Wow, what a difference a year makes.
I made a Hong Kong account early today to get the demo before it was out in uk, played 7-8 games now on superstar and the leap they have made since last year is so recognizable, it's so more polished off, so where to start?
First off, for all you close control lovers of the PES 14 franchise, it's still here in this one, the left stick dribble is still relatively slow and short quick movements are easily put into practice thanks to the super sharp controls (unlike the laggy 14). The acceleration to top speed is alot better this year, they have balanced it right, you don't just turn into superman when you sprint unless the player is super fast.
NO rubber banding... If the defender isn't fast enough, you best position yourself right again, you won't be catching C.Ronaldo with Pique this year folks.
Player reaction... Remember the disturbing, mind boggling and usually painful wait for the ball to come to you if you under hit a pass in the last 2 games of the series? When it seemed you player was stuck in cement and the defender just walked round you to get the ball. Or if you dummied the ball and the next player nearest to it just stuttered looking at the ball. Well good news folks, if the players reaction time is good, he will automatically sprint towards that ball, and when i tried a harmless dummy in the middle of the path, Alba shot from out of nowhere from off screen and was onto it like a shot and flew down the wing to put it onto Suarez head, only for the plum to miss a sitter thanks to some great goalkeeping.
No more silly fouls... that all that needs to be said really, the collisions etc are a lot better this year and the cards I have received have more or less been fair.
SLIDE TACKLES ARE BACK! How bad was the sliding tackles last year? Not a problem any more, and the animations of the sliding has been improved, make a last ditch lunging slide tackle with a good player on this one, it really does look amazing.
Goalkeepers. Haven't seen them do anything remarkably stupid yet which is a plus, the get out of goal a lot quicker again this year and some of the saves where they spread their body or go with their feet look really really good. saying that, i haven't tried continuously lobbing or hitting the r2 sweet spot to see if they have nullified the true problems yet.
Defending... Simple and responsive. pass is jog up to opponent, sprint and pass is run to opponent. If you want to hold the player up it's simply R2 and manual position, no more noob hold x by its self and the defender perfectly aligns himself, you got to align the man yourself, so guess the wrong direction and you are sidestepping out the way allowing him a free shot on goal. But the defending is so responsive this year, once you get the hang of it, it's all gravy.
The little things that make you smile... Simple things like a goalkeeper pulling his hands out of the way of a shot if he is confident it's going wide, spreading his body better and using his feet and head more. Even thought the jostle button is gone, the jostling is still there automatically, like a hybrid of pes 13 and 14, its automatic but looks really good. Like is said, slide tackles look great. The variety of shots, passes and touches. Spray balls, lofted, drilled, little dinks over the last defenders crisp one time passes are back, light through balls are played nicely in front of the target again... in 14, through balls only worked if you had set a teammate to run, they feel more like 13 again now. different shot types, laces, inside, toe punt, knuckle, studs up stretches, banana shot, they all look really good this year. player ID auto touches, you can basically pick the ball up and turn with one player, then do the exact same thing with another and he could do it in a different way if that makes sense to you, I'm sure it does.
There is more, But i can't remember it all and obviously there can be improvements, but I'm going to go out on a limb here and say this is possibly the best one of the series from what you can see on the demo. I say this for one simple reason. I picked it up, I played it and I enjoyed it, I havn't done that with PES for a while.
(EDIT)
Oh and your teammates movement is a lot better this year and the pitches are bigger again, seemed like last year, the players where too big for the pitch and it was too clunky. Also there doesn't seem as much scripting, when the com is down this year, they weren't scoring them silly 5 thousand passes, bouncing off all challenges scrappy goals anymore, in fact the computer was scoring some good goals against me. Plus I'm not having as much trouble with players sprinting towards the ball when i don't want them too or jogging to it when I'm holding sprint etc.
Further update: Seems like the lob shots and the r2 sweet spot has been nurfed... so yey for us who like to play online without being done over by cheap tactics.