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First PES2010 Playtest reports.
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15-07-2009 9:34am#1http://forums.pesfan.com/newreply.php?do=newreply&p=8282573PESFan playtest PES2010 at Konami HQ
As many of you will be aware, PESFan were invited by Konami down to their London headquarters for an early play test of PES 2010 late last month. With only select members of the press and PES community sites in attendance, it was a great opportunity for a hands-on taste of the new game after hearing so much about it.
Due to the timing of the conference, the game was still only in the early stages of development meaning many features of the final game, such as the much hyped Master League and Online modes, weren’t available for testing. When later versions of the game are developed, PESFan will be sure to test them out rigorously!
For those that like their numbers, the game on show was roughly 50% complete and featured most of the new gameplay elements that have been hyped up in the press releases. We played the same version that PSM3 tested, so the only teams that were on offer were Barcelona and Liverpool.
The first thing that struck many was the improved graphics of the game. The screenshots released of Lionel Messi and Fernando Torres by Konami are certainly accurate representations of what they look like in the game. No rendering or Photoshop going on there. The overall look of the game is much improved with great attention to detail, both on and off the pitch. Individual player appearances and expressions looked better than ever, this was especially noticeable when zooming in on the replays. Although all the players on this game were big names it was still easy to tell who was who, with birthmarks and scars all accurately recreated. The shirts looked realistic thanks to the creasing system we’ve seen on display in the screenshots so far, and untucked shirts are definitely in the game. Sure to please many, the much maligned goalkeeper gloves (which resembled oven gloves more than anything in the last few games) looked spot on and the nets rippled nicely when the ball hit them.
Around the ground things have also improved. Anfield, appearing for the first time on a next-gen console and as a licensed stadium, looked stunning in the sunlight with shadows cast by the stands putting the pitch in the shade. The crowd is now 3D; there aren’t 35,000 of them but truth be told you barely see them when playing the game. The concrete blocks at the base of the netting have also been removed at long last, replaced with more realistic plastic tubing, but the actual nets looks the same. There was only the one stadium on show, so other stadiums may yet have different net styles. Overall, the graphics have again been turned up a notch and PES 2010 looks like one the best looking sports game on the market.
The menu system has once again changed dramatically. Out goes the pop-art style of PES 2009 and in comes a slicker, modern style which looks infinitely better. You can see for yourself in the screenshots what I mean. One slight bug bear of mine from PES 2009 has been fixed. The PES 2009 team selection screen wasn’t the best when trying to determine who was capable of playing in which position as the light green colour was hard to distinguish from the grey background. In PES 2010, it’s clear to see who can play where.
One small addition is the fact players now have an overall stat to allow users to quickly judge their ability. The hexagon diagram is still there for those that prefer the graphical representation, as well as all the individual attributes from past games. For a full break down on the contents of the team selection screen, check out the PSM3 blog which comprehensively covers all the various options.
The animation system has been a huge flaw in the past few games, PES 2009 was an improvement over the ice skating superstars of PES 2008 but still didn’t look right on a next gen console. The animations did look smoother in this version of the game, but due to the early nature of the code it’s hard to give a definitive opinion with several of the animations still being programmed. Early signs are positive though. One portion of animations which did look markedly better was the first touch of a player. Controlling the ball looked smoother when the player took the ball on his stronger foot, as they were able to instantly take command over the ball. When forced to use his weaker foot, he needed to take a touch to bring the ball under control. On display in one of the screenshots released today is Torres controlling the ball with his chest, this again looked better than before with the more skilled players able to quickly bring the ball under control.
Off the ball, there were a few nice little animations to make the game look more realistic. The player calling for the ball with their arm animation is still in the game, along with a new one where the player will turn their head to look around for opponents when making a run. The players also seem more interested in the ball, with heads and eyes focused on the ball when crosses are being whipped into the box or during a midfield scrap.
Another small change is the addition of a glowing symbol on the radar to help the player identify where the ball is and which player is under control. This was in the previous PES games but only now makes its return.
