PES 2014 review | Eurogamer.net
I threw a proper tantrum at PES 2014 last week. I haven’t thrown a controller at the wall in anger since the final boss of Jak 2, but I directed one at a cardboard box on the other side of the room when Nordsjaelland danced through my defence and went 4-0 up in the Champions League. I was playing as Real Madrid.
I blamed Raphael Varane to anyone who would listen, but the truth is that I had lost all self-control, impatient to get on the ball and try to reduce the deficit. I was stubbornly clinging on to both defensive pressing buttons, dragging my players out of position all over the field, and I was mashing the standing tackle button and charging blindly into midfield whenever I retrieved the ball. When I got there — if I got there — I was then spraying out miracle passes that were coolly intercepted as the Danish minnows grew in confidence. 4-0 wasn’t flattering. (Although Varane did have a shocker.)
As a game that increasingly resembles a simulation of football rather than a highlights reel, PES 2014 is great at throwing up these authentic sporting stories. PES Productions has made a game that rewards the patient player over the thrill-seeking dynamo, where high scores are more often a product of indiscipline than the natural order, and the line between this series’ trajectory and that of the mass-market FIFA now feels clearer than ever.
One virtue of the switch to FOX Engine is even more brilliant animations. Likenesses are sometimes a bit worrying (Luis Suarez won’t be pleased with his nose) but movement and little touches are delivered with a craftsman’s eye for detail.
The key change is the addition of a new engine under the bonnet. It’s the same one that powers Metal Gear Solid — perhaps this explains why there are still so many annoying cut-scenes breaking up play — and it has been used to deliver a more physically convincing take on the world’s favourite ball sport than PES has managed previously.
Whereas players danced around and occasionally through each other in PES 2013, for instance, they clatter into each other in 2014, and there’s a lot more friction as players run alongside one another too.
To combat that, it’s now possible to use the right thumbstick to hold off opponents or attempt a shoulder-barge. Player momentum is also influential, so laziness on the defensive side can be punished by the right through ball or tapping the dash button for a burst of pace — my downfall against Nordsjaelland in microcosm.
Passing is still fluid, but there’s more emphasis on how you receive the ball as well, so the zippy ping-pong passing that defined the last version is tempered somewhat. You can command the ball with more assurance in close quarters, however, utilising a first touch that feels slightly more assured than in FIFA, where EA Sports has introduced a lot of contextual error in its recent iterations. The ball certainly isn’t glued to anyone’s feet, though, and the mere physical presence of an opponent is now enough to dislodge it from your control if you’re not protecting it carefully. You can’t afford to be cavalier in possession.
I like to put my foot on the ball with the right shoulder button to slow play down and shield possession, and then use the right thumbstick in combination with the left to do little feints and shimmies to create space for a pass, while noticeably smarter team-mates buzz around between the lines looking for pockets to operate in.
The sense of control is greater than ever with these tools, and while the default for tricks is now a contextual «auto-feint», which will be good enough for most and is still tough to master, those in search of a deeper experience can look forward to weeks deciphering the system’s manual intricacies, with a stronger suite of «performance training» tutorial mini-games to assist you on your way.
The directional indicator on free kicks allows you to target areas of the goal quite precisely, with a player’s stats introducing a margin of error.
If that sounds like heaven, then you’re also likely to get off on the advanced and manual shooting and through passes, which offer a fine degree of attacking control that should allow truly dedicated players to achieve grand master levels of skill and composure. More casual players — hell, even pretty decent players — will probably struggle when they first hit the through-ball button and see an aiming reticule pop up and start dancing around on-screen, but like the existing manual passing, it can be switched off.
The experience should still be rewarding even if you never master these systems. Even played at a relatively basic level, once you’ve figured out the standing tackle and started drifting around to counteract the movements of opposing players, unpicking defences is extremely satisfying. Ball physics were a step up last year and they are again here, too, while the impressive reach of sliding tackles can be crucial when used intelligently, so the whole midfield game feels much more rounded generally.
It’s in the final third that PES 2014 could do with a little more work. Defences play what feels like an artificially high line, which compresses the midfield in an entertaining way but also leads to breakaways that expose some dithering in the AI (which still sometimes ignores balls that are clearly easy to intercept) and inconsistent officiating (with refs handing out yellow cards for professional fouls from behind when strikers are through on goal), as well as a lot of offsides.
