The demo will be available for PlayStation(R)3 via PlayStation(R)Network with a PC version available from www.konami-pes2011.com. The download will enable fans to play against the computer or offline multi-player matches with a choice of four clubs: either FC Barcelona and FC Bayern Munich or Copa Libertadores pair Chivas Guadalajara and Internacional. A video presentation is also included outlining the full game’s content in readiness of the game’s UK launch on October 8^th 2010.

A release date for the Xbox 360 demo via Xbox Live Arcade will be announced shortly.

Well it seems like we had a good debate about the penalty system.  I know theres a minority who like it and fair play to them, its just not for me.  I don’t mind the practicing to get it right it’s the actual view from the side.  I play a lot of head to head, in the same room not on-line.  So a view from behind the player would just make a better experience for me and the others who play in competitions.

Having not played 2011 yet im becoming very frustrated watching all the video and reading about how good it is, how you won’t play 2010 ever again its that good…. The interview with Jon Murphy read well and the video on pes2011.com, despite not showing much gameplay, looks quite good.  I’m looking forward to it ive got to say !!  the demo is usually out mid-late September so I’m sure we’ll have much more to discuss then….

The clock running was just an idea, granted it probably wouldn’t work but they should make stoppage time more realistic rather than using it as a balancing feature to re-write the script.

Protection….

As in real football, goal keepers are offered a form of protection in PES.  I’d like to see this area re-modelled so as strikers we could attempt to head the ball as it bounces towards the keeper, if this is mis-timed and needs punishing then fine and equally if an injury is caused, then so be it.  At least having the choice here would in a game touted as ‘freedom’ of control would offer the striker the choice and if this results in having ten men then that would have been a conscious decision; this is obviously in frustration to when a deflected/parried ball is up the air and the keepers waiting, hands aloft, and as a striker your sat frustrated smashing the shoot button shouting ‘jump for it then!!!’.  Just a minor point that happens quite regularly and I’d like to do something about it.

All together now…..

A topic which has been cropping up more and more over the last few weeks is that Konami have a bad habit of removing ‘good’ things from the game of the previous year.  The cynics may suggest this is because we spend all of our time wanting more and not reflecting and praising what we have and how far its come.  So this got me thinking a little especially on the back of the Jon Murphy interview which this was also discussed, I like the community menu.  There has been no discussion or comment made about it.  So this worried me, perhaps worry is a bit strong but you get the idea, that this may be removed to make way for additional ‘new’ modes.  So the question I’d pose to you guys is; what is in pes 2010 which you like which you would not want to see removed.

A barrel of laughs….

For those who’ve seen the full trailer you cannot ignore the last minute revolves around players with pumpkin heads kicking a barrel ball.  I agree with Dan on this one as this is a feature I guarantee I will not be using.  So will any of you guys be buying this stuff in the pes shop as it makes a return?  The only thing the pes shop had worth buying was the extra difficulty level in my opinion, anyway.  So who’ll be using this feature of ‘cartoon’ football ???

That’s your lot this week, apologies for being a few hours later than normal, IT issues…….

Phil

“That Interview”

I would like to take the opportunity to thank Jon Murphy for taking time out of what is a very busy schedule to do the interview for PES Gaming. Under no circumstances is this me sucking up or flattering for the sake of flattery but fact remains he took the time to answer questions, and that I appreciate.

The answers he has given range from the straight forward to the slightly more awkward and I am hoping that whilst you may not agree with everything he has said, at least he has come out and given his opinion on the issues made. I will quickly look at a couple of these questions now, taking on board what you guys have said in the comments section too.

Like a bad smell, the net issue is seemingly not going away. I have made it perfectly clear to everyone who wants to listen the nets don’t bother me at all. I think this is the impression 60% or so of the PES Gaming community have too, however, the 40% have the right to have their say, and I believe Jon was just as surprised as myself by how many of you actually do care about the issue. Simple fact, the mode will not be featured in PES 2011, and by the sound of the feedback I assume it will be reviewed to be featured in PES 2012. Is the lack of net editor going to make a blind bit of difference to the way the animations, the AI or the game plays, of course not. However, it is (for many people) an important cosmetic addition similar to boots, balls and stadiums and in the current ‘editing’ generation needs to be included. Fact is now, following the feedback and the interview, the voice regarding nets has been heard and registered.

The frequency of downloadable content is something that concerns me slightly. If the previous years are anything to go by, we are going to be waiting nearly a month to get anything near an up to date squad list for PES 2011 following release, and this simply won’t do when playing online. The fact it is free shouldn’t be used as an excuse, and whilst I can understand the ‘once every couple of months’ philosophy on Konami’s DLC policy, it needs to happen quicker after real events occur.

The weather is one issue I feel could really work, and am a bit disappointed it has been overlooked again this year. Whilst I do agree that certain aspects are more important, I would have personally put dynamic weather effects that genuinely change the way the game plays would have benefited the all-round experience as opposed to a stadium editor. Playing against Russian sides in the snow or Brazilian clubs in the sweltering heat would have made for much more realistic and accurate in game challenges, and the addition of further conditions (snow, wind, or humidity levels) would have adverse effects on certain team’s styles or tactics. Again, it is interesting to see Konami looked at it and looked past it, but as long as it’s on their radar, it was be included in 2012, once the 2011 issues (if any) have been ironed out.

They are my views, but I would be more than happy to discuss any views you guys have via e-mail. The address is at the bottom of this article.

“S.H.O.P.P.I.N.G, We’re Shopping”

Already the novelty features in the PES 2011 Shop are getting ridiculed. I for one never purchased them on previous games, as the appeal of a horses head or riding a dinosaur just wasn’t there, and I feel they are a strange addition to add to the western version game. In Japan, novelty features in games like this are much more common and almost expected. Nothing ruins the drama of Resident Evil 5 more than Shiva in clubbing attire, and games such as Tekken or Street Fighter are littered with novelty modes. For the European market, there are no such easy fixes when it comes to unlockables, as we tend to ask for something that enhances our game experience as opposed to adds a bow or gives it a new coat of paint.

These additions, whilst petit and trivial would only have taken minutes to add to the game. A feature such as a net editor or dynamic weather would have taken days, as they are more than just cosmetic overlays. Different styles of nets would have to react differently to when a ball hits them, a player runs into them, a player slides into the, etc, whereas the barrel ball is simply a ball that looks like a barrel, using all the same properties as the original match ball.

The issue was raised that many people asked the return of the PES shop, well aside from classic players and teams, what kind of features did these people really expect to be included in the shop? New stadiums or editing options perhaps, but as a general rule the quick add-on features were always going to be there or thereabouts.

“It’s Over”

For those of you who didn’t get in the Beta, I am offering an opportunity for simple questions about the whole experience. With the demo to be released soon, and the game just over a month away, it isn’t too long for you guys to wait, but if you have any questions about the incarnation of PES 2011 I have played, please get in touch and I will do my best to give you an honest and frank answer. Please ask the questions via e-mail and I will either get back to you directly, or in the form of an acknowledgment in next weeks column.

“It’s Out Of Date”

Finally this week, I will leave you with one big concern from the PES 2011 beta. Whilst yes, for the most part it has very much been a case of roses and puppy dogs, the one issue that is unavoidable is the current state of the game’s database.

The online beta only featured the English, Spanish, Dutch, Italian and French leagues, and therefore being a team from the Europa League or South America wasn’t an option, however the teams featured on the game were grossly out of date when it came to squad lists. Newly promoted teams were on the game (Tangerine Dream is Blackpool for anyone that is interested) but the players at each team, including the newly promoted were the same that ended at their clubs last year. Manchester City had no Silva, Yaya Toure or Milner, Arsenal still had Sol Campbell and Real Madrid were yet to receive Ozil. This obviously didn’t matter too much in the mode we were playing as you were using fake players to start off, and you would just search for the signings you were after, however this does not bode well for the first week in October, especially as the domestic transfer window closes today.

If Jon’s comment is true about DLC, we may have to wait until November, 3 months after deadline day to play with anything that resembles accurate squads online, and for a game that is meant to be the real deal this year, this simply won’t do.

That’s your lot for this week, with quite a few interactive points to get your teeth into. Comments are welcomed as always, and e-mails can be directed to inteferingwithplay@hotmail.co.uk. For universal football gaming news, make sure you check out www.soccergaming.com and next week will see the return of the Interfering With Play Player Of The Season awards.

Thanks For Reading

Question from community member MagicaRoma – PES has always been developed in the Asian market, which is obviously a very different culture to the Western markets, in particular Europe.  In your opinion do you feel PES is limited by the way Konami operate centred in this location, and do you feel that a European developer would do things differently? (in particular relating to the game’s development stages)

 I think you can look at it both ways. Obviously for years we had a big advantage in terms of gameplay, which has only recently taken a knock. That’s down the skills of a first rate team of Japanese developers. On the other hand it’s taken them longer to get to grips with online play because fiber optics are common and they tend to use it in different ways. One way we were suffering was listening to feedback from fans and I hope that situation has got much better. You can certainly seen the results in the product this year.

 Question from Emmanuel Ekem – Is PES 2011 going to see the return of snow on the PS3 and X Box 360 versions, along with accompanying animations (visible breathe, patches on pitch etc.) Further, will the weather effect the way the game actually plays (players slipping, ball moving in the wind etc)

Sorry, but no. At the start of the dev process we had to pick vital areas to improve and put as much effort as possible into those. Gameplay and animation were essential. Master League Online, Stadium Edit and Tactics all out ranked weather. The other issue is that we wanted to get gameplay spot on before altering it with dynamic weather. It’s something we’ll consider again next year.

Question from Kevin Scott – Is PES2011 really new code with brand new animations and passing system or is it an update to the current game engine with new animations and the R2 + “x” passing mapped to the straight “x” button (PS3)?. 

 PES2011 is based on the last version, we aren’t hiding that. However, the animation system really has been ripped out and almost entirely replaced. Actually 100% manual passing is still in the game, but mapped onto L2 at the moment I believe. I hope when people get a chance to test the demo you’ll experience all the big changes we’ve made but also feel it’s PES at the core. That’s no bad thing.

 Question from Kubilay Canalty – Will Konami create a system to encourage players to choose a variety of teams online? I have asked the PESGaming community if they would like such a feature, and more than 91% of them have replied with “yes”. (Poll Results available on request)

We certainly need to do more in this direction. It’s an online and offline issue. In football these days there are real super powers of the modern game which have a clear advantage in almost every game they play. How we reflect those qualities without spoiling the balance of the game is becoming more and more important. The same goes for super star players. Send the feedback and I’d be very happy to pass it onto Seabass and co.

 Question adapted from Stormrider – Did Konami change player development in the master league to be more realistic this year and if not is this something Konami would be willing to have a look at in the future?

As I said before we had to pick key areas to work on. With Master League we went for the online element. We also made improvements to Become A Legend, as those were needed. We made more improvements with PES2010 with offline ML and we’ll certainly look at improving the mode in the future. At this stage it’s too early to say exactly what.

 Question asked by over 50 people on both PES Gaming and Soccer Gaming. Goal nets have always been a talking point amongst our community members. Many gamers feel that they style of the goal nets on PES are both unrealistic and do not offer enough differentiation between stadiums. With the addition of the stadium editor, why have the goal nets been overlooked once again? Why do we not have the option to edit the goal nets (both in colour and style) along with other parts of the stadium, and why do the goals on PES not reflect the goals used at the real life grounds (Old Trafford, Anfield etc.) Images Attached To Highlight Different Styles

I don’t think the team were really aware of how seriously some people took this issue until it was too late to have an effect on PES2011. Having said that we also honestly feel that it’s more important to fix areas such as gameplay and animation first.

Konami is seemingly famous for removing popular features from one game to the next. This includes the ability to mix and match shirts and shorts on the strip selection screen, random select mode from PES 6 and even the PES Shop (Returning this year!) Could you give us some insight into the reason why popular aspects from previous games are removed on an annual basis?

 Because they haven’t had feedback on if such items were well received. I’m trying to put an end to that.

