Soccer Gaming

As mentioned in this week’s IWP, I am off on my holidays over the next seven days, and therefore said I would post my impressions of the PES 2011 Master League online beta. The Jon Murphy interview has been sent and sorted, but due to a hectic week with Gamescon will take longer to turn around than we both hoped. I will post the interview on my return, and yes, I did mention the goal nets!

So moving on to the Online Master League beta, and more importantly my own first personal taste of PES 2011. As soon as receiving a place in the trial, the following note is thrust in front of you via e-mail

This Beta is to test aspects of Master League online Gameplay only. Please be aware
that Gameplay is based on unfinished code and aspects such as goal keepers, referees,
animations and online are still being updated. 

Perhaps this is a get out of jail free card, but fact is that at least Konami are there, acknowledging areas which people want to see improved. The beta also gives very little indication of AI, as you are always playing against a human opponent. Whether this code will be the one released as the official PES 2011 demo code, or the more recent Gamescon code may be used remains to be seen. However, with the above all mentioned, here are my views and findings from my time playing the game.

Online Master League is not the same as a regular master league season. In fact, there are no seasons at all. The premise runs very similar to a fantasy football league. You start with the default master league players, and £500,000 in the bank. From day one, you can sell your players for the going market rate (between £100,000 and £1.5 Million) and use the money to buy any player from the game’s extensive database. Again, players values are slightly lower than the current transfer rate, but are still expensive enough to make it tricky to assemble a top side from the off. In my first few games, I purchased Lee Cattermole for around £2 Million, having released around 7 of my first team squad (Ruskin, Dodo etc.)

This mode is an excellent way of playing on a level field. You are not going to be coming up against Barcelona and Real Madrid every week, and whilst some players will have better players, a perk of playing the game for longer, you will still have games against players with weaker sides or even equal sides to yourself. A team featuring the likes of Darren Fletcher and Flamini looked world beaters compared to my basic squad, but then my signings have played a big part in defeating other newbies, something which is slightly a right of passage. Another perk is that player values fluctuate. Some players will decrease in value after you purchase them, others will shoot up. The more people owning a player, the more expensive that player becomes, meaning player Messi or Ronaldo every match becomes more and more unlikely as more gamers play. This is Konami listening!

Each game you play costs you a virtual fee, which a portion of is recouped depending on the result. Win a game and you make money, lose you will end up a few thousand down, however quit and you end up losing the whole fee. This is an excellent way of deterring serial disconnections, as you simply won’t have enough money to carry on. Tournaments are also an excellent way of making big money. You are pitted against teams from your league (the division based on your experience and rankings) and then have the opportunity to progress through the rounds, signing better players as you go. These start at real world times, and are around every hour, which is a brilliant feature.

As a mode overall, I was very sceptical about the online master league. I was expected masses of game worlds, limited players and a shoddy menu system. Instead we have a game mode that is exceptionally addictive, easy to play and has a lot of scope for improvement and development throughout the next 12 months.

But this of course is all irrelevant if the game is unplayable online. Over the past 3 years the game has gone from horrifically unplayable to simply a lag filled, bug ridden online experience. At the time of writing this article there are around 1,040 gamers taking part in the beta, and I have not experienced one game in the 30 or so I have played that I would consider to be a lagging experience, anywhere similar to that which PES 2010 threw out on a regular basis. This may be down to low numbers playing online, it may be down to my connection or it may be down to luck, but I have played against gamers from Italy, France and Germany with no problems to note, something which hints it is not down to location. One of my games was slightly slower than the others, but this didn’t really effect my control of the players, nor my opponents, and the game played out a fair 1-1 draw. Again, I am not preaching online is fixed, or sorted or anything of the sort, but these are my findings, and I would be interested to see if anyone echoes these sentiments,

I am not going to dwell too much on the game play for the simple fact it will more than likely be redundant now, with the new build out and about. In my experiences however, the game felt new and fresh, especially with the passing and dribbling, yet still like a PES title. Defending is much more about timing now as opposed to just wanting to win the ball, and jockeying or dropping off is sometimes a much better option. The option to block players runs is also a huge boost, meaning defenders who are less than nimble can use their physical dominance of the smaller, lighter speed merchants. The passing system is a lot different, but a definite plus for me, and you only have yourself to blame for a poor pass now. The power bar is far from intrusive and actually feels very natural (something which I am surprised to say) and running with the ball should only really be done in space, with dribbling being a very key part of the game now. Knock and rush doesn’t really work (especially with the players I have at my disposal) and this will hopefully put an end to one player running through your team.

The negatives, which of course there are some, all seem to relate to the age old issues. Whilst there are a lot of new animations in place, some of these are not implemented properly (YET) and this makes some things look a little awkward. Shooting at times seems to feel a little uncomfortable, but these are both issues I feel will be sorted prior to release. Keepers, in my experience were worse than ever for pushing shots into the net. If a shot is hit hard straight at their body, they should not let it pass through their hands whilst moving out the way. This didn’t happen to me on PES 2010 and only very rarely on 2009, but has happened on several occasions already online in 2011. This is something Konami said in the disclaimer, and therefore I will give them the benefit of the doubt. Here we are not talking about super keepers just ones that do a job. Finally, I have absolutely no problems with the refereeing. Couple of yellow cards here and there, I gave away one penalty which definitely was and haven’t had any decision which I have been angry about. Hopefully this will continue to be worked on in the final few weeks.

So there you go. My honest views. To conclude I am happy with what I have played, but still here that same disclaimer ringing at the start. If that game lands on my doorstep as the finished product I would be a bit disappointed, mainly because it doesn’t feel finished. However, that can’t really be a criticism because simply, its not finished! I am excited about playing the final demo and eventually the final game, and if it builds upon the promise of the build I have played, I will be a very happy man in October.

Thanks for Reading.