PES 2014

[Jimmydeicide]

While i really like this years demo and feel it has improved a lot on the field it still has some old problems that just annoy me so much i find it hard to forget and just enjoy it for what it is.

The Defenders just don't tackle some times, choosing to just run along side a sprinting player usually the better players, almost allowing them artificially that space their skill would get them in real life. On crosses sometimes defenders will not jump allowing clear cut chances to the opposition, they run away from the ball for no reason at times gifting chances to the AI or it would be worse to an online opponent.
I cant help but feel cheated.
On long balls the rails effect is still there.
This is an accumulative effect of all the years i play these games so if your relatively new to the franchise or took a few years off you might not even notice, if that's the case then this game is really really good and has huge potential. For me i am only going to truly be released from this negative funk once the defensive gaffs are removed for good.
If the defense was on par with offense it truly would be a spectacular game.

[Zlax45]

Eurogvamer gave it a 9/10. Now i'll have to wait for the Steam sale.

Link to the review

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013- ... 014-review

[Rodster]

PES Edit 2014 Patch is out

http://www.pes-patch.com/2013/09/pesedi ... h-0-1.html

Full Online compatibility
Correct kits for 19 Premier League teams (including 3rd kits) and some National teams
Includes PES 2014 Patch 1.01 and Data Pack 1.00
Fixed team names and emblems for Premier League and Liga ZON Sagres teams
Corrected player names for unlicensed National Teams (Algeria, Bosnia, Japan, Netherlands, United States etc.)
Fixed names and emblems for all competitions
Added 200+ missing transfers (Özil, Bale, Soldado etc.)
Fixed lineups for 50+ teams (Arsenal, Liverpool, Napoli etc.)

[Macca00]

You can pre-order the PC version from Gamesplanet.com - comes out on Friday. Apparently the base PC version is borked - online not working, rosters out of date, a whole bunch of faces not in the game yet.

Good job, Konami!

[Rodster]

You can pre-order the PC version from Gamesplanet.com - comes out on Friday. Apparently the base PC version is borked - online not working, rosters out of date, a whole bunch of faces not in the game yet.

Good job, Konami!

I haven't seen it on Steam yet. Does Konami plan of patching the base PC game? Maybe the PES Edit might be of help.

[Macca00]

I stand corrected. PC version is out today - got an email, am downloading it now.

[Jimmydeicide]

I here the first patch messes with the game play and its thru ball city again by the ai, some have gone back to 1.0 just to get game play back to like the demo.

[Macca00]

I stand corrected. PC version is out today - got an email, am downloading it now.

Thanks for the heads-up, Jim! Bloody Konami!

[Leebo33]

I much preferred the PES 14 Demo to the ST FIFA and I am mainly a co-op player with my two boys against the CPU so I went ahead and picked it up last night for X360 (my PS3 bit the dust). FYI, If you order online at Best Buy (I did store pickup) you get a $10 gift card mailed to you for free.

[FifaInspected]

anyone have any online experience with PES 2014? If so, how was it?

[Macca00]

PC version not working for me so far - can't connect to a match. Will give gameplay impressions later when I get a chance.

[pk500]

Guardian review:

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/g ... 014-review

[pk500]

I much preferred the PES 14 Demo to the ST FIFA and I am mainly a co-op player with my two boys against the CPU so I went ahead and picked it up last night for X360 (my PS3 bit the dust). FYI, If you order online at Best Buy (I did store pickup) you get a $10 gift card mailed to you for free.

Nice tip. Thanks!

[fsquid]

Where do you guys find the torrents these days? Changed computers and lost the bookmarks.

[Macca00]

The PC version looks fabulous (though apparently if you have an ATI card it runs like s*** for many) and runs silky smooth but has some absolutely horrendous input lag - you cross the ball in and if you don't hit shoot the moment the ball leaves the winger's foot your forward will always control the ball before kicking it. Makes me want to scream.

I just read though that this can be eliminated if you turn off the forced V-Sync - of course, there is no option to do this in the game, you have to do it through your video-card's config program manually. It also means, obviously, that there is no V-sync so you'll get flickering.

