Meanwhile, PES' primary competitor - EA Sports FIFA - is delivering two versions of FIFA 21, one for current-gen consoles and another for next-gen ones, this year itself. Weirdly, Konami doesn't refer to it by “eFootball PES” anywhere in the announcement, hinting that it might not be in love with the new name introduced last year. Likely around September or October, as is generally the case for annual sports video games.Įven though PES 2021 is being “pared back”, Konami says it's confident that it will still offer fans enough to “tide them over” until PES 2022 is ready. PES 2022 will undergo testing in mid-2021 and will be released later in 2021. There are “large updates” in the works for both m圜lub and Master League as well, Konami added. We’d recommend waiting a while for these issues to be addressed before jumping in.In its announcement, Konami said that PES 2022 will bring “staggering improvements to all areas of the game”, including more realistic player models and animations, enhanced physics, and photorealistic visuals. From their response to initial player feedback, they seem hard at work to do just that. But before that, there’s a lot to fix for Konami and lots of fans to win back. PES’ staple game modes like m圜lub and Master League are missing here and will probably come later as paid content. So this is more of a demo than anything close to a full game. Like we mentioned, the first launch of eFootball 2022 only features nine club teams and no game modes. It’s a minor detail, but a step in the right direction. It’s also nice to see the game continue without cutscenes when the ball goes into touch or out for a goal kick. The speed of the game seems more realistic now and the emphasis on strategy is welcome. That said, Konami does have a few things going well in the gameplay department. Ball and player physics are also too inconsistent. Collision animations are often buggy and it’s not uncommon to find players unrealistically floating around. Gameplay too is far from perfect and lacks PES’ signature responsiveness. ![]() With Konami planning to launch the game across PC, console and mobile platforms, fans have worried that it could lead to a compromise on all fronts, and that does seem to be the case here. Pre-match cutscenes and stadium visuals look like they’ve been lifted from previous games rather than being rebuilt for eFootball. Animations too are jerky, limited and don’t flow well from one to the next. Instead, the visuals here look dated and the player faces are inconsistent at best. Let’s talk about visuals first and foremost, because Konami promised a generational shift with the move to Unreal. ![]() But goodwill will only take this game so far because it’s clear that eFootball is nowhere near ready for primetime. Where rival EA has stuck with its premium-priced FIFA games every year, Konami is going free-to-play, and in opting for a new engine, has committed to rebuilding from scratch. The one thing we can’t accuse Konami of is playing it safe. ![]() So much so that Konami has publicly apologized and promised to address the issues, of which there are many. The game, launched as a skeletal experience with just nine club teams and only offline and online friendly matches available, has been universally panned. We got our first taste of the future of this franchise when Konami launched eFootball 2022 recently, and to say it needs work would be putting it mildly. PES is gone for good, and the series is now called eFootball. With it, the series was ditching its previous game engine in favour of Unreal Engine, going free-to-play, and eventually, it also changed its name. The developer-publisher of the Pro Evolutions Soccer (PES) series had announced that it would not release a new game in 2020 and would instead focus on a new experience for 2021. Konami isn’t afraid to shake things up with its storied football franchise.
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