PES 2009 demo on Thursday Comments by Tom Bramwell

@TheMoonRat - "Shame the PC version isn't next gen still. Well done EA on losing a sale"

Errr, have you actually played the demo? Is your PC up to it? It actually scales very well in my experience and is in a different world to last years "effort".

Oh and "next gen" became "current gen" around 2 years ago, please stop using it!

Tomski;

That's not what I meant. PES still only has 8-way aiming. You cannot aim your shot perfectly into the corner of the goal, you can aim your shot in the vague direction of the goal and the computer will dictate where it goes. The whole thing is very heavily assisted. FIFA has full analogue control and the option to disable all assists so every ball goes to the degree you're pointing at, and it's much more rewarding.

Looking forward to this very much. I've heard people compare it to PES 5, which is good news indeed.
Played the FIFA demo earlier and it was definitely the best FIFA game to date, and parts of the game actually felt like PES and that's really the best compliment I can give a FIFA game.
The short passes were still pretty unresponsive and not particularily intuitive, which annoyed me to no end. But all in all a good game. I see 7/10 and 8/10 scores popping up and that seems fair to me.

However, I'm confident PES 09 will be this year's all-round best footie game. The gameplay has always felt better and more responsive to me (yes, even in the much-flawed 08 version) and I feel if they fix the online and the frame-rate issues of the PS3 version, this will be the best thing ever.

The King of footie games is back. Just wait and see.

@ tomski 182

"The one thing I appreciate in PES is that if you can think it, you can do it. FIFA doesn't offer the same freedom"

Erm u sure lol? try Fifa on manual you can do the same if not more things with the ball, crossing is a fine example on pro its on a set path but with fifa its different everytime you cross a ball, if anything its pes thats needs more freedom. I agree with zomoniac that trick was used on every ps2 version and was fine for its time, but its next gen time now and nothing has changed.

The demo for Pro Evo was odd. It just didn't feel quite right this time round. I'm a big fan of using through balls a lot, and encouraging more free-flowing football, and I just found that the AI player movements were far better in the FIFA demo. Pro Evo has lost it this year; I've been a hardcore Pro Evo fan and defended it to the hilt on numerous occasions, but another year of minimal improvements and shallow presentation will no doubt be enough for me to buy FIFA this year.

Kudos to EA; as much as I dislike them, they've raised their game with FIFA this year. Pro Evo, as it is now, is only for the stupidly hardcore, who, with rose-tinted spectacles, reminisce about greater times and fool themselves into believing that Pro is the ultimate football game. It is far from it, even in terms of gameplay.

i been playing konami's football games since the snes iss etc,tbh i won a uk competition @ it. EA cant get most gaming decisions right, and the football game they create is for children or people who really havent got a clue about football im afraid to say. iss/pes are/were far from perfect but imo as far as football goes they eat fifa alive,yes pes2008 lags offline on pc if your system isnt up to scratch, ignore the min specs, get a computer that can handle it,the online lag was only because the servers were based in asia isnt it?konami really got 2008 wrong, the pc versions of 4-5-6 were fine online, 4 didnt have it built in, but being able to type on the keyboard a comment when playing,or chat to all users in a room(UK)(French) wotever was fine y take that out!!?!?,because of consoles id guess. if you use 3rd party software to play against someone on pes2008 whos based in the same country the lag is hardly noticable as it should be, but it still seems to me that an incredible amount of bandwidth is needed to play smooth. i will not buy this version straight away and see wot others say.

some questions reguarding fifa, can u control the keeper? i mean against cpu or online, can i choose the goalie like a player, come out, tackle /dive , jocky? . can u now kick the ball where u want it to go, not where the computer wants it to go?, is after touch still automatic? just interested tia.

Those slating PES for it's bugs - FIFA's been going far longer and look at the various editions that have never improved - and TWO versions with no changes every major tournament year no less. How can anyone enjoy this years FIFA demo? There is no flow or ambition in the game. And the caricature graphics are unconvincing - as usual.
I shall stick with the footballers GAMEPLAY game and leave the licenses for those who care. Roll on option files.

Hornets nest. Stirred.. .. ..?!