Hopelessly dated and creaking in so many respects, playing PES 2010 can initially be a disheartening experience when coming off the back of EA's astounding FIFA 10. In comparison it's clunky, its feature set paltry and its presentation amateurish – as players who have been enthralled by PES since its trailblazing entries at the turn of the decade, seeing PES lose its grip on the football throne has become a melancholy experience for fans that gets sadder each year.
But after a dedicated weekend in its presence we're left as hoarse as fevered fans walking away from a thrilling derby, our vocal chords scratched by the screams and yelps that accompany an 89th minute goal-mouth scramble and our knees chafed from dropping dramatically to the floor after scooping a potential winner up into the rafters. EA and FIFA might be the new champions elect, but that doesn't stop Konami from staging a party of its own with PES 2010, a game that's easily the best series entry on the current generation of hardware. While it can't boast of being the most realistic take on the beautiful game anymore, it's got a good claim to being the most fun.
Given PES's tradition of being the most authentic game on the pitch, it feels strange applauding its more outlandish nature - but with EA Canada dedicating its craft to creating the most life-like game possible it's what we find ourselves doing now. Games zip from end to end with restless glee, ambitious shots from 30 yards out stinging the cross bar and quick-fire crosses met with violently weighted headers.
This is football concentrated, the game's greatest moments boiled down into something that's instantly gratifying and almost without fail produces encounters that are thrilling and intense. Which, of course, is a formula that PES has always peddled - and it's only in the light of FIFA's depth of realism that it comes across as arcade-like.
But in certain regards this is the most polished iteration to date, with the graphical overhaul that everyone's been begging for finally here, in a fashion. In a certain light it's a more attractive game than its chief rival – more specifically in the hazy late afternoon light of a dusk match, with patches of sun glowing convincingly on the pitch and casting convincing shadows across the player's newly restructured faces. In stasis it's remarkable, the player likenesses uncanny and the natural lighting imbuing everything with an appealing glow. In motion it's a little less impressive and while a select suite of new animations join the fray it's a world away from the organic flow of FIFA's matches.
Get them to keep still and this is a fine looking game.
PES 2010's biggest addition – the 360 degree control of dribbling – doesn't make quite the same impact as it's had in this year's FIFA, though it certainly lends the game an added layer of fluidity. Indeed, most of PES 2010's on-pitch additions amount to little more than a nip here and a tuck there, with it all combining to make the most assured take on PES's formula since its PlayStation 2 heyday. There are some not-so-successful amendments too – Graham Poll seems to have been consulted on the new refereeing system, with eccentric decisions frequently causing outrage and the advantage rule not as prevalent as it has been before.
Another supposed amendment also falls flat – the keeper's bolstered intelligence fails to shine, and if anything they all seem to have been given an extra dose of stupid. Too often they stand rooted on the spot and stare dumbly at balls floating past them, and on one occasion a half-hearted shot simply floated through the keeper's body, rolling into the goal off of a defender who had taken a shine to the newly modelled netting and was transfixed with his back to the action. A comedy moment, but it's hard to laugh when the goal was the decisive effort in an otherwise excellent encounter.
But slapstick keeping is almost a PES tradition – and another PES tradition is its befuddling presentation, something that's been addressed with a much greater level of success. On a superficial level it offers only slight improvements – whereas we once had surreal rap rock with bespoke and 'inspirational' lyrics, we've now got slick and licensed tunes from the likes of DJ Shadow and The Klaxons.
Compressed Size: 703.53 MB
Uncompressed Size: 985 MB
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