From my impressions thread you can tell that I have been more than impressed with the game.
However, after playing it for past couple of weeks I must say that I have ran into a few things that could/should have been sorted.
1. Players do not accumulate any fatigue from one match to another. They all start fully rested in the next match, which was quite surprising to me. This is a Manager mode I'm talking about, and not accumulating fatigue is a major flaw in a game.
2. Even within a match if you end up depleting all of the energy of a player, he can still run full speed. I thought that once the player runs out of energy he won't be able to sprint at least... odd.
3. When there is a lighter injujury the player stays on the ground lying for a few seconds, which looks great. However, once he's up and running again, there are no sighs of injury. He can sprint full speed like before. Not sure why even bother doing a sub.
Also, if there is a light injury and you see a player down, and decide to play fair i.e. kick the ball out... however, CPU won't return it to you as part of fair play...
4. The other day I have experienced a major graphics glitch. All fans on a stadium disappeared and I could see the polygon construction of the stadium. It happened on 3 games in a row, and once I restarted my PS3, it all went well again. A few games before it was all well. It only happened once, and never again. I haven't had any probs with my PS3 at all, so I assume it was a software glitch.
5. Night matches look great, but a bit too dark in some areas on some stadiums. You can barely see sidelines on some stadiums for example.
6. I only had ran into rain ONCE, in 100 odd matches. You can't set it manually, it happened by itself in Manager mode.
On a more positive note. When compared to UCL and 07, in 08 I must admit that I have scored some great and very realistic goals. I have scored a few excellent volleys, diving headers, long shots and they would be impressive even in PES world.
The game captures something that is very true to football... i.e. you must create a space for your player and USE it. This is my tip for everyone. Shifting weights and executing a skill move can really put a defender off balance... It takes a while to figure out correct timing and how to create a space for a shot, but once you get hold of it, you'll realise how "precious" that space is. Even a step ahead can give you an edge in shooting.
When in a box, if you press
360 or (TRIANGLE) PS3, you do a "lay-off" for your player, which is something that was missing in the past.
Players are not "clunky" or irresponsive. The way EA has implemented their players' ratings and abilities is by increasing/decreasing the responsiveness of players.
Star players are very responsive and skill moves are easier to perform. Less skilled players are a bit clunky, take more time to change weight from one foot to the other, receive or send passes, or to execute a skill move. Fair enough.
Another good point is that you don't feel cheated by AI when you concede a ball.
Computer makes good calls when making subs. If CPU is down even 1 goal after the first half, there is usually at least one sub in second half, and another one early in second half if the first didn't yield results. In UCL and 07 I remember that CPU used to make some subs (usually closer to the end of the match) just for sake of it, even when up few goals.
Achievements are recored in a sticker album... good idea.