 Goalkeepers get a lot of stick on PES due to being accident prone. How are Konami looking to address this? Many fans would like to see them treated as individual entities with their own set of stats, is this something Konami have or will look at for the future?

From what I’ve seen goal keepers have been fixed. Certain errors crept into the game, such as the way they were beaten so easily at the near post, general positioning, leaving their goal line etc. These have now been fixed. They’ll still make errors according to their stats, because they do in real life. They already have some key stats, but I can’t say if we’ll be extending these next year.

On a similar note, the refereeing has come in for a great deal of criticism on PES 2010, especially when it comes to penalty kicks. Has this been addressed in the 2011 version of the game, as would offering a database of referees all with different characteristics be an option for future series?

 This is another area I’ve discussed with the team and passed on feedback from forums. Last year you felt that cheating wasn’t punished. We’ve improved the ref AI this year, but I do think we’d also benefit from a selection of refs.

 Online has been done to death on many message boards and forums. Along with the current Beta taking place, what other (if any) procedures are in place to make PES 2011 the strongest offering online?

In addition to the current Beta which is specifically for the ML we ran online tests earlier in the summer. Improvements have actually been made since the ML Beta. The games I’ve tested online seem much better when you suffer from a squeeze in bandwidth. Play slows down, but the response times don’t, which means the game remains playable. I haven’t seen any warping at all. It goes without saying that the big test will be on release.

 Konami have shown a commitment to downloadable content in the past two instalments of PES. Will this continue into the future and will we begin to receive more frequent updates?

DLC remains and it’s still free. It’ll be similar to last year in terms of frequency.

 Just a couple of quick fire personal questions to end up.

Your favourite ever player? Zola 

Your favourite team on PES? Classic Holland 

Your favourite video game away from football? On the current gen, Oblivion

 Your favourite instalment of PES? The first one I worked on, ISS Pro 98

 Your one dream feature in a football game? To get everything right.

 Funniest question ever about PES? I still get people asking why we don’t have correct player names.

In terms of the overall online experience, I definitely did not get any button press delays during play, and I’ll stick to my 80% perfect connectivity rate that I stated last week.  The only issues experienced with the game were gameplay issues which are clearly down to the build that was used.

I’d like to thank the few people who made the effort to contact me, or who left comments to last week’s article to give their impressions on the beta – that was very much appreciated.

Now that I’ve got to grips with the MLO mode fairly well, I thought I would write a mini survival guide for the mode for the people who didn’t get to experience the MLO mode, and so will hopefully benefit from my experience with it.

MLO:

You begin with the default Master League team we all know and love, and a set small budget.  You then have to go about the task of building up your team to then take on all comers in the game.

Your squad size can’t be reduced to less than 16 players, so don’t try to sell them all in one go.

You will be allowed to sell a few players initially, but then have to play games to earn credits to allow you to trade more players.  You can earn up to 10 credits maximum.  You don’t have the ability to loan players, just purchase them.

I know I’m covering a little of what I’ve been over last week, so please bear with me – I’m trying to set the context for various tips I’ll be giving.

Tip 1:

Whilst most people will be looking to purchase the most expensive striker they can afford immediately, I will recommend bolstering your defence immediately – starting with getting a good goal keeper.  No point having a top striker if you’re shipping goals due to a poor defence!

Tip 2:

Go straight into Competition modes if you can.  You earn pittance in friendly matches, so try to play in competitions straight away.  You pay more to enter competitions, but you will earn back the fee paid in your first game, so don’t worry about the finances.

Competition mode:

Pay attention to the time display when you enter the competition mode.  It defines when competitions/matches start, not your local time.  My clock was around 10 to 15 minutes off the Konami clock.  When you enter a competition, you will get around about an hour to play some qualification matches.  These are 5 minute matches, so you should try to get around three to five games in.

Your best three consecutive results are taken to judge whether or not you’ve made the cut.  There are other mitigating factors, but this is the main one you can influence.

Once you’ve entered competitions, you can return back to the main menu (if you find that the next match doesn’t start for another fifteen minutes for example when you enter the knock out phase) but remember to be back in competition mode before the time runs out, or you will be disqualified from the competition.

You start off in Division 5 and earn around £300,000 per match played, plus bonuses if you reach the knock out phases of competitions.  So you can expect to earn around £2m per tournament roughly.

You can then choose to sell whoever you want whenever, and improve your team.

Something I was very impressed to see in competition mode was that cards picked up in games counted against you in the tournaments.  Three yellows or a red equalled a one match ban for players.  So this should ensure people play fair in tournaments. A superb introduction for the mode.

Player values:

This concept has already been explained, but I’ll briefly go over it again.  Online demand for players will see their values increase and decrease accordingly.  This could put players out of your reach, or earn you a tidy packet if their values shoot up, which then leaves you with a decision to make on whether to cash the players in or not.

Something that is not clear to me is whether player statistics improve over time.  I can’t say I was able to test this ability.  There is no facility to check player statistic progress after matches.  So it could be that players have fixed abilities which do not change.  Or this could be a feature which didn’t quite make it into the game.  I will try to get clarification on this shortly.

If player statistics do not improve over time for players, then this could be a limiting factor in the game, which would be unfortunate.  I’d have liked to have known that if I had bought a kid who wasn’t great, but that over time everyone who had also purchased him, collectively we improved the player’s stats through playing them regularly.  Which would drive their popularity, and hence their value.

Because I spent the first week of the beta playing friendlies only, I missed out on the mega money, and hence mega signings.  But I began to make up for it in my second week of play.  Most players were within my reach, and it was only the £20m+ players that were out of reach for my club. 

Once there is mass adoption to this mode, it’s hard to predict what sort of values the top stars will reach.  What should be comforting though is that you won’t find too many people with the likes of Messi or Ronaldo when you do go online.  Unless you are in the higher divisons in which case, you should expect to do so.

Overall impressions:

Feedback for the MLO mode overall has been very positive, and is thoroughly deserved.  I found the mode very addictive, and enjoyable.  I’ve always loved the Master League mode and trying to unearth players.  If you happen to pick up a player quickly that is relatively unknown but a decent player – then pray others also see their worth and buy him, because they could earn you some serious dosh. 

 It’s hard work getting promoted and then remaining in your current division.  If you play friendlies against people from other divisions, then the reward/risk ratio is great.  So be careful when playing games.  Something that wasn’t in friendlies mode was the ability to accept/reject games.  This would have been good to allow you to avoid people for various reasons.

I have to say that I think Konami have struck gold with this mode.  As long as online connectivity isn’t an issue, then you can expect to have a killer time online.  The mode is very engrossing, and will eat up hours at a time easily.

I think Konami need to include a marriage counselling guide in the final game, as well as an instruction manual.  If you’re currently in a rocky relationship, then expect this game to further strain it.  If you’re as enthusiastic about the mode as me, you are going to be spending a lot of time on it.

It’s almost stressful thinking about all the other modes in the game and trying to work out when you’ll have time to try them all.  As for me, I have a very understanding wife, so I’ll be able to get away with it, as long as I earn brownie points with her.

So my final tip is:

Start buying flowers, taking your better half to restaurants and buy her a few pairs of shoes to earn the time you are going to need to invest in the game.

Thanks for reading

Dougiedonut

(dougiedonut@pesgaming.com)

P.S. Jamm – I’ve been in touch with Konami about rainbow flicks.  I included the link you provided, so thanks for that.  I’m fairly confident that it won’t be a problem in the final game – this was earlier code.

But it can’t do any harm to bring it to their attention for confirmation that it won’t be in the final game in the form we’ve seen.  So thanks for bringing that issue up.

Its good to see everybody is getting excited from playing MLO and most of it sounds promising however a few points to pick up on from your comments.

Lag…..

Online lag has without doubt been a major issue for Konami for several seasons and has basically ruined net pes gaming for the majority.  It is great reading how most of you have played without lag and DD reports an 80% success rate online.  However, I have a gripe with this, as usual.  I was lucky enough to obtain a copy of PES 2010 several days before mainstream release and it was great online.  There were no more than 2000 online players and every game I played ran very smoothly so for me, listening to several hundred say how great online play is does not get me excited in the slightest.  All I can see is an extra online mode which is likely to put the servers into meltdown with weekly stat updates and promotions/relegations in addition to those wanting to play one on one ranked and friendly matches.  What are your opinions and experiences with this ?? It looks like Konami are trying to run before they can even progress to a walk from the limp they’ve had for the last few years.

Row Z….

It is disappointing to read the penalty system has not evolved.  The 2010 system is atrocious, in my opinion obviously, however I do believe it is like marmite! Do you like the penalty system? For me it just doesn’t work side on, if your controlling the keeper or the taker, it just makes sense to see what your doing !!  As a group of regular players my friends and I have missed more than we have scored, and I know practice makes perfect, but in all honesty, how many of us actually sit there in training mode? Rightly or wrongly the only penalties ive practiced have been the literal odd one I’ve won all season.

Time please….

A point made in the comments section a few weeks ago was the clock stopping when the ball goes out of play.  Something I’m not quite sure would work in virtual gaming, however a point worthy of some discussion I believe.  There is an argument that says the clock should keep running like ‘real’ matches allowing other teams to rush or slow down at the risk of errors or bookings.  I think this could add an extra dimension to the gameplay however like I said, im not sure it would work in the virtual football world.  Thoughts please??

 Until next week, feel free to debate below or contact me at doinotlikethat@hotmail.co.uk ; Wonder whos going to be 1st this week?!?!?!

Before I begin, I want to make it clear that the game version used for the beta was older than the recent version that I play tested.  The reason for this is that code has to be submitted in advance to Sony/Microsoft for any sort of online access, so it was the latest code at the time.  Some of you may find that the description of the game that I’ve already written won’t quite tally with what people are currently playing, but I can assure you that the last version I played was a lot more advanced than this.  I played the game knowing of this limitation, and whilst I wasn’t able to play as fluidly as earlier, it hasn’t detracted too much from the experience.  Hopefully we can get some testimony from people who have played it to verify my claims that it is half decent and definitely a different beast from PES2010.

Right, onto MLO mode.  You have the opportunity to base your team on any team in the game, in term’s of their identity, but you can change the name of the club too.  So you can take the kits of say Juventus, but call your team Belly Boys FC or whatever.  You get the traditional ML default players in your squad, complete with a small club fund to begin with.  You then enter the fantastic world of transfers.

Transfers are obviously where you upgrade the players for bigger and better ones.  The game differs from the tradition ML here.  Whereas before your league position plays a major part in who can be signed, here the sky’s the limit.  As long as you have the budgets, you can buy top tier players from the go.

Player values are where the key to MLO lies.  Basically the default players you begin with have a set value which doesn’t change.  But every other player has a base value which is subject to fluctuation depending on online interest in them.  Currently there is a forward called Duric which around 124 people currently own and he has seen his value shoot up as a result. 

So we have a pseudo fantasy football type valuation for players affecting their worth.  You can in theory purchase a rough star, and see his value shoot through the root, at which point you then can decide on whether you want to cash in on him or not.  This is one way to increase your club funds.

What is unclear at the moment is how player stats are going to be handled.  I haven’t noticed player stats increasing yet, so I don’t know if there will be a daily or weekly stats update on players used in online games which will then calculate updated stats.  I shall put the question to the people in the know.

You begin with a 20+ player squad and have the option to “Release” any of them, subject to a minimum 16 player limit.  When I first saw the release option, I assumed it would be releasing them as in regular ML mode where they go for free.  But in MLO you release them for their current value, minus agent fee, and that increases your funds. 

To sign players, you have to play games to earn credits to be able to sign players.  You get one transfer credit for every game you play, up to a maximum of 10 credits.  But it’s only a limiter as you start off, as you will need to play around six or seven games to be able to purchase enough players to start defining your team, subject to budgets.

The real beauty and genius of MLO is this player price market.  You will find yourself checking to see how much your players are worth, if you’re monitoring target players, you can monitor their prices, and also see how many people online are using each player.  This may help you decide on taking a popular player, since his price may grow further. 