On to the most important part now; the gameplay. The game plays at a slower pace which helps give the game more of a simulation grounding, rather than the fast arcade games we’ve been accustomed to. Hopefully the game is kept at this pace during the later stages of development and for the final retail release. This slower pace helps give the game more of a tactical approach with dribbling now much harder than before. Players who have become reliant on the likes of Messi and Eto’o being able to run trough the whole team will have to adapt quickly as defenders are more intelligent when tackling, and the improved animations make it near impossible for a player to turn 90o at full speed.
Despite the slower pace, this doesn’t mean you have any more time on the ball. Midfielders will press you while you’re in possession forcing you into mistakes, and defenders are quicker to close down open spaces. In this demo, Mascherano was quick to pressure you when in possession. This is where a couple of the new features come into play to help you break opponents down.
The strategy gauges have been talked about many times in the press releases as a way to break teams down and change the game in your favour. Some more time playing around with these and using teams of different abilities will give a better opinion on the effectiveness of this but early signs are positive. Like reported by PSM, sticking gauges to their extremes will radically change the way a team operates and how they position themselves on the pitch. Konami say each team will have individually tailored gauges to reflect their real life playing style, so certain teams will park the bus while other teams look to hit you on the counter.
The strategy gauges are an extension of the existing strategies in the game and offer the player more control over the movement of their AI team mates. The gauges can be adjusted on sliders between 0-100, with 0 being the least and 100 the most. Team style sliders can be used to on both the defensive and attacking sides of the game.
Attacking strategies
●Player Support
When set to 100, your teammates around the player in possession move upfield to receive a pass. In other words, your teammates will place themselves in more attacking positions. Contrary, when set to 0, your teammates tend to stay behind of the ball holder and place themselves in more defensive positions.
●Support Range
When set to 0, your teammates try and use the entire width of the pitch. Naturally this is good for long passing and spreading play but not for short passes. When set to 100, your teammates get closer to the ball holder, making short passes easy.
●Position Switch
When set to 0, players try to get back to their assigned positions quickly rather than trying to stay in a switched position. When set to 100, once a position is switched, the player keeps playing on in the switched position until the ball goes out of play.
●Attacking style
When set to 0, the team plays with the wide men as the main creators of opportunities. When set to 100, the team attacks through the middle of the pitch. Teams without natural width would have their gauge set at a high value.
Defence strategies
●Pressing
When set to 100, your team as a whole apply pressure aggressively, rushing players in possession forcing them into mistakes. When set to 0, the players will stand off and try to delay the oppositions attack.
●Defensive Line
When set to 100, the defensive line will be kept high. When set to 0, your defensive line will drop back. This is one of the more important sliders as if affects the others.
●Compactness
When set to 0, your teammates will move away from the opposition ball holder and cover the wide areas of the pitch. When set to 100, your teammates will get closer to opposition ball holder and try to keep his options limited.
●Defensive Strategy
There is a choice of 2 options. One is Line defence and the other is Covering defence, where one defender left for covering other defenders.
When controlled by the AI, Liverpool and Barcelona did seem to play like their real life counterparts, with Barcelona flowing forward and Liverpool playing a more patient approach, happy to play the ball around. In game, you can quickly change the strategies but this wasn’t on show in the version played.
The other major new feature is the card system which replaces the special ability stars. This sounds a little strange at first, but used correctly it can affect the way your team operates for the better. The cards have been developed by Konami to mimic footballers’ individualities and add an extra dimension of realism to the AI and strategies.
There are two types of card. Some cards are skill cards, and others affect the behaviour of a player, both attacking and defensive. These cards can be turned on or off depending on how you want to play the game. In short, a card represents a move for a player. Different from traditional skills, these cards can be assigned to any player. A player’s ability doesn’t suddenly increase when a card is assigned. His ability remains the same as before but the player now knows when and how to move into good position.
