PES 2009 achieves the balance between the theatre of realism and arcade gameplay.
An example of a game that offered arcade controls to near-perfection is Sensible World of Soccer. The fluid passing game essentially consisted of a series of attacker vs defender situations. While shots could be somewhat controlled, whether they went in relied upon a seemingly random factor. From this, the game varied the skill levels of the players to simulate the variance in forms of your players. In addition, the game seemed to let shots in the 90th minute score more frequently (for the drama of it all of course.) The result of this was a football gaming experience that was unmatched at the time.
3D football (including the ill-fated, and short-lived, SWOS 3D) was initially unable to deliver the same arcade controls. Either the players were unable to pass, or the skill functions to beat defenders were substandard. This changed with the FIFA and PES (World Soccer 11 in Japan) series.
FIFA had the licence. FIFA had the looks. FIFA had the same damn button for shoot as for tackle. PES, on the otherhand, had an element of gameplay unseen before in football games: the ability to pass the ball in a way that dragged the opposition out of position. The game itself was blocky compared to FIFA (and the surprisingly atmospheric Euro 1996 spin-off) but compared to the atrocious virtua-striker series, it was an immense game. It actually made you feel as if you meant to pass the ball and deliver a killer pass in the way that you could.
Fast-forward to the present day (early 2011) and I can see that FIFA have made their game morelike PES. PES, though, still retain their reputation for emphasising team-play, while FIFA is saddled with their perception as one-trick players dribbling through teams.
So why am I reviewing PES 2009, and not PES 2010 or PES 2010? Simply because PES 2009 has a balance of arcade gameplay that I like, and because it still looks gorgeous to my eyes. If you read my blog, you'll realise that I came back to gaming after a break from 2003 to 2008. Even after two years of playing graphical greats such as Batman Arkham Asylum and Crysis, the meshing technology used in PES 2009 (and my high resolution monitors) mean that the game looks photo-realistic. Better than photo-realistic, as its slight cartooniness allows for the immersion of the as-good-as-it-can-be-but-can-be-better collision engine. What this means, as I mentioned before, is that the graphics are good enough to allow the game to be theatre - the graphics allow the variety of smooth animations and high frame-rate that allow the arcade gameplay to flourish.
Replay value is the order of the day in a PES game. The Master League has been tweaked, but can still be improved further. Transfers are reasonable, if a little unguided in the real value of players. Would it be so difficult to value players by something as authoritative as transfermarkt.co.uk? Or even the papers? The Master League original team are still there - Miranda is the best of a terrible bunch. Personally I played through on only medium difficulty, and offer much kudos to anyone who plays through the master league enough to purchase decent enough players.
The Become a Legend (BaL) mode is superb, but only if you play it with the wide camera. Having played it for a season in the hideous vertical mode, I was glad to see that I could actually score and pass and judge in the (usual) wide view. The ability to photoshop yourself in too is a welcome feature. There is plenty of theatre to be had in this game - a housemate happily suffered two entire seasons through on the vastly inferior PS2 version on an analogue TV. As a striker he scored four goals in those two seasons by tackling defenders and shooting past one on one. Fortunately, on the PC version (in maximum difficulty mode) the game is somewhat easier, and I score about once ever 2.5 - 3 matches. It would be great if the game could give you better starting stats, or even a player who is already some seasons in. But as a TeacherGamer, I am two years into my season, and play a match on average once a week.
Speaking of statistics, the game is able to vary the ability of your players according to a randomised form meter. My houserules dictate that you cannot change a player with low form, but the game (apparently) does reduce, or increase, the ability of players according to their form. This makes a most profound difference when playing on the maximum difficulty, top player. In previous incarnations, I could clock the most difficult teams with the poorest on PES 1998.
Speaking of which, PES 1998 gave for me the greatest football gaming theatre to date. I used to play Korea (I know!) on the hardest mode on 15 minute games in the world cup, with no save function. After 3 hours of solid playing, to go behind to a goal would elicit panic play as you strived to salvage your time. After going behind 2 goals to France in a quarter final (and two hours of play) I remember scoring from a deep cross just inside their half before half-time. I scored from a corner to equalise, and from a six yard through-ball ten minutes before the end. I don't think I won that tournament, but the game made me feel that my skills, perseverance (and luck) had won a glorious victory.
PES 2009, ensures that you are unlikely to have that experience on maximum difficulty. The computer will put in undefendable crosses from which they invariably score 1 in 3. Players will be tackled far easier. And long-shots will be conceeded far too often. As a TeacherGamer, though, to not have clocked tournaments on maximum difficulty without saves is not a problem - just a new experience.
What can be rightly criticised is the broken online play. Although I only played 5 matches, every one suffered terrible lag; players would impossibly teleport in front of my striker faster than they could run. In addition, there wasn't much humour to be found in the fringes of the community. This wasn't too much of an issue as the game simply stopped working online after a few weeks anyway, not to mention to lack of automatic patching. The PC gaming community has great potential, and I think responsibility, to solve these issues.
Despite these gripes, PES 2009 remains a great example of the theatre of football. It is an essential part of my gaming hobby, and sees action at least once a week. One word of caution, though: download the excellent Smoke Patch to licence your teams, and to improve the edited graphics and shirt sponsors. Do this and there is no reason to choose FIFA over the pinnacle of football gaming so far.