You begin in Division 5 on 500 points and take on people in your division, so that you won’t necessarily face much higher opposition and get hammered.  But if you do meet teams that are rated higher than you, then you stand to win more points if you do beat them.  So it’s a fairly well balanced system in principle.  I believe teams are promoted/relegated once a week, pretty much how your teams used to be on PES6 on the 360. 

One big question mark I have over this mode is that people who get to play the game very early will have the opportunity to purchase star players for relatively low values, and then sit tight and watch their worth increase big time.  Which means we could see an early rich/poor divide in club teams, but then that mirrors real life somewhat.  Teams which do have top tier players will no doubt find that they will shoot up a couple of divisions quite easily, so most people who start off with poor teams won’t really be affected by them.  But you have to work hard to earn money to spend on new players.   And that’s what many of us will be striving for.

Current experiences of the online mode in terms of connectivity have been fairly positive.  I’ve had around 80% of games give me no hassle whatsoever.  In other games, particularly when playing people across Europe, I’ve found that there has been some lag.  A couple of games were cancelled once I was paired for a game, but prior to kick off.  But overall it was quite reliable, but I think there’s still some work to be done, which is what this beta period will help with.

So far I’ve found the mode to be really addictive.  To think there will be a traditional ML mode to enjoy as well as this MLO, and then there’s the BAL mode which has been updated too – we’ve got a serious gaming package here.  If the online issues are sorted out, we will have a fantastic new MLO game which will really take over your life. 

So far, all I’m doing is building my team up in friendlies – I haven’t had time to get into the competition mode due to the time frames required.  This last week I’ve only managed around 2 hours sessions in the evenings.  This evening I intend to enter a few competitions and see if I can earn some prize money to spend on my squad.  Competitions cost more to enter in the game, but you earn lots more money, so the risk/reward benefits are there for you.

Right, I’ve got some serious MLO action to get into.

Thanks for reading.

Dougiedonut

(dougiedonut@pesgaming.com)

So moving on to the Online Master League beta, and more importantly my own first personal taste of PES 2011. As soon as receiving a place in the trial, the following note is thrust in front of you via e-mail

This Beta is to test aspects of Master League online Gameplay only. Please be aware
that Gameplay is based on unfinished code and aspects such as goal keepers, referees,
animations and online are still being updated. 

Perhaps this is a get out of jail free card, but fact is that at least Konami are there, acknowledging areas which people want to see improved. The beta also gives very little indication of AI, as you are always playing against a human opponent. Whether this code will be the one released as the official PES 2011 demo code, or the more recent Gamescon code may be used remains to be seen. However, with the above all mentioned, here are my views and findings from my time playing the game.

Online Master League is not the same as a regular master league season. In fact, there are no seasons at all. The premise runs very similar to a fantasy football league. You start with the default master league players, and £500,000 in the bank. From day one, you can sell your players for the going market rate (between £100,000 and £1.5 Million) and use the money to buy any player from the game’s extensive database. Again, players values are slightly lower than the current transfer rate, but are still expensive enough to make it tricky to assemble a top side from the off. In my first few games, I purchased Lee Cattermole for around £2 Million, having released around 7 of my first team squad (Ruskin, Dodo etc.)

This mode is an excellent way of playing on a level field. You are not going to be coming up against Barcelona and Real Madrid every week, and whilst some players will have better players, a perk of playing the game for longer, you will still have games against players with weaker sides or even equal sides to yourself. A team featuring the likes of Darren Fletcher and Flamini looked world beaters compared to my basic squad, but then my signings have played a big part in defeating other newbies, something which is slightly a right of passage. Another perk is that player values fluctuate. Some players will decrease in value after you purchase them, others will shoot up. The more people owning a player, the more expensive that player becomes, meaning player Messi or Ronaldo every match becomes more and more unlikely as more gamers play. This is Konami listening!

Each game you play costs you a virtual fee, which a portion of is recouped depending on the result. Win a game and you make money, lose you will end up a few thousand down, however quit and you end up losing the whole fee. This is an excellent way of deterring serial disconnections, as you simply won’t have enough money to carry on. Tournaments are also an excellent way of making big money. You are pitted against teams from your league (the division based on your experience and rankings) and then have the opportunity to progress through the rounds, signing better players as you go. These start at real world times, and are around every hour, which is a brilliant feature.

As a mode overall, I was very sceptical about the online master league. I was expected masses of game worlds, limited players and a shoddy menu system. Instead we have a game mode that is exceptionally addictive, easy to play and has a lot of scope for improvement and development throughout the next 12 months.

But this of course is all irrelevant if the game is unplayable online. Over the past 3 years the game has gone from horrifically unplayable to simply a lag filled, bug ridden online experience. At the time of writing this article there are around 1,040 gamers taking part in the beta, and I have not experienced one game in the 30 or so I have played that I would consider to be a lagging experience, anywhere similar to that which PES 2010 threw out on a regular basis. This may be down to low numbers playing online, it may be down to my connection or it may be down to luck, but I have played against gamers from Italy, France and Germany with no problems to note, something which hints it is not down to location. One of my games was slightly slower than the others, but this didn’t really effect my control of the players, nor my opponents, and the game played out a fair 1-1 draw. Again, I am not preaching online is fixed, or sorted or anything of the sort, but these are my findings, and I would be interested to see if anyone echoes these sentiments,

I am not going to dwell too much on the game play for the simple fact it will more than likely be redundant now, with the new build out and about. In my experiences however, the game felt new and fresh, especially with the passing and dribbling, yet still like a PES title. Defending is much more about timing now as opposed to just wanting to win the ball, and jockeying or dropping off is sometimes a much better option. The option to block players runs is also a huge boost, meaning defenders who are less than nimble can use their physical dominance of the smaller, lighter speed merchants. The passing system is a lot different, but a definite plus for me, and you only have yourself to blame for a poor pass now. The power bar is far from intrusive and actually feels very natural (something which I am surprised to say) and running with the ball should only really be done in space, with dribbling being a very key part of the game now. Knock and rush doesn’t really work (especially with the players I have at my disposal) and this will hopefully put an end to one player running through your team.

The negatives, which of course there are some, all seem to relate to the age old issues. Whilst there are a lot of new animations in place, some of these are not implemented properly (YET) and this makes some things look a little awkward. Shooting at times seems to feel a little uncomfortable, but these are both issues I feel will be sorted prior to release. Keepers, in my experience were worse than ever for pushing shots into the net. If a shot is hit hard straight at their body, they should not let it pass through their hands whilst moving out the way. This didn’t happen to me on PES 2010 and only very rarely on 2009, but has happened on several occasions already online in 2011. This is something Konami said in the disclaimer, and therefore I will give them the benefit of the doubt. Here we are not talking about super keepers just ones that do a job. Finally, I have absolutely no problems with the refereeing. Couple of yellow cards here and there, I gave away one penalty which definitely was and haven’t had any decision which I have been angry about. Hopefully this will continue to be worked on in the final few weeks.

So there you go. My honest views. To conclude I am happy with what I have played, but still here that same disclaimer ringing at the start. If that game lands on my doorstep as the finished product I would be a bit disappointed, mainly because it doesn’t feel finished. However, that can’t really be a criticism because simply, its not finished! I am excited about playing the final demo and eventually the final game, and if it builds upon the promise of the build I have played, I will be a very happy man in October.

Thanks for Reading.

Thanks as always for the comments on last weeks article produced by Benn. Some interesting points made about the game mode worthy of further discussion. As I didn’t get into the Beta test I’m afraid you’ll have to discuss it amongst yourselves and wait for Dan’s review.  Theres no point wasting all of our time with me hypothesising about how good or bad it might be.

Talking BAL’s……

I am personally not a BAL player of 2010.  I had a couple of seasons last year and it was ok, but it just didn’t move fast enough for me.  A point well made by Dave O that maybe you should be able to select a starting age.  I don’t intend to offend anyone with my ignorance of this, but from what I’ve seen, from a trainee level you will ALWAYS rise up enough to be good enough to play for a club.  On that basis should that not be the starting point of the game? And then let you play the last twenty and this is where your development begins? I’m sure id be much more likely to give this a go then.

A point Benn made about bringing lifestyles into the game had a mixed response.  Personally I agree that WAGs might be a step too far but I think the overall sentiment of the point being made was summed up by Denno and Blade1889 who thought incentives and storylines would be a useful addition to the game.  I think being able to answer a multiple choice question to the manager every few games would be able to mould the game and a ‘character’ or is that too Simm’s like? I think some additions could be made to break the monotony of play game – watch game… If its monetary to improve skills and develop positions or if its sponsorship deals and you need you to score in the champions league and kiss the boot with three stripes (off a headed goal), I think a sub-story might just give the game mode that little spark it needs… but that’s my personal opinion and I can see from the many comments last week and Benns email that there is a split community on BAL.

Worryingly a comment made from Daymos pointed out that this mode essentially creates two games in one and will that be detrimental to both modes. Could this be true? Maybe the online team are programming BAL!!

One-touch football….

In playing some one on one last night it became very apparent as I rotated teams that some players, that I would class as ‘good’ (in real life) were frankly atrocious in PES, on green form.  We played an arsenal v utd game.  One which saw me come from 3-0 down (rooney on red!) to 3-2 and then in the 88^th minute a Walcott run into the near post, a classic pes square ball under a diving keeper for van persie to tap into the empty net on his natural left foot.  He decides to control it, line up a shot onto the post and cost me five English. Not happy.  I’m sure we’ve all been there.  Is one on one scripted or are some players in pes just completely useless when they shouldn’t be?

The competition…

It was interesting reading a few comments about FIFA looking like a player this year and that some would decide on the demo.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m PES through and through, but we can’t ignore the competition if PES doesn’t meet the standards we expect. 

Well I’m afraid that’s your lot for this week.  Just a closing point to those who suggested some of the points raised in the guest feature were ‘poor’, please feel free to email me a guest feature to publish next week.  As usual join in the debate below or I can be reached on doinotlikethat@hotmail.co.uk

Wife Beta

Tacky subheading aside, the fact remains that Konami have offered an online beta for the master league game mode. This is a huge step for the company, who are seemingly admitting that online was not tested properly in previous incarnations of the game! Truth be told, I was in two minds about taking part in a beta as a PES fan, but due to my role on the site, I have put my name forward and actually gained a place, so over the next few days, I will be testing out the format. At the time of writing, I am yet to do so and have no early impressions to fall back on. The actual game at this stage is still playing second fiddle to the fact that Konami are openly allowing gamers to play their product in advance of its release prior to an official demo. This is either a sign of confidence or quite possible an acceptance that the company needs to move into the 21st Century. I hope it is a combination of the two.

So, if you were unlucky and didn’t get a place in the beta, I do not intend to rub it in. Instead I hope we can provide a good feel for the game as it stands in this state, and also hopefully offer some genuine insight into how online Master League is going to work. If you did get a place in the beta, I would love e-mails (NOT COMMENTS) with your findings. A paragraph or so would be ideal, and just highlighting small issues or features you like or dislike about the game. These will be printed as written (with obvious exceptions for abuse or bad language) and posted as part of my own personal views later in the week! The e-mail address is interferingwithplay@hotmail.co.uk

“Nettie”

My inbox has been inundated with pictures of nets, goals and post designs and styles. Thank you to everyone who took the time to find out these images and provide them to me. I was shocked to receive over 30 e-mails on the subject, an issue which proves there is a great demand for net / goal editing to be included in future versions of PES. I will address this to Jon during the interview, and hopefully get a straight answer on exactly why it’s not present in PES 2011, especially with the much discussed stadium editor finding a place

The fact remains that whilst to some people the mode isn’t a big issue, to many it has been a major request for a few years now, and if Konami are deemed to be listening to feedback, this is pure pay dirt! Once again, a thank you goes out to all of you who spent your time finding images for me, they will be put to good use!

“World Of My Own”

Ian Horne wrote an article over on Soccer Gaming last week about the stadium creation option, the link to which is http://www.soccergaming.com/pro-evo/1152/the-pes-2011-stadium-editor-%e2%80%93-at-a-glance/. First thing that stands out here is the sheer depth Konami are looking to go into, especially incorporating images. If all of the above turns out to be true, features such as editable advertising hoardings and alternate stand styles makes for a truly unique experience at every ground.

