Pro Evolution Soccer
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| Pro Evolution Soccer (series) | |
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| Developer(s) | Konami |
| Publisher(s) | Konami |
| Release date(s) | ISS 64: 1996 ISS Pro: 1997 |
| Genre(s) | Sports game |
| Mode(s) | Single player, multiplayer |
| Platform(s) | PlayStation 2 Xbox |
Pro Evolution Soccer (known in Japan and the Americas as Winning Eleven and known in most non English-speaking Europe as PES) is a football video game series developed by Konami (KCET). It is very popular in Europe. Partially as a result of EA Sports' affinity to purchasing exclusive rights for their FIFA series, Pro Evolution Soccer games have historically lacked the sheer volume of licences present in EA's offerings, with the most notable absences being the FA Premier League, and more recently, the German Bundesliga.
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[edit] Origin
The name Pro Evolution was born from the ISS Pro Evolution series on the PlayStation (itself a successor to KCET's ISS Pro), in an attempt to create a more realistic game than the arcade-like ISS games. The games are usually released in October of every year, while a Japanese version of Winning Eleven is normally released a few months before the European PES release.
And ISS was originaly on Super Nintendo (sfc(jp)/snes(us)).
The first 'true' Pro Evolution Soccer game was released in October 2001, (Winning Eleven 5 in Japan) and the series has received critical acclaim from the gaming press, although some fans have complained about various sequels.
[edit] Pro Evolution Soccer Releases
[edit] Pro Evolution Soccer
Pro Evolution Soccer (Winning Eleven 5 in Japan) was released in October 2001 and was well received, scoring a 9/10 from the Official UK PlayStation 2 magazine. Many new stadia were created, much enhanced graphics, plus a refined sprinting and dribbling engine. Commentary is provided by Chris James and Terry Butcher. Licensing is provided by FIFPro and Umbro, but a large number of players are unlicensed still, plus no clubs are licensed either, although player names are editable. A PlayStation version was released, but was little more than a roster update of ISS PE2.
[edit] Pro Evolution Soccer 2
Pro Evolution Soccer 2 (Winning Eleven 6 in Japan) was released in October 2002 and some felt that it was a slight backwards step from the original Pro Evolution Soccer. Others opined that it had improved. The pace of gameplay was much faster than in the game's older sibling, with sharper turns and quicker reactions to tackles. It also included a training session mode. Extra clubs were added, with an extra Master League division. There were two new commentators, Peter Brackley and Trevor Brooking, but this aspect of the game was criticised for the commentators' inaccuracies and tendency to speak over each other. The licensing was much the same, but infamously all Dutch players were called ‘Oranges’, because Konami does not hold the rights from the Royal Netherlands Football Association, for use from Dutch players. Also, unlike in the original game, the "unofficial" club names stopped using obvious city names (eg. Manchester United was Manchester in PES1, Real Madrid was Madrid etc.), and instead used very ambiguous names (e.g. Manchester United were now Aragon). The edit mode included a club editor which offset this problem to some extent, with editable kits and logos as well as club and player names. The game notably included tracks from Queen: “We Will Rock You” and “We are the Champions”. A PlayStation version was also released, which was again a minor update of its predecessor, and was the last Pro Evolution Soccer release for the original PlayStation.
[edit] Pro Evolution Soccer 3
Pro Evolution Soccer 3 (Winning Eleven 7 in Japan) was released in 2003, and featured the Italian referee Pierluigi Collina on the cover (although bizarrely he is not present as an in-game referee).The most significant update was the overhaul in the graphics engine, with more life like players and much improved likeness. The gameplay was changed to accompany this, with more fast-paced action than that of PES2, a much better physics engine, additions such as the advantage rule improved passing and long-ball functions, while as per usual, more licenses (with the infamous Dutch Oranges removed), more club teams and the Master League is now split into regional divisions, with competitions equivalent to the Champions League and the UEFA Cup and as Umbro was no longer revived, the company has been replaced by Adidas.
