While it's still the best-playing football game on the market, there's no doubt that last year's Pro Evolution Soccer disappointed many fans of the series. Unimpressive visuals, annoying gameplay tweaks, and a myriad of bugs (particularly on the PlayStation 3) saw the game slip dangerously close to relegation. However, Konami has gone on record saying that this year's iteration will fix the problems with last year's game, taking more advantage of current-generation technology while restoring the gameplay to its former glory. We got a chance to play the game for the first time to see if its promises look set to be delivered upon with the 2009 version.
First impressions of the game are good. Konami has upped the ante and created a menu system that's easy to navigate and makes better use of imagery and animations. The same awful J-pop music remains, but at least some effort has been made to improve the visual presentation. On the pitch, the player likenesses are now even better, particularly with star players such as Cristiano Ronaldo. That said, the game is still some way off the visual fidelity of FIFA, so we'll have to see how much more it can be polished in the run-up to release.
The noticeable changes to Pro Evolution 2009 come in the form of feature enhancements and new gameplay modes. In the former category, there will be an expanded player-editor mode in which you'll be able to add logos to kits by importing them from an external device. The PC and PlayStation 3 versions will offer USB data drive support, but it remains to be seen how this will work on the Xbox 360. The thorny issue of licensing remains in Pro Evolution 2009, and with EA eating up all the official data through its exclusive deal with FIFA, there's no end in sight for the made-up teams in Konami's game. Two teams from the English Premiership will feature official names and sponsors, but we couldn't get Konami to tell us who they are. However, Konami did tease us with the news that a major European competition will be officially licensed in the finished game. We're not allowed to announce which competition, because of an embargo, but we expect that fans will be pretty excited by the news.
The big new gameplay mode for Pro Evolution 2009 is Become a Legend mode, in which you'll pick an individual attacking player and take him through a professional football career. If you perform well as part of a team, you'll attract offers from other clubs, but if you lose the ball and fail to set up goals, you'll receive a low mark at the end of the game. Cynics might suggest that this closely resembles FIFA's Be a Pro mode, but Konami assures us that the Pro Evolution equivalent has been around for some time in the Japanese Winning Eleven series. Unlike in FIFA, though, you can't call for the ball when you want it, which makes the mode more challenging than we initially expected. If you're playing for a lowly club, you're limited by your teammates, while your lack of tactical input means that you'll end up sitting on the bench for some games.
The gameplay is where it's at, and Konami says that it's using Pro Evolution Soccer 5 as its benchmark in this regard. Pro Evolution 2009 certainly feels slower paced than last year's effort, with more on-the-ball control than ever before. Konami claims to have made the ball even more physically independent, meaning that it will even react to certain grass types and wet conditions. While we didn't get to play a game in the rain, we did notice some of the new individual tricks from certain skillful players. As in last year's game, certain top-flight players will be able to pull off moves all their own, and they move from tricks to standard animations very smoothly.
Konami boasted about its Teamvision AI system last year, but it really seems to be coming through in the 2009 iteration. We were impressed with how reserved your teammates are about passing the ball if you're not in a strong position, which encourages you to make more-intelligent runs. Some elements of the game seem slightly dated. For instance, your salary in the Become a Legend mode is paid in "P" points, though overall the new mode should be a welcome challenge for those bored by the master league.
Speaking of which, the master league has also been updated to more closely follow modern business dealings. If your players want to leave your club, they'll perform poorly on the pitch. The multiplayer elements have also been improved. You can now have a total of four players online, in standard ranked and unranked matches, and in the Become a Legend mode. Konami is aware that players didn't think the multiplayer element of Pro Evolution Soccer 08 was up to scratch, so it has promised more-advanced features, such as the ability to upload replays from within the Become a Legend mode.
We managed to coax more good news out of Konami: There will be a demo of the game for both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in the week of release.
First impressions of the game are good. Konami has upped the ante and created a menu system that's easy to navigate and makes better use of imagery and animations. The same awful J-pop music remains, but at least some effort has been made to improve the visual presentation. On the pitch, the player likenesses are now even better, particularly with star players such as Cristiano Ronaldo. That said, the game is still some way off the visual fidelity of FIFA, so we'll have to see how much more it can be polished in the run-up to release.
The noticeable changes to Pro Evolution 2009 come in the form of feature enhancements and new gameplay modes. In the former category, there will be an expanded player-editor mode in which you'll be able to add logos to kits by importing them from an external device. The PC and PlayStation 3 versions will offer USB data drive support, but it remains to be seen how this will work on the Xbox 360. The thorny issue of licensing remains in Pro Evolution 2009, and with EA eating up all the official data through its exclusive deal with FIFA, there's no end in sight for the made-up teams in Konami's game. Two teams from the English Premiership will feature official names and sponsors, but we couldn't get Konami to tell us who they are. However, Konami did tease us with the news that a major European competition will be officially licensed in the finished game. We're not allowed to announce which competition, because of an embargo, but we expect that fans will be pretty excited by the news.
The big new gameplay mode for Pro Evolution 2009 is Become a Legend mode, in which you'll pick an individual attacking player and take him through a professional football career. If you perform well as part of a team, you'll attract offers from other clubs, but if you lose the ball and fail to set up goals, you'll receive a low mark at the end of the game. Cynics might suggest that this closely resembles FIFA's Be a Pro mode, but Konami assures us that the Pro Evolution equivalent has been around for some time in the Japanese Winning Eleven series. Unlike in FIFA, though, you can't call for the ball when you want it, which makes the mode more challenging than we initially expected. If you're playing for a lowly club, you're limited by your teammates, while your lack of tactical input means that you'll end up sitting on the bench for some games.
The gameplay is where it's at, and Konami says that it's using Pro Evolution Soccer 5 as its benchmark in this regard. Pro Evolution 2009 certainly feels slower paced than last year's effort, with more on-the-ball control than ever before. Konami claims to have made the ball even more physically independent, meaning that it will even react to certain grass types and wet conditions. While we didn't get to play a game in the rain, we did notice some of the new individual tricks from certain skillful players. As in last year's game, certain top-flight players will be able to pull off moves all their own, and they move from tricks to standard animations very smoothly.
Konami boasted about its Teamvision AI system last year, but it really seems to be coming through in the 2009 iteration. We were impressed with how reserved your teammates are about passing the ball if you're not in a strong position, which encourages you to make more-intelligent runs. Some elements of the game seem slightly dated. For instance, your salary in the Become a Legend mode is paid in "P" points, though overall the new mode should be a welcome challenge for those bored by the master league.
Speaking of which, the master league has also been updated to more closely follow modern business dealings. If your players want to leave your club, they'll perform poorly on the pitch. The multiplayer elements have also been improved. You can now have a total of four players online, in standard ranked and unranked matches, and in the Become a Legend mode. Konami is aware that players didn't think the multiplayer element of Pro Evolution Soccer 08 was up to scratch, so it has promised more-advanced features, such as the ability to upload replays from within the Become a Legend mode.
We managed to coax more good news out of Konami: There will be a demo of the game for both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in the week of release.
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