Pro Evolution 2011

I think the PES menu system, although "not as polished" is 100 times better than FIFA's because it actually works. The FIFA menu system is probably the worst thing about the game. It's slow, everything has to load, and it's confusing. It's absolutely awful from top to bottom.

Also, am I the only person who thinks PES beats FIFA graphically hands-down? FIFA is like a cartoon in comparison to PES which genuinely gives you that "watching a real game of footy on the telly" feeling.

Other than that, I kind of echo what is being said. I prefer PES' more free-flowing less restricted gameplay, but overall FIFA feels like the more polished, value for money affair. That is, until I played Master League Online and realised that it's possibly the most addictive, brilliant football game mode I've ever played. It's absolutely fantastic. I cannot get enough of it. I've played it for over 10 hours according to the stats screen (Master League Online). And I've only had the game two days, and I've been playing the offline stuff as well.

I have to say also, gameplay-wise, I've been a "fan" of FIFA since 09 (when I got sick of PES getting worse), but despite enjoying it, it always left me with a bit of an empty feeling because it never really truly feels like what I'm doing is my own creation. If I score a great goal with wonderful build-up in FIFA, I'm never sure how much of it was me and how much was the AI. In PES 11, that empty feeling isn't there - just like the good old days, it feels genuinely rewarding to string some passes together and have a shot on goal - even if you don't score. It just feels right. With FIFA I always felt like I was just killing time, almost on auto-pilot, just waiting for PES to get good again so I could actually feel in control of the football I'm playing again. Pleased to say, PES is good again. It's rough around the edges, but it's definitely making me a happy chappy right now.

If they fix a few niggles, PES 2012 should be the undisputed number one again - unless the EA boys completely re-build FIFA from the ground up and make it feel less stilted and restricted. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate what they've done with FIFA and I've had many a great times playing it for the last couple of years, but it has always been lacking something that PES used to have. PES 11 is hinting at bringing that back, and that's good enough for me.

I'm not going to rush out and trade FIFA 11 in or anything because I still need it to play against chums online, but I won't be playing it again for any reason other than that. I personally think PES is the better game this year. It's marginal, and from a purely objective view, FIFA has a whole host of stuff that PES lacks, but where it counts they're back on the right track just enough to give it the edge.
 
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ps3ud0 said:
Keep posting on the experience especially how you favour Offline/Online versus the two games.

Im tempted to get PES for the offline experience - heard of Master League but never had a chance to play it...

ps3ud0 :cool:
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I will do, I'll keep at it and practice and see what I think 30 or 40 games down the line, online and off!

skippi90 said:
The gap is much narrower than some people make out this year.
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I would agree, they are close in certain ways, and quite different in others.

I certainly find PES less frustrating than I do FIFA, for now at least.
 
TerryWogan said:
I think the PES menu system, although "not as polished" is 100 times better than FIFA's because it actually works. The FIFA menu system is probably the worst thing about the game. It's slow, everything has to load, and it's confusing. It's absolutely awful from top to bottom.

Also, am I the only person who thinks PES beats FIFA graphically hands-down? FIFA is like a cartoon in comparison to PES which genuinely gives you that "watching a real game of footy on the telly" feeling.

Other than that, I kind of echo what is being said. I prefer PES' more free-flowing less restricted gameplay, but overall FIFA feels like the more polished, value for money affair. That is, until I played Master League Online and realised that it's possibly the most addictive, brilliant football game mode I've ever played. It's absolutely brilliant.
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I also prefer the PES visuals, but it appears to be a preference as people say PES's graphics are unrealistic, and I really can't see what that's based on. The player likenesses look spot on for the most part.

Also, I think the menus are nice. The FIFA menus are slow and HUGE with no variation. If you know what I mean. Just a block of menus.
 
Have the animations been improved?

