FIFA

Football Manager

Music

PES

Retro

Home » Features, PES

PES2011- No more Mark Lawrenson

Written by Ian on Wednesday, 2 June 20103 Comments

 In news that will be received joyously by many, Konami have revealed that Mark Lawrenson will not be featuring in this year’s edition of Pro Evo. Lawrenson is to be replaced by ITV pundit Jim Beglin, who will hopefully bring a more natural vibe to the game’s commentary, as well as some trademark overstatements. The news was broken by the European PES team leader, Jon Murphy, who also stated that Jon Champion will be returning for this season’s game.

Murphy admitted that Lawrenson might not have been Mark Lawrenson will not be featuring in PES2011.able to work with Pro Evo’s often bizarre in-game commentary scripts, but also claimed that to some extent Lawrenson was not exactly “living it” when he appeared in the studio. This comes as no surprise, as Lawrenson’s comments often seemed extremely deadpan, and he spoke with the dry sarcasm of a man that had far better things to be doing. The developers at Konami are aiming for a more lively commentary partnership, and the introduction of Beglin could be a smart move.

Although the commentary can be atmospheric, and adds to the game’s authentic feel, I have to admit that I’ve never taken it too seriously. The repetition that inevitably occurs after countless hours of play tends to encourage me to turn down the volume on the telly, and focus my efforts towards ribbing my friends about their lack of ability (Unless they’re really good, in which case I’ll chide them for their lack of a social life etc).

However, at rare moments, Lawro’s unique delivery would cheer me up. Lawrenson only ever seemed to spring into life when things were going really badly, which always took the sting out of defeat. One of my favourite Lawro moments occurred when I was being battered with the Master League default players. I was fuming as Stremer had once again stood still as a through ball trickled past him, only for Ivarov to react with the rapidity of a pensioner to a tame mid-range effort. I was about to lose my rag, when out of nowhere Lawro screamed , “This is terrible. THEY REALLY DON’T KNOW HOW TO PLAY!”. The king of dull had awoken from a career-long slumber to deliver his most passionate line yet, and in turn had cheered me up immeasurably.

For this reason, and perhaps this reason alone, I will miss Mark Lawrenson’s commentary. However, for those of you with a more serious taste in commentary, the replacement of Lawrenson will be acknowledged as a step in the right direction. Personally, I’m still hoping that Konami will cave to the demands made by numerous Facebook groups, and record some Alan Partridge commentary for a future edition of Pro Evo. I think I’ll be waiting for a long, long, time. Until then, we’ll have to hope that the Beglin/Champion combination keeps us entertained.

3 Comments »

Leave a comment!

Add your comment below, or trackback from your own site. You can also subscribe to these comments via RSS.

Be nice. Keep it clean. Stay on topic. No spam.

You can use these tags:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

This is a Gravatar-enabled weblog. To get your own globally-recognized-avatar, please register at Gravatar.