eFootball (All Platforms)

Hey guys, after 4 months of playing the "full" release of the game, I'm ready to give my annual realism review of it, how it compares to PES, what was fixed compared to 0.9, and what needs to be worked upon.:



It's over an hour long, again, but I start with a "mini-review" of sorts, and leave the details for those who want to keep watching. I broke down the gameplay to the principle components. Some aspects of the 1.x game, like Tactical off-ball movement, actually pleasantly surprised me, and I was going in ready to rip into them. Same goes to ball physics, although shooting physics are still a big downgrade. Here's to hoping we get offline modes soon (Konami probably doesn't want to cannibalize its online player numbers by releasing it now), because I'm enjoying Legend AI in EF, as well as the game's pace, way more than I did in PES. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the watch!

Here are the timestamps (clickable):

00:00 Mini-review
4:44 Ball Physics
6:23 Shooting Physics
11:24 Crossing
18:16 Passing
21:09 Player Switching
25:00 Passing (cont.)
30:46 Defending
36:53 "Kick-off Glitch"
37:06 Dribbling
45:37 Keepers
49:03 Tactical Movement
55:10 Fast Restart
57:15 Referee
1:01:22 Free Kicks
1:02:19 Graphics
1:04:24 Dream Team
1:08:46 Legend AI
1:10:47 FUMA Online
1:12:49 Cheating Online
i really like the insights… you are looking for a lot of stuff that’s important to me too.
im 46 min. in now and will watch the rest of the video later today. Your voice is, again, calming me down. 😊

the good stuff in gameplay really makes me wanna play more.… thats why I said from the beginning: I can see (or sense) their vision here.
the bad stuff…. Well, is really bad. 🤷‍♂️
 
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@The_Knight im done watching the video. Couldn’t wait when i continued during the lunch break… 😂

it really is a spot on video, imo. All the good stuff you mentioned and you were talking about the flaws as well. You did that in a way, users AND Konami could understand. I sure did.
Your voice sure adds (for me)…!

i do appreciate the effort of play testing all those details AND getting a video out, that has structure, good editing and some honest words in it! Huge thanks! 👏
 
Edited the formation, player's positioning and player's role to create midfield resistance and reduce spaces.
Sample with low tier teams:
High tier teams:

Hi. This is very late but I'm also bothered by the lack of midfield resistance and how easy it is to get to the final third of the pitch in PES. I wanted to ask, what in your opinion is the game/gameplay mod that best addresses this issue ?
 
@The_Knight im done watching the video. Couldn’t wait when i continued during the lunch break… 😂

it really is a spot on video, imo. All the good stuff you mentioned and you were talking about the flaws as well. You did that in a way, users AND Konami could understand. I sure did.
Your voice sure adds (for me)…!

i do appreciate the effort of play testing all those details AND getting a video out, that has structure, good editing and some honest words in it! Huge thanks! 👏
Thanks buddy. When they released the 0.9 version, I was forcing myself to play it just to put out a review but it was so bad I couldn't get myself to keep going. Ultimately, I set aside the footage I collected and went back to playing PES for 6-7 months. But with 1.x, I was surprised when I looked at Steam in May and it was in my top 5 most played games ever on the platform. Then I briefly started playing PES again to try to get the mods working on my Steam Deck, and that's when I noticed all the on pitch things in PES that have been fixed in EF, and I just found no more reason to play PES, despite the flaws in EF. In particular, the pace, passing, player inertia (which affects everything), dribbling, motion match up, off-ball tactical movement and Legend AI fun. Sure, PES still holds the advantage with ball physics, shooting physics, keepers, acrobatic finishing and maybe headers (but not always), but it's just not enough to get me back there.

Offline modes and Edit mode will be coming, but I am pretty sure Konami doesn't want to cannibalize its online numbers by releasing offline now, because a decent proportion of players will migrate to offline. I'm not a master league player, I just play offline leagues and that's my comfort zone. But actually, Dream Team is more like an online master league so ML fans should have a good time on it, once they add a league structure to it (and fix the match voiding hack that still works --the 0-3 hack was fixed this past weekend).

So yeah, glad I was able to put it out. I left out a lot of footage that should have been there, so maybe if I have time I might put out a supplemental review to compliment this one.
 
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I mean, Konami sent them to me 4 months ago. I can't even use them I'm on PC (not that I'd even want to tbh). My account got entirely hijacked in April and many people reported it to YT when the hijacker started posting spam bitcoin videos on it. Oh, and to make matters worse the YouTube algorithm hates me even more after I deleted many videos instead of making them private late last year, which apparently is a big no-no, and led to my videos falling off of YT recommendations, the main source of views nowadays.

