[kelvinmak]

Hey gang, sorry for the late replies. Was on set shooting a web series last week (and yet somehow still squeezed in enough time to play a good amount of PES and churn out a review )

Quote: Originally Posted by ps3veron

Great review Mr. Mak! Now I wanna hear what you're saying about that "Other" soccer game...

It's submitted for editing and should come out Thursday! In short: liked it, but for all the potential of greatness the game just felt rough around the edges. That and Master League just doesn't have a lot going for it anymore.

Quote: Originally Posted by Yeats

Cons: A great game of soccer which falls just short of being a classic thanks to sometimes bumbling AI teammates. Kind of an odd thing to list given that's one of the game's strengths this year: vastly improved CPU player behaviour. Unless you're intimating it was horrific in the past and that this year it's improved to bumbling, in which case it makes some sense.

I actually forgot to do the pros/cons for this review, so that section was filled in (based on the review of course) by the big bosses afterwards.

Maybe bumbling isn't the right word, and I do agree that the AI has improved, but I still don't think it's as deep as it can be. I just feel that the AI teammates don't work enough as a team, that almost every off the ball move run is with the intention of getting the ball as opposed to some being used to create space for teammates (forgive me if I'm botching this explanation, I'm a bit underslept at the moment). So consequently it's much harder than it should to play one touch football since the AI only seems to see one move ahead.

Quote: Originally Posted by Qb

Very good review, Kelvin. I particularly liked your take on the philosophy of the franchise... it really can be not-quite-the-sum-of-it-parts experience on the pitch.

Thanks, Qb! I shouldn't take all the credit for it though since I'm pretty sure it was something I read a long time ago on the NBA2k (or Elite) forums. I forget the context now, but basically it was somebody mentioning how EA's games focus almost entirely on giving you the tools to make things happen yourself, and the AI's job, really, was to just stay out of the way. Obviously FIFA is in much better shape than that, but for some reason that quote stuck with me and it does seem like there are times, in FIFA, when the player is counted on to do every job to make a goal happen.