Suppose you are controlling a player, and there’s a player in support with the “Earlycrosser” card assigned. As you go forward, the card assigned player will escape from his markers, and position himself better for sending an early cross. Now he is in a good position, you want to pass it to the player because he is in a position where he is able to send an early cross. Once the ball is played to him, the card has nothing to do with quality of the cross. It will be down to your control and the player’s ability that decides the quality of the cross. Again, this card doesn’t enhance player abilities. This card controls how he moves in certain situations.
Another example is Dani Alves, who is famous for his attacking runs down the right flank for Barcelona and Brazil. He is assigned “Overlapping run” by default. When the card is set to ON, he always looks to go forward leaving space behind him. Setting the Card to OFF will limit his attacking runs and make Alves operate as a standard fullback. If Barcelona had a player sent off, keeping his card “On” means that he still wants to go forward. What do you think? Attack is the best defence? Or do you go defensive to secure a win? Depending on your choice, his card may be switched off.
Here is the reason why you have a choice of switching the card off. You can act as the manager; decide on player moves by switching the cards on and off. It’s your choice whether or not to turn off attacking cards when you want the team play defensively. In contrast, you may want to turn off defensive cards when you want more men upfront in search of a goal. Cards will increase strategic options, giving you more flexibility in many situations.
Some cards you will only see the benefit of when the AI is controlling the player. Messi for example is assigned the “Incisive run” card. You will not see any effect while you are controlling Messi, but when the CPU controls Messi, you’ll see him sprint into the box as he does in real match.
Skill cards like “Quick Turn” and “1 on 1 Finish” will only be given to the best players and directly affects how they perform on the ball.
Moving on from cards and gauges, playing a player out of position will now have a drastic effect on their performance. Like in Football Manager, playing someone out of position will see them only play in a limited capacity, with major stat drops when played in totally the wrong position on the field. This is aimed at creating a more realistic experience and to stop the cheap tactics that some players use online. Benayoun for example when deployed at right back will only have a stat rating on 19. Utility players will suffer less from a positional switch.
Penalties have finally been changed with direction and power now more important in deciding where the ball ends up. Unlike the pot luck system PES has been using for some time now, holding the power button down for a long time will see penalties blazed over the bar and too much direction could see the ball pass the wrong side of the post. Another welcome change is the removal of automatic computer actions, which has seen many controllers broken after the COM decides to slide tackle the opposition striker in the box. Thankfully, no automatic slide tackles or clearances were seen during the playtest and Konami say they have been removed from the game.
One more positive note is the goalkeepers seem to better at handling shots. A couple of shots were still split by Valdes and Reina but on the whole they did look better during this brief showcase.
After the playtest had finished, the Konami staff gathered plenty of feedback from PESFan and the other community sites in attendance, WENB and PES Gaming, and the press ready to send to Japan for analysis. As a result, hopefully some of the slight niggles brought up will be removed and a couple of brief suggestions will be implemented.
Even though this version of PES 2010 was still a long way off finished, the signs are encouraging. Some of the major drawbacks of PES 2009 are being addressed and several new features will give the game a new lease on life. Add this to the overhauled Master League and ‘lagless’ online gaming, the King may indeed return come October.
http://winningelevenblog.com/blog/pes-2010-playtest-report-new-screens/PES 2010 PLAYTEST REPORT + NEW SCREENS!
The PES 2010 playtest was a very nervous experience, and something I couldn’t begin to describe or attempt to put into words. A series that’s given so much pleasure over a decade has done the opposite in recent years, and more than ever this year is the year it can simply not fail to deliver.
The instant we arrived at the offices our eyes were fixated on the number of screens around the playtest venue, already in full use by the PESGaming and PESFan crew. At first, in all honesty, my heart sank a little. I saw similar animations and a similar look to last year, coated in a very pretty exterior. I turned back to Suff, who was still meeting and greeting, and gazed over worryingly at him. My whole persona must have alerted a few of the Konami employees, as they ushered us quickly onto a test unit to sample the game.
The moment we started playing my frown became a smile, from a mixture of realisation about the gameplay, and (to my amazement) Suff’s sheer enjoyment at how the game was unfolding. Slowly the disappointment of seeing a similar looking game started to fade away, as the gameplay of PES 2010 took over.
