Pro Evolution Soccer 2013 (PS3)

PES 2013I have always been a massive pro evo fan, however have been frustrated in recent years with the game play not being as fluid and last years addition was just terrible in respect of the master league having so many cut scene's which ruined the experience. After all we just want to get to the action and play football!!!GAME PLAYThe 2013 edition is a massive step forward in my opinion. The gameplay is back to it's best, with the passing and movement of the players being so slick and intelligent. You basically have full control of all aspects of the team and individual players with loads of amazing and cool skills and tricks which can be pulled of. I have noticed that many reviews have commented on the difficulty of the shooting in PES 2013. I have to agree that when you play the game for the first few times it can be a little frustrating. In previous additions the shooting accuracy was automated, however PES 2013 is designed to give the player full control of all aspects of the game including it's shooting. After playing the game now for a couple of days, I am thoroughly enjoying the new shooting system. It does take practice to get used to it, but once you've mastered it there is no better feeling once the goals start flying in!! It does make the game more challenging which I feel makes the game more rewarding when you win! Not like Fifa when you can pretty much score during every attack... where's the realism or challenge in that????Don't get me wrong PES 2013 is not perfect, but in respect of it's game play and matches it is as perfect as it has been in a long time. And at the end of the day it's the game play experience that is the most important thing.LICENSING ISSUESNow I know that many people buy Fifa because it has all the licensed strips and player names etc. I do find this frustrating about PES, however this can be solved easily by purchasing an option file for a couple of pounds on ebay. Once you have uploaded the files to your PS3, Pro Evo will have all the correct team names, strips, sponsors, competition and stadium names. It just makes the game complete and makes the experience amazing the way it should be. Why spend hundreds of hours editing all these things yourself when you can spend £3 or £4 for someone else to do all the work for you!!! It can take around one hour to copy the files across to your PES, but believe me it's well worth it.MASTER LEAGUEThe format of the master league this year is much improved. As stated above, there is much less cut scene's involved, so you can get to the next match quicker and keeps the flow of the experience going. Konami have integrated the Copa Santander Liberadores (south American version of champions league) as well as the Champions League into the master league this year which is a really nice touch.The format and interface of the master league is really user friendly and the layout is nicely presented with it being easy to understand. Much improved than last year.I love that you get the option to include classic players (which can be turned on or off) which you can sign for your team. I went Juventus and signed Roberto Baggio. There are hundreds to choose from!!IMPROVEMENTS1. In master league I would like to see you given a contract as per your manager roll and given objectives at the start of the season. The higher the quality of club (from rankings the more difficult the objectives will become). The club rankings change depending on how successful or un-successful they perform each season.2. I would like to see other teams offering you a contract in the following circumstances. At the end of season depending on how successful you have been.If you have been sacked due to bankrupting the club, relegation or not meeting certain objectives. In this event a team with a lower ranking may offer you a contract. Or a better team with you have exceeded your teams expectations etc.3. Having the opportunity to change to different clubs through contract offers would give the game and experience a much longer life span for players and would keep it fresh with new challenges and new clubs.4. Each team in master league would have a manager listed in there information. However depending on how well teams do, managers would also change to different clubs (manager transfers, like player transfers) opening the door for a new manager posts or jobs.5. In player transfers / negotiations, I would like to see you have the option to use your team players as a part exchange for a new transfer deal.6. Bring back the option just to play regular league's against com or friends (not talking about master league). Why has this option disappeared?? Now there are only cup competitions you can play and no league's unless selecting master league. You should be given the option to customise your own league / cup competitions for playing com or friends. You should also be given option to include International teams into league and cup competitions as per previous additions of PES.7. Would like to see the option of a 3rd strip for all club teams. Most teams these days have a 3rd strip.8. Improved camera types for watching back goals.9. Option to increase game speed further.10. Improved stadium and crowd graphics /animations11. More crowd chants and singing. (Include flares in certain matches.. ex. Italian league etc) More intense crowd shouting and specific action points during match to add to the excitement. More chanting and noise when goals are scored.12. More licenses as described above.With the release of the PS4 this year I'm sure we will start to see some of these improvements over time. However if Konami were to integrate these improvements with their amazing total control game play we will have the best footie game EVER!!! Like I said the game play is the most important thing but I hope we can have it ALL some day... soon!!!Thanks Konami for a really great and fun game this year. Keep improving and listen to your fans!

I reviewed last years PES and got totally panned for giving an honest opinion, a year on and here goes again. I bought both PES and FIFA 2012 but this year I am sticking with PES in the hope it has been improved, and I have been pleasantly suprised!Graphics - Still lovely smooth animation, perfect player likenesses and excellent little touches to the stadiums like photographers and stadium staff wandering about in the background.Gameplay - All the good things from last year are still there and alot of the bad has been removed. Players come looking for the ball, the AI sets up little triangles allowing flowing one-touch play to beat the defence, players make attacking runs and others move in to fill the space they've left (as good players should do). The shooting feels much more positive than in 2012, more representative of the power bar and shots go in the direction that you want them to...unlike 2012 where the ball would more often than not go totally the wrong way and with all the power of a baby's fart! The introduction of a double tap on X to do a poke tackle is a very welcome addition and once you've got the timing down gives a great sense of control to defending. You feel that if the COM player gets round you it's because you mis-timed the tackle whereas in 2012 it often felt like there was nothing you could do to stop certain players dribbling round the whole team.OTHER GOOD STUFF - The addition of the Brazilian league and including the Copa Libertadores into the master league is a touch of genius, alot of the guff of previous years has been removed eg. the pointless things you could buy from the PES shop like a ball shaped like a sweet and backgrounds from old Konami games for the stadium creater. The number and length of the cut scenes (something I personally hated from 2012) in the master league also seems to have been reduced. Although it may seem irrelevant there is again excellent music in the menu screens that doesn't get repetitive and irritating.Unfortunately now THE BAD - The master league still has cut scenes! Although the number and length has been reduced they still seem pointless and a waste of time and game memory that could have been dedicated to something more useful. The master league also auto-saves now everytime the date on the schedule is advanced, and not a quick save that only takes a couple of seconds but an update to the save game file and the system data which seems to take ages. The kit editing section has all the same elements from last year, this makes creating relatively accurate representations of this seasons kits difficult because all the parts are from kits of about 4 seasons ago.While there are still elements of this game that need to be fixed they seem to be mainly outside of the gameplay. The actual football aspect of PES 2013 is fun, flowing and feels much more like you are in control compared with last years effort. If you can get past the small annoyances of the cut scenes and the lack of licences you will definately enjoy this installment of Pro Evo much more than last year's!

I had PES 2013 on Xbox 360 before it unfortunately broke, but now I have a PS3 and this was the first thing I thought about ordering.I've been playing PES since the PS1 days, and this version of the game is one of the best to have come out in a long while. The animations look great, the game feels more realistic compared to the earlier next gen versions, and overall the gameplay is very solid.Master League mode is very good, it is still quite cutscene heavy, but other than that it's a very enjoyable experience.Become a Legend is probably my favorite mode in the game. It makes you build you player up from a reserve player to a star for the team, and take away all the managerial aspects of the Master League.As always they have the Cup modes, where you can take on the Champions League, Copa Libertadores ect. and this can be good for local mulitplayer or just a short term kick about.The online Mulitplayer has greatly improved. On earlier versions they had some issues with laggy gameplay or server problems that they have mostly sorted out. I haven't played that much online but from what I have played it is very good.Overall I would recommend this over Fifa 13 if you want something different. If you want better gameplay, and offline modes this is your game. If you want a lot of leagues, teams and some better online modes, I'd go for Fifa.