Can Konami’s PES 2016 shake up EA Sports’ Fifa’s monopoly? The new dynamic game play may change the dimension of virtual football.
Game developer Konami continues to try and challenge the world’s best football gaming franchise, Fifa, from EA Sports with Pro Evolution Soccer. It’s no secret that PES has always played second fiddle to Fifa and sometimes even been considered as a poorer and a wannabe choice. Now Konami believes that the latest 2016 version can give Fifa a run for its money. Some may say they are being a bit cocky, but then being ambitious is not a bad thing as long as you can back yourself up. Therefore, we find out if Konami can revolutionise the art of playing football in the virtual world.
After playing PES 2016 for several hours, we couldn’t quite put our finger on the visuals. On one hand, the details of the players are easily one of the best in the business, even better than Fifa, but the crowd and surrounding graphics all look painted and dead. The non-moving fans in the stands and the flat green turf are so dull that they simply kill one’s enthusiasm. But one can’t really write off the game because the players and their jerseys have never before looked so real.
Where the PES 2016 scores high is the dynamic game play. Each player individually has its own strengths and weaknesses. Therefore, a striker might not be very good in tackling like a defender. What really shakes things up is that a player like Carlos Tevez will have a thunderbolt of a power kick while another striker might prefer tapping the ball into the goal post rather than smashing it. Also tricksters like David Silva are a handful to play against while the world’s top two players – Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi – are absolutely unplayable. Again, this is where strategy comes into play. One can go all defensive and tire the opponent out and then in the last 15 minutes substitute players with some pacey counter attacking individuals and go for the kill.
Konami has improved their career mode, Master League, and with the Champions League license, the European fixtures are a lot better as PES doesn’t have the rights for all English Premier League teams. So if you are playing a London derby – Chelsea versus Arsenal – these teams will have some other name like London FC. Many may say how does that matter, but for a football fan, it matters a lot.
PES 2016 is easily the best Konami football game. The game play, the movement of the players and their features are as realistic as one has ever seen. This actually is a great achievement. But apart from the graphics, as a whole, it falls slightly flat on the face, the commentary, especially at the EPL matches, is quite repetitive and boring when compared to Fifa. Also Konami will have to spend more money, if they want the world’s most popular clubs in their game. PES 2016 is a good buy for football fans, but they have to take it with a pinch of salt as your favourite team’s name might have a random name.
