But reviewers with some credibility must be at least trying the game on zero or 1 passing. It's a big difference, as you said, and not doing it would be like reviewing Fifa 2012 without even trying the new defensive system.
Yeah, it's like playing FIFA 12 on "legacy defending" or whatever it's called, and moaning that it's just the same as FIFA 11. No one reviewed that game and said "ah, FIFA 12 is crap, you just hold down the pressure button and win the ball back", because they used tactical defending... because it's the main selling point of the new game (despite the fact that it's actually quite primitive compared to PES' more varied and context-specific defending... but that's another issue).
But you got loads of reviews saying "PES is great fun if you just want a fun arcade kickabout, instead of the hardcore simulation of FIFA". Which is basically a clear signal that these reviewers stuck with 3-bar passing, or at least didn't go down to zero bars. No one could call a game on zero bars a "kickabout" - a "kick into the middle of nowhere" maybe, until you get used to it. But that's what it's like for reviewers: they're reviewing the game out of the box, and playing it the way most people do. If you don't wave a massive great flag about certain options within the game - which Konami don't - they just won't notice them. Don't forget, there are still thousands of people who try PES without knowing the intricacies of the R2 button (which are not properly explained anywhere in the manual), and complain that the game is "robotic"... which it probably is if you don't use R2.
And the passing assistance bars are tucked away in Personal Data, so most people won't give them too much thought. Would have worked better if Konami had stuck a splash screen at the start, where you have to choose all your settings, with a brief explanation of what this is all about.
You can imagine the kind of thing: "Please choose your passing assistance level. There are five settings. The lower numbers provide very little passing assistance and are suitable for simulation gameplay. The higher numbers provide a great deal of passing assistance and are suitable for beginners, or for arcade-style gameplay. You can alter these settings at any time by entering Personal Data."
Not hard, is it? Sometimes those little keywords (in this case "arcade" and "simulation") can go a long way. Casual players might not give a toss, but this is the major issue right now for serious football gamers - at least in Europe. Konami already screwed up (in my opinion) by making 0 speed gameplay too fast, which - combined with the poor animations - gives the game a slightly arcadey look. When every pass homes in on its target, you get extreme ping-pong and an even faster game speed, which just completes the effect. It's no surprise that the highly technical football sim which lies beneath the surface has been totally ignored, outside of hardcore forums like Evo-Web or WENB.