Pro Evolution Soccer 3 was the first in the series to be released for Microsoft Windows and was well received by the PC games magazines but criticized by fans for its lack of online mode and bloated system requirements at its time, particularly not supporting the common Geforce MX series. Its rival, FIFA 2004, had online functions and had more modest system requirements in comparison. The game was essentially a direct conversion of the PlayStation 2 code, albeit with sharper graphics and is easier to download fan made mods for the game.
[edit] Pro Evolution Soccer 4
Pro Evolution Soccer 4 (Winning Eleven 8 in Japan) was released in 2004; featuring referee Pierluigi Collina, Thierry Henry and Francesco Totti on the cover; this was the first Pro Evolution Soccer game to feature full leagues, including French, German, Spanish, Italian and Dutch top divisions, with full league licenses for the latter three, although it pales in comparison to FIFA’s lower division licenses. The gameplay has improved from Pro Evolution Soccer 3, (though not as not as much of a significant leap as its predecessor) with improved AI, tweaked play-on advantages and better throughballs. Dribbling is tighter with the players, plus free-kicks have been changed to allow lay-offs. The gameplay was criticised for it’s easy scoring opportunities, commonly passing along in the area usually gave way a clear cut chance. A new 6-star difficulty was added as an unlockable in the shop, as well as the previous items, while the Master League included enhancements such as player development, so many players over 30 would see certain attributes decline as the game progresses. The edit mode has been enhanced rapidly, with the options to add text and logos to shirts (essentially sponsors) and pixel logo editing as well as the traditional preset shapes, thus making it easier to replicate a team. Bizarrely however, the ability to select striped or hooped shirts in edit mode is left out.
One feature that sets this PES and PES3 apart from EA Sports' FIFA series is the fact that the player can lock the cursor on a single player and control him for the entire game. This allows better control over goalkeepers by allowing free movement that is not restricted to just charging out of the box at the press of a button.
This was the first to be released on the Xbox, with slightly better graphics and online play on Xbox Live. Online play was also featured in the PC version but was not included in the PlayStation 2 version from technical restrictions. The conversion was successful on the Xbox, but certain gamers prefer the Dual-Shock 2 controller for the gameplay.
[edit] Pro Evolution Soccer 5
Pro Evolution Soccer 5 (Winning Eleven 9 in Japan) was released in October 2005 and featured Thierry Henry and John Terry on the cover. The improvements are mainly tweaks to the gameplay engine, while online play finally made it to the PlayStation 2 version. The game was perceived as much harder by fans, with a very punishing defence AI making it harder to score. Players have pointed out inconsistencies in the start difficulty rating, such as 3 star mode being harder to beat than 6 star due to its more defensive nature, but in general scoring is harder, although is easier to score from long distances than from short. Referees are very fussy over decisions, awarding free kicks for very negligible challenges. There are various new club licenses present, including Arsenal, Chelsea, Celtic, Rangers and a few other European clubs, as well as the full Dutch, Spanish and Italian Leagues. Pro Evolution Soccer 5 was victim of the infamous empty stadium glitch, in which when playing a game, no crowds are present in the stands although they are present during cut-scenes. There are fan-made mods which address this in the PC version, although no official patch was released. Official PlayStation 2 Magazine UK gave it a perfect 10/10 score.
Pro Evolution Soccer 5 was released for Xbox, Windows and PS2, all online enabled. A PSP version was released, but with stripped down features, such as no Master League, no commentary, only one stadium and limitations in the editor, and that's also because of the limitations to the UMD. The PSP version featured Wi-fi play, and the gameplay was faster and more “pin-ball like” in comparison to its console siblings, but it did not receive the same acclaim as the mainstream console/pc versions.
[edit] Pro Evolution Soccer 6
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The neutrality of this section is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page. |
Pro Evolution Soccer 6 (Winning Eleven 10 in Japan) was officially released in the UK on 2006-10-27 for the PlayStation 2, Xbox 360 and PC platforms. The PC version does not utilise the Xbox 360 engine but is a conversion of the PS2 edition. The PSP version is similar in many ways to its PS2 brother, while the DS version will have graphics and gameplay reminiscent of the older PES series on PSone.
