My Opini Of PES

It’s All About The Game

I have spent a lot of time over the last few weeks with FIFA 10, hoping and trying to understand where all these people were coming from. I have more years of gaming experience than I care to remember. I was the kind of person who would sit for hours in front of the text screens of Championship Manager 93/94. I was the one who would wait 20 minutes for the cassette to load on my spectrum to play just one game of Emlyn Hughes Soccer. I love my football games with a passion, irrelevant of who develops them, and what format they are played upon.
Last year, I wrote a review saying that I believe FIFA 09 was the best the franchise had ever produced and I thoroughly enjoyed certain aspects of the game. It had improved immeasurably over the past few years, and that is was simply a matter of opinion as to whether or not you preferred it to PES, which had improved, but by no means at the same rate. So, along comes FIFA 10, and for the first time, I actually looked forward to a FIFA game. Gone were the buzz words of the PR campaigns and new features that you knew would be on the scrap heap the following year. ‘Let’s FIFA 10’ Simple, to the point, and watching the PR videos, I was optimistic. Do not get me wrong, if FIFA 10 was my preferred video game, which is the one I would be playing, not PES. I have said before, I am not going to waste my free time doing something I don’t enjoy just to be stubborn. It really isn’t my style.

There are certain features on FIFA 10 I love. The set piece editor is something that makes a huge difference as it adds a completely new dimension to the game play, especially when playing against your mates. Now, you know that if you get a corner or a free kick, you have a specific plan from scoring, and will be able to outsmart your opponent. Get good at doing this, and you can build an entire game plan on being a side like Villa, sitting back, counter attacking and knowing that from set pieces, you are going to get your chances. I am more than willing to say I wish the feature was in PES, and it is a feature that Konami need to copy from EA Sports.
I also am a huge fan of the way FIFA has developed its online modes, in particular its Be A Pro mode. Personally, I feel that EA Sports, Konami or a third party need to dedicate an entire gaming franchise just to this one player on the pitch experience to truly get the best out of it, but for the time being I find FIFA’s offering to be much more advanced than the one featured on PES, which still feels far to arcade like.

But onto the pitch, and this is where my view remains the same. I feel FIFA 10 and FIFA 09 are all too similar. Yes the introduction of 360 movement adds something, but for me, I find FIFA to be monotonous and at times, a little boring. I have turned a number of games off half way through for the simple fact I wasn’t enjoying playing them, and these were games I was winning! I find the way the AI attacks unrealistic and bland, and find myself playing the same way with every team.
Of course, these same criticisms can be thrown out into PES as well, but the difference is for me, I enjoy playing PES. My opinion of FIFA is that it is still not as enjoyable to play as PES, either short term or long term, and this can not be confused or mistaken as fact. A fact would be that FIFA has improved over the past few years, due to its new features and game play. A fact would be that FIFA outsells PES. But my feelings and opinions make me find PES a more enjoyable, playable and even realistic football gaming experience. I believe that in PES, I can choose whether to place the shot, chip the shot or go for power, using the shoulder buttons. I can chose which foot my player strikes the ball with depending on my angle of approach and on the % success rate based upon my positioning in relation to the goal and space/time I have. I personally find FIFA’s shooting bland and unrealistic, and find the % of chip shots on one v one opportunities rivals the homing missile on the great Worms 2!

I fully respect everyone’s opinions, whether they differ from my own as some people’s do, or are pretty much the same. As I said, I am not playing blind, I have spent a fair amount of time with FIFA and find it a good game with some nice features, many of which were available in FIFA 09. I don’t believe myself to be a fan boy because I will only play PES as long as I feel it offers me the best football gaming experience. I welcome people discussing all aspects of football gaming on this website. I know Double D’s opinions may differ too, but at the end of the day, football gaming choice is totally down to the individual, and you can’t really argue to change that, it’s not something you or they can be write or wrong in.

Once again it has been an absolute pleasure to have instigated a discussion, which has seen many good, structured arguments with a sense of maturity. It’s something I’ve been striving to achieve on this site for quite some time. I’ve had to wield my ban hammer many times, but finally there’s some pay off.
I’d like to start this week’s column off by having a go at both EA and Konami. I think both Konami and EA are guilty of not advancing football games fundamentally beyond the PS2 architectural era.

