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Pro Evolution Soccer 2013 - Out Now - it's actually good this year

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Paul-LFC:
First previews are out, and it's actually sounding good. Whether that will translate to the final game we don't know but the full manual controls sound like they could genuinely make it a better game than it has been recently.


--- Quote from: CVG ---It's an interesting time in the battle between the footy heavyweights. With FIFA 12 really pulling away from PES in unit sales, Konami's former genre champ seemingly has nothing to lose by pushing the innovation boat out in this year's instalment - and EA could just as easily end up resting on its laurels.

The result is a PES that again makes significant changes in feel and gameplay, with a slower pace and risky control introductions that could transform the way you approach post-pub virtual footy.

SHOOT TO KILL
As usual, Konami's presenting its PES 2013 additions in the form of three pillars: Full Control (PES FC), Advanced AI and Player ID. These were mentioned earlier this year in the form of a press release, and we have to admit we weren't exactly blown away. How wrong we were.


An extensive hands-on during a ridiculous trip to Sao Paulo, Brazil teased one of the most tactical, exciting Pro Evo instalments in a long time, and a game that many present in South America felt could genuinely give FIFA a shock result later this year.
Most significant to PES 2013's transformation is the aforementioned PES FC, which the feature bullet point list says lets players activate manual shooting, pull off various first touch-related skills, and make use of the new 'Full Manual Passing'.

The latter is basically the introduction of dynamic moves to player dribbling - a bit like FIFA 13's own system - which gives your virtual footballers greater accuracy in tighter spaces. This means insane dribbling through a packed penalty box, Barcelona style, is now absolutely possible - and supremely satisfying - with more skillful players like Iniesta.

On the subject of superstars, they really feel different this year. When Ronaldo is on the ball, alongside the giant name above his head you can also feel his skill and power behind the controls as he seemingly effortless beats defenders and draws fouls.

He also benefits from the introduction of Deft Touch Dribbling, another dynamic dribbling system which has your wingers making tighter touches when they're close to the line. Controlling old Winker on the edge of the box has him performing little heel taps and ball rolls. As well as the obvious gameplay consequences, this looks fantastic thanks to a brand new roster of animations.

PES FC also encompasses Dynamic One-Twos (again creating better accuracy in tight spaces), Enhanced Keepers (who look better and act far more realistically this year) and Advanced Trap. Trapping has you pressing R2 upon receiving a long cross. Bugger it up and the ball will bounce or speed ahead of your man, making it easy for defenders to clean up.


It adds a risk-reward element to offensive play, and advanced players can use the trapping system in conjunction with the right stick to faint a shot in the box or flick the ball in any direction they want.
But the absolute best addition to the attacking side of PES is Full Manual Shooting, which in our early demo allowed us to hold L2 to turn off all assistance whatsoever and often perform some ridiculous, unpredictable strikes.

The PES team is still working out how the implement the system for the final game, but during our hands-on time we saw some truly unexpected and awesome manual goals, with curl and brutal deflections contributing heavily. With FIFA 13's mission being to "capture the unpredictability of real-world football", it's ironic that so far PES is the game that has surprised us most.

The counter to all these attacking advancements is a new defensive system called Responsive Defending. Double tap X (on PS3) and your defender will dive in with a leg in an attempt to perform a last ditch clearance. It works well, but when mistimed can also work against you if you cause a foul or get mugged off by Ronaldinho as he simply hops over your lunge.

CLEVER BOYS
PES 2013's second 'pillar' is more of a promise than something that's strongly apparent in the early demo. ProActive AI makes tweaks to computer opponents, mainly in reaction to the new FC controls, and players are said to make space for you when you're pulling off Deft Dribbling moves on the touch line.


In reaction to fan feedback, defensive lines now push a little further up the pitch rather than camping in front of the goalkeeper, as often occurred in PES 2012, with fullbacks bursting forward more readily to take advantage of space. More info on PES 2013's AI is promised for E3.
Pillar number three on Konami's football tripod is Player ID, which promises to take capturing the 'personality' of star players to the next level. Perfectly recreating Messi's arse-scratches is a claim every FIFA and PES seems to have made since 2007, but PES 2013 appears to have made more of an effort than past efforts.

