[BrendanMN]

I'm fairly new to football games, having only played FIFA 06 before this one's demo, and whilst I do enjoy a lot of this this has to be the most frustrating game I've ever played. I realise the full game's been released but some c&c never hurts.

Some of this frustration stems from a lack of practice, some of this frustration from the way I play - my playing style is sort of like Barcelona: 4-3-3, keeping lots of possession, probing the penalty area, playing down or back into the centre often, vulnerable when they break on me. But playing this way renders my 3 forwards useless as they're constantly offsides. I've been playing with Milan and Madrid in the demo, but most of my goals are coming from midfielders and fullbacks. It's not uncommon for me to get 5-6 offsides against me in a 2 min half, as my forward just can't stay behind that line.

I try to counter this by asking my players to make a run back into an onside position, but they're fairly casual about this - taking their time and getting me tackled before I can make the pass.

Which is not to say I haven't clicked to pass - my player just waits long enough before passing to be tackled. Or he's unable to just get the ball past a lone defender in time. If the ball is passed as soon as the mouse button is released, then this won't be an issues I'm sure. I also find it annoying that many of my passes are fairly high even though I just tap the mouse, and that my strikes either hug the ground or fly into the top stands. Why no in-betweens? Ideally I'd want my passes either low or high and more control over my shots. These annoying high passes seems to make the ball travel slower and allow for easier interceptions from the other team.

Speaking of interceptions, why is it that my own players have the uncanny ability to run into passes intended for other players? To make things worse, they don't get the ball, they just fumble it, hand over possession and unwittingly set a lone striker clean through on goal. I've don't recall ever seeing this specifically in a football game. They're also able to run into each other and spill the ball - probably due to a bad AI understanding of the formation. My players also have the annoying habit of turning around as soon as they receive a pass - in front of my goal they get tackled and my opponent grabs a lucky goal, and in front of their goal they get robbed of a goal on a silver platter. No fun at all.

Opposition AI aren't terribly smart either: monotonous attacks, scoring only on the break, and some really weird keeper behaviour: for instance, I'll be running with a right-back along the goal line trying to get into their box. As I approach the goal the keeper suddenly comes at my player, even though my shooting angle is about 3 degrees and I'm obviously looking for a cross. Just a quick lob over are a step inside and a shot to the far post and the deal is done. Awful and persistent mistake. They also too frequently try to play the ball out of their penalty area in sticky situations - allowing me to quickly intercept and counter attack.

edit: I also have to mention that it seems the issue with players running along a track when receiving a pass hasn't been fixed - my players still stand around motionless, refusing my commands, just to have a player from the other team rush in and make a ridiculous interception.

With all that said, I do think the game is doing some good things. Better dynamics to team movement, better play dynamic. The mouse and keyboard setup is also really great though I need some practice. I do like the menus but I really want the in-game menu to appear instantly and regardless of what's happening in the game, i.e. cutscenes disallow any user input. A frustrating game is not made less so by forcing the player to wait before quitting. Other cool things are the widgets and some improvement on the production values.

/rant