PES I LOVE YOU

ABOVE: My Verdict: 84% 'Back of the net... every time.'

I SPENT a good couple of weeks on FIFA thinking it is the best football game ever. Maybe it is.

But, like a lovesick teen, I keep returning to my first love, Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer.

The rivalry between the two has been well documented in this column and elsewhere. Regular readers will also know I’ve been particularly critical of the PES franchise in recent years.

How I’d love to say PES 2010 takes on FIFA and wins. It doesn’t. It doesn’t even take it to extra time.

Yet this is still good, very good, with enough updates and additions to make it far and away the best version of the game since its heyday.

The graphics have been overhauled and the players are able to dribble around 360 degrees. Also, the presentation, which so often looked like it had been designed by an angry teenager, has been slickened up, with decent tunes and a nice interface.

The tactical portions have also been given a tweak making it much easier to shape a team. It’s also quicker (there’s no more sitting around waiting for the French chap at the other end to trawl through 20 menus as he looks for Ribery’s best starting position). 

The Master League option has also been updated and the Champions League licence has been nicely woven in, bringing me to the game’s highlight, the on-field action.

There was a time when PES was king, thanks to its realism. FIFA 10 now fi rmly holds that crown. Yet there is still something wondrous about scoring a goal in PES.

Watching Messi bang in a low cross for Ibrahimovic to volley into the corner will still get you off the sofa every time.

This is fantasy football. Unrealistic but brilliant. One of the main problems for PES has been the online, which has often had so many bugs it was impossible to enjoy a decent match.

I’ve been playing on the demo servers for about a week and can report the experience is good.

Finding opponents was quick, there was little lag and, so far, I haven’t been cheated out of a win by some little oik exploiting a problem with the code.

However, until the full servers go live this weekend, we simply won’t know how good the online option is. If Konami have got it right, then they’re back on track. So how does it rate against its rival?

The presentation, the options, even the realism fall far behind its EA counterpart, a game that has a strong claim to being the best sporting title of the next gen era.

However, this is still the best PES game to date. It might not be as complete as FIFA but I don’t think I’ll be playing anything other than PES from here on in.

» MORE 'GAME ON' HERE...

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Posted: Thu 12 November 2009, 13:08:15 , by SamBaker Re: PES I love you “ Eventually someone who agrees PES 2010 is a good game, and comes close to beating fifa. PES 2010 feels like playing real eleven a side football by not making it possible to do unbelivable tricks, PES is all about and has always been about passing shooting and crossing, the way you set up your players in Pro evolution soccer is as important as who is on your team. Were as in fifa is all about the style and tricks, when i play fifa it never feels as real as the feeling you get when playing PES. The emotions you feel when playing the master league section in pes, when you have just lost the final of the champions league or the uefa is what makes this game brilliant. They have recently added to the PES Master League real money and taken away the points system, this improves the game and makes everything feel more real, it also makes the game more intresting and addictive, instead of just wanting to win league and cups now, it makes you want to make your club its fortune. With this money you can now by athletics coaches, trainers, physios and most important scouts to help buy those world class players, not forgetting about making fan clubs bigger and improving your youth team. Online play in PES10 is alot better than ever before, they have still some issues with slow gameplay but there is deffinitly a noticable difference between PES 10 online and PES 09. All in all i believe PES 2010 is a brilliant game and comes very close to taking the title of football games away from the fifa franchise. Sam Baker ” ( Inappropriate Comment? Report This! )

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