Pro Evolution Soccer 2014 (PES 2014)

evil_geko

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EDGE has a first look at Pro Evolution Soccer 2014 as well as the new engine its built on in issue #252. Subscribers have started to receive the magazine ahead of the official March 14 date, meaning we have access to PES 2014 content a bit early.

Below you’ll find a roundup of some of the information included in EDGE regarding Konami’s upcoming sports title:

- Engine based on FOX Engine
- Engine referred to as “new engine”
- New physics engine uses “Barycentre physics”
- Barycentre physics: different body parts have different weights
- Collisions are similar to FIFA
- Impact strength of collisions depend on which part of the body is hit
- Team is focusing on “photo-realism” for graphics
- One closeup of a Japanese player’s face in EDGE shows detailed skin pores and individual eyebrows
- Shirts are separate from the player models
- Shirts hang from the players and flow and get pulled when jostling
- Ball control radius in 3x bigger than current gen, providing more dynamic off-ball tussles while player’s legs try to get control of the ball
- Can set a player’s “zones”
- This allows you to have an individual player only be allowed to move in a small area of the pitch while defending

Head past the break for the full rundown of PES 2014′s three engine pillars.


1. Barycentre Physics and Ball control

The new engine allows for a larger separation between player and ball – three time the radius of PES 2013, where tight ‘confrontation’ zones are used to make tackling easier. A striker will be able to throw his body weight in one direction and use his opposing foot to push the ball in the other way, leaving defenders off balance and buying space for a pass or shot. Players have specific centres of balance, calculated by locating their centre of gravity, or barycentre. You’ll be able to control your player’s weight shifts at all times and use practice touches to push the ball away from your feet. We see a wireframe demo with more natural animations and fluid transitions than FIFA 13. You control the player and the physics drives the animation, not vice versa. It’s hard to tell how this will transform the ‘feel’ of play, rather than just being admirable behind the scenes calculations, but there appears to be scope for a radical new control scheme – think of how Skate’s right-stick motions mimicked real-life movements by exploiting dynamic physics, and how they compared to the digital button taps of Tony Hawks Pro Skater. This could be a revelation in football game control.

2. Contact and Physicality

Konami has pinpointed this as a weakness in previous games, but now players can jostle for space – even without the ball present – for headers at corners, or to dominate a smaller opponent. You’ll be able to tug shirts (cloth is now separate from the player’s body and stretches) as well as elbow for room on the touchline. It works in tandem with the physics and precision control. Agile players can unbalance defenders with dropped shoulders or ball skills, and push the ball further ahead to exploit their acceleration. “Previously, body feints were more aesthetic,” admits Masuda. “Now they’re a key tactic.”

3. Squad Emulator

Formations remain essential for success, but now you can set ‘zones of play’ so your key players focus on certain tactics in mission-critical areas. For example, you can set your front line to focus on possession and probing for gaps in from of a deep-lying defence. In theory, you’ll be able to recognise your favourite teams pattern of play within a few minutes. The emphasis on defending and shape should allow weaker teams to create effective strategies, such as when Celtic beat Barcelona in the Champions League by defending deep, buoyed up

Photos:










That photo of face where you can see his pores is amazing! :eek:
 

Carl

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It's about time it had a new engine. Will probably mean quite a few bugs at first though.

As usual the pictures mean nothing. Will wait for the demo before I judge.
 

Badunk

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And who will bet against your defence stopping dead in their tracks every time there's a lofted through ball? Still, so long as you can see the angst in your players' faces as you throw your controller across the room, that's all that matters.
 

kouroux

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Tactically yes PES is unrivalled but that old engine present in PES 2013 made the game unplayable for me.I couldn't play it for more than a couple of weeks and then I just stopped
 

JP77

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Cant really remember the last time Fifa was better than PES, possibly once a few years back when Pro struggled at first in the step up in next gen, but other than that it's always been the better game for me. So far they're showing massive promise not just for this year but the future too, new engine sounds immense.

Really hope they work on some of the smaller stuff too. Bring back the WB option, possibly dwelve more into the tactic side of things too.
 

Carl

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Cant really remember the last time Fifa was better than PES, possibly once a few years back when Pro struggled at first in the step up in next gen, but other than that it's always been the better game for me. So far they're showing massive promise not just for this year but the future too, new engine sounds immense.

Really hope they work on some of the smaller stuff too. Bring back the WB option, possibly dwelve more into the tactic side of things too.
:lol:
 

kps88

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Will FIFA be getting a new engine too for next gen? This year is going to be key for both franchises, whoever gets the new engine right first will be hard to catch.
 

JP77

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Are you laughing at your own comment?

It's always quite funny when somebody quotes part of a post and then ignores the rest. Like the part where I said it has always been better FOR ME. My opinion is that Pro, barring one or two years, has been the better game. Realistically it's down to which you prefer, for me it's Pro, though I always hope for the best from both.
 

