21-Oct-2005 Taking the game onto the next level, PES5 will reward patience with the most accurate digital kick-around yet seen. Stick with it, it's fantastic Ah, the beautiful game. What could be better than an afternoon spent chasing other blokes around a field and getting kicked to bits for your trouble? Why, an afternoon spent chasing other blokes and not getting kicked to bits, from the comfort of your own sofa. There's only one game up to the job, and the latest instalment of the Pro Evolution Soccer series, cleverly subtitled '5', is here to lift your gloom at not being able to play the real thing very well (at least in our case, anyway).
The PES series is the closest thing to real football. Nothing else even comes close. Whereas EA's long-running FIFA series tends to bolt a couple of novelty add-ons to its kit-update before rolling the title forward a digit, each iteration of the Pro Evo series manages to cram in more and more little refinements and neat touches, with each version feeling more thought out and coherent as a result.
GET YOUR KIT IN However, what everyone really wanted to see in Pro Evoltuion Soccer 5 to elevate the game to 'perfect' status hasn't quite materialised, namely proper club and team licences. We'll give Konami their dues - they've certainly had a crack at it. Slowly but surely authentic kit and name deals are being struck. But there are still daft gems like Middlebrook instead of Bolton Wanderers (not Middlesbrough, as you might think) and Ryan Giggs' name still sounds like fish-bits (Gils). Does it really matter? Well, not to us, but it would give Pro Evo's detractors one less thing to complain about. Besides, you can alter the colours and names of your club so they almost perfectly match those of the real world. It's not enough to make up much ground on EA's savvy presentation, but there's even more anorak-ish scope for customization here as a result.
But seriously, who cares when the gameplay will be as good as this. Will be. At first it's a bit of a shock to the system having to readjust the skills you've spent the last year honing to perfection on Pro Evolution Soccer 4, just as it was with every other version before it. More than ever before, patience is key. You can't just peg it down the park and drill one in from the off - you've got to put the time and effort in to develop new patterns of play. A more considered approach will net greater rewards fifth time around, and it's this that might have some hardcore fans throwing their beer at the telly. Once that initial tackle has been skipped over the game opens up and all those hallmark nuances make themselves known. Stevie Gerrard powering through midfield leaving a trail of broken players in his wake? Check. Alan Shearer's elbow 'accidentally' spreading a defender's nose across his face while the ref isn't looking? Check. David Beckham looking increasingly peripheral on the right wing (sorry, anywhere)? Check, that's here too.
Net-bulging is now even more satisfying. Even on the three stars difficulty setting the game is a tricky little devil and sticking one in the back of the net comes after much more challenging passages of play. You'll have to put a lot of time into PES5 to get anyway near the standard of player you were in PES4 - it's been said before but the more you put in the more you get out. In the finest Pro Evo tradition, you'll still be discovering new subtleties a year from now.
BYE BYE, REAL LIFE There are a couple of neat new argy-bargy sequences, typically involving players like young Mr Rooney, and players are at risk of pulling up with injuries at any time, not just after bad tackles. With even more Master League alterations (new levels of player potential and development), new positions (Wing Back and the Scholes-esque Second Striker) and, most exciting of all, PSP connectivity so you can carry on playing Master League on the way to work, Pro Evolution Soccer 5 is another sure-fire winner. Yeah, it's a little less accessible but that just means its many charms stay fresher for longer.
FIFA 2006? You can keep your fancy licences, clever match-intros and shiny presentation. We want to play great football. Without the grass stains. Even more than any game before it, Pro Evolution Soccer 5 lets us do that - and then some.
PSW Staff
// Overview
Verdict
Taking the game onto the next level, PES5 will reward patience with the most accurate digital kick-around yet seen. Stick with it, it's fantastic.
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