Following an extensive few days play with this years version of PES I find myself sitting down typing this review with a degree of disappointment as the game that I have known and loved for years seems to have become stagnant, a shadow of its former self.

From the start you know that there is something not right as you are welcomed by some Day-Glo parkeur inspired kick about that is the intro sequence. The main menu isn’t great either, yes it’s functional but it just looks like something that would be more at home on the PlayStation 2 version of the game. One more thing while I am on the topic of the main menu, the music that plays as you navigate the menu is a 80s throwback. It all just feels like you are moving back in time rather than moving on!

Once you navigate through the menus and you start playing you notice that the gameplay is an improvement over the very, very disappointing 360 version of PES6 last year. This time you do feel like you are in control of everything your player does now rather than it taking a few seconds to register which button you have pressed and then doing it. It almost feels like they have gone back to the way PES5 controlled and tried to ignore that PES6 ever happened.

The commentary team consisting of John Champion and Mark Lawrenson overall adds something to the game. Well Champion does, from the amount of effort Lawro puts into the delivery of his lines Konami may as well have brought in Steven Hawking!

Offline multiplayer is the games greatest asset and probably the main reason most people will buy it. A top laugh if you have a few mates who are into the game and the series as it is still the ultimate pick-up-and-play you have always loved.

The player animations are not as natural as they should be. The player models are exactly the same as they were in J League CC on the PS2. As acceptable as that is for the PS2 we are expecting more from the PS3. The kits also look wrong, even those that are licensed look plastic rather than a fabric. There is no movement to the kits at all, even when running they remain solid and even when some become untucked during the course of a game it still doesn’t really improve the look.

Something that you will notice within the first 5 minutes of playing, and has been mentioned in a few reviews, is the slowdown (or framerate issues if you prefer). This should not be happening with the next-gen version of the game and is totally unacceptable. I tried playing in many different camera angles and all gave the same result. On the topic of cameras, you seem to lose a lot of the detail when you play with wide cam than when compared to playing with any of the other cameras. It’s like Konami realised that playing with the wide cam created more of a slowdown/framerate issue and compensated by reducing the crispness of the graphics thinking that nobody would notice. We did!

Liverpool Vs Everton was my first game, or rather it was “Merseyside Red Vs Merseyside Blue” (Thank you EA). I tore them apart in the first half by scoring a couple and generally giving them what they deserved. My goals were helped by the fact that Tim Howard has apparently decided that catching the ball is far too much effort and palmed or punched the ball whenever it went near him. Now I thought the keepers faults were purely because I was playing against Everton; however, the keepers still aren’t on top of their game with any of the top teams in the World.

Free kicks are still the same as they have been in previous years too, although I noticed a distinct lack of movement from defenders and attackers as I lined one up from about 35 yards out. Where is the jostling that I see when I watch real football? However the introduction of the feature allowing you to decide how many men you want in the wall is a good step forward. Maybe next year this can be moved forward by integrating zonal and man marking in set pieces.

With me scoring so freely it gave me a chance to check out the replays and that brought another question to mind. Why the hell is any replay like a bloody slideshow feature? They don’t flow smoothly at all; jumping from one frame to the next like you are watching it with a strobe light on. They even jump during the half and full time highlights sequence.

The team you are playing with also seem to have no idea how to work the space or even how to move at all until you take control of them. This is also the same for the opposition who will barely recognise any danger until you are within shooting range. It makes you wonder how this took Seabass and his team 18 months work. I am guessing they spent 15 months modelling player’s faces as they are the one bright spot graphically.

In saying all this if you can ignore the games many faults you will find yourself playing a nice, flowing game of football and this is where the game is at its best. With passing being crisp and sharp and through balls tearing apart defences as they should, it feels great when you create something that leads to a shot. Shooting also feels like you connect with the ball rather than it bouncing off thin air before it hits the back of the net. I found myself scoring a couple of crackers that made me jump out of my seat and its that kind of thing that you expect from a football game.

I have also had a brief play of the game online. I say brief because I have tried to play a couple of games and have so far found it totally unplayable due to lag issues. Apparently Konami are aware of the problem and are working on a patch for it. Here’s an idea lads, how about testing the game properly online before the release date so you know how it plays! To me it just seems that Konami don’t really care about how the game plays online and it shows. We await the patch with baited breath and will see if it makes any difference to the way the game plays.

Right I have just played a couple of games against our very own Mr Mo online to see if my initial impressions of online play were justified. Yes they were! For Konami to have released a game that plays like this online is inexcusable, though in all fairness for it to play like it does offline is also inexcusable.

Scores:
Presentation 6
Graphics 7 (Great Faces, disappointing player models)
Sound 6
Gameplay 7
Longevity 7
Overall 7

If this was the first iteration of the game then I think people would give Konami the benefit of the doubt; however, sequel number six (in Europe) and I don’t think the game has actually moved on at all in the last 4 years.

I also think I best add this…..I have been a fan of the series for years and I just hope that Konami take some notice of the negative press they are getting and pull the series round over the next couple of years. I have faith that they can bring back the glory days where people used to rush home after school or work like mad-men to play PES!

Thanks for reading
CW