MatTheCat said:
Beneath all the gfx, animations and sound fx, PES5 is no more than a complex series of calculations <snip>
I think this comment nailed it.
In many individual regards PES5 is undeoubtedly the best of the series so far -- shooting, animations, variety of play and situations. If I just think of the way the shooting was in PES4 -- pansy-esque ballooning shots no matter how much you tried -- I would never want to go back.
But the flaws this game has are not part of any individual iteration. They are fundamental and have been in the series for years now. Slanted pitch, catch up logic, defender speed advantage, CPU hyper-mode. You all know them. They've been in PES3, they've been in 4 and they are in 5. They even have been in ISSPE2 back in the old days of the PS1. And even back then, fans used to call it realistic.
The sad thing is, that Seabass and his team seem to go to ever greater lengths to "improve" the AI advantage by applying unfair means, rather than rethinking this thing from the ground up.
For a more casual player like me, scoring In PES5 has become a pain in the ass. Every match ends 1-0, 0-0 or, if it's celebration day, 2-1. You can often literally see what the AI engine does to your players and the ball physics in order to keep the score low, and these are the moments when you FEEL that the game is playing you and not the other way around -- totally unsatisfying no matter whether you are winning or losing. The weird thing is, that there seems to be no difference between levels 3, 4, 5 or 6 nor with which team you play or against whom you play. I mean, it is still fun and occassionally great, but after the 7th consecutive hard-faught-for, "captivating" and "nailbitingly exciting" 1-0 you are starting to wonder whether this whole thing is not the most tedious and unforgiving game you've ever played. I know there are people who easily beat the CPU on 6* by 4-0 or 5-1 or whatever, but I do not want to invest as much time as they do in this game in order to reach this mastery. I want this to be fun and occassional. So I try level 3 or 4, but it's the same idiotic low-scoring obsession frenzy (2* is too easy, though). I mean, when I am able to not lose and mostly win on 6* (albeit by a small margin), why can't I not dominate at least the crappy teams on 3* if I wanted to?
"No, you can't". Period. Even when you play freaking Empoli IN San Siro it has to be a close, "exciting" match with tons of post hitting, galactical keeper saves, unbelievably idiotic misses and one measly goal which you have to play your skin out to defend, often for naught as you'll have the inevitable equalizer in injury time. Sure it's 'realistic'. Didn't we have ManU-Bayern 99? or Liverpool-Milan last year? But if every match is exciting and close even that starts to get boring at some point.
Or why for example -- after more than 7 years -- is the CPU team still not subject to fatigue during a match? On levels 5 and 6 they double (or even tripple) you from the first to the last minute. They run down the wings as if they've strapped an oxygen-supply to their back while your players are walking on their tongues. They play pixelperfect passes, even when under pressure and with the back to their teammates for the entire game. It's actually totally unnecessary for the CPU to substitute players, since they don't tire. But stamina and endurance (or the lack therof) are an important factor in football. They can be part of a strategy, or a weapon. But if your opponent doesn't lose stamina what's the point? And why is this even NOT in a game that people call 'realistic'? For the love of god, at least make it an option. If the hardcore fans are underchallenged, then they can check it off.
I am sure none of the critique will ever bother Konami, because the game keeps selling like warm bread no matter what (and certainly deservedly so). But how often do you sit in front of you screen and yell "WHY? WHY, KONAMI, WHY?". In my case more than I would like to, lately.