Reaction to PES 2014's Press Release - kelvinmak's Blog

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Reaction to PES 2014's Press Release Stuck

Posted on June 5, 2013 at 05:35 PM.

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I don't like the preview season. It turns into a game of predictions based on PR documents, which ultimately instigates a fight between my inner optimist and cynic. On one hand, the official release always make things sound so exciting, with paragraphs and paragraphs of ad-speak, filled with features and acronyms. But then the voice in the back of my head tries its darndest to get through and say "wait a minute, it's its job to tell you that this game is the best thing since sliced bread (or, on this particular subject, PES 6)." We've gone through that with FIFA, and now it's PES' turn.

(By the way, the exciting title for this release? "PES 2014: The Dawn of a New Era". Which of course sounds revolutionary, until you realize last year's release was titled "PES 2013: A Whole New Ball Game". On the plus side, the word "freedom"-- which we know no sports game can even get close to honestly making that claim-- only popped up three times. I suppose that's an improvement.)

So basically, let's not jump to too many conclusions until we at least see some actual gameplay videos, scheduled for tomorrow, shall we?

The Good:

- TrueBall Tech: Sounds encouraging, if it can deliver what it promises: split-second battles during the initial moments when a player receives a pass. It's crucial, especially during build-ups, to turn quickly and correctly. And if we have more options at our disposal as to what to do with the ball when we first receive it, it can open play up a lot.

By the way, friend of the blog Yeats got to this line in the release right away, and I'm in total agreement:

Quote:


	The PES series has long since treated the ball as an individual entity. Again, so not true. PES' magnet-footed players is one of the biggest programming issues with the series. They've never really fixed or advanced it in two generations now -- in fact it was less of an issue two gens ago. Really hope all this is more than just a bunch of Konami marketing spin.

- "Heart": The idea that the crowds, and certain events in a match, can affect players mentally is a good idea, but only if it's implemented properly. Too powerful or frequent, and it will be little more than an exploit, throwing the game off-balance. Too little, and, well, it might as well not be there. But if it works the way it's supposed to, then I'm all for it-- imagine your top-of-the-table team being forced to play conservatively against a minnow because of its raucous home crowd, and the fact that its players are revved up. The inclusion of addition of mental attributes is crucial, as it adds another dimension in differentiating between players.

- The expansion of PES ID: Along the same lines as the new mental attributes , any time there are elements in the game that can help distinguish players-- in this case, "bespoke animations and AI"-- it's always welcome.

The Bad (and the Unmentioned)

- Master League: There was nothing about it. Uh-oh.

- Defending: This was a very offense-oriented press release. The only mention to any sort of defensive improvement, if you can call it that, is the following line:

Quote:


	Defenders will put greater pressure on the attacking player, by tussling for possession, standing back to restrict passing opportunities, or making the tackle.

The tl;dr version, I suppose, is that defenders have, erm... options... of things... to choose from.

- Giant killings: It's been talked about in previous interviews, got a mention during the intro, and the section on "heart" sort of touched on it indirectly, but nowhere in the release did it elaborate on what in the game changed, especially in terms of tactical battles, to make that more possible.

- Team Play: Or more precisely, if I read it correctly, the ability to preset runs before a match begins. It's one thing to "exploit defensive weaknesses beforehand" by emphasizing which part of the field your players will seek to attack and give them general instructions as to how to move (cut inside, stay wide, etc.), it's another to manually set up routes for your teammates beforehand, so they can make the runs once you hit a trigger point. What's the point of having an AI then?

- Too wide open?: I hope I'm reading too much into this, but it's slightly worrying to read the following passage:

Quote:


	The result allows for incredibly open games, where the attributes and skills of the players come to the fore in personal feuds all over the pitch.

Sure, that may be the case for some real-life matches, but for every wide-open game filled with individual showdowns, there are probably two where teams try to grind out 1-0 wins by playing ten men behind the ball. The lack of mention of tactical variety worries me-- though again, along with the "giant-killing" stuff, it was mentioned in previous interviews. Let's hope it's in the game.

The Questions

- Controls: It sounds like there will be plenty more options as to what to do once a player receives the ball. How will this alter the control scheme? Will they be simple and intuitive? Or will we have to once again break out our copies of Street Fighter to practice combo inputs?

- M.A.S.S (off topic, but reading that instantly reminded me of this): Great that we have more tackling styles and collision outcomes (stumbling, recovering, etc.), but how will refs react to it? Can they assess the situation properly? Will what is determined underneath the hood, in the engine, be the same as what is translated onto the screen? Remember, PES' record with refereeing isn't exactly stellar.

- Realism: I know, it's that pesky word that covers way too much. But, as many OSers have already commented on in the initial release article, will it be possible to see teams playing like their real life counterparts?

- Graphics: I won't go too far into it until we get a better glimpse of the game after tomorrow's videos, but so far the screenshots have been... okay. The Bayern mosaic, and a bunch of other little details, are quite nice (plus it seems like they've punched up the color palette), but the rest look only like a mild step up from PES 2013, and not the dramatic improvement, with the FOX engine, that we've been hearing about.

However, the release does state the game is only 70% completed, so maybe visually the rough edges will be ironed out. Or maybe it fares much better when we see it in action, as opposed to a static screenshot. We should know more by tomorrow.

Current Gen vs. Next Gen

Ah, I see the interwebs are deeply divided about the news that PES 2014 won't be available for Xbox One, PS4, or PS Vita.

I hate to play the "business guy" whenever things like this pop up, talking about marketing and financial implications for the game and such, mostly because I'm as far from a business guy as possible-- hell, I can barely remember to pay my credit card bills before the end of the month. But I'm going to try anyway, this time.

As with most "controversies" on the internet, this is probably a case where it's less shocking than some claim to be, and more important than others will have you believe.

The romantic part of me applauds PES for saying they don't want to simply do a half-assed port over to the XBox One/PS4, especially given what happened the last time around. It's admirable that they want to release a quality product. Besides, does it matter to me, and a bunch of gamers who probably won't buy the consoles until the first price-drop (and you would think there's a few), or those who play the game on PC? Not really. So in that sense, no, it's not a big deal.

However, if I put myself in the shoes of somebody who would buy the consoles in December, then the scenario plays out a little differently. I'll grab a copy of FIFA 14, and if it turns out that it's good, then FIFA automatically gets an edge going forward in my purchasing decision. Now, you (hardcore soccer gamers, especially) may say that every year we get to try out demos and make our choices then, but believe me, there are folks out there whose slates aren't wiped clean every year-- that as long as the franchise of their choice release a decent enough game, they will keep on buying it even if its competition comes out with a better one. So in giving FIFA the first bite at the apple this year, PES may also have ceded a bunch of potential customers in the long run.

Ultimately, it looks like Konami is playing it safe for this transition. Instead of taking a risk and trying to gain new customers, it would rather avoid releasing a subpar product and drive away some of its current base by holding off a year before entering the XOne/PS4 market. Will it work? We'll see.