When I played Pro Evolution Soccer for the first time about 3 years, I was instantly sold on it. Sure, the game had funny names for teams and players, and the presentation was poor, but none of that mattered because the gameplay on the pitch was so good. It was the first time I felt like I was playing a game of soccer that closely replicated the actual physical game. The player’s skill numbers actually felt like they meant something, the team play was terrific, and the game felt responsive and fun.

But oh my, how the mighty fall. PES 09 doesn’t feel like the same series I fell in love with 3 years ago. Although there have been some improvements in getting real teams and players and adding some new modes, the actual game itself seems to have suffered as a result. Although it’s on the same engine as it has been for the last 3 years, there is an enormous gap of quality between PES 6 and PES 09.

The first thing I noticed which has changed for the worse is the team play. I can’t understand why it has changed, but players seem to flock around the ball rather than play the field. They’re often out of position or worse, get in one another’s way. This is particularly true of defence, and it means the opposition will find holes in your defence more often than they should. Players no longer make decent runs, or will run straight into opposition players instead of seeking out open space.

Passing has changed so now you hold the A button for longer passes. This is a good idea on paper, but let down by poor implementation. Often a player will run to the ball, but it will suddenly decide it can’t get their and stop their run. And I mean stop to a complete standstill while another player gets the ball, or to simply watch the ball go out of bounds. PES has always played along the 8 directions of the joypad, but now it seems if the ball and player aren’t lined up completely, the game gives the ball up.

Worse still is the physics. The ball now simply doesn’t feel right. The ball feels ultra heavy – it will stop dead far sooner than it’s meant to, meaning through balls feel wasted most of the time. And although PES has always had a problem with the ball bouncing off players, now it seems even worse. Players scramble over the balls, with the ball bouncing off players like a pinball.

Then there’s the issue PES always has had that still haven’t been addressed. Like throw-ins, where the opposition has an exclusion zone preventing the player from positioning and pressuring during the throw. FIFA 09 allows players to jostle during thrown balls, and this artifice of PES makes it seem really outdated. Also trying to score from free kicks still feels as pointless as ever. Yes, you can score, but the ability to get it right still feels like luck instead of skill. And turning kicks at goals still fly over the bar every time, no matter how much or how little power you apply.

It’s not all bad, and you will still experience some of the brilliance of the former games. Although crosses seem a little weaker, volleys still look and feel awesome when they smash into the back of the net. The pace is brisker than FIFA, yet measured. Results are still far more realistic. Although 5-nil games aren’t unheard of in PES, the occurrence isn’t nearly as frequent as FIFA, even when playing on the easier settings.

PES 09 has secured the rights of the UEFA Championship League, which is quite the coup. You can choose to play this league right off the main menu, and like previous titles, the league mode is as great as ever. You will get sick of hearing the UEFA music though. And PES still has the better manager mode, and once you get into it, the deep gameplay will have you rapt. The player improvement and transfers and all the other things which make this mode great are still in place. And now even the menu system is slightly less convoluted as before! PES also has the better method of displaying of team and player stats, meaning you can tell how good a team is and where a player’s strength lies just by looking at the skill pentagram. This is far better than FIFAs 100 points system.

A new mode to tackle FIFA Be A Pro, introduced in last years FIFA, is Become A Legend. Like FIFA, you control one player and run them through their career. Unlike FIFA, you’re not limited by their seasons, but by their age, which means you can play your pro until retirement at age 35. However, it is the much poorer cousin to FIFA’s excellent offering. You will play many squad v squad matches in order to get to you main team, and these are just on the training pitch with no crowd and no commentary. Realistic, probably, but quite boring in actuality. You can skip these, but then you don’t get XP to expand the player.

You’re rewarded for the way you play like FIFA, but there’s absolutely no feedback on the pitch. It assumes you know the sport. Of course if you have poor positioning like offsides, slide too much and get carded you, you will get a bad rating, but if you don’t know much about soccer, you’re going to get a little lost. To help, holding the left bumper makes player go into position, but some sort of onscreen direction would be preferable.
The online system is sort of weird. You sign into servers which show how many people are playing, then from there look for a quick game or ranked match. It feels a little awkward. Unfortunately I’ve only managed to have one game against a friend, although it was much better than PES 08, being smoother with far less lag, it was no where near the quality of FIFA 09’s online connections.

The game looks and sounds like PES has for the last 3 years. Menus are a little cleaner and more intuitive, but not by much. The players look a little better, but I think the player animations on field have gotten worse. I’ve seen players animate for a big kick even though I simply moved the joystick left or right. I’ve also seen the ball pass through a players legs, and it looked like all the animations played at once with the player spazzing out. However, other animations look cool, like when players automatically spin past other players.

Sound wise the music once again is what the Japanese developers think is “cool” amongst soccer fans at the moment. None of it is by any recognisable group, and although it’s not completely terrible, it’s not fantastic by any means. Commentary is almost exactly the same as last year. There is a little more banter played at the end of the game and after goals and goal chances, but it gets repetitive really quickly.

Conclusion:
PES has always been the little game that could. It’s faced the might of EA and delivered a soccer game that has been superior for most of its lifetime. However, lately EA seem to have suddenly “got” what players want, and have dished up a mighty fine game in FIFA 09. On the other hand Konami have seemed to rest on their laurels, and for possibly the first time have dropped the ball and seen FIFA take the win.

PROS
– UEFA Champions League mode
– The usual deep Manager Mode
– Still a good game of soccer
– Less lag than previous PES titles.

CONS
– Team play, ball physics and passing seem to have gotten worse
– Become a Legend mode doesn’t show any on screen help during play
– No other real improvements to the game
– Commentary gets repetitive really quickly

79/100