Product Description

Konami has announced that Liverpool FC and Spanish international striker Fernando Torres is to join Lionel Messi as the cover stars of PES 2010!

Torres, 25, has enjoyed an incredibly successful season both at club and international level, and will now join UEFA Champions League winner Messi on the front of PES 2010's packaging. Pro Evolution Soccer 2010 Game

• Enhanced Realism: PES 2010 delivers a pace of game in tune with football played at the highest level. Triangulation of passes and use of off-the-ball runs are key to breaking down the opposition, forcing the player to use the strengths of their team mates to create scoring opportunities. Gone are 'soft' goals that can be used to break the deadlock - instead, only working the channels and the precision play expected of great players will make a difference.
• Player Characteristics: Key skills of the many players have now been attributed named, allowing users to incorporate them into their play strategy. Cover star Torres, for instance, is renowned for his ability to receive a pass in the penalty area, and to drop the ball to a teammate in a good position for a goal-scoring opportunity. As such, he is labeled a "Fox In The Box" and "Goal Poacher", in line with his prowess in both scoring and setting up goals.
• Instant Tactical Switching: Each team has unique settings matching their real-life playing styles. Torres at Liverpool, for instance, will recreate the Merseyside club's sophisticated play and high numbers in attack, their pressing from midfield, strong defensive line, and width across the pitch. For the offense, the default settings support wide attacks and the aim to move in the back of the opponent's defense line. The user can summon the bar instantly during a match to adjust team tactics to enhance their defence or strengthen attacks.
• Master League: The Master League now incorporates

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #673 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Konami
• Released on: 2009-10-23
• ESRB Rating: Everyone
• Platforms: Windows Vista, Windows XP
• Format: DVD-ROM
• Dimensions: .22 pounds

Customer Reviews

Not perfect, but still the best football game on the PC. 5 Stars pending community patches
Konami are trying, I'll give them that. The company acknowledged that 2008/09 were both sub-par for the series and attempted to rectify some of their past mistakes. I'll try to mention Fifa as little as possible in this review, as its PC version is so poor that it doesn't merit consideration.

Good:

The game has an immediacy of control that is lacking in other football games. The players feel solid and responsive to button presses.

The ball physics are weighty and crisp. The passing may not have the subtle nuances that a more sophisticated system can produce, but it is compelling in its snappiness.

Player likenesses are unmatched. For some reason, they just have a great deal of character. Whether this is via the animation styles or simply the accuracy of the stats they are given, I don't know. What I do know is that it is easy to tell who a player is by his movement. Players do not become "units" when viewed from a long camera angle.

The Master League is the most compelling and damnably addictive singleplayer experience around. Want a league with the top clubs from all around the world? Easy. You can transform a team of unknowns (in this edition, I think the lucky club will be Aberdeen!) with first touches like rubber jackhammers and shooting accuracy worthy of the stormtrooper academy into a squad of cultured football aesthetes via the RPG-like player development and canny transfers. Granted, it isn't realistic, but there isn't a football campaign with more depth and fun.

There are some interesting additions to the Master League this year: real money, youth academies, board expectations, sponsorship, coaching. These all have an impact on the way the league is played, though the core of the experience remains familiar.

Mediocre things about PES:

Licensing - this is in the mediocre section because community made option files will be released in coming months to correctly label every player and team within the game. It will be a non-issue by January, I expect. Still, the game comes largely unlicensed as it ships, and this may upset some people.

Konami added a lot of licensed music that I either dislike or am apathetic towards. I judge this to be a matter of taste, so this point is entirely subjective.

Bad:

It remains obvious that the game is built on an animation engine created before the Iraq War began. Konami always promise to deliver an all new engine, and again they fail. The "next gen" consoles are no longer cutting edge tech, yet PES doesn't exploit their horsepower. Gorgeous textures will never hide the crudeness of the player movements. It is even worse when one considers how much faster a decent PC is than the consoles.

The commentary is the same.
Goalkeeper AI is still an outrage.

System requirements and my PC:

It runs at a good clip on my old, but still serviceable PC:
4200 AM2 X2 @ 2.8ghz
2gb RAM
HD4850 with 512 RAM
Windows XP

I had an opportunity to try the demo on a PC with integrated graphics and it still ran smoothly, so the final version should run fine on systems with integrated graphics like the 780G mobos.

Overall: This is the football game to get if you are a PC gamer. The story might be different on consoles, but I can't comment on that. This is a solid offering from Konami, much improved from the previous version, yet it isn't the return of the King, not quite yet.

On PC, Pro Evolution Soccer is still the game to beat
I can't comment on how PES 2010 compares to 2008 or 2009 because the last football game I bought was PES6, but it is certainly an advance over PES6 (and the demo that Konami released last month, which suffered from most of the same glitches). First of all, the difficulty settings are more balanced. In earlier PES games I always found there to be a massive gap between Amateur and Regular (2 and 3 stars), with teleporting defenders being a regular issue at 3-5 stars, but in PES 2010 the increase in difficulty is pretty uniform between the categories. On the other hand, the higher difficulties are easier than their earlier PES counterparts- so maybe the more "seasoned" PES players may find matches against the computer too easy.

The graphics are vastly improved, and the presentation is also much better, if not quite up to FIFA levels. There is also a better sense of being in control than in earlier PES games. Gone are the teleporting defenders and the magical barriers that used to surround the goalkeeper and throw-in takers. The range of football moves has increased, and the greater control over penalties is a very welcome step- in earlier PES games it was near-impossible to miss a penalty, whereas here, you need to show some element of skill to execute a penalty effectively. Crowd noises are realistic, if a little muted.

The edit mode is more user-friendly than in PES6 and also includes the option to import player faces and emblems from your hard drive. There is also a wider range of tactical options that players can explore in tailoring teams to their needs.

The main downsides, preventing the product from getting 5 stars, are the poor commentary (nowhere near as good as the FIFA commentary) and the fact that the product doesn't contain many official licenses (and therefore real team names, kits and badges) out of the box. But in a couple of months' time there will no doubt be plenty of fan releases to address the latter problem. Regarding DRM, PES 2010 requires Games for Windows to play online, but no online activation is required to install or to play offline, so nothing unreasonable there. The only potential problem is the usual DVD copy protection which might cause issues on some PCs.

Many reviewers say FIFA Soccer 10 is the best football game on the market- and on the XBox and Playstation that may well be true. But not on PC.

Don't judge the game on the Demo!!
Don't decide not to buy this game after to playing the demo. The other guy who reviewed saying the demo was an old code of the game was right. The full game with the final version is much more improved when it comes to animation and a smoother more realistic football game. The graphics are brilliant playing at 1920x1080 you couldn't ask for more realistic faces and hair compared to FIFA console it destroys it in that department. Konami have almost nailed it, Its the best Pro Evolution game yet but does need work on the players animation. The players almost feel like bricks they need to loosen up a little bit stop making them fell like robots. And the commentary tho improved still not very good and the crowd are just awful.

Konami are on the right track to fight back at FIFA (console) if they fix those little things i mentioned they will be a serious contender. Definitely worth a buy for any football fan or just a Fan of Pro Evolution.

Graphics 5/5
Gameplay 5/5
Sound 2/5