Will let you know how/if it works when I get home tonight but in the interim I'd stay away from the PC one until Konami patches it.

The animations are just out of this world. The best slide tackling animations (there are so many) that I have ever seen in my life - sliding in late to deliberately take out a player makes me giggle like a schoolgirl. Other lots of fantastic visual touches.

Unfortunately, the rosters and kits are s***. Kolo Toure had long flowing straight hair. When you update to the newest data pack he's bald. Brilliant!

The new advanced shooting and through pass system is very cool but I still need more time with it. Biggest issue is the input lag so hopefully that goes with the aforementioned 'fix'.

Bloody Konami.

[Jimmydeicide]

Yeh when it works as planned it truly is spectacular to look at . I hope they really work on getting the few problems they have fixed, its so close to being great i fear people have just had enough and will not give them a chance next time so it has to be fixed this playing cycle or they are doomed i feel especially with how good Fifa is this year.
Yeh, thats right, havnt got to my fifa impressions yet.

[Macca00]

This game....man....

[shakes head]

Problems:

i. Input Lag:

So turning off V-Sync, which I had to use a 3rd party program to force my nVidia card to do so, DOES reduce the input lag but it's still not nearly as responsive as I'd want it to be. Way too many times a rebound will come to my player, I'll hit shoot and he'll just control it first. Reminds me of FIFA 2008 when that was an issue. Utter pain in the ass.

Likewise dribbling and the skill moves have such an annoying lag. When they come off they're great but for each time I pull off a successful move there are three other times I moved the sticks in the correct direction and the CPU took the ball of my player before the animations kicked in.

ii. Sprinting

The last defender can almost always catch you. Unless you have a 10 yard head start, pretty much any and every defender in the game can catch up even the fastest striker/winger. It utter bullshit. Because it greatly reduces the effectiveness of fast players. I can lob the ball into space using the awesome manual through-pass controls but Daniel Sturridge can't even out-run a defender from some random Saudi team. Reminds me a lot of older FIFA games (seeing a trend here?).

iii. No fouls

Hardly any fouls by the CPU that are called. Not to say they won't shove you off the ball occasionally but even when that happens it's not called. This has been a problem in PES/WE before but it's really obvious now.

iv. Turning Arc/Close Control When Turning

I don't notice a difference in turning arc between John Terry and Lionel Messi. I kid you not. At speed, sure Messi is better, but if you slow down (regular speed), they turn at the same rate.

v. TOO MANY animations

I think part of the slow turning arc thingy is that sometimes there are too many animations. Rather than making a quick outside of the foot turn that takes 1-2 touches at most, the 'FOX ENGINE' (TM) makes your player take 4-5 touches which makes it easier for the defender to take the ball off you.

vi. Shooting

I love the new manual shooting. Reminds me of 16 bit football games but the ball physics are screwy because the ball hits the crossbar far, far too many times. In a single game I hit the crossbar 6 times. SIX TIMES. I hit the cross-bar at least 2-3 times a match. Unscripted ball physics my ass....

vii. Keepers

A few years ago my Sunday men's team had an awful keeper. Konami have accurately moddeled him as if you drill the ball right at the keeper with full power, at least a third of the time he'll just palm/spill it into his own net. It's great! And by great, I mean it's bullshit!

viii. Presentation and Overall Polish

It's 2013. Their competition is FIFA 14 which is the same price. This game is a f@cking disgrace. Rosters (even with the new data pack) aren't up to date. Player faces for 100s of players are off. There are only 20 stadiums. No weather effects. The online mode is a piece of s***. We were all willing to accept these things 10 years ago when Konami were the plucky underdogs and we assumed that they would improve. They haven't. I know part of that is being a Japanese company where online infrastructure, and apparently user experience, aren't important things but this game sells truckloads in Europe so f*** those guys.


Some of the gameplay stuff 'could' be patched but according to Adam Bhatti (PES/WE community manager) it's going to be NOVEMBER before the next patch.


