Re: WE/PES 2008 Next Gen - News/Discussions Official Thread (Last Update 07/04/07)
Alright then, here we go. First off, I'd like to say that I'm dubious about posting this. Not because of legal issues or anything like that; I've been told this doesn't break the NDA the guy is under in any way, otherwise he simply wouldn't have told me what he has. He doesn't break NDAs for anyone, which is why he still has a job. The reason why I'm unsure whether I should post this or not is because I am going to get ripped to pieces by the guys who have to shoot the messenger. So please, don't. And if you don't believe me then you don't - like Adonis, I love this community and I just want to give whatever information I can. So take it or leave it.
I met up with an old friend of mine this afternoon who is involved in the games industry (more the PS3 side). He only told me what he's allowed to tell me, so please, don't get your hopes up, there is no new information here, no news on specific features or whatever. All that is still covered by the NDA. What follows is his personal opinion, which I have been told I can freely talk about. (And please don't ask if I can ask him questions about this or that, he won't tell me anything that's covered by the NDA, and we rarely talk anyway.)
I hadn't seen him in a while, and so we arranged to have a little chat in town. We're sitting there, talking about your run-of-the-mill stuff, how's life, how's the girlfriend, all that, with me trying not to say "you haven't seen Pro Evo or FIFA 08 have you?!". Then, out of nowhere, he comes out with "we got sent a beta copy of Pro Evo 2008 the other week" as if it's as trivial as walking the dog. I said "you're joking?!" but apparently not. What he had to say though wasn't good news.
He said that it is clear to him that Konami have set their stall out to copy FIFA this year, and it's not looking good. He couldn't understand why a game that is such a big name has gone down the route of trying to copy something else.
He said because it was a beta version, a lot of stuff was missing (literally half the graphics aren't there), but there was an obvious graphical improvement from PES6 (no different from the current screenshots but again, this is an early beta and the general consensus from the magazine guys is that they will improve). He said that where players had their own faces, they were really great and they've improved a lot. And he said the shirt-pulling and that looked great, plus there's a lot more animations. But he was concerned that the players with generic faces make the game look terrible. Not because they are any worse than in PES6, but because you've got fantastic, photo-realistic faces mixed with cartoonistic ones (again, this could change before release, they could be using the current-gen generic faces until they sort everything else out).
Also on the subject of graphics, he said that usually, with half the graphics missing, a game would run quite quickly, but he found that while the game ran fine in midfield, the game jerked extremely badly around the box. Again, this is all tuned before release, so it would be surprising if this is still the case come release-time. He told me that it may simply need tuning or it may be down to the new AI engine that Konami keep mentioning - but he said that he didn't actually notice that many AI improvements, bar the odd defender who would stay in his place rather than chase you non-stop (one of the things that annoys me most about PES, glad that they're working on that).
What he noticed the most though, and what really shocked him, was how the gameplay felt "clunky" - in his words, "it's as if they're trying to copy the motion system from FIFA [where players feet plant into the ground with each step and the body position affects the shot], but they've just not got it right, the game doesn't flow and it just doesn't feel right". He said he couldn't understand how PES could outsell FIFA in the last two or three years, and yet now they seemingly move away from their formula and try to emulate their competition. But he later said that perhaps it's down to all the new animations being too long, and that they may have to be edited/speeded-up before the game's release to help the responsiveness.
I said it was strange that a few places, WENB and the magazines, were really looking forward to it. He asked me how they got their information, and I told him that it's through Konami's PR. "Well there you go then", he said, "they're not going to tell you it's crap, are they?"
And that's it, basically. He plays PES every single lunchtime at work, so he should know how it's supposed to "feel". He's had PES betas before, and he's not felt this worried about the game before. But, his personal opinion is that the game has got slowly-but-surely worse since PES 3 onwards, so if you disagree with that perhaps you'll be less inclined to listen. And this is only his personal opinion, so who knows, you may love the game. But there you go.
Again, I'm just trying to give something to the community. Make of this what you will.