There’s more variety in crosses and you can exert more control over defensive headers than in previous years, at least, but you still see quite a few players standing static under an aerial ball, while goalkeepers are haphazard, largely on account of poor positioning, often parrying things into the path of other attackers or just flapping uselessly at relatively weak shots.
Goalkeeper throws are more varied and useful in PES 2014, allowing you to roll the ball short, fling it long and even abort your throw-out.
Shooting, at least, blossoms into something easy on the eye once you’ve put a few hours in. Initially it seems a bit floaty, with the controlled shot noticeably less effective than in PES 2013 and a lot of attacks resulting in shots stubbed hopelessly goalward, while thunderbolts from outside the box are consistently elusive. With the right player in the right position, though, and a vital yard of space, you can unleash exactly the kind of shot you want, from inch-perfect dinks to piledrivers.
One criticism is that lobbed goals feel slightly too easy to pull off, but they do at least look majestic every time. Best not to bring the keeper out.
Die-hard PES fans are likely to be in a forgiving mood anyway once they see how things have developed elsewhere, and they will also appreciate the tactical possibilities afforded by even more slider bars available pre-game. One thing that is likely to annoy everyone is the way teams reset any pre-game changes when you opt for a rematch, while player transfers aren’t up to date (of course) and the licensing situation is what it is in the face of EA having locked up most of the leagues aeons ago. But these things shouldn’t be fatal to a game that by its nature appeals to fans of the sport itself rather than the glamour surrounding it.
There may be a smaller pool of those players these days now that FIFA has taken the lion’s share of the football gaming audience and shows no sign of giving it back again, but even if you spend more of your time playing local games than online ones you are well served.
The Master League mode has been tweaked so you can move to a different club and even manage national teams, and I still much prefer playing against the AI in PES than in any other football game. It wasn’t available in time for this review, but Master League Online is traditionally an even tougher challenge, now with multiple leagues focusing on different play styles. As with everything in PES, it should reward patience.
Become a Legend mode now lets you play as a goalkeeper, while 11 vs 11 online play will be added in a patch, which should be something to behold, if it works.
That’s the message to anyone who has grown tired of FIFA’s more gradual evolution over the last few years, really: PES may be slower to reveal its charms than EA’s glitzy money-spinner, but those charms run deep. Consider the new ‘Heart’ system in PES 2014, which sees player form during matches influenced by the emotions they experience as they do things like play key passes or cede possession in a dangerous area.
This gives them a boost or nerfs them slightly, which has a knock-on effect for things like free-kick accuracy.
In many ways it’s the same message as last year, then, despite sea-change in a lot of areas: PES 2014 is a methodical sports game with deep systems that reward practice and experimentation; the sort of game that will appeal to people who read Zonal Marking rather than Sun Sport. It’s never going to beat FIFA for glitz and polish — charms that are no less valid when it comes to how you invest your leisure time — but PES has the potential to become a very deep obsession, where even a 4-0 drubbing has meaning.
Oh, and for the record, I won the return 1-0 with 46% possession and loved every minute. Classic PES.
9
/ 10
Test de Pro Evolution Soccer 2014 sur PC par jeuxvideo.com
Chausser ses crampons, remonter ses chaussettes, ou encore embrasser la pelouse : il y a des tics qui ne trompent pas.
Si la saison de football 2013 / 2014 est déjà lancée sur le vrai gazon, il faut attendre la fin du mois de septembre pour voir son pendant virtuel en faire de même. Et comme chaque année, c’est à PES d’ouvrir le bal, avec en point d’orgue son nouveau moteur graphique plein de promesses. Le retour de l’ère PES est-il en vue ?
Bien que rentrée dans le rang depuis quelques années au profit de son concurrent direct FIFA, la série des PES semble désormais aller dans le bon sens à chaque mouture, notamment par l’ajout des commandes manuelles poussées il y a un an. Cette fois-ci, c’est par le biais de son nouveau moteur (le Fox Engine) que Konami a cherché à améliorer son poulain, tout en faisant le choix surprenant de ne pas s’inviter sur les consoles next-gen. De là à penser que cet épisode n’est fait que pour servir de transition, il n’y a qu’un pas, qu’il serait aisé de franchir. Mais au-delà d’une simple refonte visuelle du titre, c’est par ses améliorations de gameplay que ce PES brille.
