My first impressions are very good over the demo.
For one i've already created a player and found it a tad easier to register him into a team than previous years; just the little things like less menus to navigate.
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My first game was a convincing win over the Irish as Spain on Top Player, with Xavi and Villa running the show and i was a little worried that this game was a bit of a cakewalk.
It felt like a decent PES but nothing really stood out except a nice little move and lay-off on the wing to set up the third goal from a cross.
Anyway i decided to hit training mode and see what this new "freedom" was all about, and have a look at how the tricks system works.
Now i started to get an inkling how it all fitted together, the intuitive manual passing seemed to prompt the AI into action when interspersed with your traditional PES approach. I was starting to see how the "flow" of the game had been improved and how I could work in some of the little side-steps and more "bread and butter" tricks into my game.
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So, Valencia vs Panathanikos. Uhoh, these guys didn't play like Ireland, Cisse got on the end of a great through ball from a counter and got it to 1-0 them, next I do a fantastic manual pass........ backwards to their midfielder....2-0, and finally Cisse again turns the screw. 3 - 0 them, my traditional first day drubbing on a new ISS is complete.
...but the one goal I clawed back really made me sit back and say to myself "ISS",(my friends and I always call it that) "is back". Just a little feint from my forward when i decided to really try and take someone on, on the edge of the box. The heel-feint where you knock it past the defender with your back foot, in one fell swoop both defender and goalie were wrong-footed and the striker leathered it into the top right corner.
The best thing is it was totally intended, and highlighted to me how the tricks aren't going to be some random, over-used factor which i feared they might...but a gamble that can pay-off big time if all the little factors line up.
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So 3-1 it ended, but already that little bit of ISS magic popped it's head up to say, "Hello, remember me".
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Tonight my mates are coming down and the multiplayer gauntlet will be thrown down, and after perhaps a period of indifference about ISS for quite some time now, I think the old rivalries are going to stir anew.
