If you want a realistic career mode then you’d best look elsewhere. Transfers range from the outrageous – Asensio for £15m! – to the infuriating: stupidly-low release clauses meaning your players will often be on the move for a fraction of their value. If you wanted to know what it was like living in a bizarro football world then Master League is the place to be. The main Master League menus have been relegated to one swish-looking screen, but that still masks a few faults that can’t be overlooked, mainly the transfers. Master League, that grand old PES mainstay, has undergone some changes but they either feel purely cosmetic or, in some cases, truly baffling. The changes aren’t all revolutionary, though. It’s a neat touch and duly rewards intelligent play. Don’t worry, though, you can still employ tiki-taka to your heart’s content but the game allows far more styles of play that insist on skill, speed and movement. It means that players such as N’Golo Kante, a midfielder destroyer whose type is regularly glossed over in virtual football, becomes a far more vital part of how you’ll play your game. It not only borrows from the gung-ho real-life systems of counter-kings Atletico Madrid and Leicester City but – whisper it – might just be a FIFA-killer. Every bobble, deflection and mis-timed pass moves the game one step closer to the uncanny football valley and away from a static, magnetic system. The AI's attacking aggression makes for a more frenetic and fun intensity, so complacency will be punished. The overall speed is a tad slower and deliberate than previous years, creating a more realistic feel, but the AI no longer employs meandering keep-ball tactics. However, the biggest and most important change comes in the form of the game’s pace.