@ Trance Allstar
Hi T
In response to your post over in the Pes thread, I would like to eloborate further.
I find the response to be an issue for me to enjoy the game. it is more responsive than 08 (which I found unplayable) but its still slugish when it comes to shooting and passing just after you receive the ball.
You are right when you mention that its too responsive when they trap the ball, which happens instantly, especially from very long balls, it then has to let the animation unfold before your commands are carried out.
In the arena, run at full pelt toward the goal and press the shoot button, i find the player takes a further 2-3 paces before releasing the shoot button. now thats fine in the vast open, non pressurising space there, but have that in a game and its the difference between getting a shot off and not, which is why it can frustrate some.
You just feel, its not doing what you want it to, when you want it done. I also struggle with the running animation which sometimes feels they are running against an 80mph wind, that feeling of running through treacle is till there for me yet its still an improvement on 08.
Animations are fantastic but I think this adds a mask to the core problems that remain from 08, it feels less clunky because they turn slightly quicker and adjust the balance better but its still not as fluid as it could be (Pes mentality I am afraid)and as a consequence it just frustrates me.Tricks are also almost impossible to pull off in a game situation at the right time.
Its interesting to read that they have left a load of animations out the demo, so I do beleive the final game will be improved, however I have the same feeling i had with 08 & euro and I sold them not long after playing.
I just know i may aswell throw the towel in on this one rather than spend £40, be dissapointed, sell it on and wish i'd never bothered.
I found PES5 to be the best game I have played on the 360 yet and for all Konami's clear arrogance and lack of next gen innovation, i beleive its taken a step toward to what it was and that is what
I prefer.
I dont want anyone lambasting me because i don't like it because its my choice, but I hope you all enjoy it because clearly you all love it............that's great for you.
Enjoy
Hey mate.
I agree with most points you make.
To be honest I hadn't really been bothered about the shooting or passing responsiveness. When running full clip, from what I've played on the demo, the player seems to shoot just as he reaches the ball, seeing that he usually kicks the ball ahead of himself when sprinting and thus he would be unable to shoot until he catches up to the ball. If I imagine myself on the pitch sprinting after the ball, I imagine I would need some moments to adjust myself for a powerful shot. Not only catch up to the ball, but also get my footing right and sort of "get into the flow" before I can get control, balance to unleash a shot.
The Reason PES5 for example was good at this was that they basically cheated and let the player shoot without having to worry about his footing. For example, just as he was going to plant his right foot in the ground to keep himself upright, he would instead pull that foot back to shoot with it, and in real life he would've just collapsed if he had done that. They don't have to worry about using their feet to keep themselves from falling to the ground, and thus they can really kick a ball regardless of where in the running animation they are. It's sort of like the players being suspended by cables on their hips, and being able to just lift their feet off the ground and hang there.
So in that aspect, looking as the players footing in FIFA09, usually you can see that the player did in fact shoot as quickly as possible, since the feet don't slide around, and he actually needs to follow through with footing etc, for example planting his left foot before he can shoot with the right.
But there is one more nuance to this, and that is that in real life, you still have control over how quickly you want to execute certain moves. So if you want a really powerful shot you might need to really do proper, quite slow movements when setting up for the shot. But, you could also tiptap with your feet quickly just to get them in place for a shot, and perhaps sacrificing a bit of potential power for a more quick "snapshot" that doesn't require forceful movements or the leg being pulled back as much etc. And in FIFA, I feel that the programming doesn't allow you do do things as quickly as they "could" have been done. There's sort of an emphasis on slow forceful moves rather than quick light ones, if you will.
My original post where I discussed the "Responsive/Close control" would solve this problem more or less, since a button would allow you to choose if the player should do things slowly/powerfully or quickly/lightly, etc. So depending on how much room you have to the nearest defender, you could allow the player to do a proper forceful shot animation, or a quick more sloppy less forceful one.
Normally you'd perhaps expect the shot power bar to scale the forcefulness of the shot, but that is more of a heightbar than power, and the player shot animation seems to be pretty much the same whether you tap the button once or hold for more power.
Also since LT is analog, you could have a analog choice for power vs. speed depending on how depressed the button is. Though that probably might be a bit much, perhaps it would be enough with 3 stages, not depressed, 50% depressed and fully depressed.
As for running animations, yeah, now that you mention it, the "running against the wind" one seems to describe it quite well. Not only the arm movements like they are swimming against the wind, but also their upper bodies looking like they are being forced more upright by the wind.
And, to be completely honest, I am sort of curious about PES2009. 2008 had some great features gameplaywise I felt, among the complete rubbish things. And the Dribbling modes in PES seem better than FIFA09, particularly the R2 dribbling which I loved in PES2008. I'll probably get tired of PES2009 after 5 games or so though because of the lack of analog passing and such. :/
Spot on I still dig my Amiga out to have a bash, but it's on it's last legs now... 
