For as long as I can remember 'Seabass' Tekatsuka has been the top dog at Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo and head producer of the Winning Eleven/Pro Evolution Soccer series. However, coinciding with the flagging fortunes of the WE/PES series (though I still maintain last year's title was somewhat of a return to form) there's been a shake-up at Konami and Seabass has been replaced by Kei Masuda. No word on whether or not he'll earn an aquatic nickname.
We got our first look at Masuda's work as the head of WE/PES when the demo for PES 2013 was released this week. It's available for the 360, PS3 and PC and features 4 International teams (Italy, Germany, England, and Portugal) and 4 South American club teams (Flamengo, Fluminense, Internacional and Santos). After extensive time with the 360 and PC versions I have to say I'm incredibly impressed with the improvements made to the game engine thus far.
I think the two biggest changes right off the bat are the passing/shooting system and the ball physics, particularly when it comes to dribbling and ball control. You can now turn off all the assists for passing and shooting and have almost full control over where the ball goes. Holding down L2/LT brings up an arrow that shows the direction that your pass or shot will go in. Also you can use R2/RT button to add curl/finesse to passes as well as shots. These two things allow you much more freedom with your passing and shooting.
Ball physics, via the representation of ball control and momentum, are fantastic in the demo. There are new features where the changes are obvious such as holding down R2/RT when controlling a ball which brings it to a stop and close to you, or you press in the Right Stick when the ball approaches to flick it on. But the changes in physics are apparent with more granularity even with simple things like controlling a ball on the run - if you're turning or at a full sprint the ball won't be kept as close, if you slow down then it will. Of course, this also differs by players - Ozil can keep the ball close to him at all times versus a lumberjack like Andy Carroll who needs more time and space.
The net result of this is the most fun dribbling model I've seen in a football game - even better than that found in FIFA 12. Even without using the R2 and Right Stick modifiers, just twisting and turning in tight spaces is a lot more fun and organic. When you throw in the aforementioned modifiers with the right players and you can pull off some magical moves.
Fancy footwork has been present in both FIFA and WE/PES for the last few years but it hasn't been without problems. In FIFA 12 the problem was response time - in the Arena/Free mode you could pull off all the moves you want with ease, but when you try to do them against the CPU, the half-second lag between inputting commands and seeing the results was enough for you to lose the ball. In PES 2012, the issue was complexity - trying to pull off some of the moves was harder than a 10-hit Street Fighter combo!
In the PES 2013 demo, both issues seem addressed; there's minimal input lag between the controller and your player, and the moves themselves are much easier to do. I was actually able to 'Nutmeg' a defender (and mean it) without breaking my fingers! This makes using the skill players so much fun.
There are a few other improvements in the demo I thought were worthy of note:
- Give and go's are also altered as now you can select which general direction you'd like the initial passer to run in after he's dished off the ball.
- The game still has the off-the-ball controls that last year's game had (where you can control a second player while you have the ball by flicking the right stick and then clicking the stick to initiate a run) but now adds a short corner feature where if you hold down the R1/RB button it brings a forward close for a short pass.
- Lobs are finally back to the WE9-style and you can actually lob a keeper as you would do in real life (with the ball looping high with backspin).
- The defending system is largely the same as PES 2012 (which was already quite good), but now double tapping the X/A button performs a lunging tackle (a happy medium between a standing and a sliding tackle)
As for negatives, one that has to be mentioned is the shoddy frame-rate in the 360 demo - it's pretty glaring at times and Konami really have to iron that out for the final release (it's not an issue in the PC version). Also, I didn't see too much variation in how the AI build up their attacks - everything seemed pretty direct and right up the field when the CPU got the ball. Finally, while you're given the option for full passing control almost everywhere on the field, the one area where it's absent is the crossing which is still, as far as I can tell, semi-auto.
I'm really enjoying the PES 2013 demo. On the PC, with the 'demo-extender' patch I've logged more than a few hours with various settings and it's been a ton of fun. I'm a soccer-whore so I was always going to buy both FIFA and PES this year but I'm definitely looking more forward to Konami's game.
Lavan
PS I threw together a quick montage video of action from the demo using Neymar. Hope you enjoy it.
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