PES 2009 is the latest in Konami's famed franchise, and stays true to its roots: no-frills, responsive footy action that's a great party game. It doesn't have to do much to convince long time veterans to shell out for this year's iteration, but newcomers will think twice about giving this a go.
The gameplay engine is pretty much the same, save a few adjustments. Gameplay seems to focus more on measured passing as the ball seems heavier this time round. Stats such as body balance, strength, a player's weight, noticeably factor in when players jostle for the ball in 50-50 situations. As such, lightweight players get muscled off the ball, which is a nice touch. However all this does little to make it break away from its predecessors, as most matches I've experienced usually devolve into launching well-practiced routines of chipped through passes in search of a goal.
The game handles dead ball situations in more or less the same manner, although penalties now seem to have a higher chance of missing. This adds the element of luck so often associated with spot kicks. The free kick system is still challenging to master, although that old exploit of firing low crosses still works. It's frustrating to lose a game to that sort of goal, and disappointing that Konami has yet to remedy this. Another gripe is that the game's offside detection is still suspect, as shots that bounce off players are sometimes perceived as passes. The game also fails to properly implement the advantage rule, slowing down the pace of games.
Getting online involves trawling through pages of agreements, and once I actually did play a few rounds it was somewhat disappointing. The latency issues from last year are improved, but only make it barely playable.
This year's biggest innovation is the Become a Legend mode, which falls flat on a few fronts. You take control of a created player while he rises from the amateur leagues to breaking into the first team of a big club, and then taking on the biggest stages, but it's hardly a compelling game mode. There is a bizarre disconnect between what you do and how your team responds to these efforts. A decent 17 goal MVP season with Real Madrid got my striker shipped off to West Ham the following year. The online version is a slight improvement, but discovering that I could only play with 3 friends and against a CPU was a downer.
The commentary from John Champion and Mark Lawrenson is just as annoying. Lawro's obsession with midfielders that score goals borders on the disturbing, and I definitely missed those days when that frenetic Japanese commentary ("SHOOTO!") was available. The menu music is once again uninspired and generic, although I'm just nitpicking here.
PES 2009 does make some concerted efforts to bring the series forward, but Konami has some work cut out for them (which is an understatement, considering the dire need of a graphics and game engine overhaul) in developing next year's proceedings. It's the PES that we all know and love, but it probably won't convince FIFA fans to jump the fence.