.. mais nous déçoit aussi.
Une vraie simulation
Construire vos actions, le mot d’ordre de cet épisode.
L’introduction des commandes manuelles a grandement contribué à redonner à la licence son statut de simulation sportive. Mais les développeurs de chez Konami ne comptent pas s’arrêter en si bon chemin et nous proposent un épisode encore plus axé sur la simulation : la construction de vos actions est lente et fera davantage appel à votre sens tactique, même s’il est toujours possible de réussir à transpercer les défenses en enchaînant quelques mouvements de une-deux avec vos partenaires, avant de mystifier le gardien d’une frappe en lucarne. Les actions spectaculaires sont toujours là, pas d’inquiétudes à avoir, d’autant plus qu’on peut les admirer via le système de ralentis qui demeure un modèle du genre, n’en déplaise à son concurrent direct. Il n’est finalement pas rare de devoir revenir en arrière pour chercher l’ouverture, surtout que les défenseurs sont bien plus efficaces dans cet opus en ce qui concerne l’anticipation des crochets et des changements de direction.
Comme vous pouvez le constater sur ce ralenti, le placement du gardien laisse parfois à désirer.
L’IA, parlons-en justement. Vos adversaires sont désormais plus malins et anticipent efficacement vos mouvements, notamment lorsque vous contrôlez la balle dos au but ou que vous cherchez à écarter le jeu en passant par les ailes. En revanche, les gardiens sont extrêmement lunatiques dans leur comportement : ils sont aussi bien capables de vous sortir l’arrêt du siècle que de laisser la balle passer juste au-dessus de leur tête sur un centre ou un coup de pied arrêté. Vos coéquipiers ont quant à eux une fâcheuse tendance à mal se placer par défaut : la ligne défensive est trop haute, les attaquants ne font le bon appel qu’une fois sur deux, et parfois deux de vos joueurs se gênent en voulant récupérer le ballon. Pour éviter la frustration liée à ces soucis, il vous faudra très souvent demander à vos coéquipiers de lancer des appels, replacer vos gardiens manuellement ou régler le niveau de votre défense en temps réel, un point positif pour l’aspect simulation certes, mais pas toujours agréable à prendre en main.
Il est surtout paradoxal de constater dans le même temps que vos alliés sont fortement attirés par le ballon, ce qui engendre parfois quelques soucis de collision mentionnés plus haut.
«Ho non, j’avais complètement oublié qu’il y avait un arbitre !».
Le moteur physique n’est d’ailleurs pas encore au point, malgré quelques améliorations bienvenues. D’un côté, on ne peut que saluer les duels épaule-contre-épaule et les contacts lorsque vous cherchez à reprendre la balle à l’adversaire en pressant le bouton correspondant, qui sont clairement bien calibrés en termes de timing et avec un rendu visuel assez réaliste. De l’autre côté, on a encore droit à des duels aériens bien fades et des contrôles orientés qui passent entre deux adversaires assez miraculeusement. Mais le point le plus gênant reste quand même lié aux déplacements des joueurs, qui manquent de vivacité et semblent avoir ingéré une demi-douzaine de choucroutes avant d’aller se changer dans les vestiaires.
L’efficacité retrouvée des défenseurs sur cet opus n’est d’ailleurs sans doute pas étrangère à la mollesse de nos joueurs lorsqu’il s’agit de se retourner balle au pied. Et à propos de mollesse, comme vous êtes censé le savoir, il n’y a pas que 22 joueurs sur un terrain, mais également le corps arbitral. Enfin, ça c’est dans la théorie, puisque dans PES 2014, l’homme en noir est aux abonnés absents ! Il ne siffle qu’en de rares occasions, à moins de réaliser un tacle à la jugulaire ou de faucher votre adversaire en position de dernier défenseur. Si cette donnée évite de hacher le jeu, le réalisme en prend un sérieux coup. Un jeu de football sans petites fautes utiles au milieu du terrain, c’est quand même moins savoureux, non ?
Un nouveau look qui a de la gueule
Les visages des joueurs sont très réussis.
Mais LA nouveauté de cet opus mise en avant par Konami, c’est le Fox Engine. Pour rappel, il s’agit d’un moteur de jeu flambant neuf qui se dévoile pour la première fois sous nos yeux, et qui sera également utilisé pour Metal Gear Solid V.
