Review: PES 2010 (PS3)

Oh PES, how you frustrate us. You do so many things right, and yet fall short in too many key areas to compete with the mighty FIFA, whose series has gained significant momentum of late. FIFA 10 may not be perfect, but it offers an incredible amount of depth, mainly due to a rich online mode and the plethora of league licenses under its belt. Although PES 2010 boasts the Champions League and Europa League, only a handful of teams are represented in their full glory, with the remainder having their familiar Konami-created names.

Gamestyle strongly maintains that this is not the be-all-and-end-all, however, and the licenses are merely decoration. What really matters is under the hood; the game engine. In this department, PES still has the edge over FIFA. Gamestyle realises that this kind of statement lights the touch paper for fanboy flame-wars, with each side arguing that their game plays better. PES just feels right; the players respond to the controls as you would expect them to, allowing you to make little flicks and dribbles intuitively. The weight of the ball is excellent, and this year there are  further improvements to your players' off-the-ball movement and awareness.

Once you start playing for any long period of time, however, you tend to notice little niggles that start to annoy. It's easy to focus on these, and lose sight of the overall gameplay, which is very good. PES does have a few inconsistencies; you'll get picked up for fouls that your opponents seem to escape punishment for, the more pacey players will get caught by pursuing defenders, even with a head start, the passing will sometimes go inexplicably astray, and rain seems to have a random effect on the ball trajectory. The new penalty system makes it almost impossible to score from the spot, and the goalkeepers have a tendency to spill balls as in previous versions. Overall, however, PES 2010 has certainly improved from last year's game. The tactics are more in-depth, and have a greater impact on the match. Through balls and crosses work well, and this is due to each player having their own AI; if a player with a high crossing stat has the ball, players with look to receive the ball, for example.

PES is great fun to play, with each difficulty proving to be a suitable challenge, without being impossible to overcome. There are enough game modes on offer to keep you amused until the next version is released, and if you are a fan of the series, you won't be disappointed. The problem is that there just isn't enough to make you buy this version. The Master League has been re-vamped, but under the new look and menu screen, there aren't that many changes to the actual format. Thankfully the Champions League licence is used to its full potential, and included in the Master League campaign this year, but the rest of it feels all too familiar. The Legend mode returns, but is almost identical to last year's title. What is probably most disappointing about PES 2010 is that the problems that bugged the online multiplayer have also returned.

Konami have thankfully done away with the need to create a Konami ID to log onto the online lobbies, but connecting is still fiddly and time consuming. Once you have found a match, the games suffer from an intolerable amount of lag. Gamestyle's connection was usually quite good, and yet there was always a delay of about a second between pushing the button to the action onscreen. This is simply unforgivable, and it limits the re-playability of the game. It means you are stuck to the Master League, and although Gamestyle has no doubts that this will occupy you for many hours, variety would have been nice.

The most positive thing about PES 2010, is that it is clear step in the right direction for Konami. The graphics are excellent, with each of the 20-odd stadia being extremely pleasant on the eye, and whilst player animation can at some times be a bit odd, each superstar is clearly identifiable. The audio is also an improvement, with a good selection of licensed tracks in the menus, and crowd noises that react well to the action on pitch. Gamestyle's only real complaint in this department would be the commentary, which can be repetitive at times, and Mark Lawrenson sounds like a crazy old man in the corner, shouting out random phrases for most of the game.

It really is a shame that all the improvements are ruined by the online aspect. This may not be a deal-breaker for many people, and the offline multiplayer is as good as previous versions. For Gamestyle, however, the superb graphics and excellent match physics are undone by the online mode, and as such, we can only recommend PES 2010 to true fans of the series. But then, you have already bought the game, and probably won't be reading this review.

Rating: 7 / 10

Words by Chris Thornton