Despite all of the sim-like qualities, it’s still a computer game at heart and will punish you hard if given the chance. Your experience reminds me of getting thumped 5-0 by Accrington Stanley in my first Manager Mode game on FIFA08. I’d drop down to Semi-Pro for a bit if I were you. The difficulty levels just aren’t the same as PES ones. Amateur, the lowest, is still a pretty tough game.

Also it sounds like the game still has the ultra-annoying keepball script. Do the CPU players still run into the corners and get their crosses over no matter what you do?

Apparently Naysmith is Pato/Bojan/Ronaldinho/Maradona and Pele all rolled into one god like vision of footballing genius, and can tear teams apart by himself.

I have been playing Euro all night, slowly getting better! I like the way the game is quite slow but near the end when either team needs to score it gets really fast! I also like chosing how my players close down the other team, it adds to the tactical side- which is very important in this game. The smaller sides are by far the hardest to play against. I beat Germany 3-1 comfortably because they attacked me, but teams like Russia are so hard to score against.

Had my first online game, no hint of lag which was good. I picked Northern Ireland and he Romania- he stuffed me 4-1. I was terrible, he just knew the game more than me. This will be the best when the game is challenging on Legend, where I win and lose in equal measure. Shooting is hard to get used too, I haven’t scored anything from outside the box yet, but the best goal was similar to your FIFA volley except MUCH closer to the goal! I can see this game getting a lot of play time from me, especially that I am playing 20 minute each way matches, and getting 1-1 scorelines- thats a great sign. As the FIFA I remember would have been 21-15 or something stupid like that.

Re. GTA4, you’re not missing a great deal. Maybe I’m just too old now and/or the memory of the sublime Vice City has spoiled me for all other GTA games, but GTA4 lacks atmosphere. I never really loved San Andreas either. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a very good game. The next-gen Liberty City is amazing. But it’s not the stonkin’ 10/10 Triple-A title the gaming press has painted it as. The soundtrack is absolutely awful. I’ve always thought that without an outstanding soundtrack, GTA is just a very good action adventure game, and that’s all this is. It’s not the most unbelievably brilliant best game in the whole world EVER… I’ve spent more time since I got it playing Monster Hunter 2 on my PSP, which says it all.