Well, I finally got to play the demo on 360, and for a couple of hours no less.
To be honest, I wasn't terribly impressed. It is definitely better than FIFA08 and Euro08. I think playing the AI, especially on the higher difficulties, is not a good showcase for the game.
For me, while the game is realistic and all, there are constantly little things that take me out of the experience. I almost only notice the gameplay and physics, so tactics etc isn't an issue for me.
- I don't like the animations for running and dribbling, or should I say the "style" of the animations. Players move with too much urgency for me, even when holding LT (slow dribble, trickstick activator). And they don't keep the ball close enough to their bodies than I would want, and so you can't really do quick movements and direction changes. Usually it is ballmove-step-step-ballmove-step-step etc. So far nothing tops the R2 dribbling in PES2008 for me, when it comes to close control and immaculate directional changing. Not sure if anyone agrees with me, but the way PES20008's R2 dribbling mode is animated is almost perfect when it comes to just moving a ball around.
Also the problem of "urgency" in the way the players move could be helped by using the tilt angle of the analog stick to control the pace of the player. I recently noticed that in NHL08, if you are skating for example to take a penalty, and only push the analog stick halfway forward, the player has a much more slow and relaxed skating appearance. It really does so much to give some dynamic range to the movements. The reason I discovered it was that when I took penalties, when you just skate with the stick fully pushed in, the player reaches the goal too quickly, and you have no time to perform some drag moves to fool the keeper. So I just tried pushing the analog stick lightly, and the player responded in the way I wanted. Definitely should be used more. Also NHL08 is analog in directionality I think.
- The AI still reacts instantly to certain things. For example if I feint going to the right (LT + tap trickstick to the side of the player), and then move to the left, if a defender is in front of me, the millisecond my player touches the ball to 45 degrees left to past the side of the defender the defender will start moving to intercept the ball (like stick out a foot into the perfect place to intercept the ball, even though my player has touched the ball just an animation frame earlier. It was in Euro08 aswell. I don't see why it should be so hard to force a hard delay into the reactions of the AI players, that would correspond to the reaction times of humans.
Obviously this is AI so it's not really gameplay per se, but I don't like it at all.
- Shooting. Too much backspin for my liking. By that I mean, the backspin shots aren't really mixed with "normal" nonspinning shots. You constantly have rising shots that go over.
Obviously, if they did "mix" the shot-types more, it would mean that it would be very hard to predict when the player does a backspin shot and a more normal shot. In real life, you can do both just depending on how you shape the foot at the moment of impact, and what angle you give the foot. Still, right now it seems like they've just substituted the constant lobby-type shots from FIFA08 for constant shots with backspin. I would have liked to see a shotsystem that was alot more mixed and realistic. Balls constantly "float", which has been complained about previously I think. There's nothing wrong with it from a physics standpoint. Given alot of backspin, the ball will behave like in FIFA09, it will climb on the air and resist gravity alot more, thus seeming alot "lighter" in weight if you didn't notice how it spins. But it is wrong to have for almost every shot.
- Supercancel. Still takes a second to respond, and it is really clunky. In PES, it could be used just an instant before you receive a pass, just to shift the player in a very subtle way, which could make him radically change the way he received the ball (from trapping stationary to starting to move and thus trapping it in a distance). This definitely needs to get some work, I see no reason why I couldn't get complete control of the player movement the instant I press Cancel. The delay of a second just seems there for no apparent reason.
- Heading is really nice, players basically seem to jump when you press the button, so if you press to early, your player will already have landed once the ball reaches you.
- Goalkeepers. Not superhuman a la Euro08 anymore. Still some niggles left, particularly when the keeper could just stick and arm out to save a shot, yet opts for a really longwinded jump save, where the ball goes in at his armpit, as his arm is extended about 30-40 cm too far.
But definitely better.
- Why is the "Lane-Change" trick still bound to holding the trickstick to the side for a moment? It's a simple sole drag to the side, and it is only useful when it is really responsive, since you'd mainly want to use it in a very timed manner, just as a defender sticks his leg out or such. As it is now, you have to hold the trickstick to the side for a moment, and the delay usually gets worse when you are in a match and running, where the player sometimes waits 2-3 steps before doing it, when he really should have been able to do it almost instantly when you pressed it.
- Another thing about the general dribbling/movements. Why is there no "sidestep" move a la PES? In PES5 the sidestep was automatic when you pressed 90 degrees to the side of your player. In PES6 and 2008 (which had a better system) you held R2 and pressed to the side to have the player move to the side but still facing in the same direction as before.
FIFA08 had a really clunky system where you could hold LT + RT, and have the player move while facing the goal. But it was very unresponsive and unprecise and "big" in the movements, so it wasn't useful in most situations.
