Visitor Review #1- Craig
Posted by William | Filed under Reviews
The first visitor review is from Craig. Please feel free to post you opinions on his review:
First of all I’d like to point out that I’ve been a Pro Evolution Soccer fan all my life. I’ve followed Konami’s efforts ever since ISS and ISS deluxe on the SNES and I’ve never been disappointed with any of my purchases (although I felt a bit robbed with PES 6 for the 360, but come on… who didn’t?!) I’m fortunate enough to have a Mother who works for Tesco, so I got my copy of PES 2009 for £31.50 with her 10% discount so I’m more than pleased with my purchase!
After playing the demo of PES 2009 from Xbox live I instantly knew what to expect when I got the game home and ripped off the protective seal. (I nearly scratched the disc with my car keys in doing so I was so excited!). This game is a definite improvement on PES 2008, the game play instantly felt like a step forward, focussing on passing and slowing it down felt a lot more realistic. Long gone are the days of Henry taking the ball from the half way line and sprinting through the whole team which was always a little frustrating if you were on the wrong end of it. Although players like C. Ronaldo and Messi are still pretty hard to play against and a joy to play with! PES 2009 is definitely more of a challenge, but its still got the realism and satisfaction when playing it of its predecessors. I only just scraped through my Newcastle 2-1 Liverpool win in my very first game on amateur. And that took an injury time bundled effort from Martins (I only wish this would happen more in real life!) You’ll notice instantly that player animation has been improved and that there are a lot of skills. some of which are individual to the player you’re using. These will have you pausing and replaying over and over again. Shooting and passing have also been tweaked, and there are a lot more variations on how your player will shoot or pass depending on how the ball is standing, moving or releasing the ball first time. Its little things like this Konami have always done well.
The menu system of this game is a lot brighter, but it’ll take a bit more time for you to start up a game scrolling through the lists of leagues and teams to choose who you want to play with instead of having it all in front of you like before. My only real gripe with this game is the licensing, Man Utd and Liverpool being the only premier league teams that are licensed, and I was also a bit shocked to see that only half of the Spanish league is licensed as well. I think anyone who has played PES should know by now that the transfers are never going to be correct and the strips of unlicensed clubs still look as though Konami took 2 minutes making them so you can expect a lot of editing if you want to be truly happy with PES 2009. If you’re a newcomer to PES don’t let this spoil the game. (Do what I do and print off all the transfers before you start and update everything before you even kick a ball) It takes time but at least I have until January before I worry about more transfers! 
A new addition to PES is the become a legend mode in which you create you character, choose your position and then improve your stats by playing well in that role. You only control that player, and if you do well you’ll be scouted by clubs to further your career. You can also take this mode online and play as a team with other legends! This is a great addition to PES and one that will keep you playing for hours! (Although Id recommend not signing for the first team that comes in for you as you will find it hard to make it into the squad!)
I’ve recently became addicted to Xbox live, but because I’d heard so many complaints about PES 2008’s online capabilities I was a little worried about what to expect. From talking to a lot of people while playing Konami seem to have sorted out a lot of the lagging problems, although you will notice the odd line going through the screen when hoofing a ball up the pitch. When looking for a game, and joining a room before kick off you can see your opponents connection status. You should avoid red and only focus on opponents with yellow or green connections. I myself have 20meg broadband and found a lot of lagging problems (attacking one minute then picking the ball out of my own net the next) when playing users with poor connections so beware! Other than that I love pitting my skills against others and trying to improve my win streak to move up the leagues!
In conclusion I think this is the best PES yet in terms of realism and game play. Yes there are a few things Konami could have done better, but these are the same things that they could have improved when they first started the Pro Evolution series. If you love PES you will love it more with PES 2009! I give this game 9/10 just because it takes so long to edit everything so that the transfers are up to date. But don’t let that put you off, game play is the key here and PES 2009 has it nailed!
2 Responses to “Visitor Review #1- Craig”
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Craig Says:
November 26th, 2008 at 12:25 pmCan I ask if the competition has finished yet?
Cheers
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Collin Says:
May 1st, 2009 at 12:46 pmyou just did Craig…
