PES Matters 3rd June 2012

Unfortunately we were not invited to the fun and games in Brazil for PES 2013. Not that we could have afforded to go!
I feel like the poor relative who hears about the posh parties a rich relative is always at, but can never get to.
But it’s moot point, since we don’t have the means to send anyone anyway – given we’re all doing this out of love for PES and aren’t paid for the time we put in. The closest we’d get to Brazil is getting a Brazilian..

Moving on, a big thanks to Dan for the pretty comprehensive list of views from professional gaming sites who did manage to get to Brazil. So we’re left at picking the bones out of the information that is being showered upon us from everyone else.

I don’t see much point in trying to infer too much from other people’s views, since we don’t have the benefit of having seeing it for ourselves. What I can say about this stage of development is that everyone seeing it for the first time will be overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information hitting them at once.

Going on my previous experience, it’s very hard to remain professional and focused on what is being shown objectively. You turn into a 12 year old with a huge grin on your face and practically drool at the game. Seasoned professionals will probably fair better than I ever did at this stage, but you have to try to remember that it’s nowhere near the final article. You have to try to look beyond the obvious flaws in gameplay, to appreciate the new features. Therein lies the conundrum for reviewers.

You obviously want to report the good and the bad at this stage, but is it fair to report the bad? By that, I mean that Konami want to portray a positive image at this stage. So reporting bugs and issues in previews isn’t fair on Konami – or is it?
In the past I’ve listed the many positives as well as what I would term “inherent flaws” in the game. This has been frowned upon, but it’s something I think must be highlighted to portray the state of the game.

I’m not talking about saying things like dribbling animations being disjointed, or shooting being wayward (given that new shooting mechanics are in production). I’m talking about invisible barriers, and my pet hate the Super Cancel function. For me, Super Cancel epitomises the leash that PES is kept on. It was understandable in the previous gaming generations. But the majority of PES players on the PS3, 360 and PC are veterans of the series, not new players. We have been crying out for the stabilisers to be taken off, and to set free.

Adam from winningelevenblog’s playtest impressions said something very interesting to me: “I never had to press super cancel once”.
To me this is somewhat bitter sweet. On one hand, it’s clear that there is less hand holding going on, but on the other (and more fundamentally) the Super Cancel function is still in the game. Until this feature is driven out, I can’t accept that we’re being given the total freedom Konami are re-branding PES under. The fact that it is still needed to force a player to do what you want, rather than follow a scripted path is unacceptable. I don’t know about you, but I feel it’s patronising, and is one reason why the game is in the shadow of FIFA. That’s not something I enjoy pointing out, but facts are facts.

A few articles list from Dan’s list hint at PES overtaking FIFA this time – again it feels like these people feel obliged to pay Konami this compliment for the hospitality afforded to them – especially in Brazil! And no i’m not bitter about not having gone out there – honest! There is no way PES is just going to leap over this generation’s progress made by FIFA, no matter how good PES2013 turns out to be. Sorry if I’m painting a gloomy picture, but I consider myself a realist.

Some very positive actions from Konami which I applaud is the apparent backseat from Seabass on this game. We were told that a fresh batch of developers have joined the team too – again this can only be positive. To have fresh perspective is always a good thing if managed well. I hope there are also fresh faces in the official test team too. It’s very easy to become engrossed in the testing of the game, and miss the woods for the trees. This explains why so many obvious bugs are missed by them, and picked up on in an instant by gamers who get their hands on the game. I believe Konami will address this by involving more non-staff in testing the game, but time will tell the degree to which this is carried out.

Finally, thank you to the 200 people who took part in the poll about whether you’re still on PES or not. It’s quite interesting to see that in total 61% of the voters play FIFA, and only 39% played PES exclusively. This picture to me shows that PES is losing the battle with their core gamers. This is the biggest worry since it’s the core players that drive and maintain sales. Casual players aren’t necessarily reliable sources of income. It will be very interesting to see what impact PES 2013 has on these numbers.

Anyway, I’ve got a new poll for you – please do get your vote in there!

Thanks for reading.

Dougiedonut
(dougiedonut@pesgaming.com)