Aboutreika18

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Pes has always been the better game barring the two or three before the 2013 editions.
fifa will top this, as always
PES has been shit since PES2008.

FIFA is the top dog these days but have yet to release anything as good as PES5 when it came out. They've done little improvement gameplay-wise since FIFA10, CM is still a buggy mess as usual and they've got the UT cash cow to focus on these days.
 

Carl

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Are you laughing at your own comment?

It's always quite funny when somebody quotes part of a post and then ignores the rest. Like the part where I said it has always been better FOR ME. My opinion is that Pro, barring one or two years, has been the better game. Realistically it's down to which you prefer, for me it's Pro, though I always hope for the best from both.
It's funny because it's ridiculous... for me anyway.
 

Carl

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I'm glad you saw the funny side JP.

Look, I'm no FIFA fan boy. I was a die hard PES man until 2009 when I just couldn't cope with the dross Konami were serving up. For 2 years I bought FIFA and FIFA only.

Then I played a PES demo and enjoyed it so went back to PES. It didn't last long though. I found elements of the game play enjoyable but there were too many huge erros that made the overall game impossible. Not to mention the online aspect of the game was truly abysmal.

For 3 years running I bought both FIFA and PES. Mainly because neither fully satisfied me. Last year I probably enjoyed PES more but ultimately couldn't stick with it because of too many silly bugs.

This year, though, FIFA is superior. By a long way too.
 

JP77

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I'm glad you saw the funny side JP.

Look, I'm no FIFA fan boy. I was a die hard PES man until 2009 when I just couldn't cope with the dross Konami were serving up. For 2 years I bought FIFA and FIFA only.

Then I played a PES demo and enjoyed it so went back to PES. It didn't last long though. I found elements of the game play enjoyable but there were too many huge erros that made the overall game impossible. Not to mention the online aspect of the game was truly abysmal.

For 3 years running I bought both FIFA and PES. Mainly because neither fully satisfied me. Last year I probably enjoyed PES more but ultimately couldn't stick with it because of too many silly bugs.

This year, though, FIFA is superior. By a long way too.
As I said, it's all down to taste. I don't overly favor either, I'd love for two brilliant games really rather than one being better than the other. For me though, I still struggle to really get into Fifa. They sorted it out so it wasn't overly unrealistic (wasn't long ago you could score halfway liners at ease, do fifty tricks through the entire team and flick it up and do some fifa street style volley) like it was at one stage, but it still doesn't keep me for very long. After a while it just feels so samey and it feels like you can almost predict the majority of what's going to happen.

PES doesn't have that for me, it's unpredictable at times and the games feel much different each time. Offline I played Fifa for a couple of days before being bored stiff and giving up, whereas PES I could play for ages and still be enjoying it. And then PES finally started improving online wise, certainly with MLO (still improvements need to be made), which is worth buying Pro for alone.

And of course overall, it just feels better for me. But hey, if you find Fifa better, then that's fine by me.
 

amolbhatia50k

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As I said, it's all down to taste. I don't overly favor either, I'd love for two brilliant games really rather than one being better than the other. For me though, I still struggle to really get into Fifa. They sorted it out so it wasn't overly unrealistic (wasn't long ago you could score halfway liners at ease, do fifty tricks through the entire team and flick it up and do some fifa street style volley) like it was at one stage, but it still doesn't keep me for very long. After a while it just feels so samey and it feels like you can almost predict the majority of what's going to happen.

PES doesn't have that for me, it's unpredictable at times and the games feel much different each time. Offline I played Fifa for a couple of days before being bored stiff and giving up, whereas PES I could play for ages and still be enjoying it. And then PES finally started improving online wise, certainly with MLO (still improvements need to be made), which is worth buying Pro for alone.

And of course overall, it just feels better for me. But hey, if you find Fifa better, then that's fine by me.
Feel the same way. Pes is a whole lot less scripted. It also doesn't feel like a football cartoon. I'm going to give FIFA 13 one more go sometime this week but so far it plays like some super fast, drug fuelled, football fantasy.
 

kouroux

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The big pb with FIFA 13 IMHO is the general pace of the game, even on 'slow' it's too fast for the likes of me who likes to play a patient tactic.The 'slow' option should be the default 'normal' speed setting, they have to come up with a better and slower pace
 

Sarni

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Those new FIFA games are frankly amazingly good. Since 2008 they've gradually improved it and it's been much better than any PES I've tried during that period, in my view. Prior to that PES shat all over FIFA but somehow they've managed to make PES less fun and EA got it spot on with remodeled FIFA. 12 was another breakthrough with collision system, the 13 is a proper sim and I don't think it's as scripted as previous ones - you're bound to see lots of similar goals and they definitely need to address shooting but they've done an excellent job surely. World Cup 2010 was probably the best EA Sports game up to date though, especially when it comes to shooting - such a shame they decided to drop the system for 11 and following because current FIFA with WC2010's shooting system would be a perfect game.

