Once gain KONAMI have delivered.... A truly awsome new version of Pro Evo in all aspects of the game....
When you first play the game you think that you might have accidentally put FIFA in the CD Drive. The graphics are of that quality; it is obvious that KONAMI have put a lot of time and effort into this part of the game and it really shows. Players now look like they do in real life, with a few exceptions (Adebayor and Walcott so far) and comparing them to FIFA they look much better. The fluidity of the game has also been greatly increased. It now feels like you are playing a real game of football. The way that the players will sometimes not take a perfect touch of the ball, put a pass stray is very realistic. Also it is much easier to beat players PES 2008, but in a realistic way, meaning that a sudden change of direction will put them off balance and the life like physics of the game mean that you are past them. However there are still good ways to defend, except holding down the ‘pressure’ key is not always the best way. Slide tacking had also been made a much more risky strategy and it takes a while to get used to the way that the players slide.
The players move in a much more realistic way now. Running can be a lot faster with a quicker players, but dribbling less accurate and visa versa. The gap of skill between the players is now also more greatly defined. Ronaldinho, Messi, Robben and others with particularly good dribbling skill and very useful to run at defence with, however players with less good dribbling might struggle to beat defenders. Shooting has once again been revamped and improved; the power gauge now increases slower meaning that it is easier to pull off mid rage shots, but even more so that the last PES, the timing has to be impeccable. Players are also able to shoot better when under pressure from a player behind, again something which really bugged me in the last game has been sorted out.
Goalkeepers….so much better once again. If you thought the keepers were realistic, prepare to be blown away. Not quite sure how to explain it but the way they move around the box, dive for the ball in the air and along the ground is so realistic. They will now also make mistakes which lead to goals, amazingly that will also fumble theball which is a nice extra touch, yet somewhat annoying as it has led to goals for the opposition.
Like KONAMI said it would, the AI has been greatly improved, once again!!!! This ‘team vision’ thing is really starting to annoy me as it seems to get more difficult to score every game!!! It becomes more and more difficult to score as the game 'learns' how you play which means tha the game constantly provides a challenge. Also players will take you and very often the better players will manager to take it round my defenders, using an array of tricks and feints. I have also seena player dive in the box which i thought showed hwo life like the game has become...would you ever see that on FIFA?
The skills and tricks are also very impressive. The stepovers and feints are very useful and life like, but my personal favourite is the dive…. its such a nice feeling knowing you have conned the referee into giving a free kick and then slotting it home….I dare say it will cause many a controversy with friends playing each other and online.
A little downside is that i would appear hand balls have not been sorted out yet which is very frustrating as players have stopped the ball with their hands (quite intentionally i am sure) but overall ti doesnt affect the game too much.
Overall another excellent instalment from KONAMI and well worth playing…..