Approximately a month ago I posted a few issues that I noticed. Since then I have played just over 65 hours and would like to provide an update on these issues, as well as any further ones I have written down.
Note: I play on PC, so these are not related to any issues the PS4/PS5 have.
Previous issue:
- Tackles: Previously tackling was extremely broken where only the AI could tackle and hold the player without the player being able to get a hand off. And if a player tackles the AI, they would 99% of the time get a hand off or drop the ball without getting a dropping the ball. This issue seems to have been fixed (for the most part) since the 2nd last update. A player is now able to tackle and hold the player without the AI getting a hand off or kick during a tackle unless its a weak tackle. And if the AI drops the ball when tackled, they will almost always be given an incorrect disposal. So, definitely kudos on fixing these issues
- Marking: In hard difficulty, it is almost impossible to get a group mark or a 1 on 1 mark. Even if in correct or an advantageous position, the player will mark the ball only 1/10 times. And many times if a user is in front by even 6 feet plus, the ball will phase through the user and the AI will mark the ball. Also, the issue still exists with a users player just standing there and not even making an attempt at marking the ball. It would seem the marking issue has been exacerbated and not addressed.
-Players randomly slowing down - Prior to the 2nd last update, players would randomly slow down even if the stamina wasn’t empty. This seems to have been fixed, as players will only run at a slow pace if stamina bar is empty. Though even then, the pace of a player if stamina is down is way to slow.
-Broken ruck interchange: This issue seems to have gotten a lot worse. A month ago, the issue was the auto interchange making the ruck on field predominately the bench ruck and keeping the primary ruck on the bench. Now, the issue is the backup ruck will mainly be on the field, but the primary ruck will mostly play out of position in the back line. One example is when playing as North Melbourne, Goldstein will play in the back pocket whilst Xerri will be the primary ruck for the whole game. And some times an out of position ruck such as Thomas for North Melbourne will randomly play in ruck. - AI never takes kick outs: Issue still exists, though at least now the AI will kick out from within the box when defensive tactic is set on locate. But when the defensive tactics is on either of the zone choices, the defensive player taking the kick out will 100% of the time play on and mostly turn it over. This is an issue because its either one or the other. There should be a mix up of both where a defensive kick will kick from the box or play on no matter the defensive tactic.
-Aiming of kicking and hand balling: This is still a major issue and have no idea why this hasn’t been a priority fix. Kicking has definitely gotten better for the most part, but hand balling is still broken. If you aim directly at the player it will go in random directions, mostly to the opposing player. Yes, it has gotten a little bit better, but is still most definitely broken.
Issues I have found to exist over the past month
-Player selection: This is the most annoying and inconsistent issue. When trying to change player, the selection will almost always go to random players no where near the contest. A number of times when I have been playing it will just randomly go to a player about 30 feet away from the contest, where you find yourself having to quickly change players over and over again just to try and get the selection to be on someone close to the ball.
-Broken roles in team selection: If you make a player a backup ruckman, you can no longer remove that role and will also be stuck to the player you interchange him with. Once the back ruckman role is applied, you can not take it off.
-AI goal kicking way to accurate: 9/10 times the AI will only kick 1 behind, sometimes not even that. Doesn’t matter if they are kicking from the boundary 50 meters out or kicking around the body with 6 players on them, the AI will almost always kick the goal. Another big issue is when tackling the AI and they kick the ball at goal it will successfully kick the goal 100% of the time.
-Interchange issues: Just like the issues with ruck interchange, the issue with interchange in general is still horrible. The auto interchange will randomly place players out of position in positions these players would never field IRL and a lot of the time players who start on the field will spend 3 quarters on the bench without coming back on.
-No bumping or tossling for position: How this is not a feature yet is beyond me, considering both are such a crucial part of the game of Australian football. Every AFL game of the past 20 years has included bumping and using there body to gain position during the marking contest.
-No high tackle: Just like no bumping, this is a feature that should already be in the game. After 70 hours in the game I haven’t experienced it yet, so I am assuming it’s not in the game.
-Stats no representative of the match time: AI and simulated games have super unrealistic stats that don’t match up with the match time or in comparison to player controlled games. One example is if the match time is set to 5 minutes in a player controlled game, the most statistics anyone would get would be at the most 20-22 disposals. And majority of the time that would only be one player, the rest would gather between 5-15 disposals. But if the game is simulated and with the AI games, multiple players for each team will gather approximately anywhere between 20-35 disposals. This is evident in the disposals tab within the statistics. I have currently played 22 games player controlled, and the highest disposal getter being Simpkin has 245 disposals, which makes him 4/5 pages down in the disposals column with the top 50 having over 450 disposals.
-AI teams extremely inconsistent: I am currently doing a career as North Melbourne, and if was anywhere close to a real life representation, we should be winning at most 5 games throughout the season. But I have done 22 games and have won 20. Some games I will win by over 100 against teams like Controlling and Carlton, others I will win by 5 points against the likes of West Coast then get beaten by 80+ points by Hawthorn. This is even worse when simulating a whole season as North Melbourne. During the first season I simulated the whole season and the simulation only gave me 2 losses as North Melbourne. As a North Melbourne supporter this is wishful thinking, though its wildly unrealistic.
-Scheduling issues after 1st season: After the first season, the fixture is very strange. During my 2nd season as North Melbourne I played Hawthorn 2 games in a row, played Carlton 3 times and didn’t have Gold Coast or GWS on the schedule what so ever.
-All Australian selection: Just like the scheduling issues, this is a weird one. There will be players that get All Australian selection who only play 1 or 2 games throughout the whole season and the better performers of the season don’t even get selected. One example is during a season Lazzaro of North Melbourne played 1 single game in round 3 and was selected as an All Australian.
-Rising stars selection: I have noticed with Rising stars there will players who are apart of the rising starts don’t even play a game throughout the whole season and those who play the whole season like Sheezel aren’t even listed.
-Over powered speccies: Though marking is broken and a user can barely get a successful pack mark. If you are in the right position and can attempt a speccie, the speccie will be successful almost 100% of the time.
Twitter and announcement inconsistencies
- Since the game released, the Big Ant twitter has been extremely inconsistent with there announcements and what some would describe as being misleading. Since the last game related post, there have only been 2 posts and both were Carlton retweets. What has Carlton football club got to do with AFL23 or other Big Ant releases?
- June 9th there was a twitter post that quote “AFL 23 Patch News:Patches for AFL 23 on Steam will continue to roll out most days. PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 will move to weekly releases, with the first being within the next 7 days. We will also have an update on the AFL 23 XBox release within the next 7 days.” - It has been almost 3 months and there has only been 4 updates.
- June 16th you posted: AFL 23 XBOX Announcement. We will be distributing XBox disks to retailers at the end of July/Early August, as we approach that time we will have a more definitive date. We sincerely appreciate the support and patience of the XBox community. Nearly 3 months later and you guys have gone silent on the XBOX release date.
- May 5th the Big Ant twitter posted the list of features that would be rolled out within a week. Of the 17 features listed, 5 are still yet to be added 3 months later. Such as custom difficulty and tutorials.
Conclusion
- Game has most certainly improved ten fold since release, however even in its current state it still feels like it is in pre release testing phase. I really do hope there is more work going into the game play, and we can play a complete game before AFL finals time.