Et le moins que l’on puisse dire, c’est qu’il est très convaincant. Certes, on pourrait pester contre quelques détails techniques dus aux limites des consoles actuelles, et l’absence de météo variable qui fait tache. Mais ce serait vite oublier la modélisation plus réelle de la foule, des stades, et surtout des visages de joueurs parfois bluffants de réalisme. Evidemment, seules les plus grosses équipes ont eu droit à la motion capture, mais il est plutôt plaisant de constater que certains jeunes prometteurs tels que Varane et Pogba font partie du lot. En revanche, même si elles restent anecdotiques, certaines modélisations sont moins convaincantes, à l’image de Lloris qui donne l’impression d’avoir vieilli de 10 ans et pris quelques kilos de plus au fast-food du coin. On l’avait pourtant prévenu pour la nourriture anglaise.
Attention à ce que vous faites, c’est Darren aux commentaires.
L’animation plus réaliste de la foule n’est en revanche pas suivie d’une ambiance sonore adaptée : les stades ne sonnent certes pas creux, mais il est toujours difficile de discerner les occasions chaudes des véritables buts.
Enfin, difficile d’aborder la bande sonore d’un jeu de foot sans passer par la case commentaires ! Si ceux de Grégoire Margotton sont plutôt dynamiques et ne gênent pas l’action, Darren Tulett est prodigieusement agaçant, notamment quand il vous presse en fin de match lorsque vous êtes mené au score, ou qu’il vous demande si vous êtes resté à l’heure du thé après un contrôle raté. Décidément, les Anglais nous veulent du mal dans cet opus. Les musiques du jeu sont elles à forte consonance sud-américaine. Sans être hors sujet, leur nombre limité les rend très redondantes : pas de quoi vous inciter à passer du temps dans les menus, d’autant plus qu’en termes d’ergonomie, ces derniers semblent être de moins en moins efficaces chaque année. Les temps de chargement étant d’ailleurs très (voire trop) longs sur les versions consoles, on ne peut que vous conseiller d’installer le jeu sur le disque dur, un geste qui permet de les réduire de moitié.
Des licences de qualité, mais limitées en nombre
L’ambiance Champion’s League apporte un vrai plus sur la réalisation.
En termes de contenu, un nouveau championnat fait son apparition : il s’agit de la primera division argentine. Evidemment, l’arrivée des licences anglaises ou de la Bundesliga allemande aurait sans doute plus emballé les foules, mais on ne va pas cracher sur un bon petit duel entre Boca Junior et River Plate à l’ambiance sulfureuse garantie. On regrettera en revanche l’absence d’enceintes espagnoles et la disparition de l’éditeur de stades. Le gros point fort reste la détention des licences de la Champion’s League, l’Europa League, la Copa Libertadores et la Ligue des Champions asiatique, qui se retrouve sur les maillots, dans les stades, et dans l’affichage inspiré de l’ambiance télévisuelle : l’immersion n’en est que renforcée. La bonne surprise vient également du nombre de sélections nationales disponibles : 81, soit largement de quoi organiser des compétitions inspirées des coupes internationales. Vous avez d’ailleurs toujours le choix entre organiser vos propres compétitions, disputer une coupe ou un championnat sous licence, mais également profiter du mode Football life, divisé entre la classique Ligue des masters et le plus récent Vers une légende, qui vous permet d’incarner un joueur du début jusqu’à la fin de sa carrière.
A propos de la Ligue des masters, il est d’ailleurs désormais possible d’y importer un joueur créé dans le mode Vers une légende et de prendre le contrôle d’une équipe nationale.
Pro Evolution Soccer 2014 Gaming Live
Points forts
- Plus axé simulation que jamais
- Du mieux dans les animations
- Les stades, la foule et les visages : le Fox Engine fait des merveilles
- Les licences des coupes continentales
- Le nombre conséquent d’équipes nationales disponibles
Points faibles
- Joueurs lourds à manier
- Les menus désagréables à parcourir
- Un contenu encore trop léger
- Les commentaires de Darren Tulett, agaçants au possible
Sans être la révolution espérée, PES 2014 poursuit son petit bonhomme de chemin et prépare ses pions en prévision de la next-gen. Fort d’un moteur graphique de qualité et d’un système de construction de jeu plus réaliste, le titre n’est cependant pas exempt de défauts.
