FIFA 16 News & Discussion Thread

[Chris Davies]

I play my CM on professional as I always pick up a lower team from a 2nd divison (TSV 1860 Munich in my case) and build it up and bring it up to the 1st.
The difficulty is right there as the players are weaker (values average around 65), but the stronger the team gets, the easier the games get and then it´s time to adjust the difficulty.
That´s what I´ve been experiencing with FIFA 15, so I guess it´s surely the same in 16 as well. Been playing with vanilla sliders until I set it up to worldclass and adjusted them there then.

Now, a couple of days ago I fired up FUT again but played an offline season.
I wanted to play with that team but FUT online became a no-go for me.
Had a couple of games on professional and then there were those world class matches and they really felt the same.
Means, I´m agreeing on this one now.
AI was hardcore passing around - almost tiki taka style.

Yeah, sad fact.

I use Matt10's sliders from Operation Sports with a few edits to suit the default match length, and it makes a difference, but, it doesn't stop A) World Class tiki-taka or B) Legendary superpower players when they go a goal down.

Even when you fiddle with the passing sliders, it doesn't affect most passes (they get the same high passing accuracy), so you end up slowing their players down instead - which looks silly on occasion, but gives you half a chance.

It seems the AI makes every team play in the same way to ensure a victory against you, on those higher difficulties, because it isn't intelligent enough to win using the tactics it's given to work with.

It's a shame AI-wise, and the AI in PES (talking about the ML) ranges between "crazy" and "cheat the fuck out of you".

 

[ccshopland]

Have to say though, that in World Class in FIFA, I can't honestly say I feel I've been cheated as much as in PES. And I don't tend to win all that many games. The demo is frustrating in that it only offers 4 minute halves I think, but still, I have less of a problem with losing in FIFA than in PES. I'm also playing on the default sliders, feel it's balanced nicely in WC tbf. All opinion of course.

 

[Chris Davies]

Have to say though, that in World Class in FIFA, I can't honestly say I feel I've been cheated as much as in PES. And I don't tend to win all that many games. The demo is frustrating in that it only offers 4 minute halves I think, but still, I have less of a problem with losing in FIFA than in PES. I'm also playing on the default sliders, feel it's balanced nicely in WC tbf. All opinion of course.

Whilst I agree, because I never feel like my players are being controlled by the opposition (or impaired to ensure my defeat) in FIFA - and that definitely happens in PES - I still feel cheated in FIFA on World Class because of how they can pass in circles around you and leave you powerless to intervene.

Whether you're playing Liverpool or Leyton Orient.

It happens less on Legendary, but then the sudden boosts are worse (when the AI switches to "all out attack", you're doomed). Either way, it doesn't feel proportional to the quality of the team you're playing against, there are no easy victories on the higher difficulties.

 

[ccshopland]

Yep I do agree, although both have never really nailed this. I feel though that in FIFA this year (and once again only from the demo) that Barce do play like Barce more than say Monchengladbach, whilst in PES I find it easier to beat Munich than Palmeiras for example as Roma. For example yesterday I played Palmeiras three times as Roma and they won with some stupid crazy scripting. Then I beat Bayern barely raising a sweat.

The times I've played Madrid for example in FIFA as say Monchen, I have felt dominated but kind of fairly; at least stats wise etc. The problem is whether I want to buy the game that gives more magic but is bat shit crazy, or a game that ticks various boxes at a 7.5/10 level. So on the fence this year.

 

[chiefrocka4real]

Yeah, sad fact.

I use Matt10's sliders from Operation Sports with a few edits to suit the default match length, and it makes a difference, but, it doesn't stop A) World Class tiki-taka or B) Legendary superpower players when they go a goal down.

Even when you fiddle with the passing sliders, it doesn't affect most passes (they get the same high passing accuracy), so you end up slowing their players down instead - which looks silly on occasion, but gives you half a chance.

It seems the AI makes every team play in the same way to ensure a victory against you, on those higher difficulties, because it isn't intelligent enough to win using the tactics it's given to work with.

It's a shame AI-wise, and the AI in PES (talking about the ML) ranges between "crazy" and "cheat the fuck out of you".

Hmmm ok.

I remember that I used one of Matt´s Sliders for FIFA 15 as my team got stronger and therefore professional became too easy.
And that sliders - can´t recall which ones they were - gave me a perfect difficulty balance and the AI was okay too.

I also don´t remember whether it was world class or legendary.
Pity that I already deinstalled it.