Just as you can see in the PES 2013 teaser trailer, the dev team has captured the running style and shooting posture of Christiano Ronaldo, so he looks just as camp-arrogant in the game as in real life. "40 to 50" other superstars will get the same treatment in PES 2013, and thankfully not all of them play for Real and Barcelona.

Via a presentation video, we saw Kaka's frantic scramble runs, Neymar's piss-taking stepovers, Puyol's lunging tackles and - brilliantly - John Terry's attempted torpedo header clearance from the England vs. Slovenia game at the 2010 World Cup (we've literally begged Konami to release footage).

The build we played only featured two teams (Real Madrid and Flamingos), so we didn't get a wide-scale demonstration of how impactful the individuality will be in-game, but you can feel the difference when dribbling with Real's main man compared to the comparatively sluggish Ronaldinho.

In action, PES 2013 is a slower-paced game than its predecessor, which fits in with the extra time required to pull off manual passes, ball trapping and mental manual shots.


It's a game that suddenly feels full of soul and encourages players to be more creative in their play - looking for the top corner, passing to Ronaldo who can dart through the box with ease, and flicking the ball over the last man after a long cross before slotting it home.
The slower pace, combined with the great PES FC additions, makes for a more tactical, skilful game, which not only shakes off last year's image as 'the arcade footy title' but, according to some FIFA-loving journos on our trip, might seriously be enough to see them switch allegiance this year.

Us? We were very impressed. Our upcoming FIFA 13 hands-on session suddenly has a lot to live up to...
--- End quote ---


--- Quote from: Eurogamer ---As we walk amongst the dying embers of this round of consoles, it's safe to say that this generation hasn't been as kind to Pro Evolution Soccer as the last. The series' journey since its stuttering first steps and the rising fortunes of its rival have been documented well enough; but in FIFA's shadow, PES has quietly, and at times brilliantly, rebuilt itself as a dynamic, quick-fire alternative to the more studied rhythms of EA's game.
That journey was kicked off by Pro Evolution Soccer 2011, a game that dared to tear apart the series' fundamentals and start from scratch - an approach that, given the slow start that PES had on HD consoles, made perfect sense, taking the series in a direction that favoured fast-paced, combative football.
Having thrown its cards in the air a couple of years back, it feels like they've finally come down to settle into place for PES 2013. After two exciting if flawed outings, here's something approaching the end product, a realisation, perhaps, of what Pro Evo could and perhaps should have been this generation.

Not that those cards haven't been subject to a reshuffle. Shinji 'Seabass' Takatsuka has stepped down from his role at the head of the series, replaced by a new group of producers who've come up through the development team. Kei Masuda, who's worked on the series since 2003's PES 3, is the new face of the game, though sadly he's not present for the grand reveal - in his place is senior producer Naoya Hatsumi, another veteran who's taking up a more prominent role.
They're old hands but fresh faces, their appointments ushering in an end the conservatism that's held back more recent entries. "When we started developing PES 2013, we asked ourselves questions," Hatsumi begins. "What is the fundamental essence of football? What's the best part of football? This is our answer." It's an answer that, we're pleased to report, rings with the pomp and flair that's traditionally defined PES.
PES 2013's amendments and improvements were highlighted upon announcement, but it is, as ever, a minor revelation to see them come together in open play. The headline addition is PES Full Control (or - cutely - PES FC), an umbrella term for a range of tweaks and new features that place a greater emphasis on a player's dexterity with finger and thumb, translating it into an athletic showcase of footwork and agility.
Dynamic First Touch is one of the more interesting of the additions, especially when placed in contrast to FIFA 13's First Touch Control - features that are superficially similar but that reveal, on closer inspection, philosophies that are near-diametrically opposed. In FIFA there's a new-found emphasis on the way that chance plays into the beautiful game, and how controlling an incoming pass is so very dependent on skill as well as a little luck, with balls likely to spill out across the pitch if not treated with a certain amount of respect.