What makes me most upset is that this game is so close to being utterly amazing. There are moments were everything comes together - the new passing, the animations, the shooting and it looks and feels incredible. But right after some bullshit will happen and that stark contrast just ruins everything.

[10spro]

Thanks for saving me $60 bucks Macca.

[Rodster]

Thanks for saving me $60 bucks Macca.

Ditto Macca !

Thankfully I still have Winning Eleven 7 and WE8 on the PS2.

[Macca00]

No prob, guys. Don't buy it. At least not yet.

I'll still plug away at it here and there but I'm buying FIFA 14 on my way home tonight.

[Jared]

vii. Keepers

A few years ago my Sunday men's team had an awful keeper. Konami have accurately moddeled him as if you drill the ball right at the keeper with full power, at least a third of the time he'll just palm/spill it into his own net. It's great! And by great, I mean it's bullshit!

I saw this happen often in the demo and thought it just must be a glitch that they would surely (surely!) have fixed for the actual release.

Ugh.

[Leebo33]

What makes me most upset is that this game is so close to being utterly amazing. There are moments were everything comes together - the new passing, the animations, the shooting and it looks and feels incredible. But right after some bullshit will happen and that stark contrast just ruins everything.

Luckily, on X360 installed on the hard drive, I am getting a lot more of the utterly amazing moments than not. I am also probably playing on a lower skill level (professional) so, although the defenders do feel unfairly faster, I do outrun them enough to where it doesn't bother me much. I have rarely hit the post and the keepers don't seem any worse than any other soccer game I played. I play solo and multiplayer offline so I can't comment on online play.

I rented FIFA14 last night from Redbox just to make sure I wasn't missing something, but I went back to PES for my offline play after a few games. My biggest problems with FIFA 14 vs. CPU is the unimaginative play from the CPU (PES is brilliant in this regard where I truly feel like I am playing another human) and the total lack of aggressiveness when I have the ball on my side of the pitch. I was showing my kids last night where if you are outside the cpu players "radar" you can just stand in your own end and let the clock wind down. I did that last night and even put the controller down in the last few minutes for effect. Sure, I simple house rule will mitigate the problem but it's kind of ridiculous.

I can definitely understand the frustration with PES14 though. I feel like I am playing this fabulous game that nobody else is talking about but when you guys can't enjoy it online (in those few moments I get to play multiplayer it is going to be with my kids so it's not an issue for me) with friends, you have to go searching for option files, and the PC version has all these problems then I can understand why it is so unpopular. I essentially paid $50 after the gift card and feel that I will absolutely get my money's worth. The highs are much much higher than the lows for me.

[dougb]

No prob, guys. Don't buy it. At least not yet.

I'll still plug away at it here and there but I'm buying FIFA 14 on my way home tonight.

Hey Lavan,

Have they patched the PC version yet? I was thinking about springing for the steam version but wasn't sure about the state of the game.

Thanks,

Doug

[Macca00]

Hey Doug,

I downloaded and applied the patch but haven't been able to try it out because each time I try to download the new data pack the game keeps 'losing connection' to the server and re-starts! Will try again and get back to you when I check it out.

L

[dougb]

Thanks Lavan!

I actually decided to spring for the pc version anyway (steam) and I am loving it! For some reason it just has that freedom and fluidity that I've never really experienced in Fifa. I tried the demo FIFA 14 on a PS4 at the store and although everything looked fantastic the gameplay just left me a little meh.

I played a couple of games with Pro Evo using the South American teams without any knowledge of any of the players. Had a fabulous time with the different AI teams employing different tactics and formations. Some mid-fields were horrendously difficult to break down, giving up very little space. Others seemed to have significant gaps that were far easier to exploit. I actually really enjoy the shooting system as it seems to be a significant challenge to get decent shots off.

Haven't tried to play any online games yet due to previous traumas with Konami's on line system Still by far seems to me the most single player gameplay fun of any sports game.

I'm also not sure if the steam version is patched at all - cannot find any notes on steam to that effect.

Doug