Few more games under the belt on Xbox Series X. It's an interesting patch for sure - I'm fairly happy with it.
I would encourage everyone to do this, if you want to experience the two biggest changes immediately; start a career game, go into the training section and play "Champion Attacking Scenarios".
This puts you in a situation where you are counter-attacking, 3v3, with the rest of the team running up to the play from behind the half-way line.
The "two biggest changes" I'm referring to are A) defenders restricting counter-attacks more effectively and B) the goalkeeper tuning they've done.
Jesus. Christ. I'm on Professional difficulty (I'm not actually sure if that impacts the training games), playing with Burnley, and the defenders turn into absolute animals. The highest rating I've got is a C and that was only because of a lucky deflection (the previous attempts were all F's).
I think the mindset change reflects real life - the developing situation means that, as a defender, you have to be more aggressive to shut down the man on the ball and the potential pass targets. If you wait until the other players catch up, they "switch back" to standard defender mode, where they get back in line, compress and commit a little less hastily.
But combine that aggression with being Burnley and having to score against Nick Pope... He's my own player and I fucking hate him. I can't get the ball past him, and I've lowered the goalkeeping ability slider (again, not sure if that impacts training games though)!
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In general play, I'm enjoying the defence being tighter, even though goals are still going in. I was drawing 1-1 in my last game until the last ten minutes, when I passed the ball around at the edge of the box desperately trying to make a chance against Brighton. Finally, one of their defenders started tracking a run and let my other striker in, who turned and finessed it into the bottom corner. Previously that would have been saved, but it looked absolutely spot on in terms of realism.
I enjoyed this moment of panic in the box at one point, particularly the keeper just holding his hands up to get anything on it:
I will say though, I've not had a single foul. I didn't get them before the patch, but what worries me is that there were a few situations where one should have been given, and they're still not given, because it wasn't an intentional foul. This is what PES does and it pisses me off no end.
In a different game, there was this bizarre moment where my striker seemingly slipped, or dived - I don't really know what happened here:
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Finally, I'm convinced that the first touch slider does nothing. I've seen lots of instances where a really powerfully-struck ball hits a player and seemingly stops dead - then you watch the replay and it's because they're "taking a touch"...
...but no defender's sidefooted touch would stop a 100mph blasted shot as if it was a little dink of a pass.
This video isn't a great example, but it's a mess:
