Alrighty, put in c. 15 full matches over the weekend, all playing as Man United v various opponents in exhibition mode (waiting for good patches before embarking on an ML). Initial thoughts:
Graphics
No real complaints. Not as polished or ‘realistic’ as FIFA but certainly not a problem. I like that you can tell which player is which by the way they move, and faces are superb
Sound
Awful, awful awful commentary. I immediately turn it off. Cannot believe they still haven’t found the time to work on this. Not a big deal, but still.
Gameplay
The important bit. Good things first:
- Passing is brilliant. You really can put it wherever you want, plus you can really tell who is passing the ball. If I’ve got Scholes on the ball, I might try a tough lobbed pass out to the wings, but not if it’s Fletcher. They’ve really nailed it.
- Shooting…is okay. Seems quite floaty to me in the normal camera mode, but then in replays looks fine. I rarely have enough time to really put the foot through it, but have seen one or two crackers.
- Defending – soooo much better than FIFA. You really have to think about when to make a challenge or bring pressure, because the computer will use the space to punish you.
- Free kicks – Feel wonderful, and have scored a 38-yarder off the underside of the crossbar…mmmmm…
The bad bits
- Defender catch up – Is utterly ridiculous. I’m waiting for someone to come up with an OF editor that enables me to blanket change stats, because it is just stupid. I’ll beat the offside trap with someone like Hernandez and he’ll still get caught by a lumbering Stoke defender before I can get to the penalty area. It’s almost farcical how slow the player with the ball is. It stops you from being punished for making defensive errors too.
- Player select ‘bug’ – still happens when your player miscontrols or the ball bobbles and you get stuck controlling one player and can’t change to the one who is standing an inch from the ball
- Player select is too slow – If you whip in a low cross I find the best strategy is to just let the computer try and shoot. Because trying to select the player yourself takes too long and invariably ends up with him just standing there is it bobbles off his shin pads
- Player runs – They’re stupid. Improved a bit using game plan, but still…you’ll be breaking down the middle in a 3 on 2 with attackers left and right of you and then one will suddenly stop, and jog back to the halfway line. Infuriating. Almost worse when you’ve created space down the wing and look up to see your forwards standing still outside the box. My memory of PES 6 is that this wasn’t a problem.
- Dribbling – I don’t get it. I’ve never been a big fan of feints in these games, with the belief that I should be okay to just jink my way around and use changes of direction with the better dribblers. However in 2011 I cannot seem to manage this. The defender accelerates faster than the attacker, so even if I shift away from them, they just catch up in the next step.
Like I said, haven’t gotten much into game modes, but so far so good I think. Any advice on the ‘bad bits’ would be very welcome, I feel like some of it is just me being away from PES for a few years. Overall it’s way more fun than FIFA was last year, and that’s good enough for me.