- You can trap a ball "dead", and have the player stop, when receiving a ball by holding either RT (trap whilst facing the same direction as before) or LB (trap and simultaneously turn to face the goal).
Why not just simplify the system, and have LB being the "trap" button, like in PES? That way the RT trap function (trap and face the same direction as before receiving the ball) would be performed by simply holding LB and pressing the direction you want to turn on the analog stick.
Also, the time it takes from trapping with RT or LB, to when you can move after, needs to be shortened alot. As it is now, the player needs to come to a complete halt after the trap and move, and he is completely vulnerable. In real life, the player would be able to receive the ball as he is turning his body, and immediately move the ball in a direction. Since he is trapping the ball with his foot, the ball is already on his foot, and he would be free to manipulate the ball with the foot even before he lands with his other foot (if he has done a little jump or spin to trap and turn himself in a certain durection), and perhaps flick the ball in a direction to avoid a defender even as he is in the air just after the trap. It's really clunky as it is now, and I really don't even want to use the trap buttons in tight spaces, where they should be the most useful to control receiving passes in tight spaces. There's just an unneccesary moment where the player is unresponsive when he really shouldn't be.
- Receiving a pass with the Right Analog Stick to flick it in a direction needs fixing. The ball sometimes gets a huge boost of speed, a reaction that isn't reflected in the force the player uses when he touches the ball), and it also stops abruptly after a few meters, like it has tons of backspin and suddenly grips the grass.
- Penalties really could be alot more fun than they are. The goalkeeper is extremely stiff to move on the line, you tap the RAS once in a direction and he keeps moving for what seems like an eternity. Also where are the "hold up to have the goalkeeper stretch up his arms" and "hold down to have the keeper lower his body and show his reach" animations? I liked those touches in previous games, made you feel like it was you on the line. Now you just bounce around without any real control and wait for the kick.
Also saving should be alot more fun. You could for example implement a system where the LAS controls the direction your keeper jumps, and the RAS controls his arms, so even if you jump "Right-low", and the penalty goes "right-high", you could make your keeper stretch an arm up with the RAS and perhaps save the ball.
And the penalties themselves could also need a new system, rather than the current simple "go past this mark on the powerbar and it is a sure miss". Even if you press Down on the LAS, to aim straight ahead and low, if you put the powerbar too high, it will always to OVER the bar. Now in real life, there is a certain correlation between power and height, as in, if a ball is struck in exactly the same manner several times, and the only variable is the power of the strike, the more powerful strike will usually get more height, not just because of the speed allowing the arch to become longer and higher, but also since the curl is different based on how much force the ball is compressed with and how far up the boot the ball can "roll" up in the compression phase before it shoots off, blah blah). Point is, why have such a one-dimensional system, when in real life it is completely possible to put full power into a penalty and both have it sniffing the ground, aswell as accidentally shooting over the ball due to a misshit, or hitting anywhere, really. If it would be too easy to score in the game if you could shoot really hard down the middle, then I'd think about introducing alot more inaccuracy as the powerbar fills up, and also change the goalkeeper controls so that you can throw yourself at any point, even after the ball is struck, so that you can wait slightly longer and potentially wait out any balls struck down the middle, but also have time to atleast make an effort to a side if you notice the ball going there. Goalkeeper controls should be more hands on and responsive, so that you can decide not just what direction the goalkeeper should jump, but also what moment he should jump, and also control the direction and such of his actual "save", whether that be arms reaching up or down to reach a ball, or trying to kick the ball with the legs etc.
- Freekick curling. I have to agree it should be considered a bug. It starts off good, but then the ball suddenly grabs the ball. Now that is sort of how real life balls react, they curl more at the end of the trajectory as the speed slows down, but this seems highly exaggerated.
- Very nice touch that you now decide not only that the freekick wall should jump, but you also control the exact timing of the jump. Makes freekicks against mates alot more exciting, since your timing of the wall jump can be the difference between a counterattack and a Freekick in the top corner. Such a small thing, but that is the type of thinking that makes a good game. Taking a thing like wall control during a freekick from a passive "hold a button" affair to a moment that requires concentration and timing.
- I really, really want some easy, responsive 2-foot feints and drop-shoulder type feints on the LAS. I managed one 2-foot feint before, don't know how I did it because when I tried the same move again he just did the standard dribble moves, no continuous 1-2 touch. You could activate them by moving the stick in a certain way when holding LT, which would still allow for non-skill movement when using just the LAS to move.
- Player switching seems awkward and a bit "off" in the logic that decided who to switch to next. It almost never seemed to switch to the player I was trying to switch to. Could be that I'm used to PES5 and thus an so used to the way it switches players. Still, I felt like the game wasn't switching to the player I felt was best for the situation.
Those are some thoughts I had from the demo. Might think of more tomorrow. Now you will have to excuse me, it's 2:19AM, and time for my nap.
jk!!! nice demo vid