Entre les problèmes d’IA des gardiens et des arbitres, des menus peu ergonomiques, ou un contenu moins important que chez la concurrence, il y a encore matière à progresser avant de débarquer sur la prochaine génération de consoles. Il reste un épisode encourageant pour la suite de la série, et suffisamment fun pour que l’on s’y attarde : et c’est déjà une bonne chose.
Note de la rédaction
15
12.7
L’avis des lecteurs
(135)
Lire les avis des lecteursDonnez votre avis sur le jeu !
PC
Konami
Sport
Jouable en solo
Multi en local
+
Multi en ligne
Football
Pro Evolution soccer 2014 (PES 14)
- Games
- Pro Evolution soccer 2014 (PES 14)
Add FPS
Wiki
Release date
Sep 18, 2013
Platforms
PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Pro Evolution soccer 2014 (PES 14)
Pro Evolution soccer 2014 (PES 14) Simulation video game, Sports, release date 2013 September 2013..jpg)
Pro Evolution soccer 2014 (PES 14) was created by PES Productions and published by Konami Digital Entertainment.
The game is released on platforms such as: PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360.
Age limit 18+.
The game is designed to play in the mode: Multiplayer && Single Player.
System Requirements
Operating system
Windows Vista 32-bit
RAM
1 GB RAM
GPU Nvidia
n/a
Operating system
Windows Vista 32-bit
RAM
4 GB RAM
Required disk space
8 GB Free hard disk space
The minimum system requirements indicate the PC configuration on which the game will run without problems with minimal graphics settings.
The recommended system requirements indicate the PC configuration on which you can run the game at high graphics settings and play at a comfortable FPS (Frames Per Second). Comments0012
No rating
BenchGame
Editorial rating
No rating
Reviews and ratings
No reviews
9 Latest FPS tests
Not found Pro Evolution Soccer 2014 Comparative Review
Contents
- Introduction
- Meet on the cover
- Doubtful future
- Quantity to quality
- The winner is determined on field
- Conclusion
- Performance test
Intro
PC and consoles, NVIDIA and AMD, FIFA and PES — the gaming community often splits into two camps, where each side is blindly loyal to its idol. And where there is a choice, there will always be eternal disputes: who is better? Why is it better? Who pleasantly surprised, and who did not live up to expectations?
The confrontation between sports simulators is as intense as the meeting between Barça and Real Madrid, or the eternal race between the Reds and the Greens.
But if in real football the winner is determined at the stadium, and in the technology race performance decides, then with simulators it is not so simple. Welcome to the experiment: on this rainy day, FIFA 14 and Pro Evolution Soccer 2014 will meet on the virtual field.
— When you get a couple of hits and you realize you’re not made of glass, you want to see how far you can go.
«Green Street Hooligans» (2005)
You are greeted by the cover
You have just bought a season ticket for the next virtual season and you are taking home the cherished box with the CD. What will be your first wish? Quickly install the game and immediately bring your favorite team into battle against a sworn opponent? Understand. Alas, Pro Evolution Soccer 2014 does not agree with us.
Choose a language, get familiar with the control layout, choose your favorite command, download a data pack, go online, confirm your choice of settings — when you finally get to the menu, you will have already forgotten what you wanted to do.
For reference: in the last successful part, PES 2011, there was no such disgrace.
recommendations
Speaking of PES localization. Words are superfluous here…
A bunch of meaningless signs is just the tip of the iceberg. In this release, the Japanese developers even messed up with the controls. By default, the return key to the menu is assigned not to Esc, but to V, which you will find out after a couple of exits via Alt + Tab. With the gamepad, too, not everything is going smoothly: acceleration is tied to RT instead of the usual right trigger.
If you do not plan to play online, do not install update 1.01, otherwise, every time you start or try to download DLC, you will be bothered with a window asking for authorization. If you took the game for the sake of multiplayer, look for a patch on third-party resources: PES has not been taught to update automatically, and every launch will delight you with the nostalgic buzz of the disk in the drive.
A 600 MB data package was downloaded from the Konami servers for half a day. Result? Now you have access to a new ball! Even two.
With FIFA, the situation is better, but the symptoms are the same: language selection, settings file creation, autosave warning, team selection and control type. Unlike PES, the mouse is supported here and it is possible to play together (or more) on one computer, when one controls from the keyboard and the other from the gamepad (or each with its own gamepad).
