Query

OK, after a fairly successful trail last year, here’s your chance to ask any questions about PES 2009. We’ll put the best questions here providing we can answer them, so before you post asking ‘When is it coming out?’ or any other stupid questions, please check this first. Cheers!

UPDATE 11/09: Following more announcements, here is some more updated info!

Q: When is PES 2009 coming out?
A: October 17th 2008 on PS3, Xbox 360 and PC DVD. PS2 and PSP will be follow at a date to be confirmed and the Wii version will be released in Spring 2009.

Q: I take it that it’s only coming out on ps3/X-box360/PC
A: Not at all. There will be Xbox 360, PLAYSTATION3, PS2, PC, Nintendo Wii and PSP versions as well as one for your mobile.

Q: Has Master League been improved or is it exactly the same as last year?
A: Yes, it has been improved. The menus are now more intuitive and the negotiations are now done on a two-tier basis. You negotiate on a team level and also on a personal level to make things much easier to use. Also, player loyalty is a lot more important. If a player is unhappy with the terms etc. they will not play as well. A happy player will play better.

Q: This might sound like a daft question but are all the nets the same just as they were in PES 2008?
A: No, they are different. We think they are much more satisfying this time, really stretch out when the ball hits. They have a much more ‘European’ feel to them now.

Q: Does the crowd still look like the people are made of cardboard or will it be more alive and realistic during the games?
A: In order to get a fully fledged working crowd would use up so much processing power of any machine, that it would render the gameplay virtually redundant, so it’s a case of weighing up what it more important. The crowd isn’t as one dimensional as previous games and you can see them rise when something happens in a replay for example, so there are improvements yes.

Q: Have the keepers been fixed? They, along with the game speed, ruined the game last time.
A: Yes, from what we have seen and also the comments we have read from those who know PES inside out, all agree that the goalkeepers are a lot better this year. They are much better and guiding the ball to safety or putting it out of play rather than parrying it back into the middle of the goal.

Q: Has the defensive AI actually been improved, so we don’t have a repeat of last year’s, ‘central defender’s parting like the red sea’, and letting the striker have a clear run at goal.
A: Again, much like the goalkeeper answer, from our own play and those of the PES experts, the situation seems to be more in favour of the defender. Also, in previous versions, once you passed the ball onto another player it automatically switched to the player receiving the ball even in a manual setting. Now the game has a true manual setting you will have to switch meaning you’ll have greater control over your teammates. Add to this the better AI for defenders plus increased difficulty when dribbling and you have a much more evenly balanced feel to defending.

Q: Has the game speed been slowed down this year? Last year’s speed was in all honesty, atrocious. If it is the same, or even close this time around, I don’t see myself playing the game.
A: Yes it has – this was one of the most requested bits of feedback we got from last year’s title and this one has been compared to the speed of PES 5, which seems to be the version preferred by a lot of PES fans.