My previous concerns of the demo:
ps3ud0 said:
My issues still are:

1) Dribbling animation is really poor - looks like the ball is jumping from players feet
2) Running animation looks they are running on something that has less friction than grass which is the opposite to what happens to the ball which appears to 'jump' when dribbled...
3) I dont know who cuts the grass but the ball seems to slow down too much - its more realistic than FIFA but its just a bit too harsh considering the surface - be interesting to see how this changes with weather conditions.
4) How animations fit together looks very awkward - players look ungainly when changing direction/speed/shielding the ball...
5) Too often a player can pick up a pass thats been directed to a crowd of players - magically either the crowd parts or makes no attempt to stop the ball. Its like its given me too much assistance which negates how harsh it normal deals with poor passes - just not consistent enough.
6) When playing a through ball a tap of power may mean it plays it to not to the nearest player, but then sometimes it does it to the nearest player as Id expect. Maybe Im messing up the direction but Id rather it just do poorly directed weak through ball (as per the power Ive added) than magically pass to something with the correct pace which breaks any realism of control.
7) When the ball is loose, all the players become Usain Bolt and have super speed - as soon as they get the ball youll never get the same reaction of speed. The opposite happens when accepting a through ball, the player tends to have to slow down for no reason
8) I cant see any idea of how much sprint reserve a player has so if Im pelting down the wing and they slow down its hard to maintain possession let alone carry on a move. Also the difference in speed between fast players and slow ones just isnt enough - Messi after the initial burst of speed can be covered by pretty much anyone
9) Tricking seems to be very much tacted on - the potential power of link feints and how slow they are to link just ruins the point of them. It is good though that you can change direction between certain links - could lead to some cool goals, but ultimately thats just down to a 2 button press - you can only cancel a link by losing the ball or passing it - I would have preferred multiple presses to indicate how far you want it to do the link...
10) The power bar is way too sensitive - if you dont tap it, it will go high and wide.
11) Why cant you control off the ball runs? The AI just isnt capable - time and again Ill watch Villa and Messi just stand there while my defender walks past them...

P.S I really miss FIFA celebrations

The few things I like:

1) Love when players attempt headers and miss them
2) Passing needs more accuracy though the power of the pass still feels disjointed (especially through balls)
3) I prefer how you do have some room to manoeuvre when you are on the ball - feels like real football - but offline FIFA feels like that, I suspect online it will be a totally different story too
4) As a default players will do drag backs animations and the like - its not a trick requirement like it is in FIFA, but seemingly a default attribute to certain players
5) Woot GKs dont run off the line so readily - also seem to parry the ball a lot more - animations are great for this

ps3ud0 :cool:
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ps3ud0 :cool:
 
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I agree with everything said so far, and after only 4 games I am very very happy I ditched Fifa for PES this year :D
 
REally happy I stuck with PES! Absolutely love the new controls for passing strength and direction, and I can't see why so many people are complaining about the dribbling to be honest, I think it's much more responsive than previous versions. Also impressed with the shooting control and power, and the little touches like the replays all add to a big improvement on PES 10. Sure it's still lacking polish compared to fifa, but to be honest I really do much prefer the control and gameplay. You feel more immersed and in control in my opinion. Happy PES fan here, cant believe i considered defecting!

I also love that it's given me something to work at, I've played a few games and am getting the hang of the passing, but I still overhit long balls and get my angles wrong for through passes sometimes, just like in real life. I like this a lot, really looking forward to improving at playing this game, and starting BAL tomorrow!
 
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TerryWogan said:
Also, am I the only person who thinks PES beats FIFA graphically hands-down?
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It's no contest as far as I'm concerned. Player likenesses have surely never been better. It's a good job Ian Dowie has retired, as I imagine a fully rendered PES11 version of him would be causing mild vomiting across the globe as we speak. It was bad enough being forced to have Puyol's face thrust at you in the demo every game.
 
Most of the things in your list have been tweaked or fixed. My major concern from playing the demo was the lack of runs players would make ahead of a player in possession. This hasn't been a problem in the full game - players make intelligent runs ideal for through balls constantly. I'm actually really surprised they've so obviously fixed this since the demo - I always assumed the demo was pretty much final build, and I was really worried this would be a game ruiner.