The quality of service FIFA outperforms the competitor in all respects. Thanks to Origin, the game updates automatically in the background, stores your game progress in the cloud, is devoid of third-party protections, and enters the EA servers without additional registrations. And if you played previous versions of the game, you will keep your progress and Football Club coins, allowing you to unlock various bonuses (balls, uniforms).
EA Football Club often offers replays of key moments from real-life football matches. Nice way to get a lot of experience.
There is something to reproach the EA platform for, but at least the Canadians are trying to improve it, while the Konami service is frozen at the level of 2005 and this is by no means an exaggeration. PES 2014 is planned to be released on Steam, but for now, as commentators say, we have what we have.
Meanwhile, the PES team lost the ball after a play in midfield, allowing the FIFA players to unleash a swift counterattack. The forward Origin took advantage of the confusion of the defenders of Navigation and Optimization, and escaped on a date with the goalkeeper SecuRom, who, when the position of the data changed, could not protect the goal and silently watched the ball sent under the far post.
Doubtful future
Appearance is not the main thing in a football simulator, but from year to year we hear promises about bringing the picture to a new level and another increase in realism in the series.
The difference between the old and the new is usually not distinguishable by eye, but still this year is special: a new generation of consoles is coming and both games are moving to new engines.
The creators of FIFA lost the new thing when porting, so the PC version of the new part is based on the old Impact Engine and does not stand out as something revolutionary in comparison with FIFA 13: good lighting and shadows, excellent animation of movements, elaborate faces; notice how the uniforms of the players get wet in rainy weather (a feature of last year’s version).
FIFA editors have learned how to choose competent camera angles, so now it’s nice not only to score goals, but also to admire them on replay.
It seemed that the competitor got a head start and even though here Konami will be on horseback, but it was not there. The promising Fox Engine did not show anything from the word «absolutely». Inexpressive shadows, poor anti-aliasing, poor elaboration of details, poor animation and the absence of at least some work with lighting — the picture is inferior not only to FIFA 14, but also to its predecessor.
The main shock is the faces of the players. We have long been accustomed to the fact that in PES there are brutal faces, sometimes even too much, and in FIFA they are like dolls from The Sims, and if the alignment has not changed in the EA project, then their opponent was unpleasantly surprised: only the looks of world football stars are somehow worked out and similar on myself, the rest are like an early render, drawn in five minutes in 3D Max.
Football players in PES look like their photos were cut out of newspaper and pasted directly onto the screen.
For all the time of playing PES 2014, the feeling that on the screen is not one of the leaders of the genre, but the term paper of a novice indie developer — wherever you look, poverty and poverty are felt everywhere. Take a look at the music: there are eleven songs in the entire game, where mixes of football anthems, opera songs, and Latin American romances are found.
This vinaigrette looks out of place.
The soundtrack of FIFA 14 is three times larger and unrivaled, although it is noticeably weaker than last year’s selection — there are few popular songs, nothing sticks in your memory. There are no complaints about the rest of the sounds: the players, coaches and referees in both games are still mute, during the matches we only listen to the noise of the stands and the remarks of the commentators.
FIFA even approached the training process creatively. Each test is worth points, and if successful, new, more difficult tasks open up.
On the front of wits, the alignment of forces has not changed. In FIFA 14, commentators traditionally speak Russian, and PES again personifies poverty — not only is only English sound available, but it also cannot be drowned out. If we compare only the original, PES again does not win: this year FIFA has two duets of English-speaking commentators, the opponents have one.
In the meantime: the FIFA team closed the opponent in their half of the field and continues to besiege the gates of the guests to the applause of the stands. Only unintelligible screams and whistles are heard from the sectors of PES fans. In the eyes of the Japanese, fatigue is read — they simply do not have a face.
Quantity to quality
A football simulator is only half the battle on the field. No matter how virtuoso of the gamepad you are, you won’t last long without sensible management. And sometimes “sorting papers” in such games is much more interesting than kicking the ball in a sunny stadium. Content is another, probably the most important indicator of quality in virtual football.
FIFA was the intangible favorite in terms of number of licenses… and still is. The new edition includes thirty-three official leagues, forty-six national teams, thirty stadiums, over six hundred clubs and sixteen thousand players. For the first time in the series, the major leagues of the championships of Argentina, Chile and Colombia, the Wales national team, as well as Donetsk Shakhtar with their home stadium appeared.