Looks like PES 2009 at a glance, but well and truly isn't
Before the event me and Suff sat down and spoke of realistic expectations of what we were about to see. Using his wisdom thanks to his experience with FIFA 10, he expected it to be more of a proof of concept rather than something we could judge off the bat. After playing EA’s title in April, then a month later in Vancouver, he explained how the difference in development time was so substantial that initial impressions in the first playtest counted for very little – with improvements and inclusions significantly improving ones experience. What was important then, was to assess the platform Konami had created for PES 2010, and to evaluate if the vision going forward was going to be a significant step in taking the series back to the glory days.
When talking about what we wanted to see, the pace of the game came up almost instantly. Some might say that PES 2009 itself wasn’t itself set at an arcade pace, but many aspects around it were. Dribbling and the ease of getting into goal scoring opportunities were big stumbling blocks for most, and conflicted with what many thought the series was built around. Secondly, as a lot of you might have guessed, was teamvision. A word that sends a shiver down Suff’s spine when he hears it, and something he was hoping to see very little of at the event. The AI was abysmal last year, and (something that was synonymous with PES 2009) became excruciatingly annoying after prolonged playing time.
Finally, our thoughts shifted to the general movement of the game, and how it played out a match. Was the rigidness gone? Has the passing been sorted? Are the tricks still on the d-pad/analogue stick? Animations certainly came into our thoughts, although Suff assured me that he would be shocked if they were there in their full glory at this early stage.
I’m more than happy to say then, that all the things we were intrigued about were just as we hoped; massively improved over last year with plenty of time to improve further.
Up close, PES 2010 looks absolutely incredible - even at this early stage
Before we explain just how it has, lets get some information on the code we were playing. Let there be no doubt, this was an extremely early version of PES 2010; the earliest Konami had ever shown the game publicly. We were told the game was around 50% complete, with the option to only play with either Liverpool and Barcelona. There was no other game mode apart from exhibition, with Anfield being the stadium of choice. So as you would expect, Suff was over the moon! The menu’s were nothing more than place holders to serve a purpose, as it was a few screens before you got straight into a match. Just to emphasize how early this game was, we were sampling it through the source code! That’s actual PC’s running the game, with PS3 and Xbox 360 controllers attached to it.
The beauty of PES 2010 came almost instantly, after the initial disappointment. As soon as you start to play it felt more assured, more complete. PES 2009 had these awkward animations that interlinked the passing and shooting. These affected the game significantly, making the game feel stagnated and robotic. And while the animations weren’t complete in the build of PES 2010 we played, the way the basic and important ones were implemented and improved were significant. The extra frames also lent itself to how the pace of the game played out, in a similar vein to EA’s franchise. Like their game, the animations fed into how you played.
And I thought the faces in PES 2009 were good...
And like EA’s latest effort, FIFA 10, the action on the pitch is considerably slower, with a realistic feel I’ve not felt in a PES game for a while. The players seemed to build up to a sprint, rather than running full pelt from go. Controlling of the ball was also key, with players like Iniesta and Xavi having a lovely first touch when receiving a pass, while Yaya Toure struggled to kill the ball instantly when under pressure.
Player individuality has always been key in PES, and is the sole reason why, even in this slow considered pace, the player will be forced into playing to the strengths of the team rather than the strengths of the game. This single aspect separates the PES series from FIFA, and is more of a noticeable difference with both going for the same style of play this year.
I mentioned animations earlier, and while the majority of them weren’t in the build we played, the ones that were impressed a great deal. The previously mentioned first touch of skillful players was also visually appeasing, with players at all times trying to use their favoured foot when passing, controlling and shooting. If timed right you could control a ball perfectly to one side, evading oncoming players in very crowded areas.
