I've been a fan of what has now evolved into the PES series ever since the first title, International Super Star Soccer was released on the SNES. Back then to have a quality football title that used the side on view was unheard of, with the popular titles favouring the vertical view (such as Super Soccer and Striker),which was why the game immediately stood out.
I also owned all of the versions of the game for the N64 and have great memories playing the games.
I had a love-hate relationship with the Pro Evolution Soccer series for the PS2, I've loved some (PES 3, 5, 6 on ps2) and borderline hated the first, second and forth.
The last few offerings on the PS3 haven't been great, but I thought that despite its flaws, PES10 was the best release since PES 6 which is now four years old!
Before you wonder why I have been loyal to the series and haven't moved over to FIFA, its not because I'm what some would describe as a "fan boy", not by any means.
I've owned a few Fifa titles, the dreaded FIFA 64 and 98 on the N64, a few on the ps2 (2001, 2003 and 2004 - only so I could play as Cardiff!) and I tried Fifa 10 due to the appealing release day price of £25.
I can't see why so many people felt that Fifa 10 was the best football game to ever be made. Matches against the AI simply were not enjoyable, passing was unrealistic, dribbling with the ball was frustrating (why the need to have to perform a "trick" to get past a player seemed like overkill!) and the way goals were scored was very limited. You'd know how to score and you knew how the AI would score - which isn't a fun game in my mind!
But any way, this week demo's for both titles are now available for the PS3 and Xbox and I'll be trying them both and deciding which title I'll purchase.
I downloaded the PES11 demo last night and will be downloading the FIFA demo to try it over the weekend.
Here are my initial impressions of the PES Demo:
The game feels different, very different to the game that we've all played for quite a few years and I think its a good thing.
Passing
Passing no longer goes in your favoured direction regardless of the direction your facing and there are more power options than a simple pass to holding your finger on the button.
To make a pass now, you need to be facing the direction and the power is added by holding down the button in tandem with a new power bar.
You can now pass the ball into space for your players to run onto it, for example with a creative midfield player you can pass the ball to the side of an opposing defender for your striker to latch onto and hit first time.
Misplaced passes slow down counter attacks and you'll find the ball running loose, it feels very realistic.
Dribbling
Unless your lucky to be controlling a very skilful player (Messi), dribbling with the ball for long periods seems very difficult, which again is realistic. I didn't get too much into the tricks to comment on it.
Shooting
Shooting seems as good as ever, if anything I found it somewhat easier to shoot from long range than the previous version of the game, however I was playing as Barcelona.
Defending
Defending is said to be much improved with you being able to apply pressure onto the opposition - I'm yet to attempt this. I found the tried and tested of calling another player to harass the opposing player less effective, instead holding back and waiting for an opportunity to slide or put your foot in seemed more effective.
Referees
I was pleased with the amount of free kicks I received and also the AI's willingness to foul me! I made a few slide tackles from the side and front, which may have resulted in a red card in previous games - they didn't this time, so that may have been improved.
Goal Keepers
Having only played a few matches, it’s a little early to judge if the goal keepers have been improved that much, they seemed to deal with long range shots ok and are said to be much improved.
Overall I'm feeling pretty optimistic that this year’s Pro Evolution Soccer offering will be the best yet, as the demo code isn't final, hopefully it will be improved.
The selling point of the game though is the online Master League mode, where you compete against fellow players for funds to build your team up. Online PES though has been shocking so far with server problems and lag aplenty - let’s hope some serious investment has been made in that department this year.
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