PES 2011

Yesterday was the day for a selected number of community members to play the game that is PES 2011! We arrived at the Konami studio at 9:30. Jon came down and took us to the PES room where there were 5 TV’s set out with a ps3 on each (PES 2011 loaded up).
First thing I saw was the PES menu. Whoa! For me it looked fantabulous, the visual side had more of a modern and non Japanese feel to it (if you know what I mean ^^). Before we could actually do anything TheBoss (from Pesfan) introduced everyone and Jon explained a few things afterwards.
Prior to playing the game I was very nervous and at the same time super excited. I had this feeling that probably some of you guys might’ve been having as well (or still have) that with all these changes coming to PES 2011, would it still be the same PES that we all know, the PES of old, the PES from the PS2 days? <-----Well after playing the game, that doubt was all gone! Yes, the game feels totally reworked and has this different feel to it, but the base and fundamentals of PES can still be felt. The soul is still there people!
 




2011 Menu





Fullsize:http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x255/Rahan07/IMAG0098.jpg?t=1279893432

Team Menu: Simple and clean. Both spider diagram and Overall ability are in game. Subs are on the left shown via small balls. Pressing the square button on a player will bring up a screen which allows you to change the role/select him as a captain/ mark settings and pressing the Triangle button brings out the player details.
Atmosphere: Chants seemed less repetitive. The crowds react to the play (they jeer and shout when a player gets fouled or if you miss a shot) this made the game feel more like the real life counterpart.
Defending: It’s hard at first as you have to get the timing of your tackle right, if you don’t the opposition player will get ahead of you. Worried about a fast paced striker getting ahead of you? Well in this version when you’re faced with a fast paced attacker, if you have a good strong centre back he will manage to physically muscle the attacker out of the way.
Diving: It’s still in the game. But now you have to press two more buttons woo lol ‘R3 and L3’, I actually couldn’t pull it off for some reason (was pressing all the right buttons but it didn’t happen) so Pirate from PESFAN had to show how it was done :P
Goal Keepers: When the keepers dived for the ball or fisted/smacked the ball the small animations for them actually looked good, the new animations made the saves look and feel real, however the fumbles and standing still while the ball goes into the net was still there. Good news from Jon though, he mentioned these things should be fixed and sorted.
Ref: Well its 50/50 still making the wrong decisions, you can see the player got the ball but it still results in a foul + a yellow. This is in Konamis list of things to do, so hopefully things get better.
Individuality: With all this freedom + 360 Individuality is still at the core! PES hasn’t lost it ;)
Game Play: Oh yeahhhhh! Now this is next gen baby!’For sure, for sure’ Playing this and then comparing it to PES 2010 game play wise.... 2011 is a major step up! Gone is the feeling of players running in rails and ping ponging the ball around the pitch, the fluidity of the game is bad ass :P yes it had some minor transition issues but this will or already has been seen to by the PES team and fixed (as Jon stated).
360 has officially arrived in PES, as you have seen in the trailer (plenty of times) passing is now more pin point, where you pass is where it goes. The freedom and total control this gives you is just brilliant! The AI runs around and looks for space more often now; this creates a more optional form of pass and move as you will now have multiple team mates around you helping out. The bad thing I noticed (and a few others probably did) was that when the wide player passes the ball to you and you look to pass it back to him in an advanced position, you will find that he has stopped running forward and at some instances is going back?? Jon at the end did say that the Attacking Ai on this build wasn’t as up to date.
The shooting feels different from the previous version, for me it felt harder to score from long range,
Andy from PESKings had a couple of shots hit the crossbar. Most of my ones went wide ^^, speaking of going wide, I tried using the R2 button while shooting to curl the shot. In the first match I was one on one with the goalkeeper so I tried curling it, swoosh it curled way wide (my fault as I curled it the wrong way ^^)
Skills: These are more useful than they ever were before; the right analogue stick allows easy access to them. Using a variety of skills to beat a man felt awesome! But this does not mean that just flicking the stick will assure you passage, you have to get the timing right as the opposition can tackle the ball off you. Bad thing I noticed was when I had the ball with Vidic, he did a Ronaldo type rainbow flick, chest the ball then passed it like it was nothing D:
Game Speeds: 5 sets of speed settings [-2 -1 0 1 2] -2 was too slow for me -1 this speed will probably be best for those who thought pes2010 was too fast (the game feels more relaxed) +1 felt like a cross between PES4 and Pes2010 +2 for a fast paced game.

A few cool animations me and Andy noticed were that when taking a long throw in the player in front ducks to evade the ball so it reaches the guy behind him. When taking a free kick the Ref actually went up to the wall and pushed them back! :O. A lot of other passing, back heel, side step and falling down animations were in display as well. They all looked fantastic.
New cam in replay mode: Free cam feature.

There was a variety of teams to choose from in exhibition mode + there were a couple of Copa de Libertadores teams to choose from  I played 7 matches with Andy from PESKings: won 4 lost 3 :D
Did some slick pass and move moves and finished in style.
After winning with Andy thought I’d show whose boss and went to play Pirate from PESFan..............
3 matches with Pirate: lost all :’(
2 matches with the AI: I owned them! Lol nah both were good hard earned wins [2-1 then 1-0]

Awesome day at Konami! :D

Any Questions?
PS. Don’t know if I mentioned it... I LOVED IT!