A criticism of the previous version was that the game was too unforgiving and so suppressed fluid attacking football. Pro Evolution Soccer 6 promises to 'embrace the beautiful game' with more tricks and an overall more attacking mentality, but whether it does make it easier to take on defenders and get forward is debatable.
More licenses were added, including fully licensed international kits with England, Spain and Italy to name a few (as well as the ever present Japan license). The French Ligue 1 is now included as fully licensed league, as well as the Spanish, Italian and Dutch leagues, plus several other individual clubs, however due to a lawsuit Konami were forced to drop the Bundesliga license and is not be present in PES6, not even as a series of unlicensed teams, only Bayern Munich survive. PES6 has not updated Arsenal's venue to the Emirates stadium,the defunct Highbury is sitll present, while Serbia and Montenegro are still present despite the dissolutionment of the country in May 2006. Chelsea are no longer licensed in favour of Manchester United.
The Xbox 360 version features next-generation, Hi-Definition graphics and more animations, but gameplay similar to the other console versions, according to a recent interview with Seabass. Surprising, though, is that close-up replay detail of the players (especially of the face and hair detail) is not as good as the previous version (PES5). The Xbox 360 version also finally introduces the Pro Evolution series to widescreen gaming, a feature that was sorely missing from its PS2 and Xbox versions of the game. Some of the gameplay and editing options have been severely stripped down for the 360 release (not even team or stadium names can be edited in PES6, although an option file has been released with changed team names, proving team names can be change with a hack[citation needed] In addition it is not possible to save replays on the Xbox 360 version despite the manual claiming that it can be done. Whether or not Konami will release a fix for this on the popular Xbox Live service remains to be seen. A new Nintendo DS version is set, with gameplay and graphics reminiscent to the PlayStation Pro Evolution Soccer games.
- Although players retire in the game, the players reincarnate later, available as 17-year olds in the "Newcomers" section.
- The licences found in the game are for:
Leagues: Primera Division (Liga Española), Serie A, Ligue 1, Eredivisie
Different Clubs: Bayern Munich, Futebol Clube do Porto, Galatasaray, Sport Lisboa e Benfica, Sporting Clube de Portugal, Celtic F.C., Rangers F.C., Olympiakos, Fenerbahçe, Beşiktaş J.K, F.C. Copenhagen, Juventus, Panathinaikos, Manchester United, Arsenal
- The editor remains complete and detailed as in line with the rest of the series, but with more kit possibilities. However the 2nd logo is now only possible to be made in one colour, and some have said PES4 still remains superior in terms of flag design, which may be important when adding new international teams.
- The UK version of PES 6 has Adriano alongside England and Chelsea captain John Terry (who, together with Arsenal's Thierry Henry poses on the cover of Pro Evolution Soccer 5) as its cover stars. Terry is actually a huge fan of the PES series. He is known to arrange PES tournaments for his teammates at Chelsea, as well as bringing copies of the game with him when on international duty. In 2006 Pro Evolution Soccer 6 yet again in the Official PlayStation 2 Magazine UK got a perfect 10/10 score, which also beat FIFA 07 which got 9/10 in the same magazine.
[edit] External links
- Official Pro Evolution Soccer 5 website (Konami)
- PES Rankings (Konami)
- Official PES 6 emagazine (free PDF) (Konami)
- PES6.com - Pro Evolution Soccer News and Downloads
- Pro Evolution Soccer fan site
- talkPES: PES6 Online Community
- evo-league: Online PES Ladder and Community
- ConsoleGoals.com: Free online video hosting & Goal Gallery for Pro Evolution Soccer goals on PC, PS2 & Xbox 360.
- Pro Evo Network: Online Pro Evo Community for Xbox,Pc and PS2 players
- The APL - The Australian Premier League: Online league for Australian PES players.
[edit] References
Categories: Articles lacking sources from January 2007 | All articles lacking sources | NPOV disputes | Articles with unsourced statements since February 2007 | All articles with unsourced statements | Football (soccer) video games | Windows games | PlayStation Portable games | PlayStation 2 games | Xbox games | Electronic sports games | Konami franchises | Pro Evolution Soccer
