The revolution promised for so many years Pro Evolution Soccer series
has arrived, although not a radical revolution, but a rethinking of some
of the basics of a game that dominated the beginning of the last decade
but in recent years has seen His eternal rival, FIFA, has been eating
the ground, first in the quality game, and almost final, but three
countries, sales. The Konami team has acknowledged several times that
have fallen behind, and have even apologized to fans of Pro Evolution
therefore promising repeatedly that the delivery of each year would be
the full stop as expected. This year itself, but the renewal of the saga
is not quite enough to once again become the king of football games.
As we have told our successive contacts with the game, Pro Evolution
Soccer 2011 brings many changes. Some simply visual, and new camera
angles, moving dynamically, and that is a hit. Other gameplay and
graphics, more profound and significant, and constitute the revolution
that Konami has promised. The new system of passes and improved
artificial intelligence far beyond the parties, and new animations,
combined with great looks that show the players earns integers in the
visuals.
The camera changes are not dramatic or cinematic, are subtle changes
that focus better when the game depending on the location of the ball.
Thus, the angle is open when we are in the lower band to see more field
(and colleagues), and otherwise make the move when we’re on the other
side to achieve the same goal. The same happens when we approach the
area.
The change in gameplay most noticeable in the first contact is the new
pass system, which now use a power bar and follow the direction that we
indicate with the analog stick. The 360-degree control now much more
noticeable, suggesting that last year was a bit of a lie, and especially
noticeable in the accuracy of passes, which will be measured with a
power bar that is displayed around the player, drawing a semicircle that
is filled with various colors. This system, power bar display on the
player (except in cases such as fouls or corners), is a hit for Konami,
not require us to focus attention on the bottom of the screen.
At first takes some getting used to this new system, and give some bad
passes, but after a few minutes with the game a natural fit, and we will
soon benefit from the precision that gives the time to move the ball
and especially when we want to make passes at depth. The shots taken the
same power bar system on the player, and have improved over last year.
Some shots from afar are still overly "shells", but much less than last
year. It also included that little classic PES, for example if you press
the shutter button again just when the player is going to hit the ball,
we give an effect, "folha dry."
The tactical behavior of the equipment is now better, leaving less holes
on defense and making it more difficult for a player to dribble
followed several opposing defenses. Improved defense and artificial
intelligence is complemented by the porters, who make fewer mistakes and
are much more reliable in general. Another thing that has changed is
the players’ physical, that collide react more realistically, and allows
the struggles for the ball, and robberies, are more fluid and less
orthopedic. The ball physics, great as always except on rare occasions,
it helps in this.
Despite having improved artificial intelligence has its flaws. Sometimes
we’ll take the hands to the head to see how the attack in a move that
goes wrong, a guy on our team is retiring to his farm, back to the ball
when it is close and unclaimed. Another failure of the IA, but not the
players, are some very strict refereeing decisions. The line separating
legal from illegal cargo is not always clear, and sometimes it seems
that fate is determined.
As a new playable character has included a fairly complete system of
dribbling, using the buttons L1 and L2 (for PS3) and the right analog
stick for dribbling without touching the ball (stick only), dodges (with
L2 and stick) and combinations of races (L1 and stick). These
combinations can be set in the strategy menu, and we can make of all
kinds. The system adds striking dribbling the game but detracts
considerably matches if players abuse the skilled players and combos
configurable.
The gameplay has improved, therefore, not dramatically but considerably,
and that is something that is noticeable from the first game. This new
system also helps the tactics of the game, one of the most striking
since it was first shown. We find a sort of board where players are
located in the countryside, and a cursor can move with it, giving them
the game (or we) roles as a defensive midfielder, playmaker, etc … and
can make changes by dragging the player to the left to share his
position. It is a drastic change but very intuitive and positive, which
is combined with other configuration options, like being able to choose
active skills for players, an evolution of the card system last year.
No big news, however, the game modes. The Master League and Become a
Legend mode as ways to become "great" beyond the standard competitions.
The second allows us to create our player and make progress little by
little, game after game, convincing the coach as you improve your
attributes, and the first has been improved by the chance to play a
Master League online with hundreds of players, the result we will not
know until some time. It is also somewhat inexplicable that we may
access the Champions League game mode for playing games set in this
competition but not competition itself, except in the game modes.
Despite the Master League Online, Be a Legend mode still lacks
"something" to be as addictive as the analogue of its rival.
With respect to equipment shortages Classic Pro Evolution Soccer is
still there. Leagues Dutch, French and Italian are full, the
half-Spanish, perhaps missing some clubs that are "fixed" with
downloadable content, the only English league has the official
Manchester United as a club, while the German league is still missing,
although three of its biggest clubs are in the section "other": Bayern
Munich and Werder Bremer officially, and as Ruhr Schalke 04, but does
not have official names of the players.
There are, as I have told before, a good selection of "other clubs’
European officially licensed, leading representatives of the minor
leagues. Classic first round and second round of Champions League as
Celtic and Rangers, Benfica and Porto, Rubin Kazan, Zenit St Petersburg,
Basel, Anderlecht and the like are selectable, but the big change in
this edition occurs in teams of South America and Mexico. We included 40
participants in the Copa Libertadores, which has officially licensed
this year’s Pro Evolution Soccer, River and Boca (not participating in
this year). In all, a slight improvement over last year, but far from
desirable, something that is not entirely blame Konami for the exclusive
nature of many licenses that FIFA does have, but that detracts from the
product as it has since time immemorial .
A graphic level the game has progressed a lot. The character off of last
year has given way to more cheerful graphics, brighter, in which
emphasizes the modeling of the players. The faces are still better than
last year, and benefit from the improvement in color in the game, and
the bodies of the players are still correspond so well with their
counterparts. The improvement in the animation is very palpable. We do
not know to what degree, what percentage have been completely renovated,
but have added many new, and although FIFA is behind in this respect
and have a few errors linking some animations with others (and a sense
of bluntness at times) , progress is obvious and promising.
The sound is once again the game unfinished, but also a noticeable
improvement in the variety of chants of the fans. Not reach the
overwhelming level of FIFA, but are now more varied and with some custom
songs for certain teams. The soundtrack features generic issues,
without more, while the comments are back by Carlos Martinez and
Maldini. Have improved and are more phrases, but there is much scope for
improvements in this field.
Conclusion:
Which over the years have gone from vocal critics fans, disappointed by
the latest installment, and those who have been conquered by FIFA, will
not be satisfied, or at least not entirely, with Pro Evolution Soccer
2011. Improvement has interesting details and is still a very fun game,
but still far from its rival, both in licensing, a battle almost lost,
as it playable. That does not mean all is lost, because the improvement
over last year is more than obvious, but again not enough to look face
to face to FIFA going slowly and including interesting news.
But fans of Pro Evolution Soccer lifetime that have not "changed his
jacket" will enjoy a lot with the changes. They are not revolutionary
enough to be a different game to the familiar formula, which will appeal
to many and may have been done on purpose, but a very palpable
evolution makes keeping part of this new database and modifying other
things in the game, the future of Pro Evolution Soccer seems much more
promising than last year. The problem is no longer a battle against
himself, as in the era of PlayStation 2, but his rival has a lot of
entity.
But just as the revolution they promised total for this release is not
true (that is rather a renewal), but successful, those who say the game
is the same as ever, worse than last year and have not changed anything,
or wrong or just lying. Not the best football game, but it is a great
football game, better than last year, and in the right direction.