I'll give PES a try when 2014 is out. Trouble with PES is, though, that none of my friends play it and all of them have FIFA at home so we're having a tournament once or twice a week at my place and everyone's starting from a level field having played the game numerous times before. With PES I'd probably be the only one accustomed to controls and engine because I couldn't possibly convince most people to go back to PES.
 

noodlehair

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I didn't like either game last year.

The FIFA keyboard warriors are amusing though. It's a terrible game in terms of being a simulation, and riddled with stupid bugs which fail to be fixed year after year....and I don't really get the fun in playing as Manchester United online and drawing 6-6 with Manchester United, while your opponent spends the whole game doing showboat tricks which have never been seen on an actual football pitch.

Problem was Pro Evo last year made their single player practically unplayable. The gameplay was good but everything else strived to be the opposite.
 

Ekeke

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PES plays like an arcade game. Thats why Fifa feels like a much better simulation. That said theres still a lot of stuff it needs to improve on to properly emulate real football. And with the latest iterations they've gone back to old ways of being lazy with improvements like before PES.

It'll take an absolute miracle, perhaps two, for PES to be anywhere near as good as Fifa this time around. Theres just so much work to do. But that doesnt mean Fifa will be as good a game as it should be, either. It doesnt help that PES doesnt seem focused on improving the parts that are miles behind Fifa. Who cares if you have individual eyebrows on your player if the game is shit, yet again
 

Woodzy

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I didn't like either game last year.

The FIFA keyboard warriors are amusing though. It's a terrible game in terms of being a simulation, and riddled with stupid bugs which fail to be fixed year after year....and I don't really get the fun in playing as Manchester United online and drawing 6-6 with Manchester United, while your opponent spends the whole game doing showboat tricks which have never been seen on an actual football pitch.

Problem was Pro Evo last year made their single player practically unplayable. The gameplay was good but everything else strived to be the opposite.
I agree with this. I don't know why they just can't keep things like the Master League mode as simple as possible. It's a football game... I want to spend as much time playing actual games of football as possible. Instead it feels like it has more cut scenes than Metal Gear Solid.

The gameplay itself is very underrated, it's only little things that let that down.

The poor sound has been a problem of mine for a while no also.
 

Orton

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2013 could have been great, I still play it all the time, and enjoy it in patches but the rest of the time i'm left cursing the awful AI's only tactic and the scripted goals that keep on happening. The form arrows, the international's a day before a league game. It completely defies any sort of footballing logic sometimes.
 

noodlehair

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PES plays like an arcade game. Thats why Fifa feels like a much better simulation. That said theres still a lot of stuff it needs to improve on to properly emulate real football. And with the latest iterations they've gone back to old ways of being lazy with improvements like before PES.

It'll take an absolute miracle, perhaps two, for PES to be anywhere near as good as Fifa this time around. Theres just so much work to do. But that doesnt mean Fifa will be as good a game as it should be, either. It doesnt help that PES doesnt seem focused on improving the parts that are miles behind Fifa. Who cares if you have individual eyebrows on your player if the game is shit, yet again
I don't find Fifa a better simulation at all though. I'm convinced people just make that part up for some reason. The gameplay is samey and limited, there's no variation in the CPU behaviour, from one minute to the next, game to the next, team or player to the next. They all do exactly the same things. The best way they can come up with to make the single player AI a challenge is to have some games where it's pre-programmed to win no matter what you do. Doesn't this sort of defeat the entire point in actually playing it?

In the career mode, fixtures get re-scheduled for no real reason, playing Chelsea away is easier than playing Macclesfield at home. It takes about 5 minutes to skip from one game to the next, while endless loading screens/pointless emails come up, and Geoff Shreeves and whoever that other bloke is talk relentlessly at you about utter shite. The last career mode I tried to start, I gave up on when for the third game in a row, the football was for some reason invisible.

I found there was enough about it for me to WANT to keep giving it chances and for it to come good, but it never does. It always goes down the opposite route of infuriating me with dumbness.


PES I actually really liked the gameplay this year, aside from a few lingering issues. The problem is they took out all the meaningful game modes apart from Master League, and there's so much stupid stuff going on in Master League, I end up not wanting to play that either. So I've got this game I really like, but that I never actually play. Ever. It's a similar feeling. I want to like it and want it to win me over, but it never manages it. The stupidity wins out

...and yeah, I don't really give a shit about being able to examine every locke of Andy Carrol's hair, when he's playing for "East London" in the wrong colour shirts and kicking the ball into the goal through the middle of his own leg.

