Arteta was outstanding in PES 2010, his passing and vision, body balance, agility and quick feet could carve defences wide open, I can imagine he is better again in 2011.
I'm having a ball with these tricks and feints, and I really like how they have worked them. They are as you would expect and really do fall in well with the relevant situation. Suarez, Gervinho and now my most recent AMF Tunisian signing who is superb, Ben Saada, have some lovely feints.
The best and easiest way to get an understanding of them is to gain control of your skillful players, if your attacking from left to right,try pushing up so your running from bottom of the pitch to the top, then press L2 and push right on right stick. You player should perform a Ronaldo Chop and have you bearing down on your opponents goal. The way it works is the direction you push is relative to your eventual pre-determined destination. This really does give you a great angle and quick change of direction. The animation for it is very smooth, and light years ahead of previous PES feinting animations. Once you understand how the feints work, you can really appreciate the timing, knowledge of the player, and risk v reward element your opponent has used to attempt one, or better still, pull one off.
Another thing I liked is that even the tricks have error. On two occasions so far, Saurez and got the technique wrong for the Ronaldo Chop, and the ball has flew off in the wrong direction. It's only happened twice, but the fact it's possible is brilliant.
I'm starting to play some lovely football with my added quality in the team. Gervinho and Suarez up front a right handful, Ben Saada is quality on the ball, as is my LMF, a Serbian called (I think) Banovic. It's very clever how Konami have combined the statistics with a semi-auto system, better than I imagined.
I've also scored a 30 yard screamer where Suarez got underneath the shot and it dipped into the far corner, similar to Matt Le Tissier's against Blackburn. Ben Saada got his first on his debut after a cheeky back-heel through-ball ( I love the new animation for the powered back heel flick), and the way he slotted into the far corner was caressed beautifully. I have never seen that shooting animation before, it was spot on.
The goalkicks and the clearances also have so much more mustard and drive on them, giving a real sense of the venom behind it.
I played a guy who tried to spam Eto, he got through a couple of times, but lost out on the physical battles to my strong CB's. Defenders not reacting quickly on the runs is a definate Regular AI issue, absolutely no question, it's plain as day. Those type of runs on PES 2010 are so much harder to stop, and the Regular AI on PES 2010 is not as good as PES 2011.
I'm also very happy with the referee's, not seen anything yet that has given any cause for concern. I actually conceded a penalty from a phyical tussle in my own box, I liked that. It was, to be fair, obstruction, but you would never previously expect that to go against you. Also my keeper, who is only 67 rated I think, (as I sold my main keeper for over a million), has made some incredible saves. The best ones with his legs. Cheap shot's have been parried out of play with his legs, and the silly goals you concede in PES 2010 I have not seen. I have witnessed at least 10-20 shots that would have been fumbled by better rated keepers on PES 2010.
Really enjoying this whole Master League option, granted it's not ML offline, but that would be pretty much impossible. But the idea of bringing on your own team, I really like. Nothing better than making a new sigining and seeing a massive impact. My only worry for the longevity of this system is when the spammers finally build a dream team of Messi, Ronaldo et al.