 

[Chris Davies]

The times I've played Madrid for example in FIFA as say Monchen, I have felt dominated but kind of fairly; at least stats wise etc. The problem is whether I want to buy the game that gives more magic but is bat shit crazy, or a game that ticks various boxes at a 7.5/10 level. So on the fence this year.

I've hated the PES cheating, or scripting, for about ten years. So while that's still there, I can't play it regularly. As soon as I see my player isn't under my control, it goes off.

I've loved FIFA 16 more than any other football game I've ever played, and I mean, that says it all for me. More than I loved SWOS, ISS PE2, Championship Manager, anything. It has moments where I put the controller down in pure bliss from a passing move that ended with a sublime finish out of nowhere, and you feel like it was all down to you.

But over time you see the same patterns, and also, they've patched it into FIFA 15.5 now. I still love it, but now I can only play it for a couple of games at a time, as opposed to the ten games at a time I was playing around October. The more difficult AI levels don't have the freedom of tactical interpretation that "professional" does (which is too easy), so you end up playing a tough, scrappy, back-and-forth game, against everyone. Fix the AI, and the game is a winner.

FIFA is still the clear winner for me, but I'm worried for the future given the reviews that essentially all said the same thing - "too realistic, too boring". FIFA 17 is going to be garbage, I reckon.

 

[quaqua]

FIFA is still the clear winner for me, but I'm worried for the future given the reviews that essentially all said the same thing - "too realistic, too boring". FIFA 17 is going to be garbage, I reckon.

They modify gameplay according to FUT. If FUT fanbase don't like gameplay cause it's too slow and boring, EA patch it. It's the same pattern every year: they release a demo to convince players on the fench ( if you're a FUT player, you'll buy Fifa no matter what ) and that's why usually you get a really good demo simulation wise, then they start to patch the game according to FUT feedback. You can consider the official release as the first patch. Fifa is all about FUT, just look at the official EA forum, general discussion: it's like 15k threads from FUT and 2k from Fifa. Next year will be the same.

 

[Chris Davies]

They modify gameplay according to FUT. If FUT fanbase don't like gameplay cause it's too slow and boring, EA patch it. It's the same pattern every year: they release a demo to convince players on the fench ( if you're a FUT player, you'll buy Fifa no matter what ) and that's why usually you get a really good demo simulation wise, then they start to patch the game according to FUT feedback. You can consider the official release as the first patch. Fifa is all about FUT, just look at the official EA forum, general discussion: it's like 15k threads from FUT and 2k from Fifa. Next year will be the same.

I wonder if the biggest thing we should be petitioning EA with is an offline gameplay patch selector, then?

We've got sliders, and they help, but when the patches change fundamental gameplay based on FUT players... We need a choice. Just a dropdown option next to the sliders that says "v1.01 gameplay, v1.02 gameplay" etc...

(Incidentally, though the forums are drowned in FUT feedback, and though it's obviously their priority given the microtransactions, there are still a substantial amount of people who play the game in single-player - at least, according to some stats they released about one of the older games a while ago, I seem to recall. I just don't think they're as vocal. I mean, if I knew of some way to 100% make myself heard by the devs, I'd do it, but there's a sea of absolute shit on Twitter etc...)

 

[Chris Davies]

Sorry for the double-post, but - interesting theory about the offline AI being completely overpowered on the higher difficulties (for all offline game modes including FUT)...

FIFA 16 Forums - "Why Is Offline So Hard This Year?"

its because EA are slowly but surely removing the ability to farm coins by playing games.

rather than just come out and say it, and risk the backlash. they just make the game impossible.

ive won div one offline. it was disgusting and made me hate the game.

never again.

 

[ccshopland]

I've hated the PES cheating, or scripting, for about ten years. So while that's still there, I can't play it regularly. As soon as I see my player isn't under my control, it goes off.

I've loved FIFA 16 more than any other football game I've ever played, and I mean, that says it all for me. More than I loved SWOS, ISS PE2, Championship Manager, anything. It has moments where I put the controller down in pure bliss from a passing move that ended with a sublime finish out of nowhere, and you feel like it was all down to you.

But over time you see the same patterns, and also, they've patched it into FIFA 15.5 now. I still love it, but now I can only play it for a couple of games at a time, as opposed to the ten games at a time I was playing around October. The more difficult AI levels don't have the freedom of tactical interpretation that "professional" does (which is too easy), so you end up playing a tough, scrappy, back-and-forth game, against everyone. Fix the AI, and the game is a winner.

