Pro Evolution Soccer 2010 review

7th Nov 2009

Is it just me who’s get­ting a bit bored of the annual duel between FIFA and Pro Evo?  It’s a grudge match that’s been going on for years now, hark­ing back to the days of the first Playsta­tion, when Kon­ami tried to mus­cle in on EA’s recog­nised turf, offer­ing a more fluid, real­is­tic ver­sion of the beau­ti­ful game against EA’s snazzy but admit­tedly shal­lower con­tender. How­ever, since the first next-gen edi­tions of both titles, though, FIFA has leapt back into top spot in the eyes of most crit­ics.  Step for­ward PES 2010.

In terms of graph­ics, PES 2010 is leagues ahead of FIFA 10, par­tic­u­larly on the PC.  The like­nesses of some of the play­ers are aston­ish­ingly accu­rate; par­tic­u­larly the big names like Cris­tiano Ronaldo and cover star Fer­nando Tor­res.  The addi­tion of Anfield and Old Traf­ford to the sta­dium ros­ter, ren­dered in gor­geous detail, is a big plus given that PES 2009 had only one Eng­lish sta­dium, Wem­b­ley.  But in terms of over­all pre­sen­ta­tion, graph­ics are just one facet and PES is still plagued by age­ing ani­ma­tions, laugh­ably bad com­men­tary and a lack of licenses for Pre­mier League teams, except­ing Man United and Liverpool.

How­ever, the crux of Pro Evo has never been in flashy pre­sen­ta­tions, being more con­cerned with the more impor­tant mat­ter of game­play. PES 2010 is quite dif­fer­ent from its pre­de­ces­sor, drib­bling is very tough on the higher dif­fi­culty set­tings, mak­ing pass­ing far more impor­tant.  This is, on the one hand a good thing – goals are more sat­is­fy­ing and arguably more real­is­tic, but on the other hand the drib­bling is per­haps too hard, even with magi­cians like Messi on the ball.  Ulti­mately, the new game­play is unfor­giv­ing to new play­ers, but vet­er­ans should find it to be a good, but not vast, improve­ment on pre­vi­ous editions.

The Mas­ter League mode has been thor­oughly over­hauled by the devel­op­ers, with plenty of excel­lent new fea­tures like spon­sor­ships, youth teams and club staff as well as inte­grated Champion’s League and Europa League tour­na­ments.  The trans­fer mar­ket is a lit­tle clunky, as play­ers can­not nego­ti­ate instantly in the trans­fer mar­ket but have to wait for their scouts to come back with a pos­si­ble deal.  It’s frus­trat­ing at first, but over­all the revamped Mas­ter League is the best new fea­ture of the game.  How­ever, the Become a Leg­end mode, where you guide a sin­gle player through his career, is still a bizarre mix of glo­ri­ous excite­ment and infu­ri­at­ing ‘anti-fun’ as your team-mates’ AI is so shock­ingly inept.  The AI here has to be the first thing to be sorted for PES 2011.

PES 2010 is a strange addi­tion to the fran­chise.  It’s taken the right steps for­ward, aside from the incom­pe­tent AI in the Become a Leg­end mode, but it’s not enough to chal­lenge the notion that FIFA is the bet­ter game, except for the PC ver­sions, where PES roundly trumps the shoddy job that EA have done in port­ing the game.  For Pro Evo fans, it’s a wel­come addi­tion, but sadly it prob­a­bly won’t draw in the neu­tral foot­ball game fan as FIFA con­fi­dently con­tin­ues to do.