Its not only when receiving the ball do you see something new, as the players distribute it just as variedly. Passing for instance has had something of a facelift from last year, with fresh new animations for when releasing the ball under pressure – similar to the urgency system in FIFA. Players will stretch and strain to release a pass before being tackled, adding a great deal of realism. The same can be said for shooting, which was as satisfying as ever. Like the passing, it really has been given a facelift, with there being many more ways of striking the ball. This helped the game distance itself further from last years robotic and rigid feel. There was a situation when, playing as Barca, Henry received the ball wide left and cut in towards goal. Pressing shoot, I was greeted with him shifting his body to the side to try and strike it with his right foot. As he opened up his body he convincingly stroked the ball into the far the far corner with the inside of his right foot – leaving both me and Suff stunned in amazement. Then there was Messi, who looked complete in his movements, right down to mannerisms off the ball. A lot of that player representation was down to the drop dead gorgeous visuals, which has raised the bar when it comes to graphics in a football game.
The new chest control animation was in, and looked lovely
Konami talked long and hard about how certain aspects of the game were early and far from finished, but at the same time proudly conversed with us regarding the visual fidelity. At this early stage, the game is looking incredibly good, with things like faces, player models, stadiums, grass etc better than I’ve ever seen it. The test always comes when in wide cam, and its difficult to judge it right now without the animations implemented fully. FIFA 09/10’s charm comes when the impact of playing the match stays the same when in wide cam, and this is predominantly down to how it moves. With promises coming from the guys at the event regarding major inclusions on animations and individual traits, I guess its too early to judge or comment on them conclusively. Luckily we will only have to have to wait a few weeks from now to see if it indeed has been improved as promised.
What’s left then to discuss is the game as a whole, and the dreaded teamvision. Thankfully the AI has been improved so much that we never found ourself fighting with it. The helping elements, like tackling, passing, shooting for you have been totally removed, or at least weren’t there when we played. This perhaps was one of the key reasons why Suff was won over, himself saying he’s not enjoyed PES this much since the PS2 days.
Anfield looked lovely, Suff was ecstatic to see it in the game
The AI also helped teams play as their real life counterparts, with no misunderstanding about how a team plays in real life converting into the game. When going through the new team formation options, you have a slider bar that lets you affect the mentality of the team like how much they attack or defend. For example, Barca’s attacking mentality is 80/100, while Liverpool’s is 20. Defensive figures flip other way, as you would expect. Convert this into the game and it plays out how you would expect. Liverpool’s game is all about constraining the opposing teams attacking elements, with the quality of Gerrard and Torres ever present going forward.
The first match me and Suff played was goalless, and was a cagey affair, with myself having the possession but never really threatening. It was only until Suff changed his attacking mentality to 80 did I manage to create more space and punish a team that wasn’t used to playing an attacking way. Again, this is another realistic situation, as the players Liverpool have aren’t as technically gifted as the Barca player’s to play a certain way.
Great improvement, Alonso more so
To finish up, lets talk about little improvements around the game that will please many people. Konami have managed to fix a lot of small details even at this early stage that used to infuriate the more demanding fans. Things like goalkeeper gloves being officially licensed, no more sand bags behind the goals, and the look and feel of the stadium was key - adding another layer of atmosphere that PES 2009 never had. Then there’s the welcome news for many that tricks are no longer mapped onto the d-pad/left analogue stick, going back to the combination of holding R2 and a direction. We then have a new penalty system, which was always going to be the case after the Wii version had a new way of taking/saving them. At first glance it seems very close to FIFA, where you can literally aim anywhere in the goal, with the amount you hold down the power and direction affecting your success. Goalkeepers can also be moved too before a kick has been taken. The ability to untuck shirts in edit mode will again bring a smile to the faces of people who have missed this option since the PS2 versions. All in a way trivial to the game as whole, but the little things count for a lot when trying to create the complete package.
All in all then, the playtest event was more of a statement of intent than anything, with the build being quite literally barebones and the base for all upcoming improvements. With that in mind the upcoming playtest in a few weeks will be vital. Suff played FIFA 10 at the Emirates in April, then played the game again in May in Vancouver – the difference obvious and substantial. We’re hoping for the same with PES. The good news is, even at this early stage, its miles ahead of PES 2009, with FIFA in its sights.
The battle of the cover stars continues
Sounds very promising so far, and the pics look stunning.0
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