I've had the game since Thursday now and have been playing it a fair bit! Had mates round each night to play and test out the game in multiplayer and since online isnt open yet I've even tried Master League (for those who dont know I never ever play against the CPU on PES so this is a new thing for me!). So I've written up my thoughts on the game over the past few days, this is all in my opinion and I guess my mates opinions as well as they pretty much share my views after playing it too.
Dribbling
The biggest change for me this year is the dribbling. For the past 2 years it has been far too easy to run past defenders, twisting and turning at super speeds. On PES2010 it has changed for the better, of course the quick players are still hard to catch if they get away from you but no longer are the defence fooled by three shot fakes followed by a 90 degree turn without a loss of speed. The players turn more realistically when in possesion and when dribbling at full speed the ball is knocked out in front of their stride instead of being glued to their foot. It can be tough at the beginning getting used to it, but very rewarding when you start to get the hang of it.
I've found the stats of the players are represented very well with this, big slow centre halves turn slower than the nippy strikers. At first I was trying to take on strikers when I had the ball with a defender, now I know this kind of play is suicidal! Once you get used to your favoured team you figure out which players are more comfortable on the ball when dribbling and which players not to dribble past people with. As an example, Samuel and Materazzi at Inter get caught in possesion a lot easier than Lucio who has better dribbling stats.
At first most people will be holding down R1 like a mad man, one of my mates that was playing is a king dribbler, its all he does and he struggled big time as he found his R1 button was letting him down! The key is to use R1 when you have enough space in front of you to sprint into. Sounds simple enough but can be difficult getting used to it, but again its very rewarding as its much more realistic and there is more skill involved
Control (
Edit - Or the 1st touch, I've been waffling on about 
)
Like the dribbling improvements, controlling the ball has a much more realistic feel to it. The not so good ball players like big centre defenders take longer to bring the ball under control, sometimes its best to play the ball first time before you are closed down. Again holding down R1 all the time can have an effect on this as the players sometimes take a heavier touch as they should since they are running at full speed. Holding down R2 when receiving the pass seems to make the players control the ball a bit better.
Passing
After playing the demo I was a bit worried as I noticed a bit of response problems when trying to play certain passes. When playing the full game I had completely forgotten about the response issues I had with the demo, I didnt notice any at all. Perhaps it was just getting used to the new control and dribbling style which made me think response issues were there when they actually werent. As the players knock the ball out more when running at full speed, you need to time the pass for when the player is actually at the ball, I was too used to the instant passing from previous versions. Its far more rewarding now and a greater skill level is needed to retain possesion of the ball.
I seen a review yesterday where the reviewer complained about the through balls and marked the game down because of it. After my first few plays I actually agreed with him, but after spending more time playing I've now realised they are completely fine. So that tells me the reviewer didnt spend much time with the game at all, or hes just rubbish. Most likely a combination of the two! Again its just learning the new way to do it and stop trying to play the game like its PES08 or PES09.
Manual passing can be useful if your good at it. Personally I rarely use it as I find I get to the players I want by using X or triangle. One of my mates is always using it for playing the ball up the wing from full back to winger and has it nailed. Catches me off guard when he does it, I'm expecting a pass inside and then one flick off the right stick and hes fired a pin point pass up the line!
Crossing
I love the crossing on this game! It was very rewarding working a bit of space on the wing and whipping in a delightful cross for a bullet header. Crossing hasnt been very effective in the past so it was good to see this change. Of course once Keenan gets the hang of defending crosses perhaps they might not be so succesful! The usual double/triple tap combos are still here if you want to drill a low cross along the six yard box. Big strikers with good heading ability are more useful than ever.
Shooting
I dont know how, but I seem to have the shooting perfected so far! I've scored some amazing long rangers and my finishing in one-on-ones has been lethal. I love the way when holding R2 for a shot, the player opens up his body Thierry Henry style for a right footed placement shot across the goalkeeper. Drilling the ball low across the keeper has also improved, going near post all the time like last year doesnt work so well.
Defending
I've always based my game on having a solid defence, I'm a good reader of the game. On PES09 again I was a good reader of the game, but it was no use as my defence went walkabout and the AI decided it was going to slide tackle for me and give away penalties. I can safely say the auto slide days are over! I feel in complete control of my defending, I tackled when I wanted to tackle, I stood tall when needed and most importantly for me I could trust the AI using the second man pressure button. Holding square I would send the AI player over to the attacker while I tracked runners and covered gaps using my own player, very effective when you master it. When using a big defender against Messi, I was able to use my strength and muscle him off the ball which wouldnt have happened in previous years. Of all the goals I've conceeded so far not once have I said "What was my defence doing there", each time I've lost a goal it has been me not defending good enough or my opponent using superb attacking play.
The offside trap looked very useful, it can be tough to master but when you have it nailed its effective. The defence would step up together and keep the line like they should. Keenan uses this very effectively, becomes a really tactical game as I try to time the pass to beat his offside trap, great fun!
