Just had another session (playing as Newcastle on Top Player). Beat Arsenal 2-0 - biggest victory so far this season - and then, FA Cup round one, was getting beat 4-0 by Bournemouth (from the league below) when I turned off the console in disgust.
Now, I don't believe in "scripting" really. But this entire game, it was horribly obvious how handicapped and "laggy" my players were. Every time I got the ball to a striker, it took so long for him to control it, and turn to face the goal, that he was dispossessed every single time. (No sign of that vs Arsenal.)
For the final goal the AI scored, my keeper parried the ball to my defender, who was locked on a path walking (not running) into the net. Not close to the goal line - about five yards away.
He was walking, with the ball FULLY under his control (not ahead of him), and as I'm furiously pulling the stick towards the corner flag (pressing no buttons, not holding sprint or anything), he just carried on walking until he was JUST ABOUT to cross the line.
I've played PES for a long time but I've never seen anything quite like this - (without any exaggeration, I genuinely thought this is what had happened) it was as if the controller had lost connection to the console and "locked" the player running in one direction.
I pressed "pass" in a panic, while still holding the direction towards the corner flag, and he did a 180 turn to place the ball directly to the opposition striker, who hit the ball at about 100mph past the keeper who was just stood watching (the single realistic thing about this entire sequence).
That's it. That's me done. Fuck this game - fuck FIFA - fuck football games. How the hell are they all so badly broken? It's unreal. More than anything, I'm just so sad, and tired of trying to find a game to "make do". And Football Manager just doesn't scratch the itch.