PES 5 v PES 6 v WE9 (and LE)

[sleevel]

I’ve been loving the retro games recently (PC, Legion Go handheld, specifically). I keep convincing myself that PES 5 is the best. Then I play WE9 (and/or LE) and think that’s much better. Then I wonder why everyone thinks PES 6 is the best, so I boot it up and really enjoy that too. I haven’t played enough to specify the differences but I can tell each has its own unique character. I’m coming from a long spell of playing PES 2021 on FUMA (I do wish PES 5/6 had a more sensible manual pass option) so it’s like learning a new game.

I’m sure everyone has their favorite version: curious why is it your favorite?

 

[reinelt97]

Sounds like a very familiar case of flip-flopping through classic PES.

You really can't go wrong with any you've mention. Personally, I always come back to PES 5. The balance of it, the ball dynamics and the physicality are second to none, and I'm not just talking in the PS2 era.

WE9LE is good for an extra challenge but it nerfs the ball physics and makes keepers superhuman to raise the difficulty, in my opinion.

You might also want to add PES 2008 (PS2) to your list. It's a superior PES 6 and has very good attacking AI. One to play when you want goals.

PES 3 is also great but feeling a little clunky these days.

Check out the long-running and now legendary Retro PES thread for more on all of the above.

 

[benga0800]

This is just my insight after playing several times in cup mode with the same settings in each version (I will include pes6):

Attacking AI:
1- PES6 (secret for nobody)
2- WE9 (yes the feb. 2006 release)
3- PES5-WE9LE (these two and WE9 are very wing-based, but WE9 seems somewat better in mantaining ball posession in general)

Defensive AI:
1- PES5-WE9-WE9LE (i dominate posession most of the time but have very few scoring oportunities)
4- PES6 (i dominate posession and have scoring oportunities more often, but still don't achieve big scorelines because i'm just bad)

Ball physics:
1- WE9LE-WE9-PES5 (beautifull but kinda fast)
4- PES6 (slower but dreadfull)

Player dribble and running physics:
1- WE9LE-WE9-PES5 (beautifull, you can fell the weight of the players)
4- PES6 (less animations and faster, so more robotic)

Player passing and shooting physics:
1- PES6 (excelent actually)
2- WE9LE-WE9-PES5 (very good, but not as good as the above)

Goalkeepers AI:
1- PES6 (not a big difference, i just see better reaction times)
2- PES5-WE9-WE9LE

I have found WE9 to be more consistently aggresive in attacking than the other two, i see the AI is slightly more able to keep ball posession while attacking, but it's not like they are particularly better than the other two when recovering it from me or intercepting passes, even in the number of called fouls i don't notice big diferences, only that there are more fouls in important games or when either myself or the CPU is losing.

 

[Eb.bela1125]

I love the fouls and contact in PES 5. When I play PES 5 for a while and then any other football game, it just doesn’t feel physical like real football. Haven’t played WE9 but heard it’s more of the same and a bit refined.

I also love that it feels like it was designed for 20 min matches - very attritional and allows for build-up, momentum etc. Also the PES 5 ball physics for passing are truly great. Lob passes are much better than PES 6. Shooting is a little more balanced although PES 6 wins by a lot in shot variety and animations. I prefer the core set of close control dribbling animations although PES 6 had more variety in this regard, but too fast and less inertia. My only gripe with PES 5 is that I don’t find the AI’s attack challenging, although the difficulty in scoring ensures being 1st in ML is quite hard.