What I'm trying to say is, I've put in a lot of work into this and I need all the help I can get to get the channel back and running. The giveaway is mentioned deep in the video, an hour into it. It's not even in the title or thumbnail like everyone else did. I also make a point to say you don't need coins to put together a decent team, and that I only invested 99 cents in this game, and it felt bad.
no shame in earning a living, we all have to do

just kind of poisons your opinion a bit
 
no shame in earning a living, we all have to do

just kind of poisons your opinion a bit
Not exactly about making a living, it's about getting the video out there to be seen. Because of the hack in April and my deletion of videos in December, I had fallen off YT recommendations. I didn't put in a couple of months of work into this video for it not to be seen because the algorithm won't spread it. I just want it spread out as much as possible so the issues I brought up would be highlighted and hopefully fixed. (edit: Also, so more players would play fuma!)
 
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no shame in earning a living, we all have to do

just kind of poisons your opinion a bit
I saw that banner or video description of those 12k coins and I had to think a sec about it in relation to the video myself.
I can understand how this can look to some people but it doesn’t take away anything from the video, imo.
What he said still stands; it’s how it is. 🤷‍♂️
 
So fucking hate this piece of crap today. What the fuck is going on?

+ My attackers are fucking brain dead hiding behind defenders using any of my tactics
+ My attackers get bodyslammed to the pitch whenever a defender gets close to them, no foul obviously
+ My attackers get shirt pulled back within the box but like 2-3 meters and not a single fucking foul is called
+ My attackers are able to miss 3 open net chances in a single attack
+ My midfield is just ball watching
+ All my tackles inside our box are penalty
+ All my 90kgs defenders get pushed off from the ball by 30kgs Neymar, Messi, MBappe with perfect tackling. But of course these players the best defenders in the game
+ Every opposition must have a goalie saving 90% of my shots
+ Having 20 chances is not enough if every opposition has 2 which obviously are goals
+ All my players LOOOOOVE to pass the ball right at the feet of the opposition
+ All my players love to shoot the ball in his own mates
+ My goalie is a 90 rated turd, cant come off his line even if his life would depend on it
+ All my interceptions are useless splits on the floor OR berfect ping pong bounces back to the opposition
+ Target selection while passing is an ass, every 3rd pass goes randomly wherever it wants
+ My players love to do this stupid sliding drifting animation forcing to receive the ball behind their back instead you know trap it
+ Then i get a fucking division9 opponent and beat him 11-0. Earning 1 progression point
+ Then i finally beat a boosted team and it cheat quits

All these lately happend very rarely, toned down, on an acceptable level....but today? FFS. I feel so murderous i might eat sweets and snacks late night again.
same things happen to me .
 

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Hi. This is very late but I'm also bothered by the lack of midfield resistance and how easy it is to get to the final third of the pitch in PES. I wanted to ask, what in your opinion is the game/gameplay mod that best addresses this issue ?
Yes this is the old version. I have not play this game since v1.1.0 as my pc went sick. But last week i managed to play couple of matches of the latest version and noticed some differences:
-player's movement and passing speed are faster.
-they've toned down ball interception on passing.
-players are more agile which is a good thing imo as i dont feel like battling with the controller anymore but i would argue that it feels a bit more skatey.
-dribbling and ball control are better.

However the fundementals are still the same in term of tactics. My tips for more midfield battle are:
-remove long ball and long ball counter playstyle for both your team and your opponent(AI) if you play offline.
-set your wingers into LMF and RMF instead of LWF and RWF to make them track back when defending.
-play +1 attacking level for higher line.
-close the passing lane instead of rushing for the ball and use match up button often
 
Things that are annoying online:

- I really CAN'T defend! My team leaves open wide spaces and the opponent can pass easily (I use X and L2 a lot)
-On the contrary, when I am attacking the opponent's players are almost everytime in front of my players and mark them very tigthly.
-There are a lot of instances that my defenders are decorative statues while the opponent's attackerrs do figure skating in my box
-Most of my shots in front of opponets goal are on keepers body, even if I point the corners with my stick
-Opponent's attackers steal the ball from my defenders like candies.

And all the other thing gabe mentioned.


But mostly, I CAN'T defend. I have Van Djik , Alaba, Upamecano as CB and 3star Attackers humiliate them.
I could fathom that this is due to lag, but if it were the lag, should it work vise versa aswell?
Why the opponent is defending so tightly and precisely?
 