In PES on the current generation consoles, we have been a bit short changed on the stadium front. Whilst PES 2008 on PS2 managed 35 grounds, we were treated to just 19 on the PS3! Whilst we are nearing the 25 mark now, there is still a long way to go in the variety of styles featured of the in game arenas, and providing the space is made available, there is a huge level of scope for what ‘could’ be created. I am decent with the editing tools on PES, however some members of the community are exceptionally talented, and can make things look near perfect 99% of the time. I know that should these tools be put to good use, the actual designs of these grounds will be mind blowing, and this is something that makes me take notice.

What I will find interesting is how Konami deal with saved data this year. Bundling it all together into one huge file now has proven to provide limitations both for the company and for creators. The fact that squad updates (official) completely ruin edited squads means that come the first update, no one will be updating to play online due to the hours of creating the Portuguese / Belgian / German Premier League. Hopefully Konami will allow us to keep each team as an individual entity, its own unique save. The same for stadiums. This would allow a easy way of sharing files, keeping the ones you want and deleting those you don’t. Will this happen? I genuinely don’t know, however it is definitely worth speculating with release now just two months away!

That’s your lot for this week. I am working away now at the interview which all being well will be on PESGaming later this week. I am also going to go and grab a cup of tea before sitting down and testing out PES 2011’s online Master League. I will get my impressions up and online as soon as they are formed. interferingwithplay@hotmail.co.uk is the place to direct your e-mails, and as always comments are more than welcome.

Thanks for Reading

Any regular readers of this column will know a couple of weeks ago I was discussing how to get the best out of PES when it becomes a bit repetative and also what the BAL players out there thought of that mode of play.  On this basis i’ve been having some dialogue with Benn who contacted me about BAL and it is with pleasure I can welcome a special guest article he wrote for you all.  Over to Benn……

Be A Legend – It’s an RPG for football.

The Good.

 If you’re someone like me, who cannot kick a real football without pulling your right arse muscle but would love to play in a professional team, then the BAL mode is for you. It combines many great things. As it’s title suggests, it allows every football fan to ‘live’ out a dream of playing in their beloved team.

 Much like your typical RPG, you get to recreate yourself down to the smallest detail. Height, weight, skin type, hairstyle, the list goes on – my guess is that you’re likely to spend a couple of hours getting this right before you even kick a ball. It also allows you to scan a portrait photo of yourself and import it into game.

 And for purists like me, this works a treat.

 There’s nothing better than seeing my short, skinny arse rubbing shoulders around the pitch with the likes of Rooney, Messi or Ronaldo.

 Just like any typical RPG, this mode allows you to build up your character over time and games by gaining exp with every match. What rocks is that you get to choose which skills you want to improve to suit your playing style. You even get offers from different clubs during transfer windows depending on how well you’ve performed on the pitch.

 Controlling yourself (and only yourself) may take some getting used to but once you get the hang of it, you’ll start shouting at your team mates for a bad pass and curse the names of players who love to shoot on sight when they could have played you in with a well-timed pass. Well, at least I do. You can even call for the ball by double tapping the R2 button. And I feel it’s a realistic feature as team mates won’t pass to you often if you’re not playing well. So any emotion you’re likely to feel while playing BAL would most likely be the same when playing an actual game – at least for the chain-smokers like myself.

 The Bad.

 The difference between your average RPG and BAL is that there aren’t any side quests and the main story is repeated season after season – until you retire. So it can get repetitive.

 It also takes a bloody long time to level up (improve your skills) to the point where you become a true legend. Konami have chosen to keep it real and I applaud that but newer players would most likely get too impatient to play through 3 – 4 seasons (about 80 matches) before getting a noticeable result.

 Another bad bit is when you’re put on the bench or taken off the field. There is NO option to skip the match till the end or till you get subbed in. Instead, you are forced to watch it play out at x2 speed. It. Is. Annoying.

 The Missing.

 Personally, I wish they had put in other aspects of a soccer player’s life into the game and have the salary you earn in BAL actually mean something. And not just help you out in Master League. Perhaps you could use it to buy new clothes, property, cars or date hot women. Maybe by showing a little life outside of footballing (or at least have the option to do it) would add a bit more depth to the game.

 I played BAL on the Top Player setting and I must admit that I found it a little difficult in my first two seasons as a rookie. But now, six seasons in, I’ve managed to conquer the Champions League, Premier League and FA Cup with Manchester United becoming European Player of the Year in the process. World Player of the year still eludes me but at least I got nominated. :D

 All in all, this mode does take time and patience to play and it is definitely not for everyone. But then the same can be said for most great RPGs.

So thanks to Benn for his BAL thoughts, as usual feel free to comment below or email to the usual doinotlikethat@hotmail.co.uk

Get registering and pray, pray, pray!

“Netting Up”

Following last week, I would like to once again go back and speak about the net issue. I don’t wish to dwell on this, and I believe there is quite a split in the community as to its importance but the fact is that some people out there are genuinely unhappy with the goal nets in PES. Whilst not being one of those people, as the game now promises to feature a stadium creator, a multitude of customisation options for players and teams, the feature to edit goal nets does seem a logical inclusion. I am not for one second say take this feature in place of another, but when adding the ability to edit an entire stadium, the goals, one of the few pieces on ‘decoration’ that are physically involved in the game should also be able to be edited to a certain extent.

With this said, and with the interview with Jon Murphy coming soon, I would love one of these ‘net fans’ to do some leg work on my behalf and support your argument. Grab me some photos of different styles of goal from around the world, and send them me via the usual e-mail address. If someone comes out and does this, I will include it in the questioning, using the images provided as examples. It would be very interesting to see that if the PES goals are ‘nothing like’ the goals used in European or World football today, where they (Konami) actually got the design from.

“Game Breakers”

I am still playing PES 2010, and enjoying it. Just today I had a cracking couple of matches against a mate, someone who usually runs me pretty close to the wire if not beating me every time we face off. In today’s two games the first saw me beat him 4-1 after going 1-0 down and the second I managed to sneak a 2-1 victory, having again given him the lead. In both games, I managed to create double the chances he did, dominate possession and even begrudgingly, he would admit the better team won on both occasions.

However, in my delight, I felt slightly hard done by as both goals I conceded would have categorically fallen into the ‘Goalkeeping Error ‘bracket that has been so widely used when describing PES. The first goal saw my keeper run along Rooney as he sprinted past him, making no effort to dive and stop the eventual shot nor get a hand to the ball before the Manchester United number 10 could get his shot away. It was simply a case of watching Wayne run past him. In the second game, Goran Pandev hit a free kick from inside his own half which would have bounced in the 6 yard box. My keeper stood firmly on his line, and watched as Milito rose unchallenged for a free header from point blank range. Both issues didn’t cost me the game; however the feeling of conceding goals outside of my control was more than slightly frustrating.

These kinds of issues could be simply edited by spending more time dealing with GK AI and in turn the much sought after collection of goalkeeping stats. In the first case, stats for bravery and rushing out would have determined whether my keeper would have even come off his line, and then whether he would have dived at Rooney’s feet. A high bravery stat, for example may have seen my keeper come diving out, but would have allowed Rooney to flick the ball over him or even fake shot round him. Lower ratings for each may have seen the keeper stay glued to his six yard box, only to rush out when I command him to do so. The second instance would have been solved by a crossing / catching / punching stat, whereby the goalkeeper would have been able to come and claim the cross or punch it away depending on his numbers. If you are playing with a keeper less comfortable claiming crosses, this would in turn make you defend deeper, letting your CB’s deal with the first ball and hope that your keeper will pick up any spills or make a reaction stop.

One issue I am slightly in disagreement on though is the handling problem many people speak about on this site. Yes, it is hugely frustrating when your keeper parries a ball into his own net. For me, this might be a one in 50 occurrence but by the sounds of things, it is much more common for some of you. On the other hand, I would hate to see super keepers that hold every shot and get every shot away. Just looking at the Community Shield on Sunday saw Van Der Saar spill three or four shots back into his six yard box, which didn’t result in goals due to the reactions of the CB’s. Again, I concede very few goals from rebounds, especially against AI, and I find that the players who do are the ones who constantly press using multiple players, resulting in a free man in the area. Depending on the angle of shot, there are some occasions when the ball should be pushed round the post, but for anyone who has ever donned the sticks, you will appreciate it is very hard to get a shot that is fired across goal around the post.

With that all said, the views of the play tests seem to see keepers change very little from PES 2010, which for me isn’t a game breaker. Of course slight improvements to AI will always make a game more challenging, but if the game makes it harder to actually get shots away and create the space required to get into good positions, then the keeping issues may not be as noticeable. As for GK stats, I won’t be holding my breath!

“I Am Not A Robot”

 The fan boy tag is something particularly common with football titles, and the fact that most of us guys on this site can’t win. I give my honest opinions on PES and I a dubbed a fan boy, Double D stats facts about PES and he is dubbed a fan boy, and either of us mention FIFA and we are immediately abusing our power on this site! It is borderline laughable! However, the next paragraph may be slightly bordering towards the excitable, so feel free to stop reading now if you wish!

Still here? Good. As mentioned earlier, the promise of a much greater memory bank for editing data has definitely peaked my interest in the potential for PES 2011. Imagine playing a Premier League season using all 20 replica stadiums. For lower league fans even, imagine playing against accurate representation of your local teams weekly opponents, with photo accurate faces, kits and emblems. The depth is finally here, with the potential for the committed editing community to actually make the entire English Football League system, and even allow space for all the unlicensed Champions League Teams, Europa League Teams, Fantasy Football sides and your own school / pub team! It has been a known criticism of PES for the lack of licenses since day 1, but a solid edit mode has made up for this is many peoples eyes in recent years. If PES 2011 delivers on this promise, and doesn’t take anything away from the existing edit mode, we are looking down the barrel of the biggest, deepest and most accurate representation provided by Konami ever. That is something to look forward to, even for those people who are very focussed on game play and AI.

“It’s Not Ready”

There are still some concerns about online. Concerns that are founded on hard evidence. PES as a franchise has been very poor as an online product. The amount of column inches the subject has received supports this. However, it is uncommon for games to add online until the offline mode is finished. Of course there are exceptions to this but until graphical and AI targets have been met, there is very little point in spending time taking the product online, as the process will simply have to be repeated once the game is finished.

I am not making excuses for Konami, nor am I saying that PES 2011 will work online. What I am saying is that we are still at a very much ground zero stage with the process, and until it is experienced, it is impossible to comment for sure either way on how online will play in the latest very of Pro Evolution Soccer.

“Are You Ready”

So my final point this week is really just to re-evaluate where you guys are with PES 2011. A few weeks ago, opinions were quite mixed, but optimism seemed to slightly be taking the lead ahead of anger, nerves or disappointment. Now, following a variety of play test opinions and more official Konami footage, has your opinion changed? Are you excited or dreading it? With the demo a matter of weeks away, most people have been saving their opinions until the game has been played. But have you gone one step further? Have you already pre-ordered PES 2011 or told yourself you won’t be spending your cash this year? The floor is yours!

That’s your lot for this week. As always comments are welcomed in the usual format or simply e-mail me on interferingwithplay@hotmail.co.uk. I am looking to have another fantasy football mini league set up in conjunction with Soccer Gaming, so if there is anyone who would like to get involved in this process, please get in touch on the address above.

Thanks for Reading

I’d like to spend this week’s article responding to as many questions/comments as I can that were left in the comments section.  So here goes:

MagicaRoma: How many difficulty levels are there in the game? Is Top Player the highest difficulty or is there an extra level (unlike in PES2010, where the highest difficulty level felt too easy)?

I believe there are the standard set of difficulties that we are used to, no new levels.  However, the game is now a different beast, so don’t expect it to be anything like what you’ve been used to.  You will have to learn to play the game all over again!

Ronan: are the peno’s back to the normal view or are we still stuck with PES2010’s muck side shot!!!

Penalties as they stand are the same as PES2010.  So same in game view which is not what many of us liked.  But it’s not like we got to try it much..

