I did buy this upgrade recently after trying the demo a while back, I thought maybe with the data packs it might make for a more immersive experience.
Unfortunately I find the gameplay rather limited and quite one dimensional honestly. More from the opposition to be fair, playing against a number of different teams alot seem to sit plenty of men behind the ball (not sure if this is just how things are on the top level). They tend to play alot of balls into a striker who backs in to your defence, he then turns and has a shot and I didn't experience much variation beyond that from the AI. In turn on occasion if I did that I would tend to get dispossessed by the ghost of Dejan Lovren, come straight through the back of you where you can't realistically win it but they did. So I switched it up with some crossing but alot get blocked a little too frequently, like the ball is a magnet for there jumping torso. I also experienced the issue which is always prevalent in sports titles on the highest difficulty, which is somebody like Modric now has the pace to get back at somebody like Mane or Salah and out muscle the latter.
The game is more simulation than Fifa, the pace of the game and such, the player feel weightier and not like the ball is on strings which I like but there just isn't much fun to be had for me. Until they rediscover that mix of gameplay which they had in the PS2 era of Pro Evo then i don't think I'll ever be too keen on it. It's also not pick up and play friendly, FIFA has a lot of issues granted but at least I can pick it up and have the odd game,.score a few goals and have fun with my son on it.
I've played a few games of the new FIFA in recent weeks with my nephew, and it's awful. We were playing online together and every game had a minimum 6 goals, and the gameplay literally hasn't changed since I first started playing FIFA again in 2009 it feels exactly the same. I'm by no means a hardcore PES fan either, bought them sporadically since I stopped buying FIFA 5/6 years ago now, but it's an infinitely superior game on the pitch where it matters. Konami are reportedly doing more off-pitch for the next one, but given the complete overhaul of the engine I'm not optimistic on that front.
And then you play something like NBA 2K and you realise all footy games are an absolute pile of shit, FIFA is literally a decade behind 2K in terms of gameplay it's embarrassing. But when EA have net revenue of ~$1.5 billion from FUT alone prior to the release of FIFA 21 (that's excluding game sales) it's understandable why they don't focus on gameplay. The only way that will happen is if people stop buying it, which they won't because people are sheep.
It's the same thing with 2k though. They force mtx down your throat year after year. If you want your player to be good you have to grind for hours and all
the branded accessories and clothing are super expensive. I played 2k21 the other day and it was actually worse than 2k14, which was the same game 2k tried to shut down after a year stopping your my player progress and ability to earn coins just because they wanted to force you into the next year's edition.
