PES 2016 Review (XB1/PS4)

[ChaseB]

Quote: Originally Posted by RonMexico1992

People act like on FIFA you can't dribble down the wing on Legendary difficulty, cut in on your strong foot and, pace past defenders into the box and knock in the ball with a power shot far corner consistently when ever you need a goal against the A.I.. Can you not? Guess it was only me. I don't get the double standard. ANY sports game has elements of exploits, especially when playing against the CPU and if you continuously choose to be a cheeser thats on you. but I get it, FIFA is better. Love them Dannish & Belgian league licenses & Amazingly beautiful menu. Career mode is spot on with the ability to sign 10 quality youth products a year with that amazing Youth System. Gotta love them sliders to turn an arcade game into a sim and even then, every team plays the same & CPU players are toothless afraid to shoot. Fav part is when two players bump into each other and they fall down all mangled together, great physics. Oh & Theo Walcott is god like in fifa online universe, spot on. No flaws. 10/10. Would buy two copies.

Thanks Ron, my sarcasm detector exploded next to me, and now I'm covered in wires and have burns all over my face.

[dema]

Quote: Originally Posted by dubcity

Yeah, it's crazy that the defending is just as bad in that way on Superstar. Just played a match where I literally ran from the midway line all the way to goal like I was Maradona in his prime. When they actually close down they are competent, but the defensive shape is compete shambles when you go on solo runs into open space like that.

Just tried to score a goal with Buffon in the demo and was successful on superstar difficulty quite a few times against Bayern and Roma. I can't buy this. They keep talking about player individuality in reviews etc, which at first looks great because of the playing styles which work really well. The problem is that some attributes have little to no meaning, such as ball control and passing because the cpu defense is so bad. If i can run the field with Buffon, what's the point of having a good dribbler, if i can pass through bayern with corinthians why try to upgrade my team at all. Pes has really awesome game mechanics and controls really well, but the cpu ai lets the whole experience down.

[RoyceDa59]

Quote: Originally Posted by dema

Just tried to score a goal with Buffon in the demo and was successful on superstar difficulty quite a few times against Bayern and Roma. I can't buy this. They keep talking about player individuality in reviews etc, which at first looks great because of the playing styles which work really well. The problem is that some attributes have little to no meaning, such as ball control and passing because the cpu defense is so bad. If i can run the field with Buffon, what's the point of having a good dribbler, if i can pass through bayern with corinthians why try to upgrade my team at all. Pes has really awesome game mechanics and controls really well, but the cpu ai lets the whole experience down.

Bad thing about the stats is the guy the does them seems like he just copies FIFA's stats; it is so lazy it just lets me know that some of the team members don't even know what every stat contributes to.

[dema]

This is a video of someone else scoring with Neuer on superstar difficulty.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnMlwzqJ-xs

[DBMcGee3]

Quote: Originally Posted by mfp

I don't see how a football game can receive a "great" review when it: * lacks any satisfaction scoring goals unless playing with manual settings; * has serious referee/foul issues; * has some major issues with defensive AI; * every goal is spectacular that it becomes repetitive; * one-touch passing is ridiculously easy; * R2 shooting is really, really OP; * legacy issues with animations, automation, and player awareness; * still very limited library of animations compared to other AAA sports titles. And that's just gameplay. What about: * horrible commentary; * lack of licenses; * lack of stadiums; * lack of proper rosters; * lack of updates stats for many players; * horrible menu system; * technical issues with online play. PES 2016 might be the best PES ever, but that's not saying much considering what this franchise has done over the past decade, and the only way you can consider this game deserving of an 8 is if you grade PES only against other PES titles and disregard what other games, including other sports titles, are accomplishing with the current technology. Relative to other PES titles, PES 2016 could be considered great; relative to what we should be expecting in 2015, this game ought to barely receive a passing grade.

Well played sir, couldn't have said it better myself. I feel like a lot of people are giving them a pass on things that I've seen other games crucified for.

I've enjoyed playing the game, but in my opinion it's only the best PES ever, not the best footy game ever.

