Pro Evolution Soccer

[PremierLeagueClass]

Is no more!

Konami has officially renamed the PES series to "eFootball", and made it free-to-play and digital-only.

[superdimitri]

I'm hoping they don't get rid of master league. Couldn't care less about online play, which unfortunately to me has been a big push in recent years.

[PadihamThickNeck]

Had abit of success in the PS2/XBOX era the best games being Pro Evo 2 & 6. But the FIFA series has been streets ahead for 10 years now.

[superdimitri]

But the FIFA series has been streets ahead for 10 years now.

Disagree completely, FIFA has had the licenses but has never been the better gameplay. I used to play FIFA back when they were good (96 comes to mind) and now play PES.

[KRBFC]

PES died 15 years ago, it was very good on PS2. The in game menus and wording is like an old mobile game, incredibly bad.

[PadihamThickNeck]

Disagree completely, FIFA has had the licenses but has never been the better gameplay. I used to play FIFA back when they were good (96 comes to mind) and now play PES.

Good in 96 are you having a laugh it was hardly a game then. Graphics was terrible back then. PES has been garbage for 10-15 years now.

For what it's worth I think the current FIFA game is as perfect as you will get for a football game.

[superdimitri]

Not having a laugh at all. Playing FIFA is empty, with no depth to the game. The matches are boring, the gameplay predictable. Been that way for years. As I said, 96 was the last that I found fun to play.

I think people just play FIFA and don't try PES because of licensing, but they are missing out on a much, much better game.

Who gives a **** about graphics if the game is **** to play lol

[Milltown1882]

Not having a laugh at all. Playing FIFA is empty, with no depth to the game. The matches are boring, the gameplay predictable. Been that way for years. As I said, 96 was the last that I found fun to play.

I think people just play FIFA and don't try PES because of licensing, but they are missing out on a much, much better game.

Who gives a **** about graphics if the game is **** to play lol

FIFA has been diluted too much because all the effort goes in to Ultimate Team. Can’t really blame them when people spend hundreds of millions on it - even that makes the online side of the game pointless. Much prefer the game play on Pro Evo.

[Conroy92]

Personally used to prefer pro evo untill around 2008.
FIFA used to be garbage before this but has improved rapidly. It was like a child's game where you could just run through teams.
Pro evo on the ps2 with the master league team of Espimas, Castolo, Ordaz, Ximinez et al was brilliant. Scoring a goal before signing a striker or winger with pace was difficult! Also liked how the old pros who retired came back round as 17 year olds.

RIP PES UNITED.

[Conroy92]

Not having a laugh at all. Playing FIFA is empty, with no depth to the game. The matches are boring, the gameplay predictable. Been that way for years. As I said, 96 was the last that I found fun to play.

I think people just play FIFA and don't try PES because of licensing, but they are missing out on a much, much better game.

Who gives a **** about graphics if the game is **** to play lol

Too many people care about graphics these days. I still put my SNES on and play games on there because the gameplay is fantastic. I also think "Online play" has killed games as there is too much focus on this and not enough in a single player story mode.

[BurnleyFC]

At the time of its release, the first Pro Evolution Soccer was perfection, as was its predecessor - ISS Pro on SNES.

FIFA has never been close in regards to actual gameplay.

[Billy Balfour]

Our lad and lass play Fifa. I find the gameplay tedious. Shame about PES, but it's not what the kids want. Massive case of style over substance.

[DCWat]

Not a patch on Kick Off

[KRBFC]

playing with LANCASHIRE CLARET in a Dark blue kit is a problem.
The in game menus haven't been updated in years, it annoys me how everything is in capital letters.
The wording they use is just weird too, RETURN TO TOP MENU. The whole setup of the in game ui just stinks like a low budget 2003 mobile game.

[Raggus]

Personally used to prefer pro evo untill around 2008.
FIFA used to be garbage before this but has improved rapidly. It was like a child's game where you could just run through teams.
Pro evo on the ps2 with the master league team of Espimas, Castolo, Ordaz, Ximinez et al was brilliant. Scoring a goal before signing a striker or winger with pace was difficult! Also liked how the old pros who retired came back round as 17 year olds.

RIP PES UNITED.

This post has brought back some fond memories. At that time pes was unrivalled, personally agree fifa has taken over since around 2010.

[Tall Paul]

Pro Evo 3 was the best one.

[ChrisG]

Neither a patch on Sensible Soccer

[superdimitri]

playing with LANCASHIRE CLARET in a Dark blue kit is a problem.
The in game menus haven't been updated in years, it annoys me how everything is in capital letters.
The wording they use is just weird too, RETURN TO TOP MENU. The whole setup of the in game ui just stinks like a low budget 2003 mobile game.