FIFA2010 plays ok, but is very predictable, boring and fundamentally is a superficial game. Yes it has better individual player movement and passing control, but I argue it’s very similar to PES in how it plays the game. They’ve both not advanced sufficiently given we’re very comfortably into the current generation of consoles. FIFA I think are resting on their laurels and it would seem like they think they’ve not only hit on the right formula for a football game, but given Konami’s inability to stand up squarely to them, I think FIFA feel they’ve achieved their goal of becoming the number one football title. Now that they are number one, I can’t see them progressing the genre much more than they already have. Perhaps they’ll tweak the animations, improve some aspects of control, and heaven forbid they ever work out ball physics.

The list of features that they listed for the World Cup edition of the game due out shortly was for me, real evidence of where they will be looking to just add joke features to the franchise. Adding features such as the hats fans wear in stadiums, throwing of paper onto the pitch, and it remaining there for the game, as well as a whole list of other ambience related additions just stinks of milking the formula further. I can’t see FIFA2011 being much of a jump from FIFA2010 which was a marginal jump from 2009. Perhaps they’ll add off the pitch crowd trouble, or streakers for good measure.

If the fact that PES2010 was very poorly recieved in Europe, has truly hit home with Konami, then there is real hope that we will see more than mere cosmetic changes for PES2011, as nothing else will do.
Konami are now guilty until proven innocent in many people’s eyes. They’ve got a real battle on their hands, and nothing less than a mammoth effort on their part will suffice for many of us.

For the record, I am personally very optimistic and excited in the build up to the first trials of the new version, and have faith in Konami to truly produce the real deal for us. I am behind them, which is why I’m writing on this site, and causing/having arguments about the game. But there is a niggling doubt in the back of my mind, that our ideas may be lost in translation. Hopefully this is just fear for the sake of fear, and that they really produce this time, because they’ve used up 99% of our goodwill to date, and this time we demand justice for PES.


“Just Enjoy The Show”

My next point is a personal one. I believe we have some very creative minds on this site, but more importantly than that, I feel we have open minds too. I know there are a group of people here who are die hard PES fans, whereas there are others who can see the gaming world objectively. I know we have FIFA fans who visit the site, and I am also aware that we have some people who would claim themselves to currently not be into football gaming due to the current selection available.

It was good to see such a variety of responses to my opinion about PES2010 being the best installment to date. Sure there are plenty of people who disagree with me, but that’s never an issue with me. What is interesting is when people take the time to explain why for them the game is not good to them. It’s more objective than the more basic replies some people leave which just typically is a quick rant with no attempt to justify what they think. Given we’re about stimulating discussions and trying to get across all the different sides that we all see to PES.

I was particularly impressed with Amateur’s contributions this week as he talks about very salient points such as a CPU dictated scripts, manipulated off the ball movement, and the fundamental game not being different from the very early editions of the game. It’s a very valid point, as the core mechanics of the game are over 15 years old, and they need to go. It was a winning formula for a game 15 years ago, and over the years it was tweaked and refined, with the experience getting better and better for us. Whereas now, I think it’s fair to say that most experience PES fans are tired of the formula, and want a footballing experience worthy of the current generation of consoles.

Whilst we were using older generation machines, we were aware of their limitations, and so our own ambitions for the game were somewhat curbed as a result. Seabass himself used to say during the golden PS2 era that they had lots of ideas they wanted to implement which just weren’t possible back then, but I don’t think we’ve necessarily seen those ideas come to fruition over the last few years on the PS3 or 360 or PC.

Perhaps we’ve seen the best of Konami’s vision of what football games should be like. I know that when I first started playing the old ISS/Pro games many moons ago, the game play blew my socks off, compared to all other football games back then. It was revolutionary, “realistic” and hell of a lot of fun. So the formula back then was worked on, but the fundamentals were kept in the game.
Now that we want to move away from this core mechanic, perhaps the idea of having a different model to base the game on is too revolutionary for Konami. Which is kind of funny, since the game is know in Europe as Pro Evolution Soccer, and evolution seems to be the issue!


“The Real Thing”

The final one from me this week and one that has been building up for a while. Following a couple of excellent posts by regular contributor ‘Amateur’ I have been asking myself a little more about how realistic does football gaming need to be, and more importantly, how more realistic is it going to get. I may use a couple of quotes in the following topic, and I apologies for not sourcing the original contributors, however I feel it is better to just let this piece flow a little bit more. I am also going to discuss the topic regarding the PS3, X Box 360 and PC generation, and not look into the future of 3D gaming or motion sensing that may occur in years to come.

