Looking back at this generation from PES 2008-PES 2014. It hit me yesterday to give a summary of Konami's games.
After PES 2009 came out and in the run up to PES 2010, i think it was clear to Konami they had given up trying to seriously compete with EA on this generation, they knew full well their game was using inferior technology to EA and the time and resources and money needed to develop the game wasn't available. So this entire gen since then has been about experimentation, transition and development.
Everything since then has been pure gameplay development plus throwing up different ideas in offline modes, master league especially. Konami really haven't put much effort into the all round package since 2009, they have put effort into gameplay, a few new modes and have always left many areas of the game either untouched or woefully slacking.
Looking back at we almost need to group the games into two sections:
PES 2008-2010, these where using the old engine, the first two where essentially a complete waste of time, both did not advance any real gameplay functions at all, while PES 2009 was fun it left Konami with an absolute mountain to climb. PES 2010, was an improvement on the gameplay front, it was the first game to provide a good discrepancy between a top play and an average players first touch, dribbling and so on. It was clear the game was too restrictive in it's old state, things needed to change, hence PES 2011 revamped the old engine to provide more fluid football.
PES 2011 Was about placing PES on a canvas of freedom, introducing most importantly 360 dribbling and movement, L2 manual passing, a brand new tactics fluid system to break away from the generic script the AI or your team follows when playing. The game carried over the change in emphasis on first touch/ball control along with a bigger representation of individuality The game was rough around the edges, features some shocking animations at times, most importantly it did what it needed to do and did it well. This was the first important step to bring PES 2011 out of the rigid, heavily on rails 8 direction world.
PES 2012 Was about building on the responsiveness and trying to provide the next step in terms of freedom within creating slick passing moves, animations so players could interchange with eachoever as fluidly as possible, it was about bringing in new manual passing possibilities. At first it was very hit and miss with some big issues in regards to cheating, over patches and time these where sorted, despite the questionable but effective at times auto feint, the game advanced the vision created from PES 2011.
PES 2013 Was about refining Konami's vision on how to take into the next engine. Deeper player Individuality with stats and player ID, dynamic 1-2 passes providing more freedom to create, greater options in regards to shooting, manual shooting modifier, keepers while still having 60% crap animations bar a few positioning issues where finally, really good, they varied through stats and added to the drama in a realistic way. All this and general improvements to really tie the game together in a pure gameplay sense. This game's demo was released in July with very few bugs whatsoever, very similar in it's structure to PES 2012, it shows they really hit a ceiling with the engine, this game got the most out of it that was possible.
From PES 2011-13 the graphics, the depth in offline modes, the general razzmatazz of the game was inferior to even PES 2010 or arguably PES 2009 even, this showed more than ever looking back Konami knew they where beaten in terms of technology, graphical potential. Thinking about it, they could had bothered, but it still would had been regardless of effort massively inferior to EA. What was the point really when you consider the Fox engine was being developed and long ago, probably about 2010/2011 they had agreed to rebuild the game on a new engine, they thought they leave all that to later when the tech was there. Everything was about the gameplay.
PES 2014 Was a risk, it was about trying to get a basic version of PES 2013 with all the new engine functions going, brand new everything, built from scratch, animations physics, collisions, tricks, new player models and graphic engine, all in all in gameplay terms huge focus on things PES 2008-2013 could not do. They got there, just about but massively fucked up with the Heart function ruining all the offline modes. Plus responsiveness bugs which plagued keepers especially.
Going through each game from PES 2010-2014, you can see each game has made a key advancement in terms of gameplay, its almost like a puzzle, where different pieces have been completed each year. I'm not worried about PES's future at all because it's clear in this perspective, Konami know what to do and know what they are doing in their vision, the biggest issue instead is the hype each year and unfinished, unprofessional package as a whole and poor mistakes in areas off the field. Abuse is warranted for releasing something half finished, period! Overall however I see why Konami have done it, they needed to survive somehow, yes they have taken many for a ride essentially, we need to consider that if Konami had admitted that this gen was pure transition PES would of been long dead by now in terms of sales, and this team is very talented in it's coding to still be around when you consider there was little to no hope when you compared FIFA 09 to PES 2009.
When i say i want PES 2015 to be PES 2013 on the fox engine. Consider this! People who hated PES 2013 speak of the animations, (stumbling) wooden like players, direct AI, player collisions and ball physics, on the fox engine this will simply not be an issue whatsoever, then you add in the sheer depth of PES 2013 and there you have the next step in football gaming complete! PES 2015 will be about fitting all these pieces in the puzzle together. Only things I've not touched on which are needed in the puzzle are weather/wind conditions form PES5 and also the injury system which needs to be brought back from the PS2 games and advanced more.
The general perspective people keep going on about is this was a generation of 'what if' and much frustration. This generation for me from this perspective has been about survival. Bit like Everton almost, trying to get by with very little, i think people need to look at how well Konami have done to keep going, really after PES 2009 and looking at how strong FIFA 09 and 10 promised to be at least, Pro Evolution Soccer should of really been out of business by now. I think we as a community have been getting to dragged into the hype and have been kidding ourselves in regards to thinking PES would magically become amazing after a year. I've expected absolutely nothing for PES since 2008 and the things here and there the game has given me has impressed me.
