GAME REVIEW: PRO EVOLUTION SOCCER 2018

It's hard to say or write anything about PES or FIFA without comparing them. Rivalry that lasts more than 15 years between KONAMI and EA Sports football games has so far become a matter of folklore in the world of games:

However, here I will try to to highlight only the most obvious differences between these two titles. So - PES 2018. First Impressions?

Not bad. Far from being bad. There are moments and features, you will feel them as soon as you start the first match and you can see, for example, that a player who takes the ball from the center stands lonely at the ball, and that you can control with which controls you add ball to the teammate. When you shoot the first volley or dropkick, you will see a very obvious drop in the ball and a whole new, realistic animation of the goalkeeper. When you are delivering a ball from out, you will have a look from the perspective of the fans in the stands, not the performer, so you will not only see a bunch of player's in front of you, but also the empty space or the one you want the ball to send.

However, when this first impression comes to you, you will realize that the PES does not bring anything inexcusably new. With the third match you play, you will realize that you are in a more challenging version of the PES since last year, with some of the most unfortunate cosmetic changes, as well as with several subtle changes that affect the gamble.

What do we think of here? First of all, the physics of the players has changed considerably - they are now touching (controlling, adding, kicking - but here, too, adding different deductions) with different parts of the body - the inside of the foot, outer, full; then hill, chest, knee, leaves, shoulders, chest, different parts of the head. This results in, in the PES, unprecedented movements of the ball, and I will list only the two most interesting examples: after a shot of some 20 meters, the ball bounced from two-three players, the last on the pipeline - and ended up in a goal . This was a lucky shot, but these situations do not happen too often, which means you will not be able to abuse this. Another situation is, for example, an extraordinary addition of more than 30 meters in an empty space, when the ball only changed halfway the course - as a result of adding to the outside part of the foot.

One new thing is very ambitious, but it does not seem to us that it is too happy to be imputed. In one of the test matches, we played the match Manchester United - Liverpool (which is among several licensed teams - about it later) in which Ibrahimovic was the best possible mood, estimated overall with 90 (Lukaku is 87. Indeed, Konami?). On that match, he easily scored as many as four goals, but - he did not have a successful addition, even a player to himself. You wonder why? Well, it has poor grades to add, but great for shot and finish.

As we continued to play, we noticed a lot of situations where the skill, and not a player's mood is a crucial thing. If your pawn is somewhat slower, no madman will be able to get even faster attackers. If you try to squeeze along the line with, say, James Miller, you better not try. We tried several times that, for example, Humels, which was, as it were, at least feasible in the previous PES games - but that's not even a great ending. The way the player is rated determines the style and the style he plays, so you will not be able to, for example, Kasemir who does not have the best additions to use in a criss-cross system, to illustrate this in a little plastic manner. It works like this with the change KONAMI tried to contribute to the realism of the game, but this is not very well done.

What's really pokes the eyes and what's almost a refusal of buying and playing is a big slumber, not to use a heavy word, when it comes to the menu in and out of the match. The same gray, boring, matte incomprehensible graphics will work this year as if they were designed by the only remaining follower of the works of socialism from Almaty or Tallinn. To do a job - they do, but this story ends here.

One more thing about the visual identity of the game: it's almost as painful as the clubs and the league that appear in the game are not licensed and play in crappy shirts (Chelsea - FC London in yellow strips ?!), at crappy stadiums, in crappy competitions. This may not be a problem if you play a purely competitive game against several players, but if you want to say that you play a full season or the Master League, it irritates you to the extent that we ask ourselves, where is this ship going, KONAMI? We understand that FIFA has emerged as a winner in this war for licenses, but we do not know how exciting it is to play the city derby Atletico Madrid - Madrid White. Yes, the pile of patchwork can surely solve this problem, but this is not the subject of this story.

The audio experience of the game is also unchanged. The soundtrack varies from average to poor, commentators are sometimes heard at the same time with completely illogical sentences and statements ... FIFA and here relates to a convincing victory.

All in all - if you are the type of player who is barely waiting Friday night and invites five friends to a football tournament lasting all night, this game is the perfect choice, because with the company, a little beer and chips you will not see the bad side, and it will show good in full light.