the GK, this very specific distance between Messi and the GK means that you cannot affect your body-positioning without also running straight into the GK and end up wasting your chance.
This is SCRIPTED.... whomever disagrees, clearly doesn't know what the word "scripted" stands for.
In order to make it more challenging you need to make it more scripted, this is why the higher the difficulty the higher the scripting; this is all a byproduct of how the left analogue stick (and d-pad) functions.
Making obvious and dumb things more difficult to pull off, will not actually make the game any better, that's the one thing I have learned with PES11; it feels like a shore, it is extremely predictable and repetitive, very simplistic and yet not exactly user-friendly, not challenging, and above all, it is not entertaining enough.
It requires more attention and more composure than any other football sim, but the composure and attention it demands, the skills it demands, are not what I would describe as entertaining and substantial skills.
I did mastered the skills that PES11 demands, and made fun of the cheaters by beating their asses by ridiculous scores, but the SKILL that the game demands is very simplistic and pretentious; when I stopped holding the R1 sprint button and the left analogue stick button, I would quickly concede one or two goals....
This fact is evidence of a very old and fundamental flaw: the sprint button does not serves its purpose without the assistance of the sprint button, and consequently, this eliminates the space that is required for the user to have more freedom.
With the ball: the sprint button does not serves its purpose without the assistance of the left analogue stick, yet the left analogue stick can affect the distance covered without the assistance of the sprint button.
Without the ball: you cannot defend without the assistance of the left analogue stick, rendering the sprint button as OBSOLETE without the assistance of the left analogue stick.
In other words, the sprint button is obsolete without the assistance of the left analogue stick button, with or without the ball. And as a result, the game is basically broken, since the most fundamental law of football is neglected: movement without the ball is determined by the position and movement of the ball.... the movement without the ball should not be literally determined by the movements of an analogue stick.
And consequently, this means that the user has no freedom, since the user can only react to COM-determined circumstances, instead of reacting to USER-determined circumstances.
How do you hide this flaw? By making the sprint button OBSOLETE without the assistance of the left analogue stick button....
Thus FORCING the user into thinking about redundant and insubstantial things that have little or nothing to do with Football: run, direction, run, direction, pass, run, and run, and I need to bash the R1 sprint button but the R1 sprint button serves no purpose without the assistance of the left analogue stick button, so, bashing buttons without thinking it is, and, run, direction, run, direction, pass, run, direction, pass, run, direction, shot, etc.
It's all about the DIRECTION in which the ball or the player or the player with the ball, moves from one space into another space.... Direction in which you run through space with or without the ball, the direction that the pass covers through space; but you never think in terms of what you can do with a SPACE without necessarily moving from that space, because it is impossible to move INSIDE ONE space, because the video game does not offer that level of depth and substance due to the fact that the left analogue stick is wasted on redundancy.
When the video game revolves around the fact that the sprint button does not serves its purpose without the assistance of the left analogue stick, this means that the video game revolves around the DIRECTIONS in which you move from one space into another space, which means that it is impossible to move INSIDE ONE SPACE.
When you play that type of video game from a wide view perspective, you get a very obvious and insubstantial video game, which cannot be fixed by simply maximizing the number of DIRECTIONS in terms of passing nor by merely maximizing the number of DIRECTIONS in which you can move from one space into another; it can only be fixed by adding a new dimension into the game, that is, the ability of affecting the direction in which you move inside one space.
You don't think about the direction and distance when tackling for the ball because you do not even have a button for such a fundamental purpose, because the left analogue stick is wasted on the redundancy of LITERALLY running around in accordance to the movements of an analogue stick; you do not really think about dribbling because you cannot actually do any dribbling, you think about: direction of run, direction of pass, direction of shot, there's nothing else to it.
Therefore you are doing something, you are bashing buttons all the time, which does disguises the fundamental flaw quite well, but at the end of the day, you are bashing buttons without thinking about anything because you are only reacting to circumstances that are well beyond your control or consent, and yet so obvious and evident from your wide view perspective.
The fundamental flaw, disguised by the fact that if you direct the left analogue stick in circles, the player without the ball will run around in circles; makes you feel in control when in fact it is the reason why you have no control.... a great way of masking the reason why the game is broken.
When not in possession of the ball, if you release the R1 sprint button and the left analogue stick button for one second, this will result in the COM quickly pulling the strings so that your opponent gets a very easy chance on goal; the COM is too dumb to explot it to the fullest, but when you play Online, your opponent will exploit it without fail.
This is how the COM dictated SCRIPT works, it FORCES the user into needing to direct the left analogue stick in order to run without the ball, it has no structure and no substance to it: this is why Cristiano Ronaldo is blessed with the ability of omnipresence, this is why you always seem to have three players on you, this is why you will loose if you stop bashing the R1 sprint button + the left analogue stick button.
And yes, I think it deserves a second mention, Cristiano Ronaldo is gifted with the ability of omnipresence: CR7 has consistently won the ball when I am in the final third of the pitch, at a first glimpse I think it was a DMF but then I notice the little name that reads "ronaldo", he is omnipresent with his speed and physical attributes, he scores goals and also works as a CB, as a DMF, as a CMF, as an AMF, and as a CF -- Online play, Real Madrid, Cristiano Ronaldo, literally, the complete player.
Permanently holding the R1 sprint button and the left analogue stick button without utilizing your brain due to the FACT that the COM is the one pulling the strings for you, is not entertaining nor does it require real skills.
And no, pressing the (x) button + directing the left analogue stick forwards and backwards.... is not my idea of intuitive and organic entertainment; which is the one thing that the PS2 versions offered, intuitive, responsive, organic, albeit flawed and outdated, entertainment.
Konami professed about "freedom" and yet their game FORCES the user into having to direct the left analogue stick in order to run without the ball, making the game about permanently thinking about the direction in which the ball or the player or the player with the ball, moves from one space into another space, watching how the SCRIPT unfolds without your consent or input, and knowing how to score the goals when you get the chance or when the COM pulls the strings in your favor; if you release the left analogue stick button for one second, you will concede a goal.
PES11 is not about thinking or out-smarting or out-classing your opponent; PES11 is all about reacting to COM-dictated circumstances and exploiting cheap flaws; the way the COM dictated SCRIPT works, forces the user into constantly needing to direct the left analogue stick button and hold the R1 sprint button for the sole purpose of following orders, if you stop bashing the buttons and you try to think for one second, you will loose.
PES11 is perhaps, the greatest video game example of the key difference between entertainment and difficulty: difficulty in terms of execution will not automatically make the game more entertaining nor more substantial. At the end of the day, it is not entertaining to play, as far as I'm concerned.
Bottom Line: the next time I hear Konami or EA Sports talking about "freedom", I will skip the part where I play the game for hours, and I will just release all the buttons, and after releasing all the buttons, I will then direct the left analogue stick around, and this will tell me all I need to know about the "freedom" it pretends to offer.
