Pro Evo 2009 Hands On - Is PES back on form?

by Andrew Jeffery - 2008/10/08 11:06am

After last years slight dip in form in the well respected Pro Evolution series, Seabass and his team are back with this years installment with thankfully a large amount of improvements which is just as well with Fifa improving by leaps and bounds each year. Now starting with last years PES 2008 which to be frank was full of bugs and suffered from slowdown on many occasions which lead to frustration for the PES faithful. The first bit of good news is that the slowdown is non existent in 2009 along with that many of the bugs have been ironed out making it already what 2008 should have been to begin with.

However there is much much more than that. To being with the first thing you will notice is the right analogue stick now has a use. When you have the ball you can use right analogue sticks to perform quick pass's in any direction and control how much power it has, this makes it a lot easier to play the through balls you want and not having to rely on the triangle button. This new control method really does help take PES to the next of its already high level.

The core gameplay has also been refined and feels alot more solid, and after spending some time on PES 2009 i also came away with the impression that you have more control over the goalkeepers actions which is always a good thing.

Pro Evo is back on form and judging on what I have played so far will keep PES fans very happy.

Tommy: Meh. I think they've just fixed the slowdown. Most of the stuff was in the previus PES2008. The right analog stick was the trick stick and as Div said the manual pass has been in PES for years and years. It's FIFA for me this year. For the first time since 1998.

DivDee: Right stick always had a use, and use spell check dude. "To being with the first thing you will notice is the right analogue stick now has a use." Manual pass has always been there aswell.