Pro Evolution Soccer 2009

First things first - this game doesn't get 5 stars becasue it has a few flaws and annoying points - but that doesn't mean the *core* of the game isn't good - and that is also why it cannot ever EVER deserve one star. I don't know what game these people are playing but it ain't this.

I have both FIFA 09 and PES 09. Good start for a comparison. But I'll talk about PES as this is the review for that game. Ok.

Annoying bits out the road first.
1) Commentary - I've been switching the footy commentary off since PES4. Enough said - I couldn't care less. The crowd noise and tension on the pitch is where it counts so - despite the fact next gen should be able to handle some reactive speech programming with ease - ths is one where I say "who cares". Really. I don't.
2) Menus. Abysmal. Truly rank rotten - the lot of them. Whoever designed these for Konami should be ashamed. It's like pop art for a trainer commercial. FIFA's are terrible too - but not this bad!
3) Music. Again - mostly not my forte. I liked the cheesy rock of PES4 but for the most part - again - music has little to do with a football match unless it's hordes of ecstatic fans belting out their teams anthems. So once more - who really cares? Not me.

Now the good bits.

1) On the pitch - yes the graphics are a lot lot better. The camera angles are a whole lot better than FIFA's (even when customised) and the player collisions especially are a joy to experience. Whether crunching tackles or simple accidental collisions - the sound and physical movement is quite lifelike.
2) On the pitch - difficult passes are, in the main, more difficult and easier passes are, well yeah, easier (in the main). The spread of player skill is a bit more stretched now. You could previoulsy have humped the ball across the pitch with anybody and landed it close to your opposite player. Not now. You need to think a bit more about the passes - but some good combination moves are possible.
3) Tackling and "pressing" the opposition. On the pitch - the big guys now feel big - whereas the wee guys tend to get the brush off. But unlike previous incarnations - the inertia of your own player does seem to be a closer match to the opposing player - i.e it's not as easy as it was previously to simply get barged off the ball. Nice!
4) Speed. The balance of speed and skill has been brought into line. It's not quite as easy to charge away and leave defenders in your dust (whilst dribbling) but it's just as effective to either a) motor past down the line at speed (sacrificing control) or b) dribbling happily away. Players will keep up with you - but if you have a good dribblign skill level then you can fend them off if you make the right directional choices. Again - what would a real Lionel Messi do?
5) Tactics. The fully customisable tactical system in PES hasn't been updated in years - but it has worked well for years too. Being able to swap between 3 different formation during a game can be a liability for the untrained - but when you change things around and see some proper improvement - it's extremely satisfying. Breaking down stubborn defences with a swift change of tactics is the reward for any good manager - and PES still delivers this.

Now the grey areas.

1) Shooting. In some respects it's more realistic. Longer shots are more difficult to hit without time, space and skill - whereas low shots in the box are normally quite well struck from guys with decent shooting skill. In saying that - it's still quite easy to balloon shots over the bar from players with whom you would expect to have better control - but conversely it's sometimes easy to accidentally come up with the most improbable of finishes featuring dexterity, shooting technique and power that only belong to the likes of Cruijff or Van Basten. So for shooting - the jury's out.
2) Player movement. Other reviewers have commented on the lack of involvement of other team mates. I agree it's a bit erratic - but on the whole your colleagues do react to the right choice of tactics and attacking direction from the formation options. The forwards generally advance quite aggressively - in fact pleasingly so. But sometimes the full backs only advance of you first pass the ball with them to a team mate and then hit the B button to charge forward. So I'm not sure this has worked out best for 09.

In summary though - I do think the on pitch action deserves some really good marks - and I think it just beats FIFA in terms of "feel" and control when on the ball. Konami have some tweaks to make - and long standing issues to sort out (c'mon "Seabass" - you should be embarrassed that some of your most well known game design flaws still exist across 5 or 6 iterations of the game - and an entirely new platform to boot).

But overall - yeah I don't see why 4 out of 5 is not fair - and once more I can't agree at all with the scores of 1 out of 5. These games seem to bring out the worst in people sometimes - and for most of the reasons given I think it's a bit petty.

If you want the best on-pitch action - with a good sprinkling of competitiveness and realism - then PES 2009 is hard to beat.

So another year, and another inevitable duel between PES and FIFA to be crowned king of the football simulations. Unfortunately, this time also means the occurence of the petty squabbles between PES and FIFA fan boys, with both parties claiming 'Only real men' can play their respective game; oblivious to the fact that each game indicates anyone over the age of three can, in fact, do so.
In light of this, I will try to keep my review as non-biased as possible, in spite of my allegiance to PES over the years.

To start off, I am surprised by the reviews labelling this the 'WORST PES GAME EVAR!'. However, in spite of this, I think there is reason to be critical of Konami.
While new features have been added, the gameplay remains very much the same - perhaps worse!
The player motion, as ever seems rigid, with players seemingly only being able to run at 8 different angles. What exacerbates this is the sensitivity of the analogue stick. How vexing it can be when through on goal, you tap the stick to the side to open up your body in order to perform an Henry-esque curler, but instead find your player do a 45 degree turn and run head first into the challenging defender.
If that wasn't bad enough, when you do get through on goal, you'll find you either pass the ball into the hands of the grateful keeper; or you'll imitate Johnny Wilkinson and hoof the ball 20 yards over the ball.

While the players are generally tactically sound, I still find the full-back will show a complete unwillingness to push forward and support the winger when quite blatantly need - 'Yes Dani Alves, you are allowed to push forward into that valley of space in front of you when the winger has clearly ran out of options and has two opponents kicking him from behind'.
And kick they do. The refereeing is strange. 'Pressing' seemingly involves the opponent standind behind you for a few seconds, kicking you in the back of the leg, and walking off with the ball whilst the terrible commentary team criticise you for losing possession.
And that leads me onto my next point: the commentary. One of the major criticisms of the previous games was the banal commentary. So how do they prevent this repetition? By opting to use the exact same commentary! Yes, they're back, with profound quotes such as: "If you keep the ball, the other team can't score"; "If you don't win the raffle, you can't win the lottery"; and "He could open a can of beans with his foot" That's right: "He could open a can of beans with his foot". Is any player deserving of such high praise?

Now the negatives are out of the way, I can say I still find the gameplay very enjoyable. No longer will you have to face the annoyance of passing the ball to no-one whilst your player stands there in anticipation; the pace of the game is very good; whilst, as abovementioned, the players seem very tactically aware.

The Become a Legend mode is thoroughly enjoyable too. It is the sort of feature that gives you a sense of achievement. You do not gain instant gratification and full stats within 2 seasons. You have to spend years working your way up and developing your stats before you can be considered for a top side. Admittedly, the selection process can be strange - I was dropped after scoring a hattrick. But other than that, it is a thoroughly enjoyable feature.

In conclusion, I would say it is a good buy, but I just cannot see why Konami do not improve on flaws that have been so obvious for the past few years.

TPro evolution 9 is harder than all the other pro evo games because it is harder to score