Pro Evolution Soccer

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 PSOne and PS2, game grew out of Konami's previous soccer series International Superstar Soccer. Created as a rival to EAs Fifa Soccer series, Pro Evo defined itself as a realistic simulation, paying more attention to the technicalities of the sport than aquiring likeness rights for the players. Pro Evolution has stayed true to the series' name and recieved 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 2008, 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 focussing 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.

Licences

FIFA controls the license for the Barclays Premier League which is probably the most saught 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 colour. In PES 2009 Konami have released two patches that add licenses that were not present in the original game such as Atletico 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.  

League systems

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 availible. 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.

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 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 evolution soccer 3 - Pierluigi Collina
Pro evolution soccer 4 - Thierry Henry, Pierluigi Collina and Francesco Totti
Pro evolution soccer 5 - 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

 
 
 
 
 

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 PS2 capable of playing backup copies.