Tactics
What an excellent addition to the game this is! Your team shape is decided using the sliders, such as how high your defensive line is, how much you want to squeeze the game and pressure your opponent, or to keep players out wide instead of coming in to help midfield etc. When playing Keenan we tried out loads of different combinations and I could see the difference it made. In one game I set the pressure to 0, Keenan ended up having so much time on the ball to pick out passes and drive forward. Of course some players may want to play that way to preserve stamina or they may want to just sit back and soak up the pressure. When I changed the pressure to 100, immediately my players were hounding Keenan in possesion, causing him to misplace passes or get doubled up on when trying to dribble forward, but at the same time the stamina was going down so my players were getting tired and ending up out of position as they chased all over the park. Its all about finding the right balance.
There are loads of different combinations to try out in the sliders, its great learning what sliders are best for you and your style of play. Although I believe there is a counter to every style, so it will be interesting to see how the tactics play out for everyone over the next year!
Goalkeepers
The goalkeepers didnt do much right at all on PES09. They didnt cover the near post, they collapsed with ease at a shot fake, they spilled too many tame shots and there was no manual keeper option. On PES2010 there is a big improvement on last years rubbish. Do they still make errors? Yeah they do, but I can guarantee you its not as frequent or bad as it was. Having played tons of matches over the past few days, I've seen probably 2 or 3 bad errors. They deal with crosses better, rush out at the strikers feet better and the shot stopping has improved loads. Last night in a game with Keenan he had about 12 shots on target and only scored 1 as my keeper played out of his skin, on PES09 he wouldve had about 6 goals with the shots he had.
Manual keeper makes its return, but not in the same way it was before. You now press L1 + R3 to activate the keeper which is tricky in itself, but its made even more trickier as you have to press L1 + R3 again to take it off after you make the save which means you cant get back in control of your defenders quick enough. Keenan and Stylist keep trying to use manual keeper but had so much problems with it, I gave up after a couple of tries. I'll just stick to letting the AI try and save it!
Set pieces
The power bar seems to go up quicker this time around, my first few free kicks would have been good for playing rugby. Once you get used to it then its similar to last year. The under the wall free kick still can be done (holding circle and down), but the power isnt strong enough to beat the keeper every time. Just dont jump with the wall and you will be safe from conceeding that kind of goal.
For some reason they have removed the manual pass option from free kicks. Unless its there and we just havent found it yet! In previous versions if you had a free kick in your own half, you could manual pass to the defender on either side of you but now you have no option but to go forward using X or circle.
Penalties
These have changed in a big big way! Instead of the randomness from previous years, you are now in full control and decide how high and how far to the side your penalty goes. This takes a bit of practice to get used to and admittedly I did hit the training ground to perfect them! Its awkward at first but as I said with a bit of practice you figure it out. Penalty shootouts on pesrankings.com events this year are going to be entertaining as the pressure gets to the players and they hold the button for a split second too long and balloon their penalty high and wide!
Online
Well online looks to finally be sorted going by the online demo testing. As long as you and your opponents connection is fine then you will have a lag free game. Online isnt open on the full game yet so I cant get on too see all the options etc, all I want is a lag free experience and I'm confident we will have that this year
Community mode
Tried this for the first time last night with my mates and what a great addition it is! You make a profile for each of your mates and whoever is playing selects their profile which also saves their button configs etc (very handy for those who change shoot to circle, stops the next person getting the pad and crossing instead of shooting when they play!). There are loads of stats to be found like who has kept the most possesion, most shots, most fouls etc. Needless to say I topped the fouling and red card charts last night with my rough approach to the game
What I will say is remember to save it before you turn your console off, just went to check our stats there and realised its all lost cos we didnt know you had to save it. Oh dear.
Small teams vs Big teams
I didnt use a smaller team vs big team myself (I did play small vs small though), but one of my mates last night chose Sampdoria and held my other mate using Real Madrid to a 0-0 draw. The guy using Sampdoria was playing for the very first time and the guy using Madrid had actually played it quite a bit, he got his sliders spot on and of course his keeper pulled a couple of good saves out the bag which is needed in a small vs big team scenario. The frustration on my mates face as Ronaldo and Kaka kept being doubled up on by a stubborn Sampdoria defence was priceless!
Overall
When I used to get a new PES game, my first thoughts were always "Oh I dont think I like this, I cant get used to the game, I prefer the old version!" and then after I kept at it all of a sudden the PES magic hit me and I was hooked for another year Then on PES08 and PES09 my first thoughts were "Why is this so easy, I can run past the whole team with my eyes shut and its my first time playing it". Playing PES2010 gave me that feeling thats been missing since I first played PES6. With every game I played I started to enjoy it more and more and I keep saying to myself just one more go and it turns into another two hours of play :ha: For me its the best football game on this generation of consoles, my only worry is that I've got a kid on the way and its going to cut into my time playing it!
