I waited to offer my two cents on the demo because I've been occupied in all sorts of things. I may say I specially agree with Wildster in most of his views of the demo. To make it short:
Positives:
I think EA has nailed all the "controllable" things. I mean, everything you control with the pad is spot on for me, just great. Controsl feel right and there's more player individuality than before.
Even though I have put it in short, the improvement is massive and it's great and they done a marvellous job. There's all you need to have a 10/10 football game. But...
Negatives:
- Game Speed / Space / Closing down
Even though I think speed is a tad too fast, the main problem comes from old... CPU AI is pathetic and kills the joy. It's as if they delivered us a perfect gem and shit on it the CPU AI. The way they close you down constantly, hoe they deliver inch perfect passes most of the time, the way Chicago can put infinite pressure all the time is piss poor. And stamina is yet to have an impact on the game. I know it's a 3 minuted demo, but still...
- Strength and Speed against the rest
I want Xavi and Iniesta to be key players in this game but it's impossible with this speed, the constant pressure of CPU in the midfield and the fact that STRENGTH > SKILL in any situation. That kills the joy, because in this game anyone will prefer to have Essien than Xavi in midfield, and I find this to be a personal defeat for me, I was expecting skill to be at least as important as strength. For example, anyone can push Xavi even from behind and siposses him easily, while in real life it's almost impossible to do. It's so obvious Speed and Strength are overacted...
- Rigid tactics
One thing I hate is they haven't corrected some tactical aspects that kill the experience for me. I'm a barcelona fan so I'm desperate for ball possession. So I do a lot of passes to finally create a chance. Let's say I end up crossing the ball. What happens in the game 90% of the times is that defenders clear the ball to a mate (or end up winning any battle for the ball against my skilled but papermade Xavi and Iniesta who are never in the RIGHT positions) and then the opponent has 50 meters clear ahead of them to run the counter. In real life, if you have possession and advance, you force your opponent to close in its own area, and it's hard for them to go out. In the game, it's uber-easy to counter, because the opponent striker is ALWAYS unmarked in the midfield, and your defenders totally unaware of him. That means that once you have crossed and missed the chance, the opponent simply runs the field (your midfield is unexistant by then) or simply does a 25 yrds pass to the striker who is always alone to receive the ball. This is crap and it bored me to death in fifa 09. They haven't change a thing tactically, I'm gutted. In short, it doesn't matter how you play because there are "scripted" positions that make the tactical side of the game to feel totally "scripted".
- Team styles
Finally, the CPU AI makes all the teams play exactly the same... I'm not talking about the result or 1 vs 1 situations (Messi can destroy Chicago defenders 1 by 1 given the space), I'm talking about the way they play tactically and strategically.
- Individualitzation
By the way, there is definitely some player individualization. Don't try to cross or long pass with Abidal, don't try long shots with Iniesta, don't try heading with xavi... That said, I think it's not enough. There should be even MORE differentiation between players.
I know it sound so negative, but really like it and I think it will be the best football game out there, but as long as there has been a HUGE improvement on a lot of things, some fundamentals of the game remain a brake for the experience.