I think we have pretty much agreed on the key issues which plagued PES2011:
a) player switching – trying to get the cursor to work with you can at times be incredibly frustrating, often leading to your opponents ending up scoring.
b) ground pass through balls – a very effective method of getting through defences. I personally got used to the mechanics of how to play with them. But they could be a source of frustration as defenders are like bystanders at times in the game.
c) goalkeepers – this one is a little contentious for me. I have to say that I don’t find keepers too bad in the game in their current capacity. Perhaps I have very little expectations from keepers, but they make saves and put the ball out when some shots come at them. But I do understand how many people do not find keepers dynamic enough in the game.
d) referees – from stupid offsides, to missing blatant professional fouls when an attacker is almost clean through, to sending players off for sliding in from an angle. Keepers in PES2011 clearly tore up the rule book, and clearly favoured a more prison rules approach to officiating.
e) defenders making up ground very quickly on attackers who break free. Perhaps in an attempt to try to provide balance for players who struggle defensively, this bug made life very hard for teams. Unless you have a super quick striker going clear, expect to be shut down in no time.
Other features for me which are very dated and need to be addressed are:
a) Super Cancel: I won’t be very happy if Super Cancel is still a part of the game. It’s a slap in the face for the whole Total Freedom concept. Seeing players run into the ball to give away a needless throw-in, when your team would have had the throw-in is a joke. Having players automatically run to the spot that a goal kick is going to reach and pretty much staying put is just wrong. If you’re locked in a jostle with an opposing player, you can’t break free from the jostle, and if your opponent is ahead of you, you know he’ll get the ball.
Why can’t we just go to the X mark of where the ball will land, and decide on our approach to attack the ball? Anyone who plays the game will tell you that if you’re a strong player, you’ll hold your ground and jump for the ball, or try to bring it down. Or if you see there is already a player around the area it’s going to land, you can choose to run onto the ball, gaining leverage to head it, or just to challenge. Or even anticipate where your opponent will try to play the ball. The PES Engineered for Freedom doesn’t incorporate these basics. It’s more like “Engineering for Freedom”, in small installments.
Konami’s approach to PES now, as we’ve heard from Seabass himself, is to incorporate match day experiences into gameplay. Whilst this is an interesting approach to trying to build in features into the game, there’s almost an arcade like implementation of the ideas.
We want players to have qualities and abilities like real footballers. Whilst we have to be realistic and appreciate this is a videogame we’re talking about, I think there are fundamental player abilities which need to be in the game. Which brings me nicely to my next point.
b) Goalkeepers: I tolerate goalkeepers in their current guise. I try to live with their limited abilities, and just try to work with them as best I can. If I could, I’d trash the current goalkeeping system and build them up again.
Features I’d like to see goalkeepers have:
a full range of ball delivery, ranging from choosing to play the ball out under arm, over arm, kicked short, long to targetted areas/players – with goalkeeper reaction speeds realistically depicted. Top goalkeepers can make a save and launch a counterattack instantly – see Reina in action for more details.
A more diverse range of saves. As people in comments have said, seeing keepers parry the ball out, punch out, tip over the bar, flap at crosses (depending on their stats), and have personality.
More transparent goalkeeper types visible. Some goalkeepers are great shotstoppers, but very poor on crosses (David James). Some goalkeepers are very erratic – being brilliant one minute, and shocking another (Gomes aka Go Miss – sorry spurs fans!)
I pray for the day when a short goal kick can be played to anyone other than the defender closest to him. I think this has been fixed, but I won’t believe it till I see it.
My final discussion point is about the online game, and cheaters specifically.
As has been described in comments to my article last week, and should be common knowledge enough, cheats are prospering on PES. A few months ago I wrote an article which I thought would be useful to try to weed out cheats. Basically if people have high disconnection rates, it’s not unfair to assume that some sort of cheating is the cause. These types of people need to be run out of the mainstream MLO experience.
The number of times I’ve received messages from people giving me the name tags of cheats, saying to beware of them. It’s quite frankly a joke. Many other games look to protect their loyal fanbase from such experiences. If we had a seperate room that these players were relegated to, it would go some way to fixing the problem. If you’re in the Cheats Room, you should have to play at least 10 games in a row without quitting once. If you don’t, then you remain in this area. If they can be reassilimated into general population, and leave their dirty cheating ways in the past, everyone wins. If they reoffend, then the second time they’re in the Cheats Room, it’s 20 games without quitting.
I will be pressing Konami for details on how they plan to deal with cheats. I’d be amazed if such a policy will be being implemented. But I’m in a unique position to push the issue into their domain. Please spread the word to your mates to leave comments on this issue to this article.
I don’t want to finish this article sounding like I’ve had enough of PES and am just taking pot shots at Konami.
With all it’s faults and warts, PES still is a compelling game for me. I’ve clocked up over 450 hours (300 online!) on PES2011. This is an unprecedented amount of time for me, especially considering how busy I’ve been generally.
What sort of figures have you guys hit?
Thanks for reading.
PES Matters 30th July 2011
4/
5
Oleh
Agus Prasetyo
