14 DAY TRIAL // Pro Evolution Soccer 2015 is facing an uphill struggle if it hopes to match the rival FIFA 14 series from EA Sports in terms of popularity among football fans, but the development team at Konami is confident that a return to the classic experience of the franchise is the best way to achieve that goal.
Adam Bhatt, who is the brand manager for the series in the European Union, tells CVG that “In PES 2014 the goals were all similar... you knew when you couldn't score from somewhere. Then there was the actual one-on-one between players; PES used to be all about using the left stick - not a second ‘trick’ stick. That's something we used to frown upon.”
He believes that the best PES experience was offered by the sixth title in the series, which allowed gamers ways to control the player and responded faster than last year’s installment, which means that new types of relations had time to develop between the various players present on the pitch.
The new game is designed to give players more ways to express their own play style and to try out new moves and tactics rather than always stick to a well-known tactical setup that guarantees goals.
It seems that the team at Konami is not even bothered by the fact that some licenses might be missing from Pro Evolution Soccer 2015, because the core gameplay is seen as more important than the presentation of the right to use certain names and competitions.
Bhatt adds, “When PES was good there weren't any licenses - it was Man Red vs. Man Blue - but the gameplay was amazing and you'd tell your mates about it. That's what we want to recapture and get people believing in us again.”
Konami claims that it is using the features of the new Fox Engine to make stadiums more attractive to play on and to better reflect the way real-world players tend to react to typical situations during a match.
Pro Evolution Soccer 2015 will be launched on the PC, the PlayStation 4 from Sony, the Xbox One from Microsoft, and current-gen consoles at some point in the fall of this year.
The game will have to face tough competition from FIFA 15, which will use an enhanced version of the Ignite engine, will arrive on the same platforms and will feature smarter players and more spectacular matches.