Actually Radha you were spot on, the game in ML when you get further into it is a fucking mess. I just switched it off mid-match, I've no more interest in it.
Three seasons in, I played Porto, got beaten 2-0 to two pathetically scripted goals, saw as they outmuscled and outpaced all of my entire team, but I noticed how much all their player stats had grown. Barely a single player in their side, which is largely the exact same team they start out with, and they're all in the mid to high 80s. Pathetic.
The result? Aside from the horrendous scripting that decided the match, the game was a total fucking horror show from start to finish. Long, pinpoint, 200mph raking balls all the fucking time, across the pitch and inside the full backs. It's how the game has EVERY team play in this. High speed ping pong passing. I think if it were a human player, the COM would be repeatedly ping pong passing using the through ball button.
The games with better sides in ML are awful and no fun to play at all. They're so arcade, from one end to the other at breakneck speed, perfect COM passes being slammed 50 yards at a time, instant control, players belting around the pitch with no stamina effects, it's terrible. I've singularly lost all interest in playing the game now, at least in ML. With regular player ratings I'm sure the games are fine with better teams, but because every player is now as good as Maradona and as fast as Usain Bolt, it's become a farce.
I just can't take any more matches where the COM repeatedly tries though balls and long diagonal balls inside the full back. I'm totally sick of seeing it now. As am I totally sick of seeing the game manufacture utter bullshit goals the user can do nothing about.
Last game I played v Porto, again, some guy on their left wing got the ball, covered about half the length of the pitch in less than five seconds, I knew what he was going to do because the COM does the same thing every time, he slipped the ball through, my defender actively moved away from the ball despite me moving him in the other direction, perfect finish, goal. Next up, a cheap free kick won, lobbed up into the box, I'm there hammering the clear button, no one does anything, their player nips in and slots it home with a hyped up volley where his leg moved faster than the speed of light to wrap his leg around the ball at such short notice. I don't mind losing, but for fucks sake make my player clear or head the ball when I'm hammering the button. Why did it do this? Not because the input commands failed, but because the game decided the COM was going to score.
But my main issues with the way the game develops further into ML have nothing to do with difficulty levels. Master League is totally fucked this year from the very core. They've managed to get almost everything wrong with it from the basics upwards. Which is bizarre, because they've actively made these changes to the game. From transfers, form, match scheduling, player interaction, player loyalty, fan base numbers, even the fucking league table and the number of goals scored and conceded by othe clubs, everything in this ML is messed up.
This is the only football game I've ever played that 'rewards' Champions League qualification by making all your players suddenly want to leave with you unable to decide how much for, and then by altering the core gameplay so that everyone develops into tiny arcade versions of Maradonna. What a shit game.
