Just finished my 1st game Bayern vs Barca on top player. I want to start by saying I have not bought a PES game since that turd 2008, never liked the demos for 2009 or 2010 and played FIFA 08 & 10 in my years in the wilderness.
Player movement is very good, players have a nice feeling of weight and move freely, I have seen people say its not as free as FIFA but from what I remember of the game you would be hard pressed to tell much, if any difference.
Animations look great, in just one game have already seen some very nice movements, one that sticks in my mind was the ball rolled vertically up to Ibra and he tried to take the shot quick and could not adjust his body and did an awkward looking side foot which went well wide, it looked perfect for the situation. There were some funny moments, not sure how to them, things just looked wrong but overall very good.
You really have to see the game for yourself to understand just how good it looks, the presentation as a whole is just superb, very impressed.
Passing is nice, not at all on rails, have not used the manual pass yet because standard seems to do the job at the moment. I turned the power bar off but after some WTF moments had to turn it back on to get a bearing. I would say its alot like semi assisted on the fifa WC game. I was able to knock it about quite well with only 1 touch but there were always a few balls that were a bit wayward and eventually misplaced passes, very realistic IMO, not ping pong like.
What I really liked was how eager your players are to get onto a ball played into space, I played a ball in behind the back 4 on the edge of the box and Robben went after it like a grey hound out the traps, put way to much on it though and it went out of play.
Passes were also intercepted frequently, particularly by Messi, who just ran onto anything played too close to him, little bastard!
Found it very hard for the first half, I pretty much played in my final 3rd of the pitch, Barcas wide men and 3 man mid field just closed us down to quick(bayern 4-4-2) and allowed very little time on the ball. Was able to work some space at times with subtle movements of the stick but mostly was just overwhelmed. The CPU had some nice passages off play at times, very Barca esque, I just hope not all teams play like that.
In the second half I started to press more effectively and was able to get a bit more space and time by hurrying them but the way Bayern are set up, with Robben & Ribery coming inside alot, the mid field was very congested and I had to pass backwards most of the time.
One thing that leapt out at me was the back 4 really play as a unit, Alan Hansen would be very proud.
I got beat 0 - 2. I am a bit worried by both goals. Ibra scored an overhead kick from outside the box, they way the ball came at him that was probably the only way to get a shot off but it happened in the first 5 mins and went straight into the top left corner, hope I dont see it again. The 2nd goal was a keeper error much like what hapened with Reina when Liverpool played the Arse first game back, that was not the only funny keper moment I saw and for now I am a little concerned by the keepers.
Overall I am impressed and optimistic and off to play more!!