Christos: did you notice any robotic movement or it was total 360 control?

The control system is not robotic.  The animation set is very natural and you have pretty much 360 control.  Since I didn’t play many manual passes, I can’t 100% verify this at this stage.  Next time I get a shot at the game again, I will confirm for you as a priority.

J: rushing through the key issues people are worried about

J – thank you for the constructive criticism, but I’d like to respond back to you, and reiterate that the game is shaping up very nicely.  Goalkeepers are being improved – but I’ve highlighted areas of their general abilities which need an overhaul which clearly hasn’t happened.  Referees were pretty good for me.  They called most fouls, and definitely gave penalties.  There were some calls which came into question, but I welcomed them, since the refs are not always 100% correct.  But they are nowhere near as dumb as they currently are in PES 2010.  The build I played was not complete.  Not all chants were in the game, so I can’t write about something that I didn’t experience.  The same goes for commentary – again it’s still being incorporated. 

Superhuman players – I must stress that I was attempting to use the new jockeying ability but struggling with it, hence Ian was able to dribble past me with good players and score.  When I chose to use regular defending techniques, I was able to dispossess the likes of Messi when I played well.  The game will reward those who take the time to learn how to master it.  I challenge you to find me a single preview from any other site that complained about super players ruining the experience for them.

Online – it wasn’t part of the test set up.  It is undergoing testing, and I hope to be a part of it very soon.  I am concerned about it, but like I said – I really need you guys to collectively to make some noise via the comments section to hit home how important online play is.  So far, I’ve heard next to nothing.

Finally for you J, as for wanting me to admit that PES2011 is just a tweak – you’re having a laugh mate!  Anyone who has played it will testify that this is a reboot.  Any/all videos you watch do not do it justice.  All I can say is wait for the demo, and then get back in touch with me, and let’s discuss your opinions.

Shoayb_MUFC: Do we have more freedom with the positioning of the shot when taking the penalty?

You will have to get used to taking penalties and learning how best to place them.  The camera angle will probably make that harder to deal with, but that’s how it is for now.

Gonzo/S-D-P: massively suprised that you didn’t take full use of the manual controls

Guilty as charged!  Honestly with so much to comprehend in one go, something had to give!  I totally forgot to invest some time trying out the manual passes, so very sorry about that.  That again will be high on the agenda next time round.  You can find more previews of the code via pesfan.com.  They’ve got lots of links to articles – I’m certain atleast one review talks about manual passing positively!

In my defence, passing with regular controls was a challenge enough, without even thinking about using the manual options.  Regular passing is not straight forward – it will need hard work.

vince k: general rant about goalkeepers

I share your pain vince k!  Keepers have definitely been neglected in my opinion. Sure Konami have tried to tighen up how keepers generally save shots etc, but they haven’t given them freedom.  I always get very frustrated when goalies have the ball in their hands, and it takes a few seconds and a hundred button presses for them to finally realise that I actually want to play the ball out quickly.  And even then, chances are it will automatically either go out of play, or to a player who is immediately tackled! 

Dopecoil:i still get the overiding feeling that pes2011 much like the last three years will be undercooked

I hear what you’re saying, but please wait till you get your hands on the demo to realise that despite the automated elements like crosses, headers – less so – since there are power bars now and the new defensive system, the game really does hold it’s own.  It’s not easy to play, and the power bars will reward your passing abilities as they improve.

ronaldo: at no point in your preview should be the words “I didn’t really get time to look at it”

I have to take issue with you on this point.  Trust me – 5 hours goes by as though it was barely an hour!  To truly perform any form of meaningful analysis which stands the test of time, you really need to get into the gameplay as much as possible.  My main objective was to try to get as close to the gameplay as possible.  I’d have spread myself too thinly if I tried to cover all aspects of the game.  I did glance over the usual general editing modes, but did delve into the stadium creator mode.  Do try to cover more editing would have been at the expense of playing the actual game, and that was not something I was prepared to do. 

Blade1889: Does the AI defence still back off, leaving you free to have a long shot at goal?

We played on top level, and there were times when I’d worked some space for a long range effort, but I certainly don’t recall opposition defenders just admiring my run and shot on goal.  The key to playing the game is creating space – be it via passes pulling players out of position, or with some dribbling or tricks. 

I’m Alan Partridge!:  Is this preview for real? The animations look TERRIBLE.

Videos are aimed at showcasing abilities.  So if you want to show how someone can run rings round someone and score, then that is what you get to see.  Would you rather have a video that just showed a midfield tussle with ball possession continuously changing between the teams, and perhaps one skewed shot at goal?  The videos do not do it justice.  Like I said in my article – find me a review where someone actually pans the game.

the sloth: Not a mention of the stamina system

The stamina bar was hard to see, and so I couldn’t guage if it played a part in player tiredness in matches late on.  This sort of function will be judged more accurately after playing I’d say close to 50+ games.  You won’t see blatantly awful passing from players after the 80 min mark in matches, but over time I think we will be able to see certain players not performing as well as they should.  I’m guessing here, that their overall stamina bar will come into effect over a series of games for players, so that you can see they need to be rested, rather than just in a single match where they have been totally rested.

the sloth: In reading a different sites preview, they mentioned that there are 15 so called STAR PLAYERS

This is just a general acknowledgement of established real world star players having very high stats in the game.  This doesn’t stretch to all top players – Torres’ stats are surprisingly low - there’s no love for him in the PES team!

Dennis bergkamp10: will we be able to create our own playlist for the in game menus?????

Sorry – don’t know.  I wouldn’t count on it personally.

James Goblin: Stadium attendance???

We only played friendly matches which generally had full stadiums.  ML mode may differ.

DG: CAN YOU SELECT THE CPU SIDE IN A LEAGUE/CUP MATCH?

I’ve read that you can’t since the logic is that if you do this, you can potentially “cheat” your way to getting trophies. 

William Martin: it dose not look like ther is no 360 movemint in the game. What do u think?

There is 360 movement, though I’ve not fully tested it, so I guess I can’t fully back that up.  Again most other reviews would agree with me!

Titus Bramble: Im interested in my stats for this years addition.

Hello Titus.  It’s great to have a professional footballer get in touch with us about the game and how it affects you.  You’re quite right when you say “My concentration should be world class, aswell as my overall defending ability.”  Many managers had a lot of faith in your ability early days, but you tended to lapse concentration in many matches in your formative years, which means that you no longer are considered a player with a bright future.  If you want a bright future, I would suggest you retire immediately and go and work your way up to supervisor of your local B&Q’s Lighting department. 

Well I think that’s the majority of the questions answered.  If I’ve missed any, please get in touch with me, and I’ll do my best to follow up on them.  Overall it’s been a long week, and I’ve enjoyed reading the healthy debates posted, and the general buzz of PES.  Whilst I acknowledge that some of you guys did not appreciate me talking about new additions for PES2012, believe me when I say that Konami have gone flat out to get us a game that we’re going to be raving about.  Yes there are flaws in it, I’m the first to point those out, but they are not game breakers.  No game is perfect, but what you really have to ask yourself is, do the flaws overshadow the core game?  With hindsight, had I played PES2010 more before posting my final review of it, I’d have seen that the referees ruined many games with their rather lenient approach to their jobs.  But this time round, I intend to put in many hours of game play before committing to a review.

What I will say is that Konami have got their act together, and are back with a bang.  I’ll see if I can get an idea of when the demo is likely to hit, but chances are it probably isn’t quite set yet.  If memory services me well, the demo generally is out a short while after the GamesCom conference. 

To give you guys an idea of just how different the game is, have a look at the following control diagrams to get a feel for the new control system, and take in just how different it is.

Thanks for reading.

Dougiedonut

(dougiedonut@pesgaming.com)

I will certainly be trying a few of the suggestions to extend the playing life of pes2010 so thanks for those, and I’m sure for the regulars on the forum we’re all interested to here Dave O’s dance mat playtest !?!?

I’ll go back over some of the comments and email points raised last week a bit later in the column.  Obviously with the raising of the media embargo the hype is over, well of a fashion.

Curtain Raiser…

As much as we all know the charity/community shield is the curtain raiser of the EPL the playtest reviews are equally significant on the pending release of the latest instalment.  I must admit it is hard not to offer opinions and hypothesise about what the new game will or wont achieve based on the last few years grumbles.  Having read many playtest reviews I am equally excited and cautious about it.  (Theres links to many articles including our own on pesfan)

Excited; because everybody who has played and reported on the game sounds amazed by it. Cautious; because I’m not sure Konami have addressed some of the major points or targeted the features the fans wanted.  I’m also disappointed about the licensing of teams, only two again. Don’t misinterpret that by the way as I’m not shallow enough to make that a major item.  I just play lots of one on one competitions between friends for financial rewards (and I’m sure I’m not alone!) so to that end using an edit option file has been termed as ‘cheating’ previously which means I having two users set up on my ps3, one for the option and one for comps.

Any way, I digress, I’m not trying to put a dampener on things and I suppose it’s a half full/half empty scenario.  The only way to find out is play it ourselves and we can’t really judge others opinions of it, as its obvious from the comments we all want different things.  For me, It’s a concern the goalkeepers are not improved but I am over the moon the referees are sorted out.  The way I’m approaching this release as: I hope Konami have got the basic principles of game-play / on-line etc right this year and next year they can concentrate on ‘tweaking’ it and providing some of the more detail features the fans want. Either way, it sounds promising to me and I want a copy now, as we all can’t be as lucky as certain people in the forum.  How do you guys feel about the screen shots, animation videos and playtest reviews?? Excited?? Unhappy?? On the fence??

Points Raised……

Some brilliant points raised last week guys, I even think you’ve convinced me to have a go at BAL for more than one and half training games.  I received an interesting email on BAL which I will be going through in a future column, hopefully with input from the seasoned professional author who sent it.  It was glad to see some good honest discussion and debate this week with you guys respecting each others opinions.  As for the net editor its something I see requested so much that its made me curious; I’ve got to the point where when I score a goal I’m watching the replay to see what could be improved.  Its something that would have never crossed my mind but a feature I may find interesting at some point in the future, providing the gameplay is sorted.  Micky P made a great point asking for a customisable commentary.  I can’t see it ever happening but you could certainly have a laugh with it.  He also asked for customisable corner flags, which raised a laugh, however why don’t we see triangular ones when we’ve won the cup? Or even have our club crest on them should we win three in a row? (although I believe that’s a myth!), so I think it’s a good point Micky.  All in all, arnookibeast summed it up this week by pointing out the game should be able to be set up visually to the user preference. I couldn’t agree more and when it becomes fully customisable we might achieve the holy-grail of video games !!!!

Well that’s your lot this week.  I’m looking forward to the return of football this weekend, its long over due !!!

I look forward to reading the banter and discussion on the forum as always; alternatively I can be reached at doinotlikethat@hotmail.co.uk

Thanks to Steve Merrett and Jon Murphy, myself and Ian of soccergaming.com attended what was the first play test of the latest cut of PES 2011 code on the 23rd of July.  Unlike last year, I wasn’t like a child in a sweet shop, but had a more focussed look at the game.  I will talk very little about the game’s graphics as they don’t primarily interest me.  The game was not locked down to a couple of modes but was presented pretty much as we will see the finished product.  So there was a lot to potentially cover, but I tried to stick to the core areas of the game, so apologies if I haven’t mentioned areas such as editing goal nets – I simply didn’t delve into fringe areas as much.  There wasn’t enough time to cover the revamped Master League or Become a Legend.  What I can mention is that the BAL mode now has changed to allow you to play as any outfield player.

The format of this write up will be to try to cover what I consider key areas which will be of interest to everyone, followed by a summary on the game overall.  So without further ado, here goes.

PES 2011: The breakdown

Animations

During game play whilst playing I didn’t notice the animations all that much.  By that I mean that I was concentrating on moving the ball about and working players into positions to receive the ball. Not once did I look at a piece of play and think that a player just performed a completely unnatural move.  There are occasions in the current game where you think that some shots would require a double-jointed hip to perform them.