Things that are annoying online:

- I really CAN'T defend! My team leaves open wide spaces and the opponent can pass easily (I use X and L2 a lot)
-On the contrary, when I am attacking the opponent's players are almost everytime in front of my players and mark them very tigthly.
-There are a lot of instances that my defenders are decorative statues while the opponent's attackerrs do figure skating in my box
-Most of my shots in front of opponets goal are on keepers body, even if I point the corners with my stick
-Opponent's attackers steal the ball from my defenders like candies.

And all the other thing gabe mentioned.


But mostly, I CAN'T defend. I have Van Djik , Alaba, Upamecano as CB and 3star Attackers humiliate them.
I could fathom that this is due to lag, but if it were the lag, should it work vise versa aswell?
Why the opponent is defending so tightly and precisely?
If your opponent is doing it but you can't then be thankful it's not the game engine causing the issue. It's good to see 3-star attackers overcome 5-star defenders when the user isn't using them correctly. My advice is:

1) Avoid sprinting all the time
2) Make sure match up is always engaged, forget about classical press and the sooner you move on to the new system, the better
3) Try to predict when the attacker will make a finesse turn so that you'd slow down too (by tilting your left stick less aggressively without sprint engaged and with motion matching on of course)
 
Hey guys, after 4 months of playing the "full" release of the game, I'm ready to give my annual realism review of it, how it compares to PES, what was fixed compared to 0.9, and what needs to be worked upon.:



It's over an hour long, again, but I start with a "mini-review" of sorts, and leave the details for those who want to keep watching. I broke down the gameplay to the principle components. Some aspects of the 1.x game, like Tactical off-ball movement, actually pleasantly surprised me, and I was going in ready to rip into them. Same goes to ball physics, although shooting physics are still a big downgrade. Here's to hoping we get offline modes soon (Konami probably doesn't want to cannibalize its online player numbers by releasing it now), because I'm enjoying Legend AI in EF, as well as the game's pace, way more than I did in PES. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the watch!

Here are the timestamps (clickable):

00:00 Mini-review
4:44 Ball Physics
6:23 Shooting Physics
11:24 Crossing
18:16 Passing
21:09 Player Switching
25:00 Passing (cont.)
30:46 Defending
36:53 "Kick-off Glitch"
37:06 Dribbling
45:37 Keepers
49:03 Tactical Movement
55:10 Fast Restart
57:15 Referee
1:01:22 Free Kicks
1:02:19 Graphics
1:04:24 Dream Team
1:08:46 Legend AI
1:10:47 FUMA Online
1:12:49 Cheating Online
This review is brilliant. You should send this video to adam
 
This review is brilliant. You should send this video to adam
Be my guest! But they can't interact with videos that show mods even in previous games, because they become liable to misrepresentation. Also, the video touches on topics they don't like spoken out loud, like online cheating, although to be fair, as of last weekend, the 0-3 hack has finally been plugged although it still leads to a void game so plenty of work to do.
 
Be my guest! But they can't interact with videos that show mods even in previous games, because they become liable to misrepresentation. Also, the video touches on topics they don't like spoken out loud, like online cheating, although to be fair, as of last weekend, the 0-3 hack has finally been plugged although it still leads to a void game so plenty of work to do.
So, if one took some non modded snippets from the video… created a new one… posted it on Twitter… and tagged Adam… that would be totally legal and left no space for liability!? 🤔
 
I hate 1.1.4 ...its huge step back... everything what i like in 1.1.2 and actualy start to giving my hope for the future now is gone... for me its unplayble again for so many reasons.
 
This review is brilliant. You should send this video to adam
So, if one took some non modded snippets from the video… created a new one… posted it on Twitter… and tagged Adam… that would be totally legal and left no space for liability!? 🤔
Give it a go, but... We like to think producers and devs are like film directors, crafting their vision and making something they're really happy with.

The reality is, they're just doing a job they don't particularly care about. They're not trying to make the most realistic (or even fun) football games in the world. Their goals are set by the board, i.e. "sell more coins". They aren't going home and thinking "how can I make this game better". If anything, they're thinking "what would increase the average spend", and then they're going home, watching Netflix, going to bed and dreading their morning alarm like the rest of us.

You can show them why the game is totally unrealistic, and their only thought would be, are the myClub players noticing? Is it stopping them from spending a substantial amount of money? If not, why on earth do you think I would care?

I say this because I saw an old community manager collating feedback, sending it on, and being told to estimate how many sales each issue on the list would potentially lose them... and then being told to stop sending the feedback, because it wasn't part of their job, and that it wouldn't make any financial difference if they didn't fix anything.

