I can only call it as I see it as well, and I'm on 360 and I've barely noticed any changes to gameplay with 1.06. This is actually good news for me because I think there was a dramatic difference between 1.02 and 1.03, all for the positive, but any changes on 1.06 must be very minor.
Perhaps I'd say the game feels a tiny bit more even in terms of tackling the CPU on those crazy dribbles they attempt, so I guess there is a change, but the raw mechanics, ball physics, animations etc are all the same IMO. I think they've altered perhaps the CPU pressure a bit, there seems to be more space in their penalty area which is another positive thing, but these are CPU related tactics, pretty much, that could only have been implemented in a 2mb patch. I assume everyone else's updates were 2mb too ...
Just to assure that I'm not hallucinating I compared today version 1.03 and 1.06 for two hours straight. The differences are subtle but they are a lot and add to up to a whole other gameplay-feeling. So what are these changes?
1. They made the player-models more tight in movement and added the ability to do more touches on the ball without using R2. Just with the analog-stick you can push the ball a little from one foot to the next so so to speak and therefore gain more time on the ball.
2. Gamespeed is a little faster. That way gamespeed -2 is now imho just perfect, it was a bit slow before on 1.03 but even there it was to be preferred to -1.
3. Shooting is better, you have more control over the direction and good players give more curve to the ball without pressing another button.
4. The ball is more independent. I would say he was never as free on next-gen as he is now with patch 1.06, which is a great thing. Because of that more random situations happen and you can actually get the ball when getting to itjust a milisecond before the opponent...
5. Space has now more meaning in the game. This has to do with two things: a) The pressure is not as relentless as before, which is more realistic and b) There seems to be no more unrealistic speeding up-boost of opponents to close down space. That leads to the next improvement.
6. Throughballs are now actually useful and a dangerous weapon on both sides. It is so because of the point 4 and 5 as well as 7:
7. Faster players are actually faster, the catchup-bug has been reduced. Not totally gone, but considerably reduced. That way to change in a fresh technically good player during the 70th minute has actually an advantage.
8. Stumbling players can more quickly regain their balance and try to get the ball again.
9. Collision-physics work better and more diverse.
10. Teams play more diverse now, probably this has to do with changed tactics that came with the DLC's, but who cares, any imporvement in that regard is a blessing.
Verdict: This patch 1.06 uses a lot of the improvements of 1.03 and made these additional subtle changes which result in a more open and more fun gameplay. This is the closest PES on next-gen comes to achieve the fun-factor of the PS2-versions without sacrifing realism... You know what I mean, that addiction to want to play just one more game is back! Great work from Konami.
I only wished the game would have been released this way on day 1. It would have prevented months of torture.