Even at this stage of development that wasn’t something that we thought.  The animation set even at this stage was very impressive.  There are evidently more animation styles for all sorts of actions, and I’m sure more will be added up to the final release, and we should see more variety in how players move, pass and generally run about on a pitch.  There were no lag issues, or concerns on how players carried out certainly actions like running and dribbling.  Get ready for a proper animation reboot!

Passing

The passing system has been revamped without a shadow of a doubt.  You will need to spend time learning to master it to actually stand out as a player.  It is easy to string passes together, as even lightly tapping the pass button will deliver the ball to the feet of the player you choose to pass it to when in close proximity.  But if you don’t aim at the player you intend, then expect the ball to be there to be won by both sides.

There is a fair element of CPU assistance with passes with a healthy respect.  I think there was always going to have to be a compromise to ensure the game is still accessible for all.

The basic passing system can be mastered easily enough, but you will need to learn how to add strength to passes when looking to play clever balls for players to run onto, or to break through defences.

Something that I was trying desperately to see was whether players waited for a pass to be delivered to them, and to see if they remained rooted to the spot until the ball arrived to them. But that didn’t really happen.  Players tended to move towards the ball on occasion, or the ball arrived quickly to their feet since most short balls played to players didn’t give them much of a chance to run towards the ball.  But the frustrations of having a player rooted to the spot didn’t materialise for me.

The pass power bar is a very natural addition to the game and doesn’t detract from the experience.  You will find that passes are quite easily over hit if you’re not careful, so timing is everything.

Finally I am able to say that whilst playing PES, that when mistakes are made – be they rash tackles or passes gone wrong – that I am the one who is at fault.  I can’t blame the AI for my mistakes.  The CPU facilitates my intentions as a player, it doesn’t dictate them.  This is a ground-breaking and fantastic new ethos for PES.  Play the game your way.  So when things go wrong, you need to take a look in the mirror rather than hitting forums and complaining about Konami’s game.  So if you can’t handle the truth, I would suggest playing lesser games that are more accommodating of your ego.  PES has finally grown up and will take you kicking and screaming into the future direction that has just had it’s foundations defined.

Manual passing

I believe manual passing is no longer mapped to the right analogue stick, but will require the use of either L2 or R2, sorry but I can’t remember properly right now.  To be fair, I didn’t really try to use manual passing since the standard passing mechanism was very open and allowed for a good amount of freedom of direction for placing passes.  As I’ve said above, I had to at times check where the passes were being played, since I would misplace passes due to falling back to old habits where the CPU would facilitate our intentions for passes.

Heading

There is now a power bar for headers, so you can expect to put timing and the power bar to good use.  Once again, if you don’t practice these skills, expect players who have to out play you.

I didn’t get too many opportunities to head the ball, but using the power did give more beef to headers.

They didn’t feel too different from the current game either I have to say.

Crossing

Crossing is pretty much the same as it currently is, with double-taps of the cross button giving decent head height for crosses.

Something I’d like to see is more variation in crossing strength.  Currently the crossing strength is fairly uniform.  Having the ability to ping a cross at head height at the same strength as a shot would be great.  It would bring a new element to attacking play.  You would then need to try a deft flick with your head to guide the ball in a given direction making use of the power that is in the cross.  But this would be an enhancement to the game, it’s not a defect of the current game!

Shooting

Shooting felt as responsive and natural as ever.  It has always been a strong point of the series, and continues with that tradition.  I found shots taken to be satisfying, and also responsive to body positions, and the favoured foot of players.  I had a good few shots hitting the cross bar which was also good to see.  The variety of shots was also pleasing.  With the new abilities to perform tricks, and in particular either rainbow flicks, or just standard flicks ahead of your player can set up volleys very nicely.  Shots from outside the area were also a potent weapon with the right players.

Long balls

Long balls aren’t an area of the game that I personally use all that much.  I’ve never been comfortable with passes being cut out easily since players can practically walk across to where you’re playing the ball and win the ball.

But with the new power bar there is more variation on how they are delivered.  I found that where previously playing a long ball would most often find it’s intended target, over hitting long balls now really do open up the game play a bit more.  You may find the ball out of play, or find yourself running further to try to get to it.  But that’s also indicative of the overall challenge that this new iteration of the game brings with it.  Expect to have to learn how to play long balls to add another dimension to your game.

Physical play

As we all know, currently in the game, players whilst apparently jostling for the ball look like they’re holding hands and happily running alongside each other, with no real bearing on the physical battle which is meant to be taking place.

Those days are gone.  Players now have a physical presence that you are made aware of immediately.  You will find that if you just run into a opposition player that there will be contact, and more than likely a free kick to your opponent will ensue.

Lighter players will have to rely on guile and quick play, rather than trying to take on an opponent in a physical challenge.  And equally, stronger players will stand a better chance of coming away with the ball after a tussle.  Players bounce off one another when they come together, and it really  does make you feel like you’re in a battle.  You’ve got to earn your right to play your football every step of the way.

Having just completed a 5 hour play test, I’ve come away exhausted mentally.  You can’t relax and just pass your way into the penalty area and score.  You’ve got to battle all the way, and make those chances for your players.  They won’t just appear there for you.

Goalkeepers

Goalkeepers were generally pretty good.  They are functionally the same as they currently are, perhaps with a few more animations for saves.  I have to admit that I’m not particularly good at spotting issues with keepers which many of you tend to have.  My main gripe with keepers is the fundamental lack of speed of reaction when they’ve broken up play and are in possession of the ball.  It takes a relative eternity to get them to spring a counter attack.  I will discuss keepers in a bit more detail in the “Improvements Needed” section further down.

Referees

I didn’t notice the referees in the game, which is a compliment to them, as they called play very well.  Niggly fouls as well as blatant fouls were all noticed, and dealt with.  How pleased I was to have given away a few penalties through stupidity against my fellow play tester for the day Ian.

He was very grateful for having them, and there were no complaints from me.  They were all legitimate fouls and I had it coming.  Referees weren’t overly harsh unnecessarily.  I had one red card for two yellows in a game, and I had no complaints.  No random red card for a standard side on challenge, which can happen in the current version of the game.  I understand that the referees are still undergoing tweaks to their play yet, so expect more refinements to come.

Tricks

The new control system means that tricks have to be pulled by use of the L2 button with the right analogue stick.  There are a set of predefined tricks that can be pulled, but the really fantastic new addition is the ability to map available tricks to the right analogue stick and use the ones that you feel best reflect how you play the game. However, I have to confess that having mapped some key skills I couldn’t execute them! I am very confident that this was user error rather than the game not responding to what I was doing.  Given the priorities of the play test I didn’t really pursue this issue further.  Even if it is broken, it will most definitely be fixed but it’s not a concern at all.  I will if anything seek clarification officially shortly to confirm I’m the idiot!

Even with the default tricks combinations which can be used in the game, I felt that the trick stick as such was more naturally in tune with the game play.  Tricks are pulled off by pressing L2 with the right analogue stick in various combinations which once learnt should allow players of greater skill to find additional ways to get past their marker to open up opportunities to make a breakthrough in piercing defences.

A couple of tricks I was beginning to master was the ability to just either flick the ball ahead of yourself, or a rainbow flick to create space.  I used Aimar whilst playing with Benfica to do a rainbow flick past a player in midfield just to the right of the box, and then volleyed the ball towards the left corner, with the ball just going over.  It would have been a contender for goal of the season had it gone in.  But the move certainly stuck in my memory, and that’s a great sign.

On reflection I am concerned that skilled players will perfect a series of tricks which may become very hard to defend against, and could possibly lead to them handing out thrashings.  But since I’ve not had enough time to learn and apply, this may just be nothing.  But now that tricks can be mapped, and combinations carried out, you could find yourself regularly beaten without means to cancel them out.  But only further play tests with skilled players trying this out will give us more information on whether this could turn into an achille’s heel.

Defending

I mostly used the traditional method of defending in PES which was a combination of timing lunges or slide tackles, or trying to put a foot in at the right time to win the ball.  These are the tried and tested methods to dispossess opponents.  The new addition to defending is the ability to jockey attacking players to either take them on to their weaker side, or to allow your team to catch up with play and get back into position.

In reality for me it was hard work trying to get my defenders to jockey attackers.  To jockey you have to press the “X” button (I can’t remember the equivalent button on the 360 controller) and press the control stick towards your goal.  So you’re pretty much trying to run backwards effectively.  What happened for me was that as I was trying to get myself into a position to jockey, attackers spotted gaping spaces ahead of them as I’d typically be just to their left trying to jockey, and they’d just go into the space on their right and burst through on goal to shoot and inevitably score past me.

So I think this is a skill I am going to have to go into training mode to perfect before trying to do that again.  Till then I would prefer to rely on brute strength and timing of defenders to win the ball back.

I tried several times to sit back and watch another player take on the CPU in games and to get a feel for movement of AI controlled players.  I have to say that generally they ebbed and flowed with the moves pretty realistically.  You didn’t get clumps of players hunting down a single player leaving masses of space for other attackers to exploit.  I found the defender closest to the ball closing down the man on the ball, and various other players almost trying to anticipate where the ball would be played to try to help out.

Super players

During the play test we attempted to see how good the game’s superstars were.

So this included trying to take on teams with Messi and see if he could waltz through the whole team and score.  But this proved harder that we thought.  Basically, if I was to ask you how you would stop Messi from wreaking devastation and havoc on your team, you would have to say that as in real life, the way to do this is to close down his space. And that is the case in the game.  With the game’s physicality being a core element to dribbling and taking on players, I found that closing Messi down with a second defender, and applying pressure on him worked quite often.  It’s fair to say that if you give a player space, or let them create space, then they can punish you for it.  They won’t always create a scoring chance, or actually score, but the threat of creating space remains – much like the real game.

A side effect of applying physical pressure on attacking players does run the risk of giving away free kicks, which as with the real game is a strategy that you have to learn to cope with.

Menus systems

The game now has a pretty slick modern interface that has clearly been well thought out.  It’s refreshing, and user interaction has clearly been central to it.

When in the formations screen, you can move players around in your chosen formation to further customise them.  If you click on a player on the team, you will get players who could potentially play in the same position on the bench highlighted.  It’s a very simple but brilliant way of helping you to chop and change players.  You are therefore more able to tinker prior to playing the game.  I didn’t explore all possibilities with the interface due to time constraints, but what little I did explore was very simple to navigate through and use.  It’s going to set the standard for team management and general interaction with the game.  Going back to the current traditional methods of managing teams is going to be a step into the dark ages.

PES Shop

PES Shop is back!  Konami have scored a bit hit in my eyes with this inclusion which will be welcomed by many.  I had a quick flick through the shop, and there were all sorts of things to buy with PES credits.

I won’t go into what they were – you guys have to have some surprises if you ask me!

Stadium editor

I’ve a newsflash for you guys: there is no stadium editor in the game.  This is because there is a Stadium creator!!  It’s bloody brilliant too!

You will be able to pretty much create a stadium however you like, with options to customise the stands, the pitch, the surroundings and various other aspects of the stadium.

General Editing

Editing was enabled for the usual suspects such as players, teams etc, as well as stadiums – and before some of you ask I didn’t notice a net editor.  I didn’t explore this area all that much.

Camera angles

There are no new camera angles in the game.  All the default camera angles are there.

What has been introduced is a wonderfully subtle camera tilt function to existing action.  I only played in wide camera, which starts with a close up of the kick off, but then the camera pans out to reveal more of the pitch in the way we’re used to, and it really does add a natural and broadcast like element to the view.  It’s very nice to see, although personally I would have preferred to have seen either more camera angles, addition zoom meters for all existing camera angles, or a custom camera angle setting ability.  But that’s just my preference, I’m not sure how many other people would appreciate this ability.

Licensing

The list of officially licensed teams has changed.  Liverpool have lost their official license in the game.  It’s like the cloud that is currently over Anfield has spread to PES also.  But that’s just a minor issue, since we have various editing champions in our PES communities who as ever take pleasure and pride in providing official strips for all premiership teams.  We haven’t been told who the second premiership team is yet, but I’d guess at it being City – so time will tell.

And obviously everyone knows about the Copa Libertadores Licensing.