It has been a claim by some that FIFA 10 is a more realistic gaming offering that PES, a statement I am less than convinced by. On one hand, I have logged some hours on FIFA 10 and therefore can quote that in my opinion, FIFA plays more like a video game and less like a game of football, yet I have not played for the same number of hours as I have on PES, so my judgement can only by my own an not a recommendation. However, for me, it is important that football gaming still maintains an aspect of exactly that, and that the game can offer a variety of challenges and doesn’t become predictable or boring. If we take away the aspect of difficulty levels for a second, the idea of a perfect football game would seem the AI play the game using different styles in relation to the team it is controlling. PES currently sees the AI play a lot of nice attacking football passing in the middle third, but no real penetration in and around the penalty box. This is very realistic when your playing Arsenal or Chelsea, but when Bolton are keeping the ball for minute long spells at a time, you have to question the realism. Playing styles are definitely a must if we are going to talk about realism.

A second issue regards time. I know people have said that games should last longer, maybe have a minimum of 10 minutes per half, but simply this is an option that is going to isolate as many gamers as it will draw in. I know for a fact there are gamers out there that will end up playing less games of PES, simply because they haven’t the time. By the same token, simply adding to the match duration alone won’t alter the way the AI or a gamer will play, and that the option for longer or shorter matches shouldn’t play too much of a deal on the game itself. However, if you alter the physical game speed of the players, and the actual size of the pitches, then you may start to have a situation whereby a longer time frame would actually be required, as to travel with the ball.

A third issue would be the ball physics. In my opinion, PES had the best ball physics for years, going back to the Playstation one day of random deflections and spin. However, since its inception onto PS3 and 360, the physics do seem to have suffered some what, particularly when it comes to dribbling and in block tackle situations. It is crucial to remember that the ball in the most important part of football, and that Konami or whoever should be focusing on making that roll, bounce and look as realistic as possible, and definitely not be as oversized as the FIFA in game ball.

But my biggest issue of all is how the gamer is made to experience when playing a football game. In the past, we have had complaints the game is ‘cheating’ or becoming ‘unbeatable’ at certain points. However, this is something that needs to be examined more closely. Gamers may have to start getting used to spending long periods of a game defending as opposed to always attacking, and here in lies the key to creating realism. I have asked before, but how many times do you sit back and let your opponents attack you when playing PES? Or how many times do you just smash the ball anywhere when defending? Most people I know who play the game will always try to dribble the ball or pass the ball out of defense. Most will start pressing as soon as they lose the ball, and the only goals they concede are when they have simply ran out of players to press with.

There were some great tips from you guys for getting that little bit extra from the sliders and formations to counter teams, so a big thanks to the contributors for that. As you guys are aware we will be driving our next PES improvements initiative shortly, but this week I’d like to focus on what we still enjoy about the series. Yes we all have various issues with the game, and the next few months will be testimony to that, but for now, how about we celebrate what we enjoy about the game?
What better way to start that off, than with me just going over why PES is still the game for me.

Going off on a slight tangent, I’ve recently lent both FIFA and PES to a good friend, as he has been out of touch with both games, and I have to say it’s been tough going whilst I didn’t have PES2010 available to play. I am planning on getting feedback from my friend on what he thinks of both games, but that will be later, once I do my own comparison. Anyway, now that I have PES back, I’m really enjoying my football fixes!
I don’t want to go into any of the issues I have with the game, so for those of you who will be wondering why I’m wearing rose tinted specs, it’s purely to saviour what is great about PES - the time for moaning is coming up soon! So then, what is it about PES2010 that has me coming back for more?

I can categorically assure you that I am 100% a Pro Evolution Soccer 2010 fan. Whilst the FIFA franchise has vastly improved since its PS3 inception, I don’t feel the progress made between 09 and 10 was all that great, and I found myself being bored after a single game on FIFA 10. It is not a bad game, and nor is that my official review of the title, but in my personal opinion, PES is a more enjoyable experience on near enough every level. PES still needs some work, I don’t think the most die hard of fans could deny that. For me, it is still the best football game currently available to play, matching the balance of enjoyment and realism very well indeed. The claims of half finished, broken or simply unplayable are a little far fetched by some community members, and for the minority who don’t find either FIFA or PES enjoyable, the solution is simply play neither. I am still surprised to see FIFA fans turning up on this site, people who play FIFA commenting on PES and even PES fans who have since turned to FIFA returning here to add their views. Maybe this is because the FIFA community isn’t as strong as this one, or maybe it is because you believe Konami have come closer than EA Sports to making that perfect football title in the past. From my point of view though, PES is still closer to the perfect end result, the Holy Grail if you will, of football gaming, and I believe that is why this site, and the franchise in general is still going strong.