Gameplay is what this game is all about, but even that has problems so I would say Konami failed to provide us with a complete product. It´s like a chef that says "Ok tonight there´s no dessert, no drinks and no coffee. Just the main dish" but then he serves a very good looking dish with no salt.
While other games are growing in the overall world market because companies actually try to bring more and more stuff, Konami is kinda lost here and still looking for the holly grail. Then they fail in things that to me, look like they could have done better with almost no effort at all.
If they are going to use unlicensed teams, then why can´t they put even more leagues and 2nd divisions for all of them?
Lack of stadiums variations is somehow stupid as well.
Also, Konami has bet a lot in the costumer´s work, such as patching comunities etc. But this year they were kind off stabbed in the back from current gen consoles, as they won´t allow file sharing, wich makes the editing painfull and even unneffective for some of us.
Soo, what do we have left? Ah yes, the gameplay! Awesome work indeed, with the help of all the good things and also the bad ones from previous editions, they are finally capable of delivering a solid gameplay. Passing is good, shooting is good (personally I think it has some flaws, it feels repetitive and most times overpowered), and the best, CPU behaviour is a gem, something reaally new in soccer games. It might even become a standard from now on, something were other companies might rely on for future editions of soccer games. But not all is perfect here too, and the CPU mentality seems overpowered. They keep possession even when they shouldn´t. Each team plays diferently, but they won´t change mentality according to the result.
Fouls, yes they exist, but no one here can say they are called in a balanced or realistic way. The pace of the match, for me is the best part of it. I wouldn´t like to say "perfect" but in this case, it might be true.
There´s also something unbalanced about dificulty levels. Top Player might be to easy at some point with a good team, but superstar, while not much harder, is very frustrating because of scripted decisions that sometimes make it impossible to react against. In fact, I don´t feel superstar to be hard, instead I see as an unfair challenge, as CPU always gets a chance out of nowhere, to make a draw or even a win. But lets be honest, this talk about dificulty levels depends alot in each one´s preference and notion of challenge, so it cant´t really be considered a flaw.
Anyway, the big deal: best looking and realistic game? hmm, the way I see it, this game actually does try to represent the real thing, but because of short time or pure stupidity, it fails in lots of small things, some of them crucial to represent real soccer. Out of the pitch it falls even shorter, and to most of us, I´m sure it looks and feels kind of incomplete at some point.
Like I said in previoust posts, I always get back to this game so there must be something about it, but its nowhere near good enough to make me forget the competition.