I just got back after a long session of the beta, and have to say I'm still positive, although there are things good and bad that are coming to the fore.
Overall I'm still positive, I like the direction and clear improvement over last year. However I found myself less and less impressed the more I played. It is a beta after all, so still not refined, but hope it keeps progressing before launch.
The highlight of this session was discovering the player roles and impact it has on the team, really is something cool. My friend started a career mode with Real Madrid, and I played lots of games and could see players shift into position based on with and without the ball - something PES had. However the way you can have a specific instruction is cool, seeing Bellingham move to the left, or Carvajal come into midfield as an inside fullback. Really nice. I switched some too, making Rodrygo inside forward and you see how it changes player movement within a formation clearly.
The lowlight was probably the Simulation setting and overall impact on the game. This might concern people, however is it a beta, so fingers crossed things change, but after many games and switching from sim to normal and back, I realised overall it's just their idea of a slider settings and nothing more.
The feeling felt flat in the end, compared to the normal setting. I get a sense the game has been built with normal setting in mind, and it flows nicely, very dynamic with unique moments. Switching to simulation, while refreshing at first, made me feel I was missing something. Therefore I believe custom will still be the way to go, and using community sliders will provide the best experience, because the game is definitely improved in trying to create a more realistic experience.
It was also nice to see player stats more prominent than before, as I think there was a bug as players signed don't show up, so after a few injuries we were using youth players, and finishing and movement was simply not on the same level. I remember playing last year and never really feeling I missed star players too much as everyone could do a job, but different this year.
Should add, the presentation of career (i.e. menus) this year is kind of cool, will take some getting used to, but liked the change. Bit buggy though, but can see it being an improvement over last year
I’m not entirely surprised about the
Simulation setting feeling like a basic slider preset, though. EA tends to market these things as game-changers, but they usually just end up being "Normal mode with 20% less speed." It can get a bit tedious when the gameplay feels that "flat." Honestly, when the simulation mode starts feeling like a grind, I usually take a break and head over to
1win for a bit. It’s a good way to reset the brain with something fast-paced before diving back into another career mode session to test out more tactical tweaks.
