First PES2011 Information.

Mitch Connor

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=245195

Total control
PES Productions has enhanced the 360-degree passing ratio, offering unprecedented levels of control over every pass, shot, throw-in, through ball and lofted through balls. This allows users to pass the ball into space, and move their play with total freedom. Players must precisely weight their passes and second-guess the runs of their team-mates and exploit their movement. Players even can apply pressure on opponents to force them off the ball.

Shot & Stamina Gauge
In addition to the generic power gauge, the Shot & Stamina meter details the player's exact level of fitness. Constantly sprinting will affect the player's movements and will have an adverse affect on his stats, with passes going awry and a loss of pace.

New Defender AI
Defenders now hold their positions naturally, no longer chasing any ball that enters their area; preferring to close down the attacker and force them into a mistake.

Animation and Player Physics
PES Productions has totally reworked every element of in-game animation. These additions will become clear before even kick-off, with the players enjoying fluid, natural movements, with more realistic acceleration and inertia than ever before. The physicality between players is also improved, which was a priority requested in PES forums. Jostling and blocking now looks stunning, while there is a larger variety of convincing tackling styles. Ambient animation also adds immensely to the in-game atmosphere, as players behave realistically when off the ball, and walk and run with a variety of individual styles.

Speed of Play
The new level of control means that PES 2011 enjoys a more considered pace of play, which varies dependent on situations. The game will burst into life as counter-attacks come into play, but players can dictate the pace via slow build up or exploiting available space to surge forward. It is harder to make long runs from midfield, and successful play will depend on making quick passes to make room.


Aesthetics
PES 2010 showcased the best likenesses in a football game, and PES 2011 ups the ante further. Facial animation has been enhanced, but the key advances are over 1000 all-new animations which have been recreated from the ground up using over 100 hours of motion captured footage. Every aspect of player movement has been reworked, with more organic runs, turns, throw-ins, tackles, and interaction. The way players speed up and slow down is also more natural, while replays display elements of motion blur that bring your saved goals to vivid life.

Tactical and Strategy
The sheer number of options available in the PES series has established it as a remarkably flexible simulation, allowing players to stamp their playing style on each match. The PES Productions team has implemented an all new 'Drag and Drop' mechanism that can be used in every aspect of team management, not just substitutions or formation changes. These settings are also animated to promote better understanding of the plays that have been altered.

Feint settings
PES has always offered a wide range of subtle skills, feints and turns, but PES 2011 allows users to map their favourite move sequences to the right stick, making them more accessible than ever before.

Master League Online
Master League will offer an all-new challenge, as users are invited to try their hand against other managers online. PES 2011 will mark the online debut for its much-loved Master League element, with players bidding against each other for the world's best players, and attempting to build a squad that can compete with the best against online peers all over the globe.


PSM3's first verdict
So, on the surface, a lot of changes. What will it all mean? Hard to tell until we see the game next week, when we head to Japan for the first-look - with details to follow in PSM3#128, on-sale June 3rd. Don't miss out. Subscribe to PSM3 in time for PSM3#128 here. For now, we're interested to see how Konami will resolve the tension between full 360˚ non assisted passing and shooting, with players' need to play a simple pass, or to expect Rooney to score a tap in from five yards without having to precisely angle the pad and apply the correct pressure.

Customisable right stick tricks are potentially inspired; doubly welcome because it signifies a shift away from the d-pad tricks of old, that blighted PES 2010's part 360˚ analogue/part digital feel.

As for Online Master League, a small part of our brain is peeping like a Victorian kettle at the prospect of 'live' online auctions, where only one player can afford virtual Torres; leaving us to assemble a team of world beaters on the cheap armed only with our Mourinho-esque tactics, and Steve Bruce-style eye for a Latin American bargain.

Bottom line: expect it to look, and feel, a lot more like FIFA, but, potentially, with the depth of game modes you'd expect of Pro Evo. As ever, we'll know more next week.

Reading between the lines, it sounds like the focus is on top player's individuality, and their ability to create magic in one-on-ones - hopefully, showing off the new animation system.

More as it happens. Do you like what you're hearing? Keen to know more? Or happy to keep playing FIFA and look back on PES like a fractured, painful, split from a once devoted lover? Er, or similar.