FIFA is still the clear winner for me, but I'm worried for the future given the reviews that essentially all said the same thing - "too realistic, too boring". FIFA 17 is going to be garbage, I reckon.

Chris, what is stopping you from playing FIFA vanilla then, out of the box? I presume this would be like the demo, which I like? Do you have to install the latest patches and stuff, I appreciate that they update the teams and stuff but why not use FIFA out of box? Just asking.

 

[Chris Davies]

Chris, what is stopping you from playing FIFA vanilla then, out of the box? I presume this would be like the demo, which I like? Do you have to install the latest patches and stuff, I appreciate that they update the teams and stuff but why not use FIFA out of box? Just asking.

There's a few serious bugs that the patches fix as far as I can remember, and also, I do like to play online occasionally, so it'd cause no end of ballache if I was back and forth between versions (also, it would mean having to uninstall and reinstall the game all the time I think, which takes about 30 minutes a time).

It is possible to do, though, and I've done it once before to make a comparison video to an older patch. It doesn't make the game perfect, but the game on the disc is the same as the demo (in my opinion - there are people who disagree but I'm pretty certain myself).

I might try it again - oh, but, last time, deleting all the data from my Xbox deleted all the data "in the cloud", and I lost my career mode save. Which reeeeeeeeeally pissed me off.

 

[quaqua]

I wonder if the biggest thing we should be petitioning EA with is an offline gameplay patch selector, then?

We've got sliders, and they help, but when the patches change fundamental gameplay based on FUT players... We need a choice. Just a dropdown option next to the sliders that says "v1.01 gameplay, v1.02 gameplay" etc...

(Incidentally, though the forums are drowned in FUT feedback, and though it's obviously their priority given the microtransactions, there are still a substantial amount of people who play the game in single-player - at least, according to some stats they released about one of the older games a while ago, I seem to recall. I just don't think they're as vocal. I mean, if I knew of some way to 100% make myself heard by the devs, I'd do it, but there's a sea of absolute shit on Twitter etc...)

It doesn't matter, Chris. Since it was introduced as a DLC, all the money, all the buisness is around FUT. On FUT forums nobody moans about super fast pace, op zig-zag dribbling, insane long shot and super human keeper, but two months ago a lot of user rant about the game pretty much everyday: it was too difficult, too slow and there wasn't cheap way to score. And after the last patch, there are still so many players that feel the game sluggish and slow. You should hope this was the last patch for Fifa 16, because - eventually - next one will be even worse than 1.5.

 

[elfie]

Chris,

I have applied your sliders to Fifa 15, and it also makes that game much more enjoyable. I agree the midfield play is not as good as in 16 but it's enjoyable still.

And my favorite daisy cutter is in there. I played 1 game after some months on 15 and scored 1. An absolute joy. The shot variation in 15 is much better than 16.

Since i don't play that often i might just stick with 15. It doesn't have the latest lineups or kits, but i don't mind that really.

 

[mfmaxpower]

All this talk of the AI being over-powered, impossible, cheating, etc is massively exaggerated. Yeah, it's a lot tougher than year's past and it's taken me longer this year than previously to come to grips with the gameplay, but I play on Legendary with all default settings and I have no issues whatsoever with the difficulty.

If anything, it needs to be a little harder, primarily in terms of the AI intelligence, cause if I'm playing well I rarely lose against the CPU.

This isn't to say that there isn't bullshit that goes on, or that it's perfectly balanced, cause it certainly isn't, but it has more to do with poor programming than any cheating or over-poweredness going on.

 

[StayingPower]

Has anyone tried going back to Fifa 14? I've played 14, 15, and 16 this week and find it the best by far. I haven't come across any game-breaking (imo) flaws like 15's OP dribbling and 16's AI ignoring the ball and perfect passing. It's a solid game of football.

 

[ccshopland]

Can I ask please, been playing the demo on PS4 since xmas and think it's very good overall. But have the latest patches changed it for the worse from the demo? Also, is the out of the box FIFA (with no patches)the same as the demo version? I don't want to be buying something that is basically morphed back to FIFA 15.

 

[Elja]

Has anyone tried going back to Fifa 14? I've played 14, 15, and 16 this week and find it the best by far. I haven't come across any game-breaking (imo) flaws like 15's OP dribbling and 16's AI ignoring the ball and perfect passing. It's a solid game of football.

Agree 14 is the best fifa series for me too. I still play it more than 16

 

[Chris Davies]

Agree 14 is the best fifa series for me too. I still play it more than 16

I don't have it any more but loved it at the time. 15 was Speedy Gonzalez super-soccer, and 16 is close but no cigar.

