Originally posted by Mel Brennan
Normally you post with intelligence; this is just plain foolish.
My impressions (from someone who has already declared he will not purchase this year's iteration, but will play only PES this year)...
- For what it's worth, menus are crisper. I did recall being highly pissed at the ****ty menu integration last year, and for a couple years...
- First touch makes the game better, but not great. The AI is still dicey in defense.
- GK are more realistic in therms of their abilities and their positioning.
- Throw ins are better, corners are still retarded (and the cinematics are the same no matter what side they are kicking from, which is poor), free kicks, with a couple of twists, are still functionally the same...
- Kits, relative to the community, suck. They need to hire some of you guys.
- Maybe it's my Alienware Area-51 M, but while face shape and ID are slightly better (slightly), that "burned skin" look is still there, and the lighting still is poor. In fact, the lighting sometimes looks like lighting from a badly positioned camera, in bad light, than it ever looks in person at a stadium. Maybe EA taking their boradcast emulation too far?
- The body mechanics of the players sometimes is still whacky; a bit of robotic swivel hips are what would be needed to kick some of the balls the way some players kick them, given the angle and direction they are facing (kicking a ball 10 degress behind them with just a whip back of the leg, with out the requisite turning of the body...)
- I wonder...woudn't folks steeped in the history of the game, looking to impart continuity not only year to year between games, but really between the gaming experience and an authentic football experience make damn sure include historic stadia like Estadio Azteca (only one to host two world cup finals) and the Maracana? Maybe that's just me.
- I do have to wonder about EA Canada sometimes...you've got Henry in a cinematic (in the demo at least) lining up on the wrong side of the ball to take a corner (and then suddenly appearing on the correct side)...it DOES seem to me that a basic check on the quality and consistency may, or may not, take place during the development of the game, almost like Issac has other things to do besides make the game perfect...it's...WEIRD, to me.
- Overall , better than FIFA 2004; maybe small improvements in other areas, as a sum, will lead to an overall better experience for you guys.
Based upon the demo, though, and having gone through the first touch feature extensively as the focus of the gameplay (for those concerned with the gameplay), I still find this game far behind the movement of not only PES, but also Football Kingdom.
Chants and environs remain good though.
You folks enjoy.
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