Cheers,
PSM3

some images on the link too - but nothing astounding.

I do like the sound of the changes they say they are implementing, hopefully they actually manage it. The animations are the big one imo - they will open up the feel of the game, if they get them right they are on to a winner. The completely manual passing and shooting does scare me a little though, I'd like to have some aim assist on it, so 5 yard passes aren't missed horribly, for example.

PerrinV2

Ya interesting what they do with the passing since the main complaint form my friends who play fifa is that pes passing is crap

Alan Smithee

hope reality matches the hype:D

konami have really struggled since the advent of the next generation machines as well as the move away from single to multi platform, but pes 2010 for me was a step in the right direction and has been unfairly criticised while fifa has been receiving all the plaudits.

i hope pes stays through to its roots and doesnt try to emulate fifa we need competition in the market with 2 strong and different games

Josey Wales

I am fed up of Konami's promises. They are always promising different things but they never quite seem to pull it off, particularly when it comes to animations. I do think that PES 2010 was their best effort in a while but I'm not getting my hopes up.

Online Master League sounds interesting.

dar83

The most exciting news in that is what seems to have been overlooked by most and it's the inclusion of the Copa Liberadores. Been looking forward to more teams 9apart from International) for quite a while, so hopefully this means we'll be looking at quite a good few S.American teams.

Thes rest, to me, is the usual initial promises and hype, and very similar to last years as well. I'll reserve judgement until we get to see something decent.

dar83

The most exciting news in that is what seems to have been overlooked by most and it's the inclusion of the Copa Liberadores. Been looking forward to more teams 9apart from International) for quite a while, so hopefully this means we'll be looking at quite a good few S.American teams.

Thes rest, to me, is the usual initial promises and hype, and very similar to last years as well. I'll reserve judgement until we get to see something decent.

Ardent

Meh, promises, promises. It'll be pants again this year, I wager.

Everyone I know has moved over to Fifa at this stage - the damage is done.

Keith186

They say the same crap every year.
New & improved this & that but after you play it for a month or so it still always seems to have the same old flaws.

Propane Nightmare

Havnt they been saying the same tripe for the past 3 games? "Totally reworked from the ground up", and it turns out to have the same animations from a PS1 ISS game yet again...

Mikeyt086

I'll give it a chance. I ALWAYS give PES a chance for the joy it brought from PES 2 to PES 6, but they rebuilt it from the ground up for PES2008 and it was muck, they said they rebuilt the last two years but it has been the same game.

I hope its a good game this year, but I really doubt it will hit the hights of a PES 4, and with the strides FIFA is taking, its looking bleak.

Cmon Konami. Pull the finger out.

DAN85

Newly released E3 trailer,must say I'm impressed so far..some of the movement in this trailer looks quite fluid.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQKAT8z83Jc&feature=player_embedded

Josey Wales

The brief gameplay clips look pretty good. Yhe animation and player models have certainly improved.

JohnnyRyan99

Its good to see konami sticking with their style and not begin to allow their look to sway toward Fifa... The player models as ever look fantastic, u can tell most key players based on body shape alone, Konami are always king of these subtle nuances!

Mitch Connor

the press response to the game time they have got at E3 has been excellent.

Gamespot have the following, for example.

http://e3.gamespot.com/story/6266410/pro-evolution-soccer-2011-hands-on?tag=top_stories;title;12

EA Sports' FIFA Soccer series has been running rings around Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer series for far too long, and Konami knows it. That, presumably, is why large portions of Pro Evolution Soccer 2011 are currently being rebuilt from the ground up ahead of its release later this year. We had our first opportunity to play the new game for ourselves behind closed doors at Konami's E3 2010 booth this afternoon, and while it's too soon to say for sure whether or not it can beat FIFA, it's already playing a much better game of football (or soccer, if you prefer) than its current-generation predecessors.


Before our match kicked off, we were afforded a quick look at the new tactics screen, which looked significantly better than similar screens ever have in the Pro Evolution Soccer games. It was also much easier to use, because in addition to switching between preset formations, it was possible to tweak those formations or even create completely new ones simply by dragging the player icons around on the 2D pitch. Furthermore, although we didn't actually get to see this functionality, we're told that you'll have the option to set up multiple formations as well as criterion for your team to switch between them automatically. So, for example, you'll be able to tell your team to switch to a defensive formation if they go two goals up, or switch to an all-out attacking shape if they're a goal behind with only 15 minutes left. It sounds like a great feature and, if it's implemented well, we suspect other sports games might be quick to imitate it.