Isn't the AI in 14 pretty dull, though? I remember having to use the same patterns all the time to score goals...

All this talk of the AI being over-powered, impossible, cheating, etc is massively exaggerated. Yeah, it's a lot tougher than year's past and it's taken me longer this year than previously to come to grips with the gameplay, but I play on Legendary with all default settings and I have no issues whatsoever with the difficulty.

Perhaps I'm explaining it poorly, or just suffering with difficulty where others aren't, but I'm talking about not being able to progress up the pitch very easily against poorer teams with less of an ability to read the game (in real life) rather than suffering heavy losses or losing control of my players (which never happens).

If I play a full-strength side against a lower-league side (two leagues lower, even), on Legendary, adventurous passes have the same (very low) chance of making it through. The midfield is always congested and passes intercepted with ease. There's no spark in the play that comes from having a stronger team with a higher passing accuracy rating, I can't beat that lower-league team 5-0 by playing my best side and going all-out for a big win. It's 2-0 at best, and I'll get those goals by playing patient, overly intelligent football.

Don't get me wrong for one minute, that's EXACTLY what I want to experience - against Chelsea, say. But against Plymouth? No, I want that match to be a morale booster for the team, I want to smash them so that for the next league game, there's a little bit more confidence.

But the game just isn't that sophisticated (and I fear it never will be).

 

[mfmaxpower]

Perhaps I'm explaining it poorly, or just suffering with difficulty where others aren't, but I'm talking about not being able to progress up the pitch very easily against poorer teams with less of an ability to read the game (in real life) rather than suffering heavy losses or losing control of my players (which never happens).

If I play a full-strength side against a lower-league side (two leagues lower, even), on Legendary, adventurous passes have the same (very low) chance of making it through. The midfield is always congested and passes intercepted with ease. There's no spark in the play that comes from having a stronger team with a higher passing accuracy rating, I can't beat that lower-league team 5-0 by playing my best side and going all-out for a big win. It's 2-0 at best, and I'll get those goals by playing patient, overly intelligent football.

Don't get me wrong for one minute, that's EXACTLY what I want to experience - against Chelsea, say. But against Plymouth? No, I want that match to be a morale booster for the team, I want to smash them so that for the next league game, there's a little bit more confidence.

But the game just isn't that sophisticated (and I fear it never will be).

I guess there's two issues going on here that often get jumbled together. One has to do simply with difficulty in winning, the other has to do with representing football as we wish the game would.

In terms of difficulty, the game is a bit of a jumbled mess because as you describe, the challenge of playing against the top teams relative to the challenge of playing against lower quality teams isn't balanced well. Having said that though, I do find that over the space of a season my results tend to be better against lesser teams, and when I have a very good team in CM, I do at times demolish lower quality teams. In my CM previous to my current one, I ended with a very good squad and in my last season I was regularly scoring 4-6 goals.

So overall, over the space say of a full season in CM, I find the difficulty level to be okay. However, the difficulty of individual matches relative to what you'd expect based on the quality of the teams playing is frustratingly unpredictable. As a recent example, in my current CM, playing in the first season with Hamburg, I recently cruised through a match with Bayern, then played a cup match against a lower division side that felt impossible. This unpredictably in difficulty level wouldn't be bad, or unrealistic even, if it weren't for the second issue...

On the second issue, you're spot-on - the game does a pretty piss poor job at representing how matches should play out against different quality teams. Playing against a lesser quality team doesn't seem any different than playing against Barca or Bayern, in that a lower league side will have no problems keeping possession and will play with confidence in both attack and defense that is entirely unrealistic in most cases. The only real difference between playing the best team and the worst team is that the best teams are more clinical and able to do better individual feats, but the style of play and the way matches unfold are essentially identical.

So back to my original point: IMO the game's difficulty level is okay, if not a little easy on the highest setting due to the level of AI variety and complexity not being advanced enough (though the scaling from Pro to WC to Legendary is off). That said, the way in which the game presents, varies, and scales the different elements of challenge is crap and very frustrating.

Personally, I'm still really enjoying the game but I abandoned any delusions that it can simulate a realistic football experience in all the ways I wish. I still think the game gets far more right than it gets wrong, and for me it's the best football game experience to date, but like you said, it's just not sophisticated enough (yet) to fully satisfy.

I don't have it any more but loved it at the time. 15 was Speedy Gonzalez super-soccer, and 16 is close but no cigar.

Isn't the AI in 14 pretty dull, though? I remember having to use the same patterns all the time to score goals...

