Pro Evolution Soccer (Franchise)

Pro Evolution Soccer

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Pro Evolution Soccer is a soccer sim developed and published by Konami.

History

Pro Evolution Soccer (also known as the Winning Eleven series) is a football simulation created by Konami. The first Pro Evolution game, released in 2001 for PlayStation and PlayStation 2, game grew out of Konami's previous soccer series International Superstar Soccer. Created as a rival to EA's FIFA Soccer series, PES defined itself as a realistic simulation, paying more attention to the technicalities of the sport than acquiring likeness rights for the players. Pro Evolution has stayed true to the series' name and received annual updates, each version refining the game's many mechanics including tacking, shooting, passing and the game's greatest challenge, the Master League mode. The primary focus of the single player game, the Master League challenges players to take control of a team of unknown and unskilled players, slowly earning points to enter the transfer market and improve the squad. The players age as time goes on, necessitating development and tactical considerations at all levels of play. The series is currently on its eight iteration, Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (Game), due in the fall.

Pro Evolution Soccer VS. FIFA

Graphics

Graphics wise FIFA has a reputation as always being visually superior to PES, with EA focusing on this area heavily between each release while Pro Evolution never really refreshing between installments. Some graphical issues with Pro Evolution games in the past have been some questionable animations and on the latest PES game the player models all seem fairly bulky, meanwhile EA goes from strength to strength both in terms of the players and their movements but also stadiums and cut scenes that add to the polish of the game.

Licensing

FIFA controls the license for the English Premier League which is probably the most sought-after license around considering the games major demographic will be from England and the Premiership is considered one of Europe's top 3 leagues. FIFA also has many teams from Serie A and a complete La Liga license whereas PES offers a couple of licensed Premiership teams, around half of La Liga licensed and the complete Serie A. In PES the unlicensed teams have fake names and poor quality kits that are often completely the wrong color. In PES 2009 Konami have released two patches that add licenses that were not present in the original game such as Atlético Madrid and further patches are expected. However in 2009 PES sealed exclusive rights to the Champions League, Europe's premier club competition that is a large coup for Konami against EA and although the license translates well there is also criticisms that it should be integrated into the online and Master League modes.

FIFA's manager mode shows greater depth than PES's Master League offering both in terms of the transfer dealings, staff upgrades, youth academy and stadium options but also in terms of the competitions available. Criticisms levelled at PES are that there is a lack of a real currency in the Master League and an update is long overdue for the mode.

League systems

Commentary

Commentary has always been historically poor with PES although the lead commentator from PES up until PES 6 Peter Brackley has a strong cult following among fans of the series and other fans. The major English sporting commentators that you see on television in England have ties to FIFA whereas PES has a television pundit and a fairly major commentator although not on par with FIFA's names.

Commentators

Pro Evolution Soccer 2 – Peter Brackley and Trevor Brooking (English)

Pro Evolution Soccer 3 – Peter Brackley and Trevor Brooking (English)

Pro Evolution Soccer 4 – Peter Brackley and Trevor Brooking (English)

Pro Evolution Soccer 5 – Peter Brackley and Trevor Brooking (English)

Pro Evolution Soccer 6 – Peter Brackley and Trevor Brooking (English)

Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 –

The United Kingdom - Jon Champion and Mark Lawrenson

Spain - Julio Maldonado 'Maldini' & Juan Carlos Rivero

France - Christian Jeanpierre and Laurent Paganelli

Italy - Mauro Sandreani & Marco Meccia

Germany - Hansi Küpper & Wolff Fuss

Cover Athletes

Pro Svolution Soccer 3 - Pierluigi Collina

Pro Evolution Soccer 4 - Thierry Henry, Pierluigi Collina and Francesco Totti

Pro evolution soccer 5 - John Terry and Thierry Henry

Pierluigi Collina

Thierry Henry, Pierluigi Collina and Francesco Totti

John Terry and Thierry Henry

Pro Evolution Soccer 6 –

Australia - John Aloisi

France - Thierry Henry and Didier Drogba

Germany - Adriano and Roque Santa Cruz

Italy - Adriano and Luca Toni

Poland - Adriano and Maciej Żurawski

Portugal - Adriano and Deco

Spain - Adriano and Cesc Fàbregas

Sweden - Adriano and Kim Källström

Finland - Adriano and Kim Källström

The United Kingdom UK - Adriano and John Terry

Ireland - Adriano and John Terry

The United States USA - Adriano

Japan - Shunsuke Nakamura and Zico

South Korea Republic - Korea Republic National Football Team

Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 –

Cristiano Ronaldo is included on all PES 2008 covers, below are a list of players that are also included on the cover beside Ronaldo for their respective countries.

The United Kingdom - Michael Owen

France - Didier Drogba

Germany - Jan Schlaudraff

Italy - Gianluigi Buffon

Australia - Lucas Neill

Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 – Lionel Messi has been confirmed as the cover star for PES 2009 which also displays Champions League brandings to display the newly acquired license

Lionel Messi

Unofficial Patches

Fans of the series often make "option files" which modify all player names into those of their real life counterparts, as well as including transfers from the latest transfer window and, occasionally, altered stats of more obscure players whose in-game attributes do not precisely replicate their real life skills. These are distributed via the internet in digital format, then transferred to the PlayStation 2 memory card using hardware such as the Max Drive. More experienced gamers often use "patches", editing the actual game code and modifying the graphical content to include accurate kits for unlicensed teams, new stadiums, and footballs from Nike, Inc., Puma, Umbro and Mitre, as well as more Adidas balls. Most patches also contain licensed referee kits from FIFA and the official logos of the various European leagues. Since these patches are technically a breach of copyright, and are often sold illegally in territories in the Middle East and Asia, Konami have become less tolerant of this kind of fan editing in recent years, and now encrypt the data pertaining to kits and player statistics in each new release. However, fan communities invariably find ways to crack this encryption, and patches still appear once this has been achieved.

Legal Threats

Konami have not taken steps to prevent translation patches, which convert the game text from Japanese to English (or any other language). Thus, it is still easy for gamers outside Japan to purchase the game and patch it into their own language, provided they have a modified PlayStation 2-capable of playing backup copies.

Games

International Superstar Soccer 64 (Game)

1 June 1997

Platforms/Nintendo 64

ISS Pro Evolution (Game)

6 June 2000

Platforms/PlayStation

ISS Pro Evolution 2 (Game)

24 August 2000

Platforms/PlayStation

Pro Evolution Soccer (Game)

15 March 2001