On the field, Pro Evolution Soccer 2011 is equally promising. We're told that 90 percent of the player animations are new this year, and it shows. Players are now significantly more responsive, and while it's possible to perform tricks and feints (and even to link feints together), you're unlikely to need them very often because you can beat opponents simply by turning quickly with the ball or by passing intelligently. Passing the ball around feels great in Pro Evo 2011 because while it's still quite easy to string short to-feet passes together, you're now afforded much more control to pass the ball in any direction and at any pace without the AI interfering and making assumptions about where your pass was supposed to go.


An (optional) power bar appears at the feet of your player anytime you pass the ball, and so the longer you hold the pass button down the quicker and longer your pass is. That's not ground-breaking by any means, but it works well, and even in the short time that we were able to spend playing we found that it made passing the ball into space a more feasible strategy because we weren't having to rely on the through ball button to guess where we wanted the ball to go. It also resulted in our putting the ball out for throw-ins a few times when we overhit passes, but with practice that's unlikely to be a problem.

We were only afforded a brief glimpse at Pro Evolution Soccer 2011 today, but the time we spent pitting Argentina against France at an instantly recognizable Old Trafford stadium on the Xbox 360 was more than enough to get us excited. We look forward to bringing you more information on the game as soon as it becomes available.

Sounds very promising to me - loving that passing feels satisfying (apparently) again and that you can beat a man with a quick turn.

Mitch Connor

GodIsAGeek preview based on E3

http://www.godisageek.com/2010/06/e3-2010-pro-evolution-soccer-2011-impressions/

It is well known amongst football gaming fans that Pro Evolution Soccer (PES) hasn’t taken to the PS3 and Xbox 360 (aka “next-gen”) platforms like the proverbial duck to water. Just a few weeks ago, the GodisaGeek team discussed the issues that plagued the “next-gen” efforts and how the FIFA series had taken over. In addition to that, we wondered how Konami could bring the magic back to the series with PES 2011 and give FIFA a run for its money. Well, those questions (and a few more) were answered today when I got my hands on the game itself yesterday at E3. So, is PES 2011 just a pretender or can it actually bring home some silverware this season? Hit the jump and find out for yourself.

Right, let’s get the virtual elephant in the virtual room out of the way first; the animations. This is an area where PES has been greatly criticised for a good few years now and in PES 2011 Konami seemed to have improved the animations greatly. No longer do players run like something out of a Benny Hill sketch and out of the window goes the rigidity. Players now move/run just like you would expect them to…..realistically!

Staying on the subject of looks, the visuals and general presentation are both very good. Konami haven’t rested on their laurels, they have taken the fantastic visual foundations they laid down with PES 2010 and improved on them. Greatly improved grass textures, realistic lighting and 3D crowds are just a few of the visual elements that have been tweaked, yielding superb results. Oh and the player likenesses are even better! In terms of the presentation, the one thing that stood out immediately when I started playing was the TV style camera. I’m not entirely sure how but it seemed to actually enhance the already brilliant visuals. I also noticed some nice touches to the games menus, the one that comes to mind immediately is 3D models of the captains coming up on-screen once teams were selected by the player. It’s not quite at the levels of FIFA yet but, hey, at least the folks at Konami are trying.

The litmus test will always be the gameplay, it is the defining factor that makes or breaks a football game. PES hasn’t really delivered in terms of gameplay over the last few years and therefore it has been (as harsh as this sounds) shunned by the majority of the football gaming community. With PES 2011 this could all be about to change and, boy, is it about time! Passing is the key element that has been given some much needed attention, no longer is it restrictive or predictable. The tagline “engineered for freedom” sums up the new passing systems perfectly. Whilst the core mechanics of the passing still “feel” like PES (music to the ears of some) everything else has been tweaked with fantastic results.


