PES

Demo out today and they have certainly improved a few things. Most noticeably:

• Animations make the gameplay much more smooth and believable. First touch and transition animations are great, still lacking the long-awaited crossing and passing animations though.
  
• Player models look better (more body types). You can really tell who is who even if you have the camera zoomed out.
  
• Gameplay speed is just right. Not too slow to bore the hell out of you and not too fast to look like an arcadey piece of shit.
  
• I love dribbling again! Even against AI you can pull off some great moves. Control is very responsive without sacrificing player momentum.
  
• Player personality finally getting close to the golden days of PES when stats mattered.
  

Things still lacking:

• Commentary is still a decade behind FIFA's (can't test it on the demo but apparently they haven't improved it one bit).
  
• Grass looks bad compared to FIFA. Looks more like carpet tbh
  
• Stadium models look good but what happens in them (crowd, cheering etc.) is very bland.
  

I played four matches earlier. Turns out I'm extremely rusty.

Shooting feels like it has more weight to it compared to last year. I found that players felt a bit unresponsive on set-pieces (could just be me).

Otherwise it feels a lot like PES2017, which isn't a bad thing at all.

Agreed. It just feels like a more polished version of 2017.

My only gripe at the moment is defensive AI which leaves a lot of space in between the lines making passing generally very overpowered. I've had this issue with PES since god knows which iteration, where you can ping a normal pass from defence to the striker with none of the defenders intercepting it, something you rarely, if ever see in real football. I've upped the difficulty to Super Star and the defensive AI doesn't improve much when dealing with this issue. Combine that with how accurate passing is at the moment, it creates a bad representation of the beautiful game with a lot of end-to-end.

Not that FIFA is any better in that regard btw.

Did any of you play the online beta out of interest? wondered if anything gameplay wise changed.

I did play the online beta but I can't compare at all as online feels like a completely different game to vs CPU.

I played it against my brother so i can't comment on how the CPU feels but there's one thing i can say for certainty.

The dribbling is drastically improved, controlling Dembele on Dortmund feels like an absolute dream.

Although i do wonder that it might be too good in the sense that defenses might struggle to stop it against top tier dribblers.

The formations stuff is annoying agreed, not too fussed about it though because it won't be like that for the full game.

Last year they didn't let you use the Advanced tactics stuff, it's weird but not something not overly concerns me.

Speaking of advanced tactics, i like the wing backs one they added.

Works especially well for 3 at the back systems and Dortmund in particular. It's just a shame that Dortmund's team will be significantly nerfed for full release due to real life stuff lol.

Can't believe I won this game

Legit dont see a difference from last year's game apart from new animations

I suppose its a palatable enough as an appetizer until FIFA comes out

From playing the demo it was obvious to me the dribbling was a lot better and a lot more free.

The pace of play was a lot slower which made for a better passing game and some of the advanced tactics made some parts of the game easier to implement.

That's it though, it's definitely not some overhaul.

Doesn't need an overhaul tbf. Though with the ME being polished I'd have liked to see more additions to Master League. Apart from release clauses being a thing, I haven't heard of any other changes.

My main problem with the demo is the defence. I usually play PES on Regular difficulty and get some decent, even matches but I play Professional on 2018 and it is still too easy to score goals due to poor CPU defending. Mainly, the defenders don't follow basic defensive instructions such as man-marking, covering goal-side and pressing the man with the ball. I really hope they fix this in the final version otherwise offline will be dead.

Somehow I feel as if Konami spent their effort to get online up to speed with 2018, and judging by the Beta, it was a much better experience than previous years. As a result, offline experience seems to have taken a hit. I hope I'm wrong though.

Confirmed he is best football game.

Jay29 wrote:9"]Can't believe I won this game

Confirmed.

I played almost all previous PES on Regular difficulty. I felt like that version was the closest to real football and the higher difficulties had some kind of rubber-banding and cheating from the CPU which killed the immersion for me.

Having said that, the higher difficulties are very playable in 2018. I feel Top Player hits just the sweet spot for me this year where it doesn't want to break my controller while presenting me with different challenges every match. The defensive AI on Regular and Professional are very bad and tbh the overall defensive awareness in cutting loose balls and the switching mechanics is one thing I'm hoping Konami fix for next year.

But yeah overall one of the best football games I've played in terms of CPU AI and the variety of ways you can play the game. Finally a true successor to PES of PS2 days?

For next year I would like more animations (both transitional and otherwise) because the new animations this year have really helped the overall gameplay feel more authentic. And a complete overhaul of the commentary cause it is worse than FIFA 98

Mhmhm
Has anyone bought this for PS4 besides me?

My main man Vibe


Yes I'd like it tbh

^ That is

Spoiler:

Jesus Christ.

Need to delete my Goallegacy account @RG