I’m sure I’m gonna get completely shot down for this, but I just watched the 720p video in those links and the game looks terrible. It’s PES2010 with some tweaks. I really don’t know where to start at how disappointing this game looks.
Okay, here goes (and cue the abuse)
- Sound. It sounds awful. Tinny sounding crowds, repetitive chants, awful shrill whistle from previous editions is STILL there. I mean seriously, how can they keep the same sound design, it was terrible in PES2010 etc.
- Animations. Again, these look AWFUL. Players don’t move like real people, they kick the ball in a strange manner, Messi on several occasions glides across the pitch like he’s hovering above it. Messi is travelling so much faster than the defenders around him that his legs don’t even keep the same speed that he’s travelling. Players seem to again move in a robotic way, and when they kick the ball, their stance is all wrong, their foot sometimes doesn’t even look like it comes into contact with the ball, and look looks wrong. Check out Kuyt’s penalty, what kind of kicking action is that?
- Physics. The ball doesn’t move realistically. It barely bobbles. One clip shows a Germany player latching onto a lofted through ball, and he brought the ball down and under immediate control with no bouncing, nothing. And when players dribble with the ball, it looks horrific. The player will tap the ball in front of him, then it almost ’snaps’ back onto his foot like it’s tied to a rubber band. Utterly awful. And again, I cannot believe how the hype has had us all thinking the game will play differently when the first proper extended gameplay clip shows Messi able to turn and dribble past half the team, travelling stupidly fast and drilling it into the net.
- Goalkeepers. Check out the Portugal goal near the very end of the video. The player somehow dribbles through the defence thanks to the fact that the ball is tied to his foot (again, no bobbling or proper ball physics). BUT, he manages to dribble into the six yard box before the keeper seems to even realise the ball is there, and the guy pumps the ball into a near empty net.
I really want to think this game will signal my old love of PES but this just looks robotic, dependant on fast players, and more of the same. Bugger.