Sounds like you haven't played PES in 10 years. The ui is much improved, but honestly do you really think the UI is more important than gameplay? Personally I enjoy being able to score wonder goals, and for there to be some variation in play. You can also heavily mod the game to fix all the licenses. The mods add real names for playersm for clubs and even add clubs/leagues not included. They even make transfers before official updates and adjust player attributes and traits that were set wrongly by Konami.

But most importantly its a computer game and not a card game.

Personally used to prefer pro evo untill around 2008.
FIFA used to be garbage before this but has improved rapidly. It was like a child's game where you could just run through teams.
Pro evo on the ps2 with the master league team of Espimas, Castolo, Ordaz, Ximinez et al was brilliant. Scoring a goal before signing a striker or winger with pace was difficult! Also liked how the old pros who retired came back round as 17 year olds.

RIP PES UNITED.

You can still do the master league on the newer games. Its even better actually because of traits and development improving drastically. None of the money grabbing card games.

[KRBFC]

Sounds like you haven't played PES in 10 years. The ui is much improved, but honestly do you really think the UI is more important than gameplay? Personally I enjoy being able to score wonder goals, and for there to be some variation in play. You can also heavily mod the game to fix all the licenses. The mods add real names for playersm for clubs and even add clubs/leagues not included. They even make transfers before official updates and adjust player attributes and traits that were set wrongly by Konami.

But most importantly its a computer game and not a card game.

You can still do the master league on the newer games. Its even better actually because of traits and development improving drastically. None of the money grabbing card games.

I tried 19, it was horrible. The gameplay is painfully slow, they try to re-create realism and it doesn't work in a game. They're taking 90minute matches and trying to recreate that style into a 10 minute game. It's the small things for me, everything typed in capitals and weird wording just puts me off completely.

[gandhisflipflop]

Loved PES in around 04-06. The best thing I used to like doing it’s creating my own club getting all the old players back and creating a wonder team in master league. Shearer and Beegkamp upfront with maradona just in behind!

[gandhisflipflop]

This thread has actually made me want to dig the old Ps2 back out and get PES on it.

[jedi_master]

ISS Pro Evolution on PS1 up until (and including) PES 6 on the 360 were it's peak years - I would say PES 3 on the PS2 is probably my favourite football game of all time. You know how great a game is when you are routinely choosing real time 45 minute halves when playing your mates, it was that much fun.

Reality is though, PES did nosedive for me from PES 2008 and FIFA became top dog around FIFA 10. FIFA 14-19 were absolutely fantastic games, production values are one thing but the gameplay was also of a very high standard. Sad to say FIFA 20 and 21 have been hideous games and a real setback in gameplay for the series, with too much emphasis on just Ultimate Team for the kids and very little change up in the likes of the fantastic Pro Clubs mode.

I love football games and buy them annually, I confess I haven't played a PES now in about 5 years and highly doubt I would have ever bought one again as it was a drastic fall from grace, as far as I am concerned. I will give eFootball a go in it's F2P model, but I doubt it will be a game that stops me getting FIFA 22 (which, on the face of what has been shown thus far, does look like it has fixed a lot of gameplay issues from 21 - specifically the over reliance/abuse of pace in online play. It was ridiculous in FIFA 21 how the likes of Adama Traore and Rodrigo from Leeds would utterly annihilate even the likes of Sergio Ramos just due to their 90+ speed, unrealistic and annoying).

[ClaretFelix]

If you haven't played PES in the last 5 years, I would recommend the last incarnation, Pes2020 with the 2021 update being just that. Konami chose not to develop anything new other than updated lineups and the odd stadium.
It is absolutely brilliant though. If you can get over the lack of licences(I "bought" a download from eBay including all kits, names crests leagues etc for about a fiver - I think he's based in Nelson) the gameplay is far more intuitive than any of the FIFA series from the last 5 years.

The developers decided to go for full overhaul of gameplay graphics etc for the 2022 game and has spent the extra year producing it.

Don't get me wrong, I love the odd game of FIFA, playing down t'Turf with the atmospheric crowd noise, but the gameplay is predicatble and slow and isn't as smooth or polished as PES.

[Claretforever]

FIFA 96 was amazing when it came out on PS1. It was the first game which dragged me away from Sensible Soccer.

I used to play PES on PS2 until around Pro Evo 2008. The last good version was PES2006 which was totally addictive. It was way ahead of FIFA in terms of game play back then in my opinion, but didn’t have the financial might to compete, and lost its way. FIFA then began producing good games. I bought FIFA up to around 2015, or maybe 16, though barely played them in the end.

Saying all that, I haven’t played a video game in years. I’m getting old.