One thing that says a lot about this game,and it was the same for 19 (probably 18 too) is that you don't get any blow outs,either way.
I don't beat teams with 5-1 every now and then,or get beaten by that if I have a shit team.
It's like a wet cloth hanging over everything making it equally even ,and the 1-0/1-1/2-1/2-2 are the most common results.
Just like trying to keep a clean sheet on Pes 19,hardly happend.
I'm talking about professional/TP difficulty here.
I can't "like" this post enough times! I often think about this.
I think it says an awful lot about the game, that every game is so finely balanced. That's not a good thing - some real-life football matches, e.g. Man City v West Ham the other day, are
horribly balanced (20+ shots to a couple). It's the objective of football, pretty much!
But PES doesn't represent this - it represents Man City by letting you run quickly, but the illusion of dribbling is smashed when the opposition just "hold X to win the ball" - and it represents West Ham by making your players stiff, laggy and unresponsive (every button press taking 2+ seconds to happen).
Good players aren't good players because they're fast.
Bad players aren't bad players because they're on heavy sedatives.
Even with DP4, I'm still finding myself bored of this game. I spent an hour yesterday downloading graphic mods, etc, for the PC, but when the ball starts moving - it's just...blah. There is an emptiness that sets in and just puts me to sleep. The game looks gorgeous, but the robotic gameplay just feels like groundhog day - pass, pass, turn, shoot. Cross, defended, players running away from the ball. Space for days between midfield and defensive line that means when the ball is deflected away it's at least 20 yards till the next player picks it up. There's just no cohesion and no risk to pass the ball forwards.
It's stiff, it's robotic, it's the opposite of "free" and "organic". But... If the opposition defend, you do have to build up the play - and when you're defending, your reading of the game and use of the secondary press button can make all the difference.
Yes, the midfield is an abyss sometimes - and yes, long balls to the forwards are always a good, cheap idea because of how successful they are (which is why the AI does it 10x per game). But I'm finding I have to *think* a lot more (rather than rely on pace and a skill-stick) than I do with any current football game (excluding Football Manager, obviously).
Yes, I'm lowering my standards to enjoy a football game this year... But hey... That's the modern era for ya.
Also, the gameplay mods make a world of difference (I've avoided them up until a couple of weeks ago, and I was a fool). They're even looking at modding positional AI at the minute.