Do you recognize this guy? But the future star of virtual football is in the AC Milan club.
Canadian development takes not only quantity: emblems, logos, uniforms, titles, names — everything corresponds to real data, and even the faces of club players from the hinterland are not randomly generated. The Japanese have it worse: sixteen leagues, of which three are fictional, and two are only partially licensed. Don’t want to play Manchester against West London White or Merseyside Blue? And it will have to.
However: when developers don’t have money to buy licenses, modifications come to the rescue. The PESEdit team has been returning the real names of clubs and players to the game for several years, changing emblems and other paraphernalia. Even leagues (for example, RPL) and adapted Russian commentators from FIFA are being released. But on consoles, the modders’ hands are tied: as Chelsea FC was London, so it will remain so.
Interestingly, the new Konami engine fundamentally does not support anti-aliasing, tessellation, or the simplest lighting effects, or is it just a hack?
To the credit of the creators of PES, there is progress in the work on licenses. This year, the list of leagues has almost doubled, and the top divisions of Germany, Greece, Argentina, Chile, Japan and Qatar have become newcomers. Replenishment in the number of tournaments: the Club World Championship and the Champions League of the Asian Football Confederation have been added to the European Champions League and the Libertadores Cup.
There were no significant changes among the modes. FIFA is famous for the traditional career, where we can go through the thorny path of a coach or a player. The same is offered by PES in the Master League and Become a Legend modes. The only significant two-game innovation is FIFA’s Co-op Seasons, where 2v2 ranked games are available.
FIFA 14 has developed a social component. You can not only buy items yourself, but also send them to friends.
In the environment of individual competitions, it is difficult to single out a clear favorite. A career in FIFA is too overloaded with social garbage: communication with players, press conferences, news and relationships with fans — the chips inherent in the profile «managers» look superfluous in FIFA 14. click, and now we are negotiating with the clubs, manually entering the amounts and prescribing the conditions for the transition, then we have a separate conversation with the player, discussing his salary and bonuses. The global transfer network was not particularly impressive — just as the scouts did not know how to find talent, they still cannot cope with this task.
The transfer window only opens twice a year, but this is a defining time in FIFA’s career: smart selection will ensure success for many years to come.
The real shock was the impossibility of selecting players by overall rating, so the search for players turns into buying a pig in a poke. I’m generally silent about growth forecasts — even Konami ruined this wonderful feature inherent in PES 5 and PES 6. I was also struck by the incredible instability of players to injuries — in FIFA, football players break down all the time, three or four players consistently get into the infirmary a month.
PES 2014’s Master League looks very primitive compared to FIFA entertainment, although both games now have the ability to combine club management with national team management. Playing on the transfer market in PES is more convenient, but the system for calculating the results has failed: the strongest giants suffer crushing defeats, and outsiders from real football often take the first places in the standings.
Starting work in the master league, the first thing to do is to say goodbye to the veterans of the club.
There are no prospects, but the salary is pulled worse than others. This year FIFA’s Ultimate Team mode has changed only in design and interface. The search for items at the auction has become more convenient, it has become possible to re-list all expired cards with one click. The limit on the list of consumable items has been removed — now this type of cards, like players, are saved in the club. In the new season, players are no longer tied to specific schemes, but a breakdown into unique styles has appeared.
Meanwhile: FIFA players control the game. No wonder, because they include world football stars, and the opponent’s team consists of unknown names. Another attack by the Canadians ended with a cross into the PES penalty area, and it was closed by the forward EA, masterfully ahead of his rivals. It was then that I noticed that all the PES players are dressed in different uniforms, and the goalkeeper is completely without pants.
The winner is determined on the field
If you’ve read this PES series obituary review to this point, you’re probably wondering if there’s anything good in the new Konami project? In general, no.
The only thing in which the game positively stands out from the background of a competitor is unpredictability.
Pro Evolution Soccer entices you with the fact that you don’t need to be a master in it to score beautiful goals, and non-standard situations in the game occur much more often than in FIFA. Here two defenders collided, and you ran away on a date with the goalkeeper, here the ball slipped out of the goalkeeper’s hands right into the goal after a slight blow, and now the opponent released the ball over the front, but the referee did not notice this.
Playing careers are not very popular: most of the time you spend without the ball, and sometimes you can be replaced at all.