I agree with this. I don't know why they just can't keep things like the Master League mode as simple as possible. It's a football game... I want to spend as much time playing actual games of football as possible. Instead it feels like it has more cut scenes than Metal Gear Solid.

The gameplay itself is very underrated, it's only little things that let that down.

The poor sound has been a problem of mine for a while no also.
It's mad...the cutscenes with the woman in that room. I mean, how can anyone come up with that and think it's not really, really stupid? Also when it's a derby game and it cuts to a clip of you telling the players it's a derby game. You can't actually do anything different to usual, it's just a pointless clip, which takes about 30 seconds to load, after it's just made youwait 2 minutes while it autosaves despite nothing happening since it last did this about 1 minute before.
 

UnitedBoy

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Okay so this thread inspired me to go out and give PES 2013 a try, the first time i have played the series since 2008 where i was ranked within the top 200 of the world. Since then, i have been loyal to Fifa who has made decent improvements.

Although only one game of PES 2013. I can categorically state, that the as a simulation game, the play of PES is streaks ahead. Absolutely fantastic feel to the game. Graphically, i can not stop looking how "real" ALL the players look. This is enough to gain my interest in any game.

Although in PES i dont fully know how to play yet, the passing seems a bit random somtimes but other than that havent noticed anything annoying. What are some of the downfalls to the game?
 

Justin

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Although in PES i dont fully know how to play yet, the passing seems a bit random somtimes but other than that havent noticed anything annoying. What are some of the downfalls to the game?
Presentation I suppose, lack of licenses will always bite them. Menu and things like Master League are outdated and just looks tired.

The online stuff I rarely go on, but looks "primitive" from my limited experience. (They had server problems early on)
 

Genius Me!

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I remember when I first played this years pro demo high, I felt like I was watching a real game
 

amolbhatia50k

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I don't find Fifa a better simulation at all though. I'm convinced people just make that part up for some reason. The gameplay is samey and limited, there's no variation in the CPU behaviour, from one minute to the next, game to the next, team or player to the next. They all do exactly the same things. The best way they can come up with to make the single player AI a challenge is to have some games where it's pre-programmed to win no matter what you do. Doesn't this sort of defeat the entire point in actually playing it?

In the career mode, fixtures get re-scheduled for no real reason, playing Chelsea away is easier than playing Macclesfield at home. It takes about 5 minutes to skip from one game to the next, while endless loading screens/pointless emails come up, and Geoff Shreeves and whoever that other bloke is talk relentlessly at you about utter shite. The last career mode I tried to start, I gave up on when for the third game in a row, the football was for some reason invisible.

I found there was enough about it for me to WANT to keep giving it chances and for it to come good, but it never does. It always goes down the opposite route of infuriating me with dumbness.


PES I actually really liked the gameplay this year, aside from a few lingering issues. The problem is they took out all the meaningful game modes apart from Master League, and there's so much stupid stuff going on in Master League, I end up not wanting to play that either. So I've got this game I really like, but that I never actually play. Ever. It's a similar feeling. I want to like it and want it to win me over, but it never manages it. The stupidity wins out

...and yeah, I don't really give a shit about being able to examine every locke of Andy Carrol's hair, when he's playing for "East London" in the wrong colour shirts and kicking the ball into the goal through the middle of his own leg.



It's mad...the cutscenes with the woman in that room. I mean, how can anyone come up with that and think it's not really, really stupid? Also when it's a derby game and it cuts to a clip of you telling the players it's a derby game. You can't actually do anything different to usual, it's just a pointless clip, which takes about 30 seconds to load, after it's just made youwait 2 minutes while it autosaves despite nothing happening since it last did this about 1 minute before.
Yes the cutscenes are lame but I don't mind sitting through that nonsense when the gameplay is good, and it is. I think they've done a very good job this year.

Also, I get an option to turn off autosave which wasn't there initially.
 

amolbhatia50k

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Presentation I suppose, lack of licenses will always bite them. Menu and things like Master League are outdated and just looks tired.

The online stuff I rarely go on, but looks "primitive" from my limited experience. (They had server problems early on)
Menu is pretty irrelevant for me. Couldn't care less what a games menu looks like. The lisence thing isn't all that big an issue either given how simple it is to patch these days.

Downfalls for me would be:

1. Player growth in master league is too rapid
2. Cutscenes are annoying and repetitive
3. Online probably isn't comparable to FIFA. I don't really play online but that's my guess.

But in the areas that really matter I think it's a very good game.
 

kouroux

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Football games are only truly enjoyable when played with friends in the same room.Lots of banter and laughs make you forget about the game's flaws
 

JP77

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MLO is fantastic, easily the best online mode I've played on a football game. There's so many things they can tweak and add down the line to if they really put time and focus on it. Only really let down by a lot of the players themselves (I.E the through ball spammers and the disconnect cheats).