I've not played eFootball for a long time, but given how important this is to me (and how it's been lacking in football games for a long time), you're going to make me download it again...
Well...i really don't want to set you up for disappointment! It's still efootball.
But I do think the game shape and the movement and interchange of players across the pitch is as good as I've seen. Playing manual last night, i played for 2 hours straight, more than I'd played efootball in the preceding year, I think. I played porto vs benfica on superstar and barely got into benfica's final third because florentino luis robbed me of possession around 6 times. I noticed DM's doing the same in other matches too. I genuinely can't remember that in any other game, where a specific position becomes as relevant as it is in real life.
I played PSG and Madrid vs City a few times last night (world class, konami stadium, which along with 3 or 4 others looks very good on pc on summer/night setting). The rhythm and flow of playing felt so convincing. I scored 2 goals in around 6 matches and had to sometimes play ten passes between my back four and my DM so i could find an angle to progress the ball or work my way around a press. Even on pass setting 3 i found it reasonably difficult to move through midfield. On manual it feels like a genuine, geometric challenge.
Man city's attacks felt uncannily real, they were so varied and so un pes-like at times. Gundogan played these little through balls from the edge of the box so often i actually started to hate him a little. And they would drag me to one side of the pitch then quickly switch to the opposite side, using Pep's signature move.
I also played as Villa at home vs Everton and i was actually taken aback by the fact that they sat deep in two banks of four, and then attacked with 6 players, almost all through the middle of the pitch. They just overwhelmed me. I don't remember a team in pes having such a distinctive style of football.
Another surprising element is how robust physicality is. I've dribbled 30 yards down the wing with a full back wrestling me all the way. They win if they're stronger. I've been barged off the ball VVD-style too which again felt new, because it was so specific, from a physicality point of view.
Shooting has even been improved from 1 out of 10 to maybe 5 out of 10 now (still not good though!).
However...i still wouldn't give this game more than 6 out of 10, because the ball physics are so limited, it can make the game, even on full manual, feel soulless at times. passing the ball feels pleasant enough but it's just not good enough for 2024.
And there is still a lack of acceleration in the final third, like the ps2 games had. The lack of variety in the box remains. And defences back off towards their boxes too much in certain phases of an attack, though not always. And it still has all the presentation failures naturally.
But as a 'manual passing build-up simulator'...it has its charms.
