PES 2011 announced, detailed

By Tom Bramwell Published 4 May, 2010

Master League Online, new anims, more.

Konami has announced that PES 2011 will be released for PC, PS2, PS3, PSP, Wii and Xbox 360 this autumn and promised "the most radical revamp in its history".

Yeah yeah, they always say that, but to be fair the press release is packed with things that sound like substantive changes to the developer's approach.

For a start, the game has all-new animations - over 1000 of them - developed from over 100 hours of motion capture.

It also sounds harder and more simulation-orientated than its immediate predecessors, which had started to drift into the FIFA series' slipstream.

Plus Konami is introducing Master League Online, changing team management options, and has come up with a new commentary recording process.

The difficulty has been increased, and you won't be able to rely on the AI of team-mates as much as before - passes will not automatically go to the nearest player, and you will need to react manually to threats.

New AI routines mean defenders will hold their shape better, and it will be harder to break them down thanks to tougher dribbling and close control. Konami suggested clever runs and passing triangles would be very important.

Individual players will have their own power bar to define exact strength and placement of passes and shots. They will also have shot and stamina meters to measure levels of fitness, and by the sound of it performance will drop off more than ever if you simply tape down the sprint button.

The pace of the game has been rethought, with Konami promising a "more considered pace of play, which varies dependent on situations", coming to life on the counter-attack, for example.

On the control front, it should be closer to 360 degrees of movement and distribution than ever. "Balls can now be spread absolutely anywhere with utter precision," said the press release, "with long balls into space, short passes to feet and intricate one-twos allowing the player to dictate play and control the tempo of a match."

It will also be possible to re-map your favourite feints and turns to specific controls, rather than having to learn a complicated language of tricks to call upon in the heat of the moment.

On the team management front, there will be some sort of drag-and-drop mechanism for looking after your charges across squad management and elsewhere.

There isn't much more detail about Master League Online beyond it being the Master League mode with an online element: Konami said it will have "players bidding against each other for the world's best players, and attempting to build a squad that can compete with the best against online peers all over the globe".

"We've continued to work closely with the fans to pinpoint what it is about football that PES didn't do," European PES Team Leader Jon Murphy said. "Total freedom was the priority and all-new animation a must."

Other details include reworked refs and goalies (visually and otherwise), Lionel Messi on the cover and motion blur during replays. Ace.

Check out the announcement trailer below and look out for more on the game very soon...

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About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000. Follow him on Twitter.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (37) Latest comment 1 year ago

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  • Bertie Verified Senior Staff Writer, Eurogamer.net #1 2 years ago

    Great trailer. Scoff.

  • Bealsy #2 2 years ago

    master league online? sold.

  • coderkind #3 2 years ago

    Here's a hint Konami; take the PS2 engine...you know, the one that was quick and fun to play, and make the graphics better. That's the very first step you should take, not revamp the engine for next-gen consoles which ruins a lot of what made the game so great on the PS2 in the first place.

    Konami will have to come begging at my door crying for forgiveness, for me to bite this year.

    >:-(

  • Markitron #4 2 years ago

    Love PES but the new animations are a must. The running animation hasnt changed since the PS2 era
    Edited by Markitron at 04/05/10 @ 13:12

  • superdelphinus #5 2 years ago

    i always get excited when they make these press statements and the game turns out to be some arcadey rubbish. hope they pull something out of the bag this time though. ps call it something less gay than master league ffs

  • Beano #6 2 years ago

    Will this version finally feature real-time weapon change and giant crabs?

  • TonyHarrison #7 2 years ago

    Depending on what it actually is, the online Master League could be the thing that finally gets me to play the online mode of a game for more than a couple of hours. Nothing else has grabbed me.

  • Stu #8 2 years ago

    "Heart beat" (in the trailer) is one word

    /pedantry

  • Skire #9 2 years ago

    Wow this sounds really good. But then again, I fell for their PR talk with PES 2010, which was utter crap.
    Hopefully they'll hire a good team for the netcode, because that's the main problem in my opinion.

  • Zebula77 #10 2 years ago

    PES is my series, so this sounds great. Still playing PES 2010 with a mate and loving that, but no doubt the game needs a serious update. I like the idea of mapping your own controls for dribbles and such. Great idea. I also like having more control over the weight of passes, which frankly is hit'n miss as it stands.

    Online ML? Sounds like something I'll try for a bit, then go back to single player ML - that's definitely the meat and bones of the game.

    Also loving the sound of new animations which, as stated above here, hasn't been changed much from the PS2 versions.