I'd still like to see a FIFA-style "hold LB to make players run" feature next year though.
 
Bubo said:
It's no contest as far as I'm concerned. Player likenesses have surely never been better. It's a good job Ian Dowie has retired, as I imagine a fully rendered PES11 version of him would be causing mild vomiting across the globe as we speak. It was bad enough being forced to have Puyol's face thrust at you in the demo every game.
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:D

What about Messi as the cover star? Bluargh! :eek:
 
Robboftw said:
Early thoughts...

I can't really say one is better to play than the other, it depends on what you prefer but PES is certainly more of challenge to string moves together on and it does feel slightly more rewarding in some situations when you score a goal, or even come close.
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Disagree. With Fifa set to world class & legendary, and with passing set to manual it's harder to pass the ball about.

PES set to top level, it's easy to pass the ball about, even with poor teams as the majority of passing and shooting is assisted.

Robboftw said:
Offline, the AI is much better, it doesn't seem to think ahead of you and you seem to have more room on the pitch, which adds to the realism and doesn't force you to have to pass instantly which can often be an issue on FIFA. The Master League looks pretty good though I haven't looked into it much just yet.
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You don't have that much time on the ball at the top level on PES.

Personally, I like to judge the a.i. on the be a pro/become a legend mode, as that's the mode I play mostly.

The a.i. on PES's become a legend just isn't good enough compared to Fifa's be a pro a.i.

The amount of times that I have seen PES's a.i. on become a legend run a player out of play for no reason is embarrassing as an example.

Robboftw said:
Its difficult to explain how it is better, but plenty of the aspects of the gameplay ARE better than FIFA, and plenty of others aren't..
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Disagree. I don't think there is an aspect of PES's gameplay that I would have over Fifa.

Robboftw said:
Controlling your player with the ball for example, can be very hit and miss, where as on FIFA it feels more complete and comfortable to control...
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Agree.

Robboftw said:
Passing isn't that much different between the two, its slightly harder to pass on PES but you can ping-pong quite a bit and its certainly not 'hard'
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Obviously again disagree.Fifa on manual is harder to pass.

There is no manual passing setting on PES.

Robboftw said:
I would say that realism slightly favours PES, FIFA can feel somewhat automatic at times and that can be annoying.
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I would say that depends on what you prefer the a.i. to be ?

Personally Fifa's a.i. is more challenging, and yes more scripted than PES, but I think that makes for a more realistic game. PES's a.i. is still pretty poor personally.

Robboftw said:
Shooting seems more challenging too, you can usually tell immediately on FIFA if you will hit the target or not, its not always so clear on PES, which adds some extra suspense!
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I think I have to disagree on that one.Overall, shooting on manual with Fifa is harder to score.

Obviously it's all about preferences.

I'm not a Fifa fanboy before anyone starts - and i'm comparing PES 11 with the pc's FIfa 11 :D

I've not played Fifa 11 on the console yet ... but do remember that the pc's Fifa 11 doesn't have some of the new gameplay features that the Fifa 11 console version has.

I've played a good deal of both and personally there is no reason to go back to PES 11.

And I really don't understand how PES 11 is getting as much loving as it is. IGN for example giving it 9 out of 10 ..

And I think ultimately - comparing it to the dross that PES 10 was, it just isn't enough of an overall improvement to speak about.And that is the biggest factor at my dislike of PES 11.

-Disclaimer
Some of my opinions based on the games gameplay might not be 100% accurate-
 
I really need to look at the controls a bit more, im basically playing with FIFA controls at the moment, bar shoot and sprint, and its quite fail :p
 
If I see it cheap I'll probably pick it up. However I will miss the right analogue stick first touch from FIFA and the L1 request run. Got to be the first time in 3 or 4 years both games look awesome and that means the consumer wins.
 
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