After receiving complaints that the PES 2011 Review from Xbox World was pretty harsh and that the reviewer didn’t really understood the game (or didn’t played long enough to get to know the many subtleties of PES 2011) we decided to go out and find another opinion.
It’s been known for sometime that the PSM3 PES 2011 Review has concluded with an overall score of 89%. Well now you can see for yourselves what the PSM3 reviewer had to say about the game. If you live in UK, don’t be cheap and go out and buy the damn magazine.
PES 2011 Review From PSM 3 ( Scans Inside )
Check out the PES 2011 Review from PSM3 – 01, 02, 03, 04 – or, if you don’t want to bother with the whole article, read below for some quotes.
“A successful reinvention – but steep learning curve will polarise opinion.”
“As learning curves go, it lurches from gentle incline, to rollercoaster, to Everest – and back – before you reach inner calm and truly start to love Konami’s best game since PES6, or easily the best on PS3.”
“It took us ten hours to feel even slightly at ease with our level of ability…but thirty hours in, we’re still learning and – mostly – loving it” – bear in mind that these guys are veteran PES players.
“After a pleasant first few hours, you’re forced to confront the reality that a) This is not FIFA, and no amount of effort will get it to play that way; mechanically, at least and b) This is not PES6, or indeed, PES as we know it.”
“The crippling, but tantalising, realisation is that almost all your years of accrued expertise are junk…and you need to start again.”
“To be clear – this is absolutely a PES game in spirit: tight, skillful, deep, tactical and maddening (in mostly a good way), with distinct player individuality.”
“The new ‘engineered for freedom’ 360 passing isn’t the issue you might expect. You’ll miss the odd five-yard pass, but only with poor players, when wrong-footed or under pressure.”
“The presentation is much improved, from the crisp, minimal menus, to the TV-style broadcast camera, to 1000s of new animations: players perform pre-match stretches, despair after miscued shots and get caught in the net after a missed charging header.”
“Why can i only score from crosses? How do i buy space in one-on-ones? How do i dribble like i used to in PES6? Why doesn’t the AI make runs when i want? Why are players’ first touches so bad? Mentally, you’re still playing FIFA, or PES6, and the game is no longer bending your demands – and it’s infuriating. Take a deep breath. Step back from Top Player, and move to Regular difficulty. Boot up training mode. Be prepared.”
“The skill moves are much more demanding than previous PES games, making FIFA’s initially fiddly skills look basic.”
“A lot of PES 2011′s skills require stance specific, Skate-style rotations, followed by precise left stick exit prompts…But what at first feels impossible, slowly becomes intuition – you no longer mentally wrestle to recall direction inputs, but feel them.”
“You can always assign tricks to the ‘Link Feints’ – tap plus any stick direction to launch automatically into a move that normally requires deft timing and rotations. The trade off is you can only assign four ‘trick settings’ – make them too complex and they’re impractical; too simple and you end up with too few options.”
“Slowly but surely, you learn to create space in central positions. Instead of cursing the perceived lack of player individuality, you’re now desperately trying to get the ball to Messi to show off your jinking runs; or using Pirlo to spray manual passes.”
“…we’ve honestly never seen the same goal twice, and the ‘cheap’ goals of old, like getting to the byline and squaring an x pass, are no guarantee.”
“You’re immersed in Pro Evo 20011′s slow paced simulation of football, no longer cursing the lack off run prompts, but learning to play passes when team mates desire them.”
“It’s not perfect, and we miss FIFA’s right stick first touch, but you do adjust.”
“Tellingly, after playing PES 20011 for nine hours and secretly wishing we were playing FIFA for about five of them, we returned to FIFA 11, only to find it felt ‘fat’ and that dribbling, while smooth, was too imprecise.”
“Pro Evo 2011 definitely feels the ‘crisper’ game, with huge scope for expertise and showing off.”
“…it’s definitely not as fluid as FIFA, and you can almost feel the invisible lines or underlying physics ‘snapping’ your players where it wants them; which might be what affords PES its precision.”
“Both games are great in different ways – once you’ve attuned to one, it’ll have a huge impact on your perception of the other.”
“Our main gripe is that the new control system isn’t actually explained.”
“Commentary’s ‘meh’, and the lack of a Premier League license irks, but easily fixed with the inevitable raft of online option files.”
“Solo playing Master League isn’t that different, either, sadly.”
“For all the effort – on Konami’s part, and yours – PES 2011 doesn’t displace FIFA 11 as PS3′s best football game, but it does emerge renewed, smarter and ready to move on to better things.”
PSM3 Verdict — 89
“Overall intimidating but rewarding and skillful; just a year early to challenge.”
The PES 2011 release date is October 8th in UK while the North American release date is still TBA. The game will be released on the PC, PS3, Xbox 360, PS2, PSP and Wii.
If this PES 2011 review has convinced you that this is the football simulator for you than you can pre-order Pro Evolution Soccer 2011 from Amazon (PS3, Xbox 360, PS2, Wii, PSP), Amazon.co.uk (PC, PS3, XBox 360) or GameStop (PS3, Xbox 360, PSP, Wii) among other retailers.
If, on the other hand, the FIFA 11 Review from GamesMaster makes you want to buy EA’s game, you can do so from Amazon (PS3, Xbox360, Wii, PSP, PS2), GameStop (PC, Xbox 360, PS3, PSP, Wii, PS2) or Amazon.co.uk (PC, PS3, PS2, Xbox 360, Wii, PSP).
