Anyway, famine issues and broken discs aside, I am really liking this game.
What it nails this year is the transitioning of 'plays'. By that I mean that in previous years, and in most football games from the year dot, forwards forwards was the way to go. IRL, you do that and your front men get isolated and robbed of possession.
What I like about this game is that you have to attack in phases if you want good field position up the pitch. Which means holding onto the ball at times, slowing the pace down at times, sprinting quickly into a position before decelerating and re-starting the move at times (mostly with a lateral or backwards ball). The player availability for the man on the ball is more realistic than ever before, which means options get limited if you isolate your players, especially by going forward too fast too soon.
Previous iterations player support for the ball carrier was borderline ludicrous with players literally seeming like they had no end to constantly being available. This led to a more frantic game in which you could always move up the pitch.
Putting a move together that results in a goal scoring opportunity is now a thing of beauty and you can have 10 minutes of earth time fly by and not even get remotely close to testing the keeper.
Another point - knowing when to come out with the ball! Brilliant. Whether it is from defence or through the midfield after negotiating a passing move, you simply have to know when to carry the ball. And by this I don't mean stupid sprinting taking on everyone, I mean short bursts into space of five to ten yards, or even running (not sprint) into spaces to create time and have more player support.
Next issue. Shooting. Cannot see the problem. Toward the mid point to the final days of PES 2013 I knew that if I engineered a move thus, and got player x in this position say 25-30 yards out, it would have a stupendous percentage chance of a goal being scored. I mean I was slotting goals from 30 yards from Gerrard every other game near enough, which is, in hindsight, silly.
Come on now guys. how many worldies do you see in a month of football IRL?
Good goals CAN be scored, so I'm not really sure what everyone is on about. I've scored 1 or 2 with Gerrard from long range 25 yards ish, and a couple from others. The balance in this respect is perfect. I even hit a 30-35 yard screamer which hit the crossbar with Suarez.
And I love the way that your striker gets isolated if you hit the pass too early and long to him. The first 50 games I played I was wondering why Suarzez was so pants, but I was getting run off the ball playing too direct like in 2013. Now I have figured out his strengths, he's starting to look a key player.
Player individuality. Are you kidding me? I love it this year. Players with a low centre of gravity and great technique are excellent on the ball. Coutinho is one of my play makers, and you can play some lovely stuff in tight situations. And then you have strong players like Gerrard and Lucas who get involved in tussles and holding the ball off.
Graphics. Love them. On my PC everything is amped. No slowdowns, no stutter, no frame rate, plays like a dream. Pitches are a vast improvement and the day games look stunning. Even the night games' textures are infinitely better.
Keepers. Can seem a little aloof at times, but I'm really not concerned. It would be nit-picking I feel to criticise them but their awareness of through balls is pretty pants and is the only thin that stands out to me.
I played Betis in the Europa and they dicked me 4-1. The CPU played some brilliant stuff, and it's the first time I felt that I had been stuffed with the CPU playing round me as opposed to cheat scripts kicking in. I just felt completely outplayed.
Possession....I'm afraid IT IS STILL A BUG BEAR OF MINE. I've had a few games where the possession has been 55-45 for example, but for the majority of the games I shouldn't be having 60+ possession, even 65%. I wont even care if there was something like some code or just something that automatically makes the CPU keep ball particularly in defence and midfield and going backwards just for the sake of balancing this.
I still don't feel the CPU is playing entirely the same set of rules as the human, and even if they had some code that balanced the possession purely for balancing purposes then I wouldn't grumble. Just keep the ball a bit, make me move out of position. Don't lose it in under 20 seconds constantly. I know it's meant to be a fusion between reality and fun, but I shouldn't feel like the CPU will just keep handing the ball over.
So anyway I'm rambling; overall I think it's a bloody good game. I'm playing 20 minute stuff, -1 bar and having a blast.