In PES 2013, it's all about giving the player a level of control that tends towards the spectacular. Holding down the right trigger when a ball comes in enables a trap, a cushioning that can tame an incoming ball or that can, with a little skill, use its momentum to turn against the opposition; a click of the right stick as the ball's being trapped sets off a deft flick that can send it over your head and, if circumstance allows, over the heads of any inbound defenders. It's a tighter sense of control that makes lofted passes a little more viable than they have been in the past.
This level of control has been extended to more intimate moments, too. Deft Touch Dribbling continues last year's concern with placing an emphasis on close control, and so putting more focus on the myriad one-on-one encounters that make up a game of football. By combining movements with the left and right sticks, players stroke the ball around, tapping away at it and rolling it around under the sole of their boot and enabling a little pensive pause in play before the next decisive move is made.
Countering the close control is response defending, an amendment that sees some of the defensive improvements of last year's FIFA make their way to PES. Holding down the tackle button harries an opposition player, holding up the play - while double-tapping the same button sends the player lunging in pursuit of the ball, a challenge that won't necessarily work out, that outcome made more likely by the more advanced close control that's afforded to attacking players.

Balancing the potential frailty of defenders and the empowered attack is Pro Active AI, an amendment that sees computer-controlled players off the ball making much smarter use of the space around them. It's highlighted well in a direct comparison with last year's model, where a defensive line would remain rigid in the line of fire - whereas this time out, it's more fluid, working to block off potential channels of attack.
PES 2013's improvements allow for greater expression in play, and for more individual personality to emerge in an encounter. Reflecting that within the code is a little more personality from the players on the pitch, with more individual stances and tics making the cut. There's cover star Ronaldo's arrogant stance, legs wide apart, from free kicks, as well as a reflection of his uniquely fleet-footed dribbling.
Then there's Iniesta's deft dribbling and his ability to cut a ball in with alarming precision, Ribery's turn and Neymar's general ability to dazzle defences with acts of incredible athleticism. Some of the quirks are less flattering for the players, though: Robben now runs, true to life, like a camp aeroplane, while John Terry will fling himself at moments of desperation like a stiff and unsavoury salmon.
So how does it all hang together? Oddly, the thing that strikes first when playing PES 2013 isn't any of the headline additions; it's the pace, with games being carried out at a much more sedate rate than PES 2012 (although given the hyperactive nature of that particular game, it would have been unwise to have gone any faster). It's still played at a quicker lick than its rival, but it's certainly more ponderous, giving players the time to indulge and experiment with the changes brought in by PES FC.

And the most striking of those is the Full Manual Control that's now actively encouraged. Manual passing has been complemented by a manual one-two that allows you to direct the second ball, enabling lay-offs that, if placed well, can prove lethal. Manual shooting, meanwhile, gives a level of control that's dizzying at first, a feeling compounded by being thrown in at the deep end in a competitive match. (It's a problem that, to its credit, PES' development team acknowledges; it's working on implementing a full tutorial.)
Indeed, playing PES 2013 for the first time, it's easy to feel lost. But any sense of confusion soon gives way to a sense of wonder as the possibilities enabled by the new systems become apparent, with deft one-twos giving way to driven shots across the box that fly into the top corner, all directed with precision by the player in a fully manual set-up. There's a learning curve, but in giving so much control over to the player there's also the sense of unpredictability that made PES so alluring back in its heyday - the feeling that a goal could emerge from any situation and that, with the right amount of skill and a little luck, anything's possible.
This isn't the conservative PES that iterated itself into oblivion for so many years, and nor, right now, does it seem to be one that's hamstrung by minor flaws that blemish its grand philosophy. In fact, PES 2013 comes across as positively daring, its move towards a brand of flair football promising a game that's uniquely intoxicating, and one that means that the series could see out this generation the way it saw out the last.
--- End quote ---

Drinks Sangria:
I hope it's actually full manual this time, as opposed to 'full manual.' As in, last time PES promised this, they delivered a 16-direction version of their original system. It's looking good though, and whilst I prefer Fifa right now, I'll always hold a flame for PES because I remember just how good it was. The old ISS' and Pes 4 and 5 were insanely good. I hope the Master league option returns where you can make a custom club and are given a bit of money at the start to buy two or three cheap players. They took it out in recent iterations and replaced the points system with money. Hopefully points are returned, or you can set it as such.

andymanlfc:
Saw some screenshots yesterday, look pretty detailed to be fair.

Anywhichwayucan:
Other than a demo, it's a while since I've played PES.

Upinsmoke:

--- Quote from: Anywhichwayucan on May 31, 2012, 01:49:49 PM ---Other than a demo, it's a while since I've played PES.

--- End quote ---

Just dunno what went wrong this Gen. Absolutely loved PES on ps1 and PS2, even pes 6 on 360 was decent but after that it was just awful, worse drop in standards I've ever seen from a franchise.

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