    All in all - very optimistic about this. :D

  • coderkind #11 2 years ago

    @EarlBassett; really? I've played PES6 and 2008 recently on the PS2 but can't comment on PES5 as I can't remember too well, but the last PES on 360 still didn't play as well as those PS2 versions.

  • DarthKebab #12 2 years ago

    PES2009 an HD version on PES5? I bloody wish! none of them have come close since!

  • Skire #13 2 years ago

    I thought that PES 2009 was the best "next-gen" PES. The controls felt really crisp. PES 2010 feels really sluggish and unresponsive.

  • DarthKebab #14 2 years ago

    @Skire, it was the horrific animations that took you out of the game though in 2009/10

  • ERG1008 #15 2 years ago

    PES2010 had some great moments, very good presentation during the game (the replays, cut-scenes, player likenesses were miles better than Fifa) but it got spoiled by the team you were playing turning into Brazil 1970 & keeping the ball for 20 minutes without you getting a touch, regardless of who they were.
    2010 was on the right lines but still a long way to go.

  • Shadzter #16 2 years ago

    They're still supporting the PS2 then? Cool :p No DS version? :o

  • Sniper_007 #17 2 years ago

    All I want is full co-op support in Master League with achievements... it is so frustrating to play a game for hours with a mate only to realise none of the games were counting towards your achievements!!

    I never play football games without a friend (almost always co-op Master League, with the occasional competitive match thrown in) so it's unfortunate that the last few sports game releases (not just PES) have treated co-op gamers as cheats and not allowed achievements.

  • Rodchenko #18 2 years ago

    Sounds like a dream footy game in the making. Only problem is: we've heard it all before – year in year out...

  • Fab4 #19 2 years ago

    I just wish these games could come up with a better method for distinguishing skill. Just because you are a famous poncy dribbler from Portugal, or a rich Shrek look-a-like from Liverpool, doesnt mean to say you can automatically out-run a fast defender just because they play in a lower division. I'm fed up of people just playing to the game advantages rather than actually trying to play something with a resemblance to football.

  • Feanor #20 2 years ago

    Volleys were too hard in PES 4. PES 6 was the best.

  • Markitron #21 2 years ago

    Lol, Refs are always total bastards

  • Jay-ITFC #22 2 years ago

    The announcement of a new PES game used to go straight to the top of my most wanted list. Now it just gets a "meh". Such a shame...

  • Zebula77 #23 2 years ago

    @Sniper_007: I so agree with that statement. A mate and I have played maybe five or six seasons of the ML, and they don't even show up in the statistics. Also very annoying how you have to assign the second controller to your team EVERY single game. You get used to it, but still...

    Another thing I like is how they're saying the game will be more difficult. Right now, Top Player is a breeze, and we're not even using top-name players (even tho most players we use have an average of 80+).

  • andywilkie35 #24 2 years ago

    This will have to be stunning to make me come back from FIFA. 2010 was my first FIFA since ISS Pro Evolution came out on the PSOne and I'm glad I switched after three years of dire PES games.

  • Mosphaiti #25 2 years ago

    i was a massive pes fan, owned every single one since iss, but its just shit now, and with fifa becoming more like pes in terms of speed, i dont think ill go back

  • SpaceMonkey77 #26 2 years ago

    I want PES to raise its game just as much as the next guy. Thing is first, Konami need to sit down and play FIFA 2010, to see what makes it tick. Its a very japanese trait to not study the competitions work closely enough, and as a result they pridefully fumble in the dark to find their way.

    If they can do this and come back with a better product, I'd invest in it.

  • doulema #27 2 years ago

    I have kind of given up on PES and them being capable of actual change. It;s not just that but I do find it hard for them to be able now to improve it as much as needed and successfully enough to take back their throne in football games from Fifa. Wish them luck, but still.

  • LionheartDJH #28 2 years ago

    Definitely looking forward to this. Thought 08 and 09 (especially 09) were way below par but PES 2010 I feel was a step in the right direction (I understand the online is still a big problem for some people, and it needs to be fixed, but I don't really play online so it doesn't cause me any hassle) and it sounds like they're really going for it with the changes this year so hopefully it'll be great.

  • Spike183 #29 2 years ago

    Online Master League, sweet!

  • thepiedpiper #30 2 years ago

    if PES paid for the official licence that would be a good start. i know it's seems like a minor detail but it makes a difference!