Game Speeds

A new addition to the game is the ability to change the game speed.  This should finally please everyone that has always complained that the speed is either too fast or slow for their liking.  You can now find the right speed for your type of play.  There are five settings ranging from -2 to 2.  The default speed is 0 which I have to say was the speed I was most comfortable with.  Slowing the play to -2 felt like the players were running in treacle for me, and equally they were super fast with +2 game speed.  But at least there is now an option to change it to your liking, so another big plus for the game.

Negatives

This section is dedicated to what I consider to be the current flaws in the game.  There is still time to fix them, and part of my role is to highlight these issues for the benefit of the game.

• Couldn’t play a ball too short to near team mates – the ball always reached it’s intended target if played directly to a player or was typically over hit.
• Keepers – they are still the same as now– and do not have total control.  This was very disappointing to see.
• Keeper as ever can only pass to the nearest player from goal kicks.  This is plain shocking and lazy.
• Goal kicks do not have power bars.
• When kicking the ball out during open play, there is no power bar.
• Keepers are frustratingly slow when they have broken up an attack.  They really don’t start off counter attacks quickly.  Defenders don’t try to make themselves available to receive the ball early and to go on an attack.
• Defending – not sure about the jockeying option for defenders.  Either I was unable to execute the option properly, or it didn’t work in the build.  When I tried, attackers could just waltz past my player and bury the ball in the back of the net.  Further play testing will determine whether this is a fair comment or not.  I’ll happily retract it if it is.
• Stamina bar is green against green pitches – needs to be a different colour – red??

Positives

• Animations are superb.  Very fluid and realistic.  There are many animations for different running, passing, tackling, falling and diving styles.
• Passing is now a beast of an option.  It’s assisted passing, not totally free, but that’s not a bad thing.  There was always going to be a compromise, as new/casual players must be catered for.If people struggled to string a couple of passes together, then they would stop playing – pure and simple.  That said, expect possession football to be a luxury afforded to the very competent amongst you.  Yes you can start off passing a few balls to players with little to no opposition pressure, but as soon as they press, expect a battle to keep the ball.
• We had many midfield tussles in games which were very challenging.  If you want to keep the ball you have to earn that right.  For the first time in years, players will find that they are going to have to consult the user guide.  I would recommend spending time on the training ground straight away to learn how to play football.
• I was immediately comfortable with the basic control system when I picked up the controller.
• The graphics for me weren’t too much of a notch up on the current graphics – but that’s a good thing in my books.  Graphics are a secondary consideration for me, so I won’t really say much about them.
• The build was at around the 70% mark, so it was a more recent build than has been reported on already.  Even at this stage the overall look and the feel of the game is impressive.  Only on the odd occasion did the animations look a little funny.  This materialised primarily when trying to string trick combinations together, rather than through regular passing, running and shooting.
• Droney chants weren’t present in the build, but there’s no guarantee they won’t return!

Improvements needed

Please note this section is dedicated to apsects of the gameplay which I feel could have been further enhanced this year.  Given the more than apparent time and attention that has been lavished on the new game, it would be unfair to mark the game down with the features I’m highlighting, but I’ll still be passing this on to Konami in the hope that something may just creep into the game, though at this late stage, this is not very likely.  If anything, it could serve as the initial ideas list for PES2012.

Crowds

Having the crowds quieter during play until either crunching tackles are made, or attacks build, resulting in an effort on goal, along with appropriate shouts of “ooh” for near misses etc.

Or booing,etc,  especially for away players who may have made dirty tackles or been booked.  It would really add to the game’s charm.

Passes

Having to set the correct amount of power for even short passes would be a great addition, since it would mean you have to constantly pay attention to what you are doing.  Any complacency would mean that the pass is intercepted and could catch your team out, and pay the price with conceding a goal.

As it stands, you do need to ensure you not only play the ball in the right desired direction, as well as to put enough power on the ball, so as not to over hit it, but as I said under hitting the ball isn’t an issue – but should be!  Perhaps having an option to switch off semi-assisted passing to full manual control is the way forward.  This would allow the hardcore fans to have total control over their game, which many would welcome.

Having a new ability for passing

Pressing R2 whilst playing a ground pass or high pass, should bend the ball with the player’s favoured foot.

It can then be used to play balls around opponents for team mates to run on to better.

Manual ball control

Manually trapping balls when receiving the ball is a massive missed opportunity to declare PES’ authority as THE game of today.  As it stands, both games will more than likely appear to be pretty similar, with perhaps online play being the key differentiator, putting the ball firmly in FIFA’s court, given the concerns we generally have about PES’ online pedigree.  Had the ability to choose when to trap the ball or to choose to flick it on would have really opened up the game play and make it so much more realistic.  When stamina gauges drop, attempting to trap the ball would result in ball control not being as good, which would leave the players with choices to make.  They would either have to ensure there was enough space to attempt to control the ball, or otherwise have to kick it on first time.  They could also think about subbing these players if possible to bring on fresh legs.  This would have really been a cutting edge addition to game play that would have had people raving about it.

Goalkeepers

Having 100% control over keepers is crucial.  Keepers are an integral part of the game and have been marginalised in the game for years.  It will be criminal if they aren’t upgraded properly now.

For goal kicks keepers should be able to kick the ball anywhere on the pitch, based on their ratings.

If they can kick it very far, then they should be able to launch the ball in the direction you choose to play it.

When keepers break up attacks and are in possession of the ball, we should be able to throw the ball out immediately using either underarm or overarm throws to get the ball where they want to in conjunction with a power bar.  We should have new control options to be able to throw the ball out as we see fit.  Keeper statistics should define their abilities.  Reina should be razor sharp at starting counter attacks for example.  Engineered for Freedom has to apply to keepers just as much as outfield players.

Crosses

Having more control over crosses is desperately needed in my opinion.  We currently have the same crossing model as has been used for years.  Choosing when to get a cross in, along with the power and speed are the key ingredients for making crosses.  Currently the format for crossing is the same.  We can’t vary the types of crosses all that much.  Yes there are the single/double/triple taps for crossing, but there isn’t an ability to float a ball in for a tall attacker to try to nod on, or to positively fizz a ball across the area to really mix up play.

Some crosses in real games are whipped in and either curling away or towards the keeper, which should give players decisions to make.  Being around the area or cutting into the area and then curling either low balls, or chest height or head height balls should all be possible.  Defenders having to lunge in to cut a ball out that is whipped in low and towards the back post should have them trying to push the ball away from the goal, and we know how that can go very wrong.

Crosses using R2 to add curl would be fantastic too.  If you have a player with exceptional crossing abilities or with the time to cross, then R2 with the circle button could give some whipped in crosses which could cause defensive problems.  Again this would have really set PES apart from the competition.

Headers

More control over the types of headers to try is needed.  Subtle flicks, powerful headers, downward headers, upward headers etc should all be selectable, not randomly applied.

Allowing players to build up speed to get a running jump at heading the ball must be added.  This is how players score from corners, as opposed to standing jumps on balls delivered in.

Give us freedom for headers – freedom is the key concept but isn’t applied enough to warrant the tag.

Throw-ins

Having ball boys throwing the ball back to the thrower immediately allowing for the game’s fluid nature to continue would be brilliant.  This would mean that if you got a throw-in in an advantageous position, where players are out of position for example, you could punish them.

Online

We need to provide groupings of teams to allow people to avoid having to play against the very best teams when they play against opponents.  Many of us are fed up of constantly having to face the likes of Barcelona, Real Madrid and other very strong teams.  If we had a mode which didn’t feature certain teams, such as a category which was for non Champion’s League teams, then it would mean people had fairer games against other people with like teams.

Please bring back a quick menu option to play one versus one friendly games without having to set up game rooms.  The PES6 online menu system was fantastic – some elements from it would really be appreciated.

Summary

Well I’ve tried to provide a frank overview of the game as I saw it.  Yes there are areas which could do with improvements, but as it stands, bar keepers and referee tweaking, I’d happily take the game as it is.  We’ve got a solid foundation for the PES of the future now.  I have already been formulating ideas for PES2012 which can surely build on PES2011.

I can honestly say that during play I felt that if the game code I tried was the final code, then I’d happily take it right now.  This may still be my emotional inference on how the game felt, but over the course of the five hours I managed to get playing the game, there was a lot to take in, and to savour.  I’m sure that another fifteen to twenty hours of solid play testing would uncover more issues and delights too, but that’s not a luxury afforded to myself.  I have mentioned to Konami previously that the official testers mustn’t get complacent as they have in previous years, since there is so much riding on this version of the game for many people.

So far, Konami have done a fantastic job, and with a few more tweaks and improvements built in, we will have a stonking game very, very soon.  Looking back to the games played, there were times of intense game play, battling and missed chances, as well as a few well taken goals.  Fist pumping celebrations and holding my head in disbelief at chances missed or games thrown away  were sure signs that the emotions that PES used to draw from us is back again.

If we can kick up enough fuss in comments to this article and the many other play tests on other sites, then we can hopefully show Konami that the improvements we are suggesting really must be addressed to elicit our full support.

We’re so very close to getting a game that is finally worthy of the current generation of consoles, and Konami just need to keep pushing forward to ensure everyone is raving about the game.

For the record, we were unable to test the game’s online abilities in any shape or form.  I have been told that online testing is and will take place with wider forums, as they do understand that this is a crucial area of the game.  I took the opportunity to further express that online play will be a massive factor for most gamers, so it has to deliver 100%.  I will be looking forward to my invite to perform online testing, and will be eagerly waiting to report how that went when the time comes.

Given the amount of work that has gone into PES2011, I think I am quietly confident that online play will not be neglected.  It’s too important to be glossed over, but then we’ve been stung many times before.  For now, I would ask you all to keep the faith, Konami will deliver.  Equally feel free as ever to hit home the message about the fact that online play will overshadow game play improvements, since there is a competitor that is delivering on both game play as well as with online play.  Many of us have been left disenchanted with the online side of the game, and nothing less than a working solution will be acceptable to many of us, myself included.

Getting back to the game, when some goals were scored, the old “get in there” feeling, and fist pumping celebrations were bandied about.  That’s a massive compliment to the game as it is.

We had some intense 0-0 games, and the odd goal winning some games, and only one 4-0 win to brag about. We played on Top Player level to test the AI, and found that it did provide a challenge.

I am confident that the minor issues that remain in the current game play mechanics will be ironed out for the final release.  Konami are working extremely hard on getting this edition of the game right, and having had the pleasure of the play test, I can assure you guys that there is most definitely going to be a lot of happy PES players in a matter of less than three months.  My key reservation is solely around online play.

We’ve had plenty of stick bandied about from people in the past about how optimistic us PES sites get over PES, only to find ourselves disappointed.  Well not this time.  Anyone who has played it will be raving about the game.  I challenge you to find a major gaming site that is panning it, or writing it off.  Prepare for the game that we all knew Konami were capable of delivering.

I refuse to accept or hear the old argument fans have presented that Konami don’t listen to the fans.  I said from the outset of PES2010 being created, that we needed to give Konami two years to truly incorporate our ideas into the series, and this perseverance on our part is about to be repaid and then some.

With more news and further refinements to follow for further play tests, these are exciting times to be a fan of the Pro Evolution Soccer series.  Given how it felt to play the game, I think the name should change to Pro Emotional Soccer, since you’ll be going through a series of emotions – the elation of key wins, and going back to the drawing board when you’re soundly beaten.

PES has grown up and taken on a new persona, the real question now is, have you grown up sufficiently to get the most out of the new game?

Thanks for reading.

Dougiedonut

(dougiedonut@pesgaming.com)

P.S.

You can check out my co-play tester Ian Holme’s impressions on the game at:

http://www.soccergaming.com/pro-evo/1136/pro-evo-2011-soccergaming-playtest/

“An Apology”

I would like to start this week by retracting the statement I made surrounding demo code of PES 2011. A lot of websites and gaming magazines have now tested and played PES at various press events held by Konami for the past couple of months. I had been informed on good authority that this was the only way to physically play PES 2011. However, some sites, including those with an official link to Konami, have actually been issued with their own copies of the game at various stages throughout the development. I got this wrong and would like to go on record apologising for this false information. As you are aware I try and keep PESGaming.com full of official news, and in spite of having it from a reliable source, I must admit that I was wrong about the availability of copies to certain forms of media.