[TheDutchDad]

Quote: Originally Posted by DBMcGee3

Well played sir, couldn't have said it better myself. I feel like a lot of people are giving them a pass on things that I've seen other games crucified for. I've enjoyed playing the game, but in my opinion it's only the best PES ever, not the best footy game ever.

I'm not going to argue whether it's the best or not, but certainly the best PES game we've ever played is always better than the best FIFA we have ever played, therefor PES16 would be the best footy game ever...

[Simaofan-20]

Quote: Originally Posted by mfp

I don't see how a football game can receive a "great" review when it: * lacks any satisfaction scoring goals unless playing with manual settings; * has serious referee/foul issues; * has some major issues with defensive AI; * every goal is spectacular that it becomes repetitive; * one-touch passing is ridiculously easy; * R2 shooting is really, really OP; * legacy issues with animations, automation, and player awareness; * still very limited library of animations compared to other AAA sports titles. And that's just gameplay. What about: * horrible commentary; * lack of licenses; * lack of stadiums; * lack of proper rosters; * lack of updates stats for many players; * horrible menu system; * technical issues with online play. PES 2016 might be the best PES ever, but that's not saying much considering what this franchise has done over the past decade, and the only way you can consider this game deserving of an 8 is if you grade PES only against other PES titles and disregard what other games, including other sports titles, are accomplishing with the current technology. Relative to other PES titles, PES 2016 could be considered great; relative to what we should be expecting in 2015, this game ought to barely receive a passing grade.

A lot of your gameplay complaints are complaints about FIFA as well. Not that it excuses it but its still an issue there as well. Though, FIFA has a better foul system . Finesse shots in FIFA are just as OP , it isn't anything new in football games.

New commentary this year and it sounds better but of course FIFA has always been better in this regard

Lack of license is due to EA having more money to acquire exclusivity with leagues. That isn't PES or Konami's fault at all and if you didn't know about the lack of license, then thats yoru own fault for not doign any sort of research. Remember, PES had La Liga entirely licenced almost, the next year? EA took all the stadiums away and have barely used them since. PES had 20 La liga stadiums...how many are in FIFA now? 8 maybe? Lack of stadiums goes down to having little money in comparison to FIFA though I do believe they should create stadiums but remember this , they got a law suit threatened for stadium creator if I recall too so basically , its an EA monopoly

Proper rosters I understand being an issue but Konami has a fraction of people at their disposal in comparison to EA. It isn't entirely their fault that they have a lot less people to work on their roster updates and stats . I don't remember how many people were working on the game but I remember it being a very very small team doing it

Menu system is fine , if you can't navigate the menus then I don't know what to tell you. They're pretty straight forward and you even have a main section where you can pin all your main sections to if you want. Kind of like xbox OS

Online has always been a problem for PES and I don't get how they haven't fixed it but the only thing I can say is its probably due to being a small team behind the game. Now that Konami is claiming that PES is their only AAA title going forward, one can only hope that they put more people and money behind PES to fix their issues.

FIFA is a more well rounded cleaned up game in comparison and there's no denying that, but to complain about certain aspects that is essentially out of their control is unfair.

[KG]

I agree with A LOT of what you're saying Simao but there are a lot of ways that Konami could get around these issues that they're not pursuing.

College Hoops 2K8 had an online roster share and that was nearly 8 years ago. Surely Konami could implement something that as other games have it (NBA 2K) and it works well. An easy way for people to get up-to-date rosters, kits, created players, etc... would only increase sales as some are turned off by having to put in the time.

Previous PES' used to have Stadium CREATOR, not editor.

Edit mode, while I'm stoked it has returned, is limited by slots when they initially told us it wouldn't be. Just think how cool it would be if there were no limitations on slots except for your internal/external storage. People could and would create retro kits galore. I'd love to use a Samsung or Auto-Glass kit and I'm sure Arsenal fans would be happy to use JVC, Dreamcast, or O2.

Konami isn't some mom & pop shop. They have money, lots of it. They just had 2 games in the Top 5 UK charts last week.

Like you said, maybe with PES being their only AAA title moving forward they will throw more resources into but as of right now there are so many little niggles that set it back. Legacy issues too.