My major gripe so far is the side drag move being executed by pressing up or down on the analog stick if you are moving left/right. I find that when I'm trying to evade defenders, especially when setting up for a shot, I side drag all over the place. I think there may be a way around this, but so far I haven't found it. Alot of people have said that the game plays slower than WE8LE. Maybe its because the cpu defense doesn't pressure as much. But I've found that the pace seems faster. The players seem to react faster to the ball, if not run faster all together. Also, the hard pass (hold X) has more pace. As a result, if so inclined, a player can push the ball up at a fast pace. Slowdown. Ahh, the dreaded slowdown. Well, the only noticeable instances for me occur during free kicks. So no major issue. I think any gamer who plays WE8LE or WE9 enough eventually adapts to any slowdown, to the point where it doesn't detract from any pleasure derived from the game. One final observation on slowdown. It may be worse when snow is on the pitch. Haven't played enough to decide.
On a positive front, AI seems better. Players react to ball quicker, especially on defense. In WE8LE, when an opponent kicked the ball up in front of an attacker, my defender was often out of position, and had to recover a lot of ground. This happened quite often on passes to the sides. Now, I've notice that defenders mark more closely, and often beat the attacker to balls passed to sides. Sometimes, though my players intercepted too many balls. While playing on 4 stars, Arsenal vs Chelsea(cpu), Chelsea repeatedly kicked the ball right to my defenders or my defenders would quickly react and steal the ball. Since I haven't played dozens of games or vs many teams, I can't make a judgement yet. I like the longer throws by goalies. Good for setting up devastating counter-attacks. I haven't made up my mind on the ground passes, executed by tapping or holding X. I'm leaning more toward WE8LE's ground passes, but time with WE9 will tell. Free kicks seem easier to me as well. While practicing with Henry, I was able to score quite often from 30 meters out at angles. Instead of aiming ball in the middle of the wall, like in WE8LE, I would aim between the last two guys on outside. So, theoretically, if hit completely straight the ball would be wide of goal by several feet. From a FK on the right side, even if I pressed right or up diagonal right, the ball would curl to corner post, instead of sailing wide, like in WE8LE. Aiming is definitely more lenient. I hope that for WE9 Final Evolution, if that's what it's called, will incorporate a FK system with difficulty between WE8LE and WE9. I haven't scored many goals yet. Still getting used to controls/dribbling. The defense appears better as well. I will have to adapt to new controls and adjust my style a little and I'm confident the goals will come. I did score one nice screamer from 30m out with Ljungberg using R2. I was outside the box on right side, lined up with right line, and the ball curled to left corner post. Nice. Another change I like about WE9 is that now you can hold off defenders much more effectively with R1. The player leans over further holding his ground. Using Ljungberg I was able to hold off defenders until I drew a foul. In WE8LE Ljunberg would fall over if pushed.
All in all its a good game. Initially, I'm a little more discouraged about certain features than I was with WE8LE. More playing time will determine which version I like more. If WE9 Final Evolution goes back to the R2 side drag and fuses components from both games, watch out baby! Keeping my fingers crossed.
One more tid bit. I think I noticed a couple of new moves. The first happened during a match. I still don't no how I executed it. I was running to the right, near the lower sideline and intended to stop (by pressing R1) and then do crossovers (pressing R2 2x). Im not sure what I pressed, but my player suddenly jumped a 180 degree turn, with his back now facing opponents goal, shielding the ball.. Then he quickly turned another 180 degrees (facing right again), pushed the ball out and ran forward. Strange. The second move occurred during training with Henry. Now this move might only be done by certain players. I tried it with another player and he couldn't do it. Here's the move. Run right, then stop by pressing R1. I quickly tap R2 or L1 3x and Henry pushed the ball forward, feinted to his right, then came back over the ball and executed stepovers. Sometimes it doesn't work, but I've done it many times. The L1 version is exaggerated. Henry moves quicker and pushes the ball forward more. I never tried the second move in WE8LE, so I'll see it it can be done. Peace and good gaming.