We will always be far more passionate about these games than the developers, who are mercenaries brought in to squeeze as much money out of the audience as possible. That's the long and short of it. These aren't indie games, they're fruit machines.

(Yet here I am, playing each release of eFootball / FIFA, and expecting them to make a better game one day.)
 
So, if one took some non modded snippets from the video… created a new one… posted it on Twitter… and tagged Adam… that would be totally legal and left no space for liability!? 🤔
I mean you can always tag Adam on whatever video :) He wouldn't be able to interact if it links to a full video that violates their terms and makes them liable. Anyway, I think enough people on twitter are circulating it. I'm waiting for the weekend to see if the YT algorithm has forgiven me. In the meantime, I myself will be posting snippets of the review on twitter all the time over the next few weeks and will be sure to avoid modded PES footage.
 
Give it a go, but... We like to think producers and devs are like film directors, crafting their vision and making something they're really happy with.

The reality is, they're just doing a job they don't particularly care about.

I am working in the games industry now for a decade. And while the people you mention exist, in the studios I have been in they have been the minority. The majority cares about the games and quality they put out and love their job.

There is a lot of reasons why some things happen and some don't but to think that devs, producers, designers etc don't care about their job is a weird assumption. If I wouldn't love my job I wouldn't be doing it for so long and each game I work on I am still excited about. Yes there are frustrating moments as in any job but most people are driven by passion. One example is engineers who could usually earn more money working for banks etc but specifically choose the gaming industry.

I can recommend reading Blood, Sweat and Pixels. It is a good overview how passionate people in the industry are even in the toughest conditions.
 
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Give it a go, but... We like to think producers and devs are like film directors, crafting their vision and making something they're really happy with.

The reality is, they're just doing a job they don't particularly care about. They're not trying to make the most realistic (or even fun) football games in the world. Their goals are set by the board, i.e. "sell more coins". They aren't going home and thinking "how can I make this game better". If anything, they're thinking "what would increase the average spend", and then they're going home, watching Netflix, going to bed and dreading their morning alarm like the rest of us.

You can show them why the game is totally unrealistic, and their only thought would be, are the myClub players noticing? Is it stopping them spending money? Why would I care, then? Leave me alone.

I say this because I saw an old community manager collating feedback, sending it on, and being told to estimate how many sales each issue on the list would potentially lose them... and then being told to stop sending the feedback, because it wasn't part of their job, and that it wouldn't make any financial difference if they didn't fix anything.

(Yet here I am, playing each release of eFootball / FIFA, and expecting them to make a better game one day.)

We will always be far more passionate about these games than the developers, who are mercenaries brought in to squeeze as much money out of the audience as possible. That's the long and short of it. These aren't indie games, they're fruit machines.
This, 100%. Money talks, everywhere, and for every franchise. It's no different at Konami. What I would hope to motivate them is:

- Less frustrating gameplay = More players wanting to play = bigger player base = more opportunity for coin purchases = more money
- More realism = More players wanting to play = bigger player base = more opportunity for coin purchases = more money
- Manual controls = Harder game = Need better players = more opportunity for coin purchases = more money
- High demand for offline mode they can sell = more money

For players like me, I would think long and hard before putting a dime in Dream Team, but would drop $40 in a heartbeat for offline leagues. This might make offline modes sound like a good idea for Konami, but they don't want to compromise the online player base, even if it meant selling more offline packages. Because players who spend money online won't spend money if there's no one to play with. Hence their decision to delay offline while the online player base grows. I reckon they won't release it till cross-platform works because only then will they not worry about compromising the player base with offline modes.
 
I am working in the games industry now for a decade. And while the people you mention exist, in the studios I have been in they have been the minority. The majority cares about the games and quality they put out and love their job.
Isn't it the case that on yearly multi-million (or billion) dollar franchises that your hands are pretty-much tied from a development point of view, because of the company's financial reliance on each iteration selling well (i.e. "don't change anything too much or it might hurt sales" and "shape the game to what the biggest spenders want")?

Because A) that's what the few insiders I know who have worked on FIFA/PES have told me over the years, and B) it makes sense when you're running any kind of business to operate that way. In which case, I would imagine they attract developers who are much more willing to just do as instructed and go home (though admittedly that's any job in general), and as a developer on franchises that are so big, surely you have to divorce yourself from your work.

I can only imagine developers at smaller studios without the pressure of producing something that prints as much money as the last game did are much happier (hearing what life is like at Rockstar, for example - though I believe they've made changes recently).

