PES 2010: Pro Evolution Soccer

When writing a review on a demo, I think it's important to get a little perspective first. Having read through most of the fanboy drivel on the reviews below I downloaded the demo myself, to see what all the fuss was about. I assume I downloaded the wrong demo.

When dealing with a review of PES it is natural to compare it to FIFA, but I won't bother listing the elements where the PES demo falls short of FIFA's demo, because I only have three thousand words. Instead lets focus on the things that got me screaming.

When the demo loaded I was presented with a scruffy, "How cool am I?" menu that seemed less than intuitive and just floats in the middle of the screen. This approach was fine for the SNES/Megadrive generation of games, but as the release of Windows 7 is soon to show, standards have gone beyond visually baffling to needing to be intuitive.

The selection of teams on the demo was restricted, obviously, so I chose Liverpool against CPU France. Being a 'pool fan I was immediately impressed with the detail of the stadium on entry, then I noticed the fans sitting stock still. That doesn't happen at Anfield. Then the teams were shown in the tunnel... Erm, am I watching manga? Why does Torres look like THAT? And why is he walking like Mr Soft off that Softmint advert? Has he followed through?

Anyway! Let's face it, the graphics are shocking. Even at kick off. I started chasing down the French forwards. After all, they had MY ball. I suddenly felt like an idiot. Why is Riera running like that? Is he trying to catch a chicken? If he get's that ball it looks like his going to go all 'Jeffery Dahmer' on it. Poor.

But I got the ball back and started passing it round. Pleasant enough, if a little flat and anaemic in feel. I fired a few cross-field passes too, felt easy enough. Too easy, indeed.

But when I was on the ball I didn't once feel threatening. I know this sounds daft, but I want to get AT defenders. I want to feel like I can throw some tricks and intimidate them. Maybe even get them backing off. No; the CPU players just track you down like a Cylon. The AI is pants. And my team mates looked like a team full of Ginola's; happy to offload a pass and then stand and watch, unless I specifically played a 1-2.

And it felt like I was controlling Computer Sprites, not players. I know I WAS INDEED controlling Computer Sprites, but this is a footy sim. My first thought was, this plays like an arcade game. And I mean back when I used to go in the arcades, 15+ years ago. For example, at one point I tried to intercept a lobbed pass at the back with Torres. El Nino ran over and stood next to the CB. The ball hit him in the head and appeared immediately at his feet, clean through on goal. EH? And then it was EASY to beat the keeper. I just had to shoot. No feeling of achievement in beating the GK at all. I didn't feel I could, or even needed to bother throwing fakes or shapes. I just...scored.

Now then, the LFC players ran off to celebrate, and did so with the subs etc, which is a really nice touch I thought. However, when I scored the 5th goal of my not-so-realistic decimation of France's best, Torres stood in a funny pose and Gerrard ran THROUGH him, seemingly via osmosis. I know they form a good partnership, but that is not what we expect from a PS3 game of this generation. Unforgivable.

And that thought is my prevailing one; 50% code demo or not, this is not an effort worthy of PS3. I know Fanboys will defend it, saying the demo isn't complete, but if that's the case I suspect the game -YET AGAIN - will not be complete. If it ain't ready, don't release! I would think twice about this game, and perhaps take a glance at my FIFA review...

All i hear is people bitchin it's not like fifa. They are 2 very different football/soccer games completely each with there own style and feel. That is the point of it all to be unique and not have a "clone" of other games of the genre.
I admit the 2008 & 2009 editions were a big let down with most fans out of them both 2008 was by far the worst offender. The online lag during a match makes it virtually unplayabe. But if your an avid PES fan you should of ben able to tollerate 2009 for a while, to me it was a bit quick paced and feel a little to arcade like.

Now i downloaded the PES2010 demo from PSN and they are making vast improvements over the previous next gen versions. The response issue was a little annoying at 1st but if you give it time u will see u have to play/adjust to this version. You cant just keep ur finger on run button all the time, u gotta control the ball pass it more and look for spaces better. This is more true to life football than the fast arcade feel of 2008 & 2009.

Anyway for all those that want an updated version/build of the demo code download WE 2010 from the japanese PSN store. Just play the PES 2010 demo 1st then try the WE 2010 demo after i guarentee u notice a change in response times and animations feel more tweaked than PES2010 demo.

Hello Football fans,

First of all, many reviews on here are based upon the demo. I Dont think it is right to judge any game on demo, So rating a game one star for a Demo is clearly immature. However, reading some of the reviews on here, it has made me write a ''first impression'' on demo.

The game itself has changed in every aspect from the 2009 version of PES, everything from the brand new menu look, and new brilliant music including the Kaiser chiefs - Never miss a beat. All the music is from real artist's and really does add a new feel and look to PES.
Then you dig into the tactics section, new to this years version, you can customize your teams style, everything from width, to pressing. This has been seen in the FIFA series but you cant really see it or feel it working, however, on PES 2010, if you customize your teams style, you can really see the differance.

The biggest improvement in my eyes, is the graphics.. the best graphics ive seen on a football game, the stadium looks brilliant, the pitch looks like the emirates, and you can tell which player is which. Everyone from Cesc Fabregas to Pirlo. you know who they are by looking at thier faces.

The gameplay, Has really improved from the previous game, the passing seems for real, the AI is superb, The nets looks awesome, the shooting is MASSIVE improvement, players will now place the ball in the net, like side foot's them in unlike the previous games where the player will toe-poke it in.
Like most years, One question allways comes up. ''How are the keeper's?'' Well, they still dont move,act like they do on fifa but they make smart saves and do sometimes parry out wide.
However, Konami have stated, the Demo is onlu 60% complete and they allready have improved the game since the demo.

Overall, PES 2010 is shaping up to be a real cracker, everything from the new music, to stunning gaphics, to the brilliant gameplay...

PES is back!

Had the game 4 days now & after playing a lot I can say this is probably the best update of the game I have ever played. The first thing you'll notice is the new layout on the start menu, it looks much more presentable this time compared to previous versions.

The Champions league being playable is a nice option and Konami have presented it well. I haven't done master league yet although i hear it has more depth this time round. Community is as good as ever & has always been something I have enjoyed, It's a nice addition to the game and now has new options to it. Overall the graphics are superb, players actually look very realistic in this version. The biggest improvement for me is online, for the first time ever you can play online without lag at all, other versions were unplayable but this has been a huge improvement. Gameplay itself has more of a fifa feel but still arcade, so more realistic without getting boring.

My only negatives are the commentary which seems to have been only slightly improved, i still feel they repeat themselves & Regular difficulty is to easy, of course you can always go higher if you feel this is a problem. TBH if you are trying to decide whether to play Fifa or Pro evo your real best option is to play each of the demos first, or play either one at a mates. There are reviews on both these games, some people giving 5 stars & others giving 1. The games themselves are probably both enjoyable the problem is that both titles have hardcore fan bases who will put the other game down. So if you see a 1 star rating don't take it too seriously.

As the two posters below have pointed out everyone commenting on here has done so on the basis of a demo, demos never truely represented the final game...that said i have played both fifa and pro evo demos and i still think pro evo is far better than fifa, it always has been and always will be a better game pro evo is more realistic style of playing...fifa is for young kids who like to do all the tricks and get nowhere and score easy goals...i haven't even played the jap demo being talked of below but i will still be buying this game over fifa!