Is konami intentionally destroying my love for Pro Evo Soccer?

Looking back I remember a time when I used to play Fifa on my sega mega drive then came a time when my life was turned around. I bought myself a Nintendo 64 and got ISS 64 . Now that was just something out of this world. That was a game made by real soccer fans for real soccer fans. You could play through all the tournaments with your friends, you could set the tactics as the game progressed such as man marking. You had total control of the ball , when you crossed the ball you had the ability to curve it and pinpoint your passes, The through-pass worked, it was a master piece. I swore that I would never go back to Fifa ever again. Then came the Gamecube era, I got myself ISS 2 or something don't even remember the game (I still have it somewhere at home) but that was just terrible. They had taken away the team play , It was now a single player experience including all the other control issues.

I then got a wii bought the first edition of PES 2008 then bought the next version PES 2009 under the false pretence that it actually had proper multiplayer, the new controls seemed like a new break through but again it was a single player experience. What I mean by single player is the fact that soccer has and will always be a team sport, so I find it so hard when Konami decided that they will make the league type tournaments single player you cannot play at all with your friends. The only change that was made with the 2009 version was playing together in the single matches but not through the campaigns. The Defence system is absolutely terrible, the has been many times where a opposition player would just run from the center of the pitch all the way to my goal area and score, and let's not talk about when you try and send a defender who is in front of that oncoming player to man mark, so many times you find them not going directly to the player but they would do some stupid stuff such as waiting for him to pass then following him or just running a different direction and opening space for him, this can be so frustrating when you have worked so hard for a lead only for it to be lost by stupid AI. You can no longer assign strategic man marking but now use the point and click method.

The worst is when you are on a break and find that you pass to a player and want to make a controlled run, they have abandoned the analog control as you are not able to control you run speed using the stick sensitivity, you are now left to point your run making it so uncontrolled, this just kills you counter attack pace. The has been times when I needed to cross a ball over to another player and then it would just kick the ball on the ground instead of into the air giving the ball away. Look some of the stuff such as installing facilities at your camp adds to the game but they have totally lost the basics which made the game so great. Why would anyone add multiplayer in single matches and exclude it from the tournament, this is the basis for soccer - TEAM PLAY.

Has PES become just a management game that is full of A.I that takes away control from us players, AT times it does not feel like I am really playing PES but rather just sort of managing it and depending so much on the A.I.

I am now deciding to go back to fifa because at least I can play the tournaments with my friends. Just wonder if I am maybe the only one who feels like this or have I been left behind by the new A.I dependant gaming. I wish I could get this message through to the developers at Konami, what happened to "Made by real soccer fans for real soccer fans"

I'm a real soccer fan, and I LOVE PES 2008 and 2009. The team play issue doesn't really bother me though. Since moving to America I don't really have many friends who want to play soccer games, but it's not like there's no local multiplayer... Also if you look at newer games as a whole - multiplayer gaming is moving online (just look at the Conduit). I'm not saying I agree, but that's the way things seem to be going.

Pinpoint passing? You literally point and the ball goes there.. what more do you want?! The through ball is effective more than ever as you can pass up wherever you want to whoever you want through any gap you see. PES has the most effective passing of any soccer game. Passing on the ground vs air you can control yourself if you change the passing mode too.

As for AI driven... every soccer game is - there's 11 people to control! At least in PES you can move all the players around as fast as you can move your remote. Sure the AI isn't perfect, but it never will be. The defence has much improved since 2008.

The PES series on Wii is amazing, and if you're a real soccer fan, you shouldn't be missing out.

Question Though why is it that co-op/multi-player is included on the single matches but not the other tournament . I grew up playing soccer and I must say I miss the whole part of playing with someone and that part of team play. How do we now turn a game that is team play at the core and just switch that functionality off. It seems as if we are now turning our focus more on coaching. The one thing I found is that if I play Pes on the lower difficulties is a breeze and not much of a challenge so if it happens that for some odd reason I pont my defender to suppress an oncoming attacker they just dont directly go there. it is like the game decides when it finds it suitable to close down the player.If that happens on the lower difficulty is always easy to score another 5 goals.

You litterally have to drag you defender to that attacker and hope that it follows your instructions even if you press the Z button. Has that never happened to you ? But when you playing on the hardest difficulty and a stricker manages to go from the center of the pitch right up to goal post and the defender AI only kicks in once the stricker has past him even though you have pointed at the attacker. That can be so fustrating espeacially when you fought so had for that lead only to have the defensive AI not function. I dont mind getting a goal scrored against me but not when the seems to be a malfunction with the defensive system.

have you not had a time when you are on a counter of fast break then you pass to one of your strickers up field and have him caught between two defenders and then you have to now drag dribble(Use the pointer) him to get in the box and when you use your analog stick he just walks stops running. Precision is always key in those moves and using a pointer to move a player is not suiatble for those situations.

I remember in ISS 98 you used the analog stick to control the pace and direction of the player so it was perfect when it came to getting into scoring positions when you where in tight corners. Overhead kicks where always guranteed in ISS 98 , its not like in PES wii where even though you set your passing on the various manual options. it does some random thing like passing the ball on the floor. What about the tactics is a watered down system. You now use 1 or 2 to change your tactical approach. what happend to having tactics for counter attacks,central attacks, wing attacks, zone press and assigning it to your c buttons so that you can change your tactics during the game. What happend to being able to cross that perfect weighted cross, that used to depend on the lenght of time you would press the button and the direction and spin applied, it does not work so well now.

Look I "love" PES but I just feel that there are certain aspects of it that need to be reworked. I see that in the Fifa 2010 they now let you custom make your plays so if you want your team to react in a certain way now I cant wait to see that....I hope konami brings that aspect of play into the next version....

Defensive controls in 08 weren't great, but they were passable, and in 09 they are really quite good. I don't seem to experience the defensive problems that you're talking about. It sounds like maybe you're being too passive on defense and not man marking players off the ball as well as on the ball. There are occasonal AI faults, but they're not overly prevalent in my experience. Be sure you're not confusing AI faults with a character who simply has low skills in the area in question.

I've never played multiplayer in the tournament modes, so I can't really comment except to say that no soccer sim has really focused on the human teammate experience. At best you could have 4 local human players, leaving 18 total AI players on the pitch. Better than nothing I suppose, but hardly the 'team' experience that actual soccer provides. Since you're controlling an entire team rather than one individual, it's only natural that the game focuses on more of a coaching aspect than an experience with individual player characters. An online soccer sim, where 1 human player could fill every position on the field would be amazing, and it's something I wish for in the future, but I can hardly fault PES 09 for something no developer has yet accomplished, and may not even be practical with todays tech.

PES 08 was the best soccer sim I've ever played, and 09 improved on that. I can't ask for much more from Konami except to stay on the current track!