Pro Evolution Soccer 2011

[Timmoru Suzuki]

The demo is up, allowing you to play as Barca or Bayern. Its 10 minute matches as well, which is better then the usual short bursts you normally get in football game demo's.

Anyway, I like it more than last years demo which I found to be so bad I went and brought FIFA for the first time in 9 years, but I'm not 100% sold. I need to get used to passing, in past Pro Evo's it was probably the gameplay technique I was best at, in this demo it seems incredibly easy to over-hit passes, and on no small amount of times the game has played a pass entirely nowhere near where I aimed it. Not sure if that's me needing to get used to the nuances of Pro Evo again, or if it's same old Pro Evo being same old Pro Evo.

In short, I'll see how the FIFA demo plays. I liked last years, but got bored after a couple of weeks, whereas older Pro Evo games kept my attention for months and I always kept going back to them for one off matches after that.

Anyway, new features accoring to Wiki:

* Total Control: PES Productions has enhanced the 360-degree passing ratio, offering unprecedented levels of control over every pass, shot, throw-in, through ball and lofted through balls. This allows users to pass the ball into space, and move their play with total freedom. Players must precisely weight their passes and second-guess the runs of their team-mates and exploit their movement. Players even can apply pressure on opponents to force them off the ball.

* Shot & Stamina Gauge: In addition to the generic power gauge, the Shot & Stamina meter details the player’s exact level of fitness. Constantly sprinting will affect the player’s movements and will have an adverse affect on his stats, with passes going awry and a loss of pace.

* New Defender AI: Defenders now hold their positions naturally, no longer chasing any ball that enters their area; preferring to close down the attacker and force them into a mistake.

* Improved Goalkeepers: In keeping with the basis of total freedom of movement, players now have more control over their keeper. This greater control allows for quick roll-outs, instinctive saves, pinpoint accuracy with goal kicks, and precision ball distribution to make quicker breaks or playing down the clock easier.

* Animation and Player Physics: PES Productions has totally reworked every element of in-game animation. These additions will become clear before even kick-off, with the players enjoying fluid, natural movements, with more realistic acceleration and inertia than ever before. The physicality between players is also improved, which was a priority requested in PES forums. Jostling and blocking now looks stunning, while there is a larger variety of convincing tackling styles. Ambient animation also adds immensely to the in-game atmosphere, as players behave realistically when off the ball, and walk and run with a variety of individual styles.

* Stadium Editor: The stadium editor will allow you to create your own stadiums. You will be able to choose capacity (between 1,000-100,000), seat colours, edit the adboards and hoardings, edit the turf style (similar to PES 2008), edit the nets (loose or tight, shape and colour), edit the architecture and roofing to a certain extent including tunnel placement and choose whether there is a running track, plain ground, or grass around the pitch. You can also choose to bring the stands closer to the pitch and choose to have a cage similar to certain stadia present in Germany and other parts of the world. Once all that has been put together - you can now choose the setting for your stadium. You are given the option to specify a background layout, with a variety of both urban and rural backdrops. After that, you can also add a background image, with stock items including city scenes - and a mountain range that looks similar to the one seen in the background on the PES 3 intro.[7] With this tool it should be possible to recreate many different stadiums from all over the world with lots of variation in style. There are currently around 25 stadiums in PES 2011 (not all licensed ones). This is 3 more than PES 2010 which had 22. There will be a total of 25 slots to create stadiums giving you a grand total of around 50 possible stadiums.

* Speed of Play: The new level of control means that PES 2011 enjoys a more considered pace of play, which varies dependent on situations. The game will burst into life as counter-attacks come into play, but players can dictate the pace via slow build up or exploiting available space to surge forward. It is harder to make long runs from midfield, and successful play will depend on making quick passes to make room.

* Aesthetics: PES 2010 showcased the best likenesses in a football game, and PES 2011 ups the ante further. Facial animation has been enhanced, but the key advances are over 1000 all-new animations which have been recreated from the ground up using over 100 hours of motion captured footage. Every aspect of player movement has been reworked, with more organic runs, turns, throw-ins, tackles, and interaction. The way players speed up and slow down is also more natural, while replays display elements of motion blur that bring your saved goals to vivid life.

* Tactical and Strategy: The sheer number of options available in the PES series has established it as a remarkably flexible simulation, allowing players to stamp their playing style on each match. The PES Productions team has implemented an all new ‘Drag and Drop’ mechanism that can be used in every aspect of team management, not just substitutions or formation changes. These settings are also animated to promote better understanding of the plays that have been altered.

* Feint settings: PES has always offered a wide range of subtle skills, feints and turns, but PES 2011 allows users to map their favourite move sequences to the right stick, making them more accessible than ever before.

* Master League Online: Master League will offer an all-new challenge, as users are invited to try their hand against other managers online. PES 2011 will mark the online debut for its much-loved Master League element, with players bidding against each other for the world’s best players, and attempting to build a squad that can compete with the best against online peers all over the globe.

* Other Edit Features: PES 2011 does not feature a boot editor. Boots and balls will be added by Konami through updates like PES 2010 but in a more consistent manner. You will be able to create teams, stadiums and even full leagues (for use with offline game modes such as Become A Legend, League/Cup and Master League) with qualification structures. In addition you will be able to edit the league emblems too. This is all on top of the current edit mode system thats present in PES 2010.

Though we're back to an unlicenced Premier League Only Man Utd and Tottenham are licenced. Gayness. Ah well, Middlebrook vs. West Midlands Village for all! There is a fucktonne of South American licences this year though. And unlike FIFA they'll actually bother to put more than a smattering of International teams in, surely.