Another trump card of Konami is accurate passes. The main feature of PES 2011 was returned last year, since then it has not changed: holding the left trigger on the gamepad, select the direction of the pass with the right stick and the player will hit exactly there, without auto-correction by the system.
But somehow they broke the response time: players react to commands with such a delay that you can forget about the one-touch game.
Against this backdrop, the controls in FIFA seem more responsive: short passes in the center of the field are easy to carry out, and their success depends only on your skill and reaction. As before, the ball behaves differently depending on the weather, and with crosses, the player does not run in advance to the point where the ball will hit.
The only thing that upsets the gameplay, and both simulators — it’s stereotyped. Artificial intelligence rarely uses flanks, attacks mainly head-on and, having gained experience, you, like in chess, will learn to recognize your opponent’s actions ten steps ahead.
Nice to study post-match statistics. Especially if the match went well.
Callus of both series — complexity. None of the developers have yet thought of linking it to the rating of teams, so on very hard your Barcelona will easily be defeated by any club from the third division of England, demonstrating a fantastically well-coordinated game, and on easy you can easily bring the strongest club in Europe to its knees.
You don’t have to be an experienced fan to understand that this doesn’t happen in real football and players don’t behave like that on the field.
Ordinariness is another component of the same pattern. I don’t remember that in a football simulator during a match the lights went out at the stadium, a naked fan or a dog ran out onto the field. What is there: a penalty still cannot be played, not to mention gestures towards the referee, simulation of violations or provocation of an opponent.
Only the Become Legend mode remains on the growth graph, and it doesn’t show the predicted growth.
The current FIFA is head and shoulders above the competition, but even it is far from ideal. Corner kicks and free kicks, as in previous seasons, are a lottery, where it is not skill that decides, but chance; scoring a goal with a long-range shot is almost impossible, especially on hard difficulty. Experienced strikers who earn virtual and real millions often run offside, as if they are wearing boots for the second day.
Meanwhile: FIFA stars continue to attack, but their attempts are already less successful — PES players have learned the habits of the opponent, and the Canadians have no new tricks. But the Japanese are increasingly taking the defense of the favorite by surprise: one of the counterattacks ended with a long-range shot, after which the ball from the goalkeeper’s hand hit the crossbar and flew into the field. Forward prepared to shoot an empty net … but hit his own.
Conclusion
The stands are cheering: Western football has outperformed Eastern football this year, with FIFA winning a 2-0 victory over PES. True, the triumph can hardly be called glorious, because teams of different levels met, the favorite was obvious and no miracle happened. FIFA is strong, but this year it won the title not because of its merit, but simply because its opponent performed very poorly.
Yes, she was pleasantly surprised by the clear organization — each player in the team knew his place on the field, which was appreciated by the fans.
On the other hand, we have seen all her feints and tactical preparations more than once in the past, the year before last, and this trend will probably continue. The absence of worthy competitors is relaxing, but fans still want tangible progress.
The expression on the opponents’ faces will tell about the game better than any statistics.
The PES game is better compared not with FIFA, but with the game of the same team a year ago. It was better then. The appearance was neater, the form is not so shabby, and they played with dignity. The victors of the 2011 roster have grown old, and there is little demand from veterans now. Time to change coaches? Maybe. Without a serious rethinking, this team will only have memories of past victories.
FIFA 14 verdict: a slightly updated version of last year, which has not undergone major changes. It looks good against the background of competitors, or rather, their absence.
FIFA 14 score: 7.
7.
PES 2014 verdict: the game has lost more than it has gained, the poor quality of graphics and interface is compensated only by the increased number of leagues. If this is not a failure, then just a disappointment.
PES 2014 score: 5.4.
Between lines. FIFA Football 2005 and PES 6 remain my favorite games in the series. The first was due to the relative simplicity of the career mode and excellent match simulation: the format resembled a text broadcast, where it was clear who was attacking and who had the initiative, and you could literally keep your fists for your favorite club, watching the changes in a match. PES 6 (like PES 5) attracted with a visual skill growth graph and a favorite tactic was to gather promising young people and bring them to the world level. See you in sunny Los Santos.
Vitaly Krasnovid aka
Dezintegration
Benchmark test
You won’t find typical modern gaming configurations in FIFA 14 and Pro Evolution Soccer 2014 that are typical for our resource.