PES 2011 - Engineered for freedom
As demonstrated in some of the videos released at the beginning of the month, you now have much more control over the passing. To refer back to the PES 2011 tagline, you also have a lot more freedom in what you can do. You can pass to team-mates left foot, right foot and into space, the choice is yours. None of this feels forced upon you, it feels natural. It’s all achieved by using the familiar pass button too, simple yet brilliantly executed. I’m not going to lie, it took me a half or so to get to grips with the changes to the passing system but once I did I just wanted to keep on playing. Crafting out a move just felt so rewarding and satisfying, like the good old PES days.

The defensive side of the gameplay has also received some attention. Realistic jostling was something I noticed during my time with the game but I was told that “holding up” plays a huge a part in the game too. Rather than charge in like a headless chicken towards a player running at you, it pays to hold off and charge/press at the opportune moment. I get the feeling this new defensive mechanic will play a huge part in defeat or victory when playing on the harder difficulty settings or against a skilled human opponent. It will probably have its uses otherwise too but will come into its own during close/tight matches.

I didn’t get much time to try out the feints or tricks in the game but I left with the impression that Konami are putting quite a bit of focus on them. Why do I say that? Well, I was handed a sheet of paper that was full (literally) of information about feints and tricks. The basic premise is to combine L2 (PS3 controller) with the right stick to perform various different moves. To add some depth to that you can also link the moves together to stunning effect as I found out to my detriment. The person I was playing against “demonstrated” this to me during a match which resulted in him leaving two of players trailing behind him as he charged off into the distance.

The build I played was about 60% complete so, as expected, a few assets were missing and there were some bugs/glitches. These included some twitchy animations and goalkeepers not catching/punching properly at times. I was assured these bugs/glitches were aspects that were still being worked on and should be sorted out in time for the games release. In terms of teams, the build included a handful of international outfits (Argentina, Italy, Portugal and so on) and the (fully licensed) Copa Libertadores teams. Obviously the full game will have many more teams included!

So, as someone who switched to FIFA after PES 6…..is PES 2011 the game to bring me (and many others) back to the series? I have to say, it just might be. “Engineered for freedom”, that is the tagline for PES 2011 and, going by what I played (and saw) today, it is most certainly a befitting one.

A translated Jeuxvideo preview can be found on this link too:

http://translate.google.com/translate?js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=1&eotf=1&u=http://www.jeuxvideo.com/articles/0001/00012993-pro-evolution-soccer-2011-e3-2010-preview.htm&sl=fr&tl=en

All sound very positive.

Mitch Connor

Good response from E3 continues, with PES2011 getting 'best sports game' at the show from a few sites.

Not positive that FIFA2011 was at the show too though - have read this morning that it was but read no impressions of it from the show (there might be loads, I didn't go looking to be honest)

briany

I am hoping that this installment will get some mojo back. It's really gone downhill in my opinion but still has enough of that core gameplay to keep it better than the FIFA series to me. I think the best installment of the game was the one that came out in 2003, it just had everything in the gameplay department - You could pick referees, it had a comprehensive training mode, a shop to unlock parts of the game with points, advantage was played by the ref in games, lots of tactical options and it flowed.

One of the most noticable features with each new edition is that the gameplay slows down and becomes more sim-like. Maybe this is what players are demanding but I just think that it makes the Konami games less distingushable from FIFA. If it were my choice I'd like PES 2003 but with today's graphics and teams and online. I think that would be just about perfect .

WindmillWarrior

Mitch Connor wrote: »

So, as someone who switched to FIFA after PES 6…..is PES 2011 the game to bring me (and many others) back to the series? I have to say, it just might be

Thats the key line there isn't it. I really really hope they've coped on this time

corcaigh07

briany wrote: »

I am hoping that this installment will get some mojo back. It's really gone downhill in my opinion but still has enough of that core gameplay to keep it better than the FIFA series to me. I think the best installment of the game was the one that came out in 2003, it just had everything in the gameplay department - You could pick referees, it had a comprehensive training mode, a shop to unlock parts of the game with points, advantage was played by the ref in games, lots of tactical options and it flowed.

