Fellas,
Yesterday it was my turn to visit Gamescom, of course PES 2010 was one of my top priority's. And i have to say: i was happily surprised (especially after reading a lot of negative previews / posts...). I just watched a few PES video's Gari posted: man they gives the wrong impressions!! The game's speed is soooooo fast in the vids, but when you actually play it, it's far slower!!! Guys thrust me: the games speed is ACE!!! A touch slower comparing to PES 2009, which is a good thing!
I played like 6 matches of PES 2010 (and watched a few), let me line out my thoughts:
- Pace of PES2010 is absolutely spot on!! Slower than PES2009, but not as slow as FIFA'09 was.
- Graphics WOW!! Up close; absolutely stunning!
- Ball animations: what an improvement!! I feel this is undervalued in most of the previews: but what a difference!! The ball feels so much more like real life, so much more free. For example: i was playing against my mate and both of our players bumped into each other, with the ball in the middle... so the ball bounced up a little into the air: something you have NEVER seen before in any of the PES-series! Also when dribbling, the ball moved so different... different in a very good way, more freely... really adds to the gameplay big-time... ball movements looked so convincing!
- Much spoken animations: Definitely a big improvement compared to PES2009! So many more little stuff we already witnessed! There were some animations of 2009 indeed, but the game didn't feel 2009 at all (more new ones than 2009 ones)! The running animations were the only thing looking bad, the rest of it really looked good. Especially the shooting and passing animations: the boots of the players really connect beautiful (although i always remember the silly Henry goal after Messi 'way too powerful' chip cross in one of the video's, i didn't witnessed such a bug!). And with Konami stating many animations aren't implemented yet: we're in for a treat! You really discover new stuff game after game! I think it's all pretty decent
- About the Team's Tactics: you can definitely see a variety in gameplay!! There were only 4 teams to pick from; but all 4 really felt different (in default). You can clearly see Dani Alves has 'Overlapping Run', especially when you pass the ball around a couple of times; he slowly positions himself deeper and deeper up the pitch, superb! Took a peek at the players CARD system, but like the Teams Tactics: i didn't adjust any though. But thrust me: more individuality in Teams & Players, definitely a big plus!!
- Loading times... MASSIVE; no loading times at all (ok 5 seconds of stadium watching, but it pops to the stadium right away!)! What a great feature
- Goalkeepers: you can no longer round the keeper (as easily) no more!! Definitely a big plus! Also made a stunner of a save (i used manual diving - by pressing square + triangle) when my mate had a clear chance, and boy did the goalie save it! Also felt like the goalie spilled the ball far less! It happened one time, but hey: it would be wrong if the goalie never spilled a ball. In the 6 games there was however a big error / bug of the goalie: i fired from long range shot with Babel (i wanted to see if long-range shots would indeed be possible now), and (like real-life LOL) it really wasn't the best of shots - pretty powerless, but the goalie looked hilarious! No attempted of save what so ever! Hope it was a bug!
- I didn't really see the new 360 movements in the game. But i did see a more variety in dribbling; i guess it was more like 32 way movement. Changing directions when running is a bit harder (maybe also because of the lower pace). Dribbling without pressing the R1 is very rewarding too!! Without pressing R1, someone like Ribery is dribbling pretty fast! Again this felt so different from 2009, in such a good way!
- The physical players collision system has developed too! It all looked more natural / real life!! Also one big improvement: when you tackle an opponent, you can also now sort of 'hit' your own teammate an accidently make him stumble (Fifa09 already had this, where PES2009 didn't show this much... but like i say: not anymore it does!).
Also took my time to look at the player stats (although it was in freaking German!). Henry had a 95 for 'sturm'... meaning attack i guess LOL! He still has a super shot! Benzema and Gourcouf were pretty good too. Fernando Torres was so good in the game: really something special! And talking about special, Messi was superb! The stats looked pretty on spot / similar to last year. Arbeloa is terrible with the new overall status set at 69! But a well; i guess he's not that great in real-life too!
IMO if this demo would hit as the real version, it would already be a good game!! The feel of PES like the old days is definitely back!! But if PES 2010 wants to be titled as 'The return of the King' it definitely needs tweaking!! But i really have faith in Konami: they will take out all the bugs, add more animations... it could mean Konami brought the king back!! Fifa 10 looked superfluid in motion, but it didn't feel right for me personally. I've always been a PES player, although i bought Fifa 10 too (which lacked action to me, and never felt rewarding scoring)... and the special feeling PES used to create, was pretty much back again!!!
I'm really exited after Gamescom!!! Finally PES felt Next-gen... i'm looking forward to the things Konami still has in store for us!! 23th of October is most definitely going to be a great day!!