Agreed. FIfA 14 - at the time - was a great experience, but by the end of it the basic and easily exploitable AI, and the lack of variety in CPU goals, made it a rather dull experience, especially now compared to what's on offer today.

 

[StayingPower]

Interesting, I couldn't remember why I eventually got sick of 14 but now that you guys mention it I'm sure that's what it was. Still, I cannot get any joy out of 15 or 16 so it's worth me sticking with 14 til I get sick of it again!

 

[P34SEMM]

Got my 16 yesterday, put it in the PS4 and just played it out the box with the only adjustments being the camera and match pace to slow.

I enjoyed it. I was PSG and beat Chelsea 2-1 in extra time.

 

[Elja]

I don't know if you guys play 14 out the box or not, but if you do you can try some great sliders on the OS forum, or check out matt 10's YT page. If your on PC you can also add a gamplay patch by fidel which is also great combined with the slider settings. The advantage of me playing on pc is that I still can get the latest kits and rostors with patching.

 

[hitmanuk]

14 is not a patch on 16 ..didn't it also have the kick off bug and/or dribbling bug. I remember being able to walk through the defence

 

[creimer]

Fifa 14 is a great game, very good balance between defense and attack.

 

[hitmanuk]

I'm having a blast on fifa 16 still..cant remember enjoying a footy game this much since Winning eleven days..I've tweaked my sliders to my liking

Currently 3rd in premier league but nothing in position 2-7th ..city starting to pull away 8 points clear in February

Having some good games too ..lost to man u 2-1 late own goal my Sakho ..beat arsenal 3-0 in cup then drew 1-1 with Sunderland ..last minute equaliser by benteke after a keeper mistake ..one thing about the Sunderland game was there weren't many fouls until in the 2nd half one of their players cut henderson down and got a yellow, I retaliated and got booked then there were fouls all over the shop and they had another 3 players booked ..looked really good.

Another point on individuality. This shines for me..cortinho coming back from injury and on as a sub was a breath of fresh air and bossed the game..and benteke is useless as he is for Liverpool

 

[Chris Davies]

Are you playing on Legendary, hitmanuk?

I switched to World Class yesterday and fiddled with the sliders to the point where I had a much better game, but I still find all the teams are far too similar in their style. I played Chelsea in the league and drew 1-1, enjoyed it, then played FC Sion in the UEFA Cup (with a full-strength team) and lost 2-0... Constant interceptions and a five-man brick-wall defence, there was nothing I could do. Despite being twice as good, looking at the attributes.

No game gets it 100% right, don't get me wrong - I mean, I'll play PES 2016 and get a 0-0 followed by a 5-0, which is a nice bit of variation, but when you get the 0-0 against West Ham and the 5-0 against Arsenal, it totally devalues it, to the point where I prefer FIFA's way of doing it - but...

After reading what Klash said in the PES thread, I bought PES 2013 for the PC, and - look, I'm not saying it's a 100% better game, because FIFA does SO MUCH right for me on a technical level and I still play it regularly. But when you see the variation, it's pretty mind-blowing.

FIFA's goals are varied, I know, but they're all hit in the same kind of way. I hit a shot in PES 2013 that seemed to be from a game with a 200% game speed - it was so out-of-the-ordinary that it was almost a "did the physics system just break" moment. But it looked perfectly realistic, a really well struck hard shot along the floor (which you can't do in FIFA now), and it was so different to every other shot in the match.

I keep playing with the sliders, to the point of madness, but I realise now that there's too much missing from the game to fix with a set of sliders (in terms of shot variation - daisy-cutters, shots hit into the ground that bounce up, side-spun shots and total mishits).

My point (sorry, long post)...

I think variation is being squashed in the modern games in order to keep online players happy. "My player just totally mishit the ball, that's not fair", "the other guy's team just hit a daisy-cutter that was so hard nobody could stop it, that's not fair".

I think player individuality is suffering for the same reason, and things are being levelled out so that everyone feels like the game is fair (and I bet the whole "momentum in online games" debate has pushed them towards this - EA took that so seriously that they even sent out emails to people asking if they believed that "momentum" existed, what they see when "momentum" kicks in, and what EA should do to stop it).

 

[hitmanuk]

Yes legendary , fouls suffer otherwise ..I don't touch sliders now I'm happy with my set

 

[mfmaxpower]

I think variation is being squashed in the modern games in order to keep online players happy. "My player just totally mishit the ball, that's not fair", "the other guy's team just hit a daisy-cutter that was so hard nobody could stop it, that's not fair".

