I like the game, I generally like PES. But the only reason I’m playing it is because I was triggered to get the newest version. I like some updates to MyClub, especially since I mostly stopped giving in to shiny legends/iconics that I don’t actually care for. It’s still a bit dumb you have no chance at your favorite featured if you didn’t get it in three spins, but it’s not like the base cards are horrible or difficult to scout. There’s some mistakes with the servers, and the matchday modes especially are filled with toxic people finding ways around the void match algorithms. People abusing the glitches of the game, I don’t like that either, but I guess it’s also a way of knowing the game mechanics. So I can’t be too mad at them and just try to remember that they’ll generally fall back on their one/two tricks. When the game/opponent lags a little good luck on trying to control your defenders or even who to switch to with either L1 or the right stick, but when the connection is smooth, you’ll mostly be fine, outside of the occasional odd programming/design mistakes.

So all in all, decent game, I’ll continue to like and play it. It’s not a terrific game obviously, but it’s generally pick and play enough to enjoy it when you’ve got 30-40 minutes to spare and don’t feel like reading or watching something (or picking something). Since I learned to stop playing after 2-3 games, it’s also gotten more consistently fun, after that focus generally drops and thus your performance (at least in my playing style I need to be fit in my timing and alertness to movements). Just playing on endlessly gets me in the loop of having a bad game but wanting to end on a high so you try another and another while growing in frustration which in turns makes you worse. But if you do get one of those highs, the casino like dopamine spikes will trigger another game because it feels nice, which then kicks off the next loop and it’s not healthy and not REALLY fun when you dive deep into if you actually still feel like playing the game at that moment. breaths out

“But if you like this game so much and play it so often, mr Depingo, why only give it two stars?” I think this is for political reasons, dear inquisitor. While they’re honest about it this time around, it’s not really a new game, and hasn’t been for a lot of iterations. There are minor changes, and the shirts are updated again. They keep updating throughout the season too, which is cool. But while on Grouvee this does result in lower average ratings, for either PES or fifa (and I guess other sports games but I don’t really venture out a lot of PES anymore in the yearly fomo sports game genre anymore, I don’t understand how official reviews are always so lenient for these games, while other games get punished for having similar sword slash movements to the previous edition. And even if you can sometimes argue that they’re right, how does that justify the 7/8+ out of tens on a way too consistent basis for every single new version of fifa and PES. Just because they want to money grab yearly (or since loot boxes and DLC, practically weekly), they don’t have to change to the same levels, say, action games are apparently supposed to do? I don’t wanna sound like a conspiracy theorist or anything but smells like bullshit to me.

So yeah, I love it, I will try to not get 2022, I hope I’ll succeed. Should probably be more honest fun without the login bonuses, etc. Will probably mean I’ll more easily shift attention back to games I love and respect a little more. But because of political reasons I refuse to rate this game higher than two stars, no matter how much and long I’ll continue to play this. Plus, it doesn’t feel right to support a company that fires people solely for financial reasons and then still tries their hardest to make sure they don’t get to work anywhere else, at least in similar fields... Then again, does that mean the employees need our support to not get fired and thus still get to keep the job they studied and worked hard for? Guess that’s got me conflicted too, but I think Konami is very ripe for a change in management and their ethics department.