I know I'm not the first person to say this, but something has to be done about the lack of fouls.
No, not the lack of fouls - the lack of fouls that are called in my favour. It's not that the computer doesn't foul me. My God, they do. I mean, if the computer was punished for every foul they commit, the game would be really bitty and frustrating and boring, because a lot of the time they're right cynical bastards. But as it is, I can go three or four games without winning a single foul - and I play 20 minute games. It's nothing to do with my style of play: I play tippy-tappy, dribbly football and I'm always getting scythed down - the ref just doesn't blow.
I mean, they say the patch didn't affect gameplay, and I suppose the jury's still out on that, but I've definitely noticed fewer fouls. I used to finish games with the computer having given away maybe four or five fouls on average - not a lot in a 20-minute game, but much better than in PES 2016. Now it's not uncommon for my team to walk off the pitch feeling like they've faced Wimbledon circa 1988, or Atletico Madrid circa 1974, or Estudiantes de la Plata circa 1967, with their legs all black and blue and their noses broken... and then I look at the foul count, and apparently the computer team has committed zero fouls. Whereas I've committed five or something, three of which were yellow cards, usually for stand-up tackles which didn't even cause the computer player to fall over (you know that animation where the ref comes over and your player holds up one finger to show that it's his first foul, and the referee books him). Meanwhile, the computer's defenders will have karate kicked me in the bollocks as I was pulling back my leg to shoot into an empty net, and... nothing.
I mean, I've had no penalties in almost three seasons. None at all. In three seasons... of 20 minute games. And I must have been fouled in the box a hundred times in that period - often so viciously that when I've paused the game and looked at the replay, I laugh out loud at the sheer brutality of it.
They don't have to change the defensive AI, which would be fiddly and difficult and risky to the overall balance of the game. Just make the ref less lenient towards the computer, and get rid of that ridiculous Clattenberg-like cowardice when it comes to making big calls like penalties. They don't have to give every foul the computer commits in the box; that would take away all the drama, and besides, if they did there would be far too many penalties. Just don't be such dicks.
It was actually easier to overlook this problem in previous games, cos they were full of little (and big) annoyances. This time, so much has been smoothed out, this stands out really badly. I mean, is it deliberate? Do they think it's "challenging" in some way? Do they think people would get frustrated with more stoppages... in which case, why make the computer players hack at you like that in the first place? Why bother making such a fine simulation of football and then adding this layer of ludicrous, gamey anti-realism?