I think player individuality is suffering for the same reason, and things are being levelled out so that everyone feels like the game is fair (and I bet the whole "momentum in online games" debate has pushed them towards this - EA took that so seriously that they even sent out emails to people asking if they believed that "momentum" existed, what they see when "momentum" kicks in, and what EA should do to stop it).

The flip side of the coin to this is that variation, in FIFA at least, has never been better, so the idea that it's being squashed doesn't hold water. The same goes with individuality in FIFA. Both could definitely be better, especially when it comes to shooting variation this year, and of course team playstyle variation, but FIFA has advanced in these areas a great deal since moving on to the new consoles. These features aren't being "leveled out" - quite the opposite.

A more likely theory, for me at least, is just that these are two traditional areas of weakness for the franchise and incremental improvements year to year only advance the game so much, so we're still not where we want them to be relative to other aspects of the game.

That's not to say that I disagree that mutliplayer gaming isn't having a negative effect, because I totally agree, but I don't think it's leading to a conscious decision by the devs to squash variety and individuality like you suggest. If that were true, individuality and variety would be getting worse, yet in reality it's been getting much better.

(And I just wanted to point out one thing about shooting variety - shot variety in FIFA this year is actually fantastic, in that you can see a massive variety of shots. Yes, even awesome daisy cutters can happen. The problem is actually with shot variability which for some odd reason this year is low, meaning that while there's huge variety in possible shot types, for some reason the majority of shots look very similar (e.g. I think 80% of my goals scored are shots that or mid to high level high-powered shots).)

 

[hitmanuk]

Not had an exhibition game for a while so played athletico v valencia..it was a great game felt totally different to my premier league carerr mode ..not in a good or bad way just different as it should ..looking forward to next season if I qualify for Europe

 

[Chris Davies]

(And I just wanted to point out one thing about shooting variety - shot variety in FIFA this year is actually fantastic, in that you can see a massive variety of shots. Yes, even awesome daisy cutters can happen. The problem is actually with shot variability which for some odd reason this year is low, meaning that while there's huge variety in possible shot types, for some reason the majority of shots look very similar (e.g. I think 80% of my goals scored are shots that or mid to high level high-powered shots).)

To that, I'll say this - I just played 16 and because I've come to it straight off the back of playing PES 2013, I went to hit a shot that in reality would have been perfectly feasible. As Liverpool, a pass was made to Sturridge, and I was running from the defender and towards the goal end but slightly away from the goal itself (if my run left a path, and you put an arrow on the end of it, it would have pointed towards where the box meets the outline of the pitch).

I pressed shoot, on manual, with the "trainer" guide on so I've got an arrow showing me where I'm aiming, and everything about it was set up nicely for him to hit a powerful low shot across with his left foot, preferably into the bottom corner.

Instead, it was a pea-roller. A mishit with no power. The game said "no, you're not running directly towards the goal, so your shot will be shit". That's not a one-off shot error, it's what always happens.

That's not how it is in reality. The game has a variety in goals in terms of deflections, rebounds and what have you, but the reality is that the trajectories and "boundaries" etc. are all similar.

To prove this to myself, I hit a shot from 30 yards out with Milner shortly afterwards, as I was running straight towards the goal, it went straight into the top corner with the perfect slightly-floated trajectory.

Also, I've never seen a daisy-cutter in 16. Not once. Unless we're counting taps of the shoot button that result in a shot that rolls slowly into the goal. That's not a daisy-cutter, that's just a weak shot.

To cap off my attacking frustration, when I through-pass to my world-class forwards, they'll 30% of the time run towards the pass and maybe even first-touch it back in the direction it came from (therefore letting defenders get into position and rendering it useless as a through-pass), and when I do a normal pass to them, they'll 30% of the time run behind the defenders where the ball will never, ever reach them (mistakes are fine, I want to see mistakes, but when it happens, they'll run so far behind the defender that they're 100 miles offside anyway, and they show absolutely zero intelligence).

This might be because I use manual through balls and semi passing, so I'll experiment. But either way, seeing your two forwards standing 30ft away from the defenders is fucking infuriating.

(And no, it's not tactics-related, I've given plenty of individual instructions and played with the formation length sliders to try and cure it.)

EDIT: The ultimate frustration is the defending. Playing PES 2013 and being able to properly close down with a defender without your player just wandering in a rough circle around the attacker, is beeeeeaaaauuuutiful. The most wonderful feeling, as good as scoring a goal.