Re: PES 2009 News Discussion Etc. (STRICTLY NO FIFA DEMO IMPRESSIONS OR POLITICAL CHA
Here my opinion about the PES 2009 demo:
I posted it elsewhere too, so for some people it isn't new...
The first thing I noticed was the agility of the players: I expected them to be lesser than PES 2008, but that was not changed. The second thing I noticed was that you are not able to use that agility to outplay the defense. The defense is much, much better positioned and therefore cut-back goals are very difficult. It seems that Konami has found a clever balance between attack and defense. If you like to dribble you might get some nice dribbles, but if you like to counter-attack, then the defense is well organized and you are able to pick the ball away from people who like to dribble too much.
Passing is really interesting! At first I thought there was something wrong with my controller settings, seeing a lot of passes went wrong for no reason. Later I discovered that passing while turning your player lead to lesser control of the passing and missing your target. Also wrong is already pressing the passing-button when you have not controlled the ball properly. Than you miss the destination-player as well.
So what you have to do is controlling the ball first and pressing the pass-button on the right time. This of course takes a fraction of a second and that gives the defender the time to close-in on the attacker. This makes it possible to be on time for a defender, leading into a real battle.
You have to learn how to control and turn into space with the ball, which is exactly like real football.
Another great improvement is passing through the right analog stick. That is really a joy, as this is much more sensitive than in previous versions. You also don't need to press the right stick anymore to pass the ball. Just keep the stick in the desired direction and hold it. After you release the stick, the pass will be executed. Still, however, it demands a very good control of your hands to coordinate things with left and right stick well. Practicing is key!
Some people say the game is too arcadey, which is understandable if you listen the strange hollow sound after hitting the ball. That sounds arcadey! Talking about sound: I think Konami included very bad chants to invite you to put in your own. I mean, these chants aren't professional, are they?!
Together with that, the agile moving is arcadey, but that is compensated by the great defensive AI.
That AI also is very much based on the attributes of the players, which makes the game great. Do you have a low technical attribute? You will have a bad time in crowded area's as you will see the ball bounce away if you do not handle it carefully, so your margin for error is much smaller with players with a low attribute for technique. Of course this is also the case for all other attributes.
That certainly is also the case for shooting. It is more difficult because the AI takes into account if you shoot with your preferred foot or not. I missed some chances when coming from the left with a player who is right-footed. He more or less tried to shoot with the wrong foot, but it was a weak lobbed shot. Of course you can manoevre your player in such a way that he shoots with his right foot or you should time to perfection. Bad timing with your wrong foot leads to big misses!
Overall my conclusion is that this game has that special PES thing again, that you learn to love it the more you play it. I missed that on the 2008 version, but it's back and I love it
... sounds like Konami putted some of their personnel together, made them drunk and after that they were ordered to do those chants 