(I'm not dunking on devs here by the way. I wanted to be a dev from a young age, but I wasn't good enough to pursue it properly. I'm just saying the success of the product is how much money it makes, and that's the end goal of everyone involved. It's not a passion project for everybody - i.e. not everybody working on PGA Tour 2023 is going to love golf and care a great deal about how the AI plays compared to their real-life counterparts.)
 
Isn't it the case that on yearly multi-million (or billion) dollar franchises that your hands are pretty-much tied from a development point of view, because of the company's financial reliance on each iteration selling well (i.e. "don't change anything too much or it might hurt sales" and "shape the game to what the biggest spenders want")?

Because A) that's what the few insiders I know who have worked on FIFA/PES have told me over the years, and B) it makes sense when you're running any kind of business to operate that way. In which case, as a developer on franchises that are so big, surely you have to divorce yourself from your work.

I can only imagine developers at smaller studios are much happier (hearing what life is like at Rockstar, for example - though I believe they've made changes recently).
There are restraints in bigger franchises. But that doesn't mean people are not passionate about a project or features they are working on. Especially with experience you know how to make changes even in more restricted areas. But I have seen both sides from big studios to startups and in each one most people were there because they love games/want to work on them and we're also passionate about their projects.

The challenges might be bigger or smaller depending on the studio, but from my experience saying they don't care is the wrong assumption. Of course sometimes you are frustrated and leave a studio but that is again: because you cared about your project and work and became to frustrated or were at the point where you might stop caring.

The moment you feel you don't care for me has always been the moment where you should leave a studio and look for something new, to keep your passion alive.

Divorcing from work I have honestly rarely seen in gaming. Because for example as an engineer there are so many opportunities out there.

If you haven't read the book I can recommend it. It gives a pretty good overview over the passion of people in gaming.
Regarding your PGA example: as an engineer he might not be passionate about golf, but he might be passionate about the development of a realistic physics engine, which is a great challenge as a developer. That is what i mean people will/can be passionate about what they work on or usually find something they are passionate about in gaming, for some it is engines, for some UI and so on.
 
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I've worked in the games industry and still work in tech product development as a tester and the issue I find is the demotivation of having little control of what you are working on. Even senior product managers (or producers in the games industry) have their features shaped to meet the company goals and targets and that will be the priority in terms of what gets delivered... You just need to look at the latest F1 game and it's ridiculous F1 life feature with purchasable supercars, a nonsense feature that was promoted and prioritised over such things as making online work properly for league racers.

ultimately the trend in games is making money from microtransactions and of course games have fixed release windows which means that you rarely ever get time to release actual quality and you have to crunch just to release the MVP (minimum viable product) in the first place. Obviously this is magnified and monsterous corporate machines like EA over your local friendly Shoreditch indie Dev with it's focus on company culture.

You've seen that Reddit post about the EA testing process and the ignored bugs, that's how product development works everywhere at varying extremes depending on the industry, So yeah, while you're crunching and working hard striving to deliver the highest quality you can, it's demoralising to watch your bugs be ignored for months and then forever, your code be shelved and your innovative product designs/ideas get pushed further down the backlog to facilitate the next 'super urgent priority' money making ideas coming down from the executive team...
 
More realism more players wanting to play? you can't believe that lol
I really wonder about this. For years I agreed with you, but really, I don't think anybody's tried it, so I don't think we really know - and I know a lot more football fans who want to play a game closer to football than the games we have now (including those in their 20s and 30s, most of whom are casual gamers).
 
More realism more players wanting to play? you can't believe that lol
It's the reason PES had a following, period. Otherwise, you'd move to the other side with all the teams, stadiums, licenses, TV broadcast stuff, premium menus etc.

PES's only claim was its more realistic gameplay. Also, don't forget that football is the most popular sport in the world. It's beloved. We love football. The closer the game is to replicating the emotions and feelings the real game evokes in you, the better for the game.

It's just a lot harder to do than to secure licenses and improve visuals.
 
I am working in the games industry now for a decade. And while the people you mention exist, in the studios I have been in they have been the minority. The majority cares about the games and quality they put out and love their job.

There is a lot of reasons why some things happen and some don't but to think that devs, producers, designers etc don't care about their job is a weird assumption. If I wouldn't love my job I wouldn't be doing it for so long and each game I work on I am still excited about. Yes there are frustrating moments as in any job but most people are driven by passion. One example is engineers who could usually earn more money working for banks etc but specifically choose the gaming industry.

I can recommend reading Blood, Sweat and Pixels. It is a good overview how passionate people in the industry are even in the toughest conditions.
Do Adam still work with efootball ?
 
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