14 DAY TRIAL // The development team at Konami is announcing that it is aiming to deliver the dedicated UEFA Euro 2016 downloadable content for those who play Pro Evolution Soccer 2016 on March 24 on the PlayStation 4, the Xbox One, the PC and older home consoles.
Gamers who have one of the Sony devices will also be able to get a standalone version of the same content on April 21 both at retail and digitally, with dedicated features associated with the coming event also set to arrive for PES Club Manager and PES Collection on mobile devices.
The official announcement explains that the UEFA Euro 2016 DLC will include 15 teams with fully licensed players and equipment: for England, France, Wales, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Ukraine, Czech Republic, Croatia, Slovakia, Iceland, Turkey, Albania, and Northern Ireland.
The Player and Team ID systems in PES 2016 will also be used to make sure that each of the nations in the game retain their play styles from the real world, and that individual superstars will have the ability to decide a match with their unique skills.
The other nine nations that will be part of the competition will have a generic presentation, and the development team says that it is tweaking the entire look of the game to reflect the way UEFA Euro 2016 is shown to fans on television.
Unfortunately, just one new stadium is added to PES 2016, the Stade de France, which will be a major disappointment for those who are looking for some extra realism from their football simulation.
According to Konami, "The official PES League will be running online competitions across the duration of the tournament while a series of special myClub promotions are also planned. Running alongside the tournament, KONAMI will release a series of special myClub incentives, including new Euro Special Agents that allow key players that are performing well at the tournament to be recruited for use within the myClub feature."
PES 2016 offers a thinking man’s take on football
The UEFA Euro 2016 downloadable content feels limited, especially because the developers are unable to secure official licenses for all the included teams and are not offering a full array of stadiums for gamers to play in.
This feels like a missed opportunity given that the simulation from Konami that arrived in late 2015 offers a very solid set of mechanics and certainly gives main rival FIFA 16 a run for its money.
Players who are looking to reliably get victories in PES 2016 need to carefully evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of their players and decide on a solid tactical system before jumping into matches with both patience and a look for the opportunities that they can explore to score.
UEFA Euro 2016 will start on June 10 in France and will feature a total of 50 matches featuring some of the best players in the world.
So far Konami has not announced any details about the mechanics that will power the next installment in the series.