One of the most noticable features with each new edition is that the gameplay slows down and becomes more sim-like. Maybe this is what players are demanding but I just think that it makes the Konami games less distingushable from FIFA. If it were my choice I'd like PES 2003 but with today's graphics and teams and online. I think that would be just about perfect .

you cant like PES that much if you're seriously calling it PES2003! im guessing its PES3 you're talking about, that one was boss and was a real step up to the previous editions. konami really need to stop releasing in lieu with Fifa, get the game right first and call it PES 7 imo, PES when it was the best wasnt being released every October, make Fifa worry about PES, not the other way around.

briany

corcaigh07 wrote: »

you cant like PES that much if you're seriously calling it PES2003! im guessing its PES3 you're talking about, that one was boss and was a real step up to the previous editions. konami really need to stop releasing in lieu with Fifa, get the game right first and call it PES 7 imo, PES when it was the best wasnt being released every October, make Fifa worry about PES, not the other way around.

Oh no I'm a big fan of the series, I just wasn't sure of the number and for some reason wasn't into looking it up at the time. But yes it was great. Flowing football, exciting matches where no two were ever quite the same and chock full of options and features. I sincerely hope that PES 2011 lives up to the hype it's generating. It better not be because it's got more licenced teams and improved online play (some paltry improvement) because I don't care about those things, I just want it to get a little more to the arcade feel it had earlier in the series. That is where it's strengths lie, in my opinion.

DAN85

New gameplay video released.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkpixOv7VU0

Nedved85

Eurogamer mini preview:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/pro-evolution-soccer-2011-summer-hands-on

briany

It looks promising enough, doesn't it? Why'd they ever get rid of the game speed thing in the first place? (New to PES this year.....That thing we got rid off a few years ago!)

Coming from playing PES 2010 on the PC, I'm hoping for an improvement because last year's version was about as broken a game as I've seen yet in the PES series : (on five star difficulty) Unable to select the defender nearest the attacker until he's through on goal, goalies glitching and standing there while a ball rolls into the net, your own players standing there dumbfounded during an attack of yours, players running in the way of passes, very difficult when in behind their defence to stay ahead of their last man during a sprint toward goal, penalty camera angle retains the same isometric view as the rest of normal gameplay.....It should stay as the camera toward goal view!!! Speed of play too slow sometimes, players taking too long now to turn and do something with the ball. Just fix all that Konami before you start trying to wow us with new player animations.:mad:

johnn

Looks great to me in that video.

They seemed to have fixed my main gripe from the last two games that when you took a shot the ball would always go out of camera and you wouldn't even know if you had scored for a split-second.

They also have slowed down the tempo and taken away the "Sonic The Hedgehog" running style of the fast players like Leo Messi.

I hope they address the midfield issue. Central midfield in real football is one of the most important positions on the field, i like to be able to dictate with players like Xavi and Schole like they do in real life, but in the recent games the midfield is usually bypassed in games, especially online as people look to get the ball to messi or ronaldo as soon as possible!

leinsterrugby

well it could be argued that the player is playing a direct style of play which can't be penalised really its a part of soccer.

flash1080

DAN85 wrote: »

New gameplay video released.

It looks great, really looking forward to it now. Please let this be the game that allows me to stop playing PES6 on the Xbox 360.

johnn

leinsterrugby wrote: »

well it could be argued that the player is playing a direct style of play which can't be penalised really its a part of soccer.

Its unrealistic, it pretty much doesnt matter who you have in your central midfield in the game. the ronaldo/messi thing was only an example, but even when playing against the computer i find it hard to get on the ball in the middle

Mitch Connor

PES2011 to be released on 360 and PS3 on September 30th! (probably Oct 1st here/UK).

44/45 days to go. Hopefully 44 with GAMESNASH getting me the game to my door a day early like the last 3 years.

sob1467

Pro Evo need to have a much improved game this year or they have to hope that Fifa have a stinker in order to win back their share in the games market.

Mitch Connor

sob1467 wrote: »

Pro Evo need to have a much improved game this year or they have to hope that Fifa have a stinker in order to win back their share in the games market.

All indications from people who have played say it has massively improved in every respect.

It won't win its share back this year, but if the game is as good as people are making out, it should be the foundation for them to start winning their share back over the following few years.

Mitch Connor

Turns out UK/Ireland will have to wait til October 8th to get the game. F you Konami. First no beta key, now this. After the poor quality of the last couple of releases they are really pissing me off with this.