  • old_skool #31 2 years ago

    I'm an old PES player, I started playing PES when it was known as Goalstorm. Last year I did the unthinkable. I bought FIFA 2010, my fist FIFA since FIFA99 Road to the World Cup (not counting FIFA2009 on the PSP), took me a while to get used to it, but it's better than PES IMHO. I played PES2010 about a month ago against a friend who's a diehard PES fan and I realised then just how much PES hasn't changed. I could still pick up the game and play it and beat him. I simply hate how arcadey PES is.
    FIFA is not perfect, the referees flippin give you yellow cards for mundane challenges, but right now it is a better representation of football in a simulation context than PES.

    Konami really has to come up with something special if it wants to beat FIFA and make me want to buy a PES game again.
    Edited by old_skool at 04/05/10 @ 18:52

  • sfp_noodle #32 2 years ago

    Fifa 99 was the last Fifa game I played before converting. PES was amazing. It dominated during the PS1 and PS2 era. Fifa just could not touch it. After PES5, they released PES6 which felt more like a patch than a full new game to me. It took everything that made PES5 good and removed everything that made it bad (niggly referees). PES 08 was a complete mess of a game. I felt like they forgot to put half of the game in when I hardly had any editing options at my disposal. Not only that, but the game was a bug ridden mess. It played like a wrestler on steroids with big players like Rooney and Ronaldo literally being able to run though players and score gauranteed goals. No other other PES game ever had gauranteed scoring methods.

    Not only that, but it was far too fast and just frustrating to play. PES games have never had the licensing but always had the gameplay. That's what kept the hardcore choosing it over Fifa. Even the editing became a feature of the game itself. Now Fifa has the gameplay and the licenses. It even has decent editing options. Fifa 09 was the first time in a decade I picked up a Fifa game. In all honesty, it would have come earlier but I stuck with reviews that were praising PES 08 based on history rather than the game itself. Never again though. PES now just feels like the first love that treated you badly and forced you on to another one. One that understands you, listens to you, and treats you right. Thats what Fifa has become.

    I'll always have a soft spot for PES, but I can never see myself returning. The team at Konami just doesn't seem to have anything innovative up its sleeve. With sales being so mediocre since the current gen began, I can see PES becoming a dead series within the next few years.

  • curtlikesmeat #33 2 years ago

    The grass is greener on the other side I think - I've bought Fifa every year for the last four and 10 was a real turd for people who like to play manager mode. I downloaded the PES10 demo and I really enjoyed it. I really want someone to capture the atmosphere of the Saturday afternoon match - Rotheram vs. Acrington Stanley or something like that. I want crap teams to boot it up and down the pitch, I want Brazil to be Brazil, I want dirty players sything down other players, I want Mourinho running down the touchline. I'll come back in 2035.

  • LazyNinjaUk #34 2 years ago

    That trailer might as well have been for PES2010 or Fifa 98, what with all the pointless sentences that made no reference to how the game will handle.

    "The game of football attracts fans" Really!? - Thanks for pointing that out.
    "Freedom to express is the heart beat" - Are you talking about football or sculpting?

    "The difficulty has been increased, and you won't be able to rely on the AI of team-mates as much as before - passes will not automatically go to the nearest player" - It doesn't do that in 2010, you're lucky if you can even kick it in the right bloody direction as your team mate.

    In short: Tone up keeper AI, Take out the unescapable player to ball lock on, make through balls actually work, go back to the old formation/stats setup from circa PES 2010 backwards and change the fucking penalty camera, in fact completely improve penalty taking all together as it sucks, sucks HAAAAAARD.

  • chiz #35 2 years ago

    More empty promises by Konami. Year after year we hear the same crap coming from their PR dept saying that "we listen to the fans". No you don't Konami, that's why your game is so piss poor now.

    This will be the first year I've not bought PES. I bought it last year and managed about 5 games before going back to Fifa. They've seriously blown it.

  • che_don_john #36 2 years ago

    EarlBassett 04/05/10 @ 13:20

    @ coderkind

    Pro Evo 2009 was basically Pro Evo 5 with Hi-Def graphics.
    So they've tried that before and it didn't work out.

    --------------------------------------------------------------------------

    PES 2009 was nothing like PES5! In fact, there has not been a game in the whole series that was as far removed from the pinnacle of PES5/6.

    coderkind is right - Konami need to go pack to the PS2 series, specifically PES6, to remind themselevs of what made the series great. In short, it was striking that balance between simulation and excitement. Too much realism and random elements makes a game boring and frustrating (a la FIFA 10). Too much engineering of fun creates an arcade game. You need a bit of both.

  • kungfubanda #37 1 year ago

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