I think I've reached the final straw for football games this year. FIFA 11 was horrible, PES 2011 seemed fantastic at first but the more I've played it the less and less I enjoy it. There are just so many problems to overlook, so fair play to anyone who's still enjoying it. I wish I was.
I had a quick couple of friendlies just now against the AI on Professional level, and had the worst experience against the CPU I've ever had. First game, I dominated 70% possession, 15 shots to 2, lost 2-0. The first was, yep, you guessed, a through ball and finish, the second, well, was absolutely atrocious. A low cross came into the box to no one at all, and my defender, completely unchallenged, ran onto the ball and towards his own goal. I pressed the long pass button to clear the ball not once, not twice, not three times, but FOUR frickin' times, and the game just ignored every command until he continued dribbling the ball into his own net. The game sometimes is a total mess.
Second game, I used Man Utd and the default tactics that go with them. No matter what I did, players would be offside in the most stupid fashion. 90% of my attacks broke down because I had players just
wandering around 20 yards offside on occasion even with attacking set to just 14, so I had to completely halt my attack to wait for them to get onside, which they often refuse to do, meaning I can only pass sideways or backwards. I'm mindful of timing, keeping the players onside etc, and the AI sometimes makes it impossible to avoid when your team mate inexplicably runs 20 yards offside when the ball is nowhere near him, then refuses to come back. One time I hit a goal kick, only for the whistle to blow instantly for an offside up the other end of the pitch. I then scored a screamer with Nani, wonderful goal from 35 yards into the top corner, leaving me up out of my seat. Then it's disallowed. Why?
Rooney for some reason had run totally offside near the corner flag but had nothing to do with the goal. I hit a long range shot and never expected my striker to be chatting to the corner flag up in the top corner of the pitch. It's just absurd. Another great moment ruined by a buggy game.
Then, the best moment of all, the AI defender has a free kick in his own half. He punts the ball down the field, but overhits the ball. It flies over the defenders and attackers, bounces into the penalty area, then slowly, and I mean SLOWLY, rolls past Van Der Sar who stands and watches the ball roll about 10 inches past him into the net. To put it another way, the AI took a free kick, then forgot to make the keeper move. Brilliant. This is the second time this has happened in the last couple of weeks, and I've not even played the game that much lately. I mean seriously, how do football games today pass any kind of quality control? The sporting world has some amazing video game representations these days, yet football, the biggest sport in the world, is dominated by two games companies who can't release a title any more without massive bugs and problems. I'd played that particular match for 75 minutes, then when that happened I just switched it off. It makes me not want to play it any more. Keeper mistakes I can deal with, but this wasn't a case of the keeper spilling a shot, being caught out by a cross, it was clearly bugged AI forgetting to command the keeper to do something. He just froze and let the ball roll past him, from a 60 yard punted free kick.
Aside from this, I've also realised that the AI will 99.9% win all physical battles on the higher difficulties, meaning even with the likes of Nani you cannot outpace the AI, and can only progress by passing and moving using the player run button when releasing the ball. The sheer lack of pace your players display compared to the AI is so artificial. Yes, you can knock the ball ahead, but I've still broken clear with Rooney and knocked the ball on into space, only to be caught, then knocked off the ball, by old, slow defenders. I've also had it with the game one moment making your player pass the ball as soon as the power bar appears on screen, then the next moment you'll kick the ball, the power bar appears, then nothing happens for a good 2 seconds before you get tackled. In short, button lag is still here in abundance. I'm now bored of jogging along with the ball, only to see an onrushing AI defender, then I tap the pass button to play the ball square to a team mate, only for the power meter to charge on screen, then there's a delay of a second or two, which affords the AI just enough time to get in and block the ball, or outright take the ball off me despite me trying to play the pass well in advance. Really poor.
Like I said, it's so annoying. I thought this year we'd have the best football games ever made, instead we've got two totally bugged messes, so no more football games for me it seems.
Why bother wading through a master league and getting to the Champions League final when you never know if the game's going to kick in and make your keeper let in a goal by just standing there an ignoring the game going on in front of him? I'm sure others have never experienced this, but the game seems to have started doing this to me on a fairly regular basis now, and must have happened a good half a dozen times so far.
I just don't understand Konami. Say what you want about the PES games of old, yes they were less sophisticated, yes they were more unrealistic than they are now, but at least they didn't have constant bugs. First there's the corner flag bug, then I have bugged problems with starting a ML with a created team, now I never know if and when the game's going to completely disable my keeper. FIFA's just as bad, the AI in that is totally broken, and the main game modes yet again don't even work properly. Sure, PES2011 has redeeming qualities but overall, compared to many other AAA titles out there in other genres, football games today are a buggy mess.