[Baddar]

The English PL has never been fully licensed in PES - there's always only two.

[Timmoru Suzuki]

Really? I could have sworn the one the other year had the full licence - the first one with Hull in it, 2009 I would have thought. Ah well.

[Herr Matzat]

The Demo has two south american teams aswell. Shouldend there be more PL teams? The Champions League License should include four, shouldend it?

[ONO]

This doesn't exactly have me excited. Ok, the stadium feature is nice, but I'm not going to pay £30 for that. I'll wait and see what Fifa is like.

[TCO]

PES never had full a full Premier League licence, but it's so easy to just download the kits and logos from the internet and plug them in with a USB it's not much of a hassle anymore.

Edited September 16, 2010 by The Cool One

[Baddar]

Nah, Hull were never licensed, but there's always amazing Option Files available to make everything LOOK licensed.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Spurs licensed again?! Whooohooo!

It's a bit sad that I'm really excited by the stadium option. My lads'll be playing in the new Spurs stadium in no time.

Right stick for feints and stuff is great, that's the best use of the right stick so far.

[Herr Matzat]

I remember always playing Winning Eleven with a Patched image! All of this is possible with an original copy and a USB Stick these days? Or dos the modding export only work on the PC Version?

[Timmoru Suzuki]

I still don't know what to make of this. It still suffers from an age old PES bug-bear, that CPU players on the computers side react twice as quickly to loose balls as CPU players on your side, and the CPU is unnaturally quick at closing you down, something not helped by your players having the same grace of control of a sunday league player. The 'X' tackle button is woefully ineffective. I suck at taking people on, though that's obviously me, not the game.

Despite all this, I still want to play more of the demo, which can only be a good thing.

[METALMAN]

I used to have an absolutely amazing file for pes 4 on ps2. Every kit on the game looked perfect. I bought it for a fiver or something from gamestation

[TCO]

I remember always playing Winning Eleven with a Patched image! All of this is possible with an original copy and a USB Stick these days? Or dos the modding export only work on the PC Version?

Nope a only takes the timely process of copying over a shittonne of individual files to your PS3 with a USB stick. They're quite detailed too. The file I had for PES 2009 even had the white square patch on the West Ham jersey with numbers in it.

[R.W.]

The worst part is the bastard deleting the files one by one when you're done with the game though.

[TCO]

Yeah, I took them in groups of 15 whenever I felt the urge and finally got rid of the last few a couple of months back!

[New Damage]

Is the Mexican(?) league that much a draw that they have to make an explicit point over and over again on the demo that they have it, and even give the 2 teams their own special section on the menu? I played a match as the team who isn't Chivas , it was dull and not helped by both teams playing in the same kit.

My Barca (me) vs. Munich match last night was good though, I won 2-1 and scored a sweet goal. Only managed to play 2 games so far because it took AGES it download (shitty internet).

[Baddar]

A tip for those who, like me, think the gameplay is a bit fast...

Turn the game speed to -1. Works a treat. I actually like this game. A lot.

[Timmoru Suzuki]

Small thing, but is there a command to make centre backs come up for corners? They did automatically in PES eons ago, then they stopped doing it and I've never found an option.

The more I play, the more I think it'll be a PES year this year, but maybe not at full price on release. I'd buy it if one of the supermarkets does a cut-price release day offer like they do sometimes, or once it's gone down in price.

Then again, I could just as easily be in town, see it and buy it on a whim.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Just played this. It's really good and I like it better than any I can remember for quite a while. The new pass is excellent, the weighting feels really really nice - I love threaded through balls through the middle and lofted balls wide and they're both really lush to pull off.

Beat Barca 2-0. First goal was a corner, headed away, fell to guy outside the box who hit it against the crossbar on the half volley and the striker followed it in with a diving header.

Second was a Van der Vaart - Crouch style cross to Robben who powered it home.

I love the blur effects in the goal celebrations and replays too - small things like that really. Also, the foul animations are better, the tackling almost more intuitive and a lot more thought given to muscling players off the ball.

Also Puyol wouldn't dive in and just kept offering me to go wider and wider and run into a dead end. Very cool.

This is a top quality footy game. Definite purchase.

[brenchill]

For those of you that have played it, how is it looking against FIFA?

I've always been a big, big Pro Evo fan. I've played every single installment including Japanese versions of the game called "Perfect Eleven". In the great war between FIFA and PES fans I've always backed PES... Until last year, that was. PES always had much better and much more varied game play to FIFA but last year FIFA nailed it. They managed to combine all of PES' game play with real shirt sponsors and real names, which of course, PES was always missing.

[Timmoru Suzuki]

It compares well. FIFA does a hell of a lot right, including comfortably better player control and better defending (IMO) but to me plays exactly like last years game, albiet with amazing looking graphics. If I didn't have last years FIFA, I'd be buying it in a flash, but I'm not paying for what is essentially the same game for two years in a row. Also, I did bore of last years FIFA a bit quickly, it still hasn't escaped that rigid, mechanical feel.

Like yourself, I was always a Pro Evo boy until last year, when I found the game to be woeful and FIFA was good. This years game is a vast improvement. It seems slower, but in a better, more thoughtful way. The passing is good; once you've gotten used to it, and the CPU seems less cheap; a cheap CPU being a major bug-bear for PES games but the CPU also seems slightly less aggressive. This seems like a bad thing at first, though I'm hoping it means a more intuitive learning curve.

Overall, I'd say it's certianly worth playing the demo and deciding for yourself. FIFA's problem sin't a poor game, it's that it hasn't changed a thing, and PES certainly offers a lot of changes from last year.