Wake up, everyone! With PES 2013, Konami has finally pulled off the excellent game its been threatening to release for the last couple of years. On the scale of dramatic football comebacks its not quite up there with That Night in Barcelona (© Clive Tyldesley) or The Miracle of Istanbul, but it surely comes close.
The first thing you notice is what you dont notice. Players are much less likely to ignore the ball as it glides past them within easy reach than they were in PES 2011 and 2012, and somebodys finally introduced the ball to Sir Isaac Newton, so it no longer behaves as though its weaving through a cluster of dancing singularities, subject to random stabs of acceleration. At a basic level, its as though all the dangling threads of unfinished programming have been knitted together into something approximating the actual sport.
This years instalment gives you a much more responsive, consistent and productive range of basic controls, too. Passes along the ground are fast and accurate, there are driven and floated aerial passes, and a good first touch is down to a timely stab of the right trigger, injecting a bit of skill into receiving the ball.
You can do much more with the ball, too, and Konami has slowed the game down to emphasise this. You can put your foot on it and perform quick and easy little rollovers to keep control in tight spaces, you can flick it up and distribute it or knock it over a defenders head if hes right behind you, and you can experiment with fully manual passes and shots. A new controlled shot and driven Knuckle shot gives you more attacking options as well.