“Tough But Fair”

With the situation regarding comments slightly improving, I would like to take this opportunity to raise two further issues. Firstly, to the individual posing as Adam from WENB on the comments section, I would politely like to inform you once again that I speak to Adam from WENB, and that at no point has he commented on the main page of this website, in the same way that I have never commented on WENB. Therefore anyone posing as a staff member from another gaming site will be blocked and their IP address be blacklisted. Whilst some may genuinely believe imitation is flattery, I personally believe it is both immature and belittling.

Secondly, I have personally been vetting the comments this week to ensure that we are keeping on topic for the most part. I have said before I am all for freedom of speech on this site and also am quite happy to feature long comments on the site, however I have deleted the same post by someone claiming to be Amateur around 8 times this week. The IP address is now listed as spam, and a copy of the address will be kept on record for any future competitions or events run by PESGaming.com. We are not looking for apologies or robotic comments, however it ruins the site for the people who show the community the correct respect, and copying comments is both pointless and will not be tolerated any longer. As I said before, both myself and Double D are not paid to run this site, and any time spent dealing with comments is time taken away from working on bringing news and information surrounding PES 2011. Simple as that.

“It’s Question Time!”

Just as a brief follow up from last week, I was quite surprised with how many people offered suggestions for questions to Jon Murphy in the comment section of Interfering With Play. I am only considering questions for Jon that have been submitted by e-mail to the usual address, interferingwithplay@hotmail.co.uk. I have had around 6 questions submitted in this format, and will leave the option open for another 7 days before closing it as the interview needs to be sorted as soon as possible. The second portion of the interview will be a quick fire q and a with Jon, and will feature issues that can be answered with a one word response. Once again, if you have a question you would like to ask Jon in this format, please send an e-mail with your question.

The reason for using questions via e-mail is two fold. Firstly, we have a proper name and person that can be included in the interview. In turn I will include e-mail addresses in the text to Jon, so if there is a desire for a personal reply, you may get one. Secondly, as mentioned above, the comments section is a little bit hit and miss at the moment, and would rather use a secure and manageable format such as e-mail, especially as I can then cross reference e-mail addresses with IP addresses.

“Back Of The Net”

I must be missing something about the goal nets. For me, I have absolutely no problem with the way the nets look on PES, and never have done. I am involved with a lot of football, and as long as the net determines the ball staying in a location once it has crossed the line, then it is serving its purpose. Goal nets across the world vary and perhaps on this level different style nets for different stadiums is something that would be beneficial from a graphical level, but other than that there are several other features such as varying ball types, weather conditions and pitch styles that would have more effect on the in game action that the cosmetic appearance of some nets.

Perhaps I am wrong here, and that the goal nets are a huge issue. I mean there have been some exceptionally vocal individuals supporting the goal nets over the years, and with a stadium editor on the cards, surely the ability to change goal nets seemed a shoe in. However whether it will be seems to becoming more and vaguer and the actual inclusion is a real grey area. So I ask, to the fans who are screaming for this feature, what is it you want? Do you want to be able to edit the colour, the pattern, the stanchions, the number of pegs, the colour of posts? Try and help me understand the feature, and I will in turn relay it back to the community next week!

“Two Can Play At That Game”

One official piece of news that was posted by Jon Murphy last week was that you can not take control of a computer controlled team in a league or cup competition. So in other words if two players are playing, they can be on the same team for a Champions League match, but they can not oppose each other by simply switching control settings. I know this is a feature that will annoy some people, as in league seasons, people like to play against their mates from time to time, however I can actually understand the logic. In a world which is built upon trophies, achievements and stats, it should not be possible to ‘cheat’ to obtain an award. If you wanted to gain a quick trophy, you could set yourself in control of the opposition in the Champion’s League final and win 12-0, only to change back and collect the accolades. Any feature that stops this is a good bonus in my book; however I know other people see it differently. Your views, as always are greatly appreciated.

“I Got Your Shopping”

And finally this week, as many of you may be aware, the PES Shop will make a welcome return to PES 2011. I am opening the community up to suggested unlockables. I expect the usual classic teams and players, along with a couple of novelty features, but what would you like to see as an unlockable? Perhaps some unique ground styles, such as school playing fields or park pitches, or new game modes such as random team mode a la PES 6. Completely open to suggestions, and with the shop being a returning feature, I have no idea which angle they will take with it! Comment in the usual manner.

That’s your lot for this week. If you have any questions for Jon Murphy please get in touch via e-mail on interferingwithplay@hotmail.co.uk. For any other topics feel free to comment, and I hope you will check back on the 4th for the latest press releases regarding PES 2011.

Thanks for Reading

“It’s Oh So Quiet”

In case you missed the below post, Double D has played an up to date code of PES 2011. That is to say it was up to date at some point, and I am sure that since then, the code has advanced further. It will be interesting to see exactly which code the PES community get in terms of a demo on X Box Live and the PSN at some point. Anyway, the issue that remains is Double D will respect that embargo, currently set at Wednesday 4th August, which means no matter how many questions are asked and how many points are raised, Double D can not comment or make a statement, even if he does know the answer.

Of course, some of you may think screw the embargo, tell us what you know. Other sites may work like this and fair play to them. However, PESGaming.com tries to do thing by the book whether possible. We give you guys an open forum (an issue I will touch on in a minute) and we deliver official news. For us, the embargo is just part of following the rules of reporting, and for all the gossip and hearsay out there, very few of the major PES sites break their embargos. If they do, they simply don’t get invited back to play tests, which in turn affects the accuracy and quality of their reports.

What this does ultimately mean is that unless there is an official press release, which more than likely would include screenshots and a video, the next 7 days or so are going to be quiet when it comes to official news. We are hoping that following the 4th, business will really start to pick up, but expect a lull for the next few days at least. This is one stage, of course, where I would love to be wrong!

“Gerrard To Torres”

In my bed bound state I managed to play a fair few games as Valencia, including a great few matches against Liverpool. The mini gripe comes from not being able to play home and away matches quickly, especially after an exciting first match, and creating a two legged match would be no more difficult that selecting the match ball to use, but due to Konami’s current state, it involves going back to the menu screen, changing the controller options and swapping the teams around. Never mind away goals etc. but it would be just nice to have it as an option.

Anyway, during the games, in which I played as Valencia for the last time featuring David Silva and Villa, I found myself up against a very impressive Liverpool side. Impressive because their in game tactics actually related quite heavily to their real life counterparts. The three examples that sprang to mind are as follows. Number one was Glen Johnson’s role at Right Back. When Liverpool attacked, Johnson always seemed to be involved, especially following a slow piece of build up play. This meant that I found myself getting most joy using Silva or Vicente down my left, which was constantly left unattended. Secondly, the role Lucas and Mascherano played in their defensive midfield positions. It was my tactic to immediately apply pressure to these two as soon as they got the ball, knowing that if they got turned and played forward, we would be on the back foot. The two players picked up the ball more often that not in their own half facing their own goal, and usually ended up playing back that way unless an easy turn or pass was available. Thirdly was the Gerrard and Torres combination. As soon as the ball went into Steve, Torres seemed to make a different movement, which my defenders rarely followed. One two occasions a first time Gerrard pass created space for Fernando, one of which ended in a goal. When Torres got the ball, he also only ever seemed to pass to Gerrard, choosing to shoot if the England midfielder wasn’t in view.

I don’t lose many on PES and it was rare that the two games against Liverpool ended 1-1 and 2-2, with me coming from behind in both. I exploited Glen Johnson in the first game and relied on Zigic in the second. However, I thoroughly enjoyed the matches and looked back thinking that how Liverpool had played had caused me to re-evaluate my own performance and tactics. If PES 2011 makes this a regular occurrence, I am very optimistic. And to all those that find PES too easy, I still offer the open challenge to take a Stoke, or a Hull and go up against one of Europe’s elite on Top Player. If you win comfortable every time, I would love to see the games on You Tube.

“That’s Not My Name”

Having read the comments from last week, the underlying issue regarding posts at the moment is the use of copy and paste. I think anyone who is on these forums regularly can appreciate that people use fake names or steal other names, and whilst we have discussed accounts, I like the freedom of speech allowed on these forums. Therefore, any copied and pasted articles will now be blocked and the IP address of the individual responsible will be added onto the black list. If your IP address turns up on the aforementioned black list more than once, you will be banned from posting. Copying and Pasting old articles is not beneficial in anyway shape or form, as it comes across as lazy and usually irrelevant to the current discussion topic.

If you would like to ‘reserve’ a username, the easiest thing to do is include an e-mail address when leaving a comment. This allows us to trace a username to a user quickly and efficiently, and will allow us to delete comments by posters using that name without the linking address. It really is as simple as that. I would not wish to put too much restriction on the comments, as I believe people are entitled to their opinion, even if it negative about myself, however if it is directly abusive, off topic or quite simply not the sort of content associated with this site, comments will be removed. Your voice has been heard.

“Lend Me That Copy”

Just to clear one thing up. I do not know of one magazine, gaming website or columnist who has received a code of PES through their mailbox. Konami do not give out the game directly, but instead invite the press to events where they can try out the game. If someone is telling you they have a copy, they are more than likely fibbing and this is also the reason why most play tests occur on a limited time scale. Asking someone to do a 12 hour review would be nearly impossible, as the most time we are getting with the games at this stage is a couple of hours.

“Dear Jon”

Following my speech a couple of weeks ago, I have decided to grab the bull by the horns and cut through the garbage and deal with it first hand. In the early part of August, I will be conducting an interview with Jon Murphy on behalf of PES Gaming and Soccer Gaming. This interview will hopefully get the questions out there that really need to be answered, find out exactly where Konami are with PES 2011 and how the community has influenced the game’s development, if at all.

Of course, I want your questions, but I want it done in a way that slightly differs from other sites, to make sure this interview covers all bases. Therefore I intend to work in two formats. Firstly, if you have a question for Jon Murphy that requires a long answer, please e-mail it to me. For this I am limiting to one question per person, and I am hoping the answer will require a few lines of text at least. For these questions, I want to ask about PES’ past, present and future and I want to catch the true feeling of the PESGaming community in the questions being asked. Again, I most remind you that these questions will only be included if submitted by e-mail. The second portion of the interview will be quick fire, however I will discuss this next week.

That’s your lot for this week. interferingwithplay@hotmail.co.uk is the place to direct your e-mails to, and please include the subject line Jon Murphy Question when replying to that topic. This is an opportunity to get a question directly to Jon, so please take up the opportunity. As always, feel free to comment on anything you have read in IWP.

Thanks for Reading

I went for a playtest of the latest cut of PES 2011, which is very fresh and more advanced that the one that has recently been previewed on various sites.

Unfortunately there is an embargo on the write up on the game until Wednesday 4th August at 10:00 a.m.

So please put this date in your diary, and prepare yourselves for my thoughts on this year’s game.

I wasn’t going to put this post up until next weekend, but really can’t contain myself.  I am not allowed to talk about the game, which I’m so very aware of, but I what I can say is that PES 2010 has now officially been shelved by me.  I can’t bring myself to play it anymore, that’s all I’m going to say.

I’m still formulating my article and want to spend the better part of a week editing it.  I want to try to ensure that reason dictates my opinions, not emotions.  As it stands, they way I would describe the game for me is that it’s a mixture of Pro Emotional Soccer as well as Pro Evolution Soccer.

I’m going to shut up about the game now though, otherwise I may just infringe the embargo accidentally.

I am sorry but I won’t be able to field any questions on the game until you read my article on it, but I will be dedicating many hours to making it as complete as I possibly can.  So don’t expect an article from me until the 4th of August.

Without trying to cause any arguments, I think it is safe to say that I was struggling to find negatives with the build, and that’s quite a compliment to the team!  Right, I’m shutting up now, since I’m going to say something that I may regret!

Thanks for reading.

Dougiedonut