PES 2011 E3 Trailer Reactions

I was pleasantly surprised by the trailer.

In comparison to last years E3 trailer; this one is light years ahead. What most people wanted to see was gameplay footage, and this trailer contained much more than I was anticipating. Konami have a history of only using game footage in trailers, and this is by far the earliest Konami has shown gameplay of this length and variety. The main focus of the trailer will have been to show off the new freedom of passing and movement. I've spent a while trying to replicate some of the passes in PES 10 without much success.



We first saw the new tussle animations on a PES Tour video and there are a few more examples on show here. They certainly look much nicer, but I really want to know how they work in reality. Will the overriding factor be a player's attributes, or will other factors like speed, body position and balance be taken into consideration to determine who wins the battle. The press release mentions 'allowing players to use their strength attributes to jostle players off the ball' but there has to be a way of balancing it so the 'weaker' players can still win the ball. Really nice diving tackle as well, it might have been a foul but nice to see a player really launch themselves into a tackle instead of meekly sliding along the ground. Even the way the player went down looked better. No stumble backwards, but he fell with a real thud to the ground.

The feints looks nice, might not use all of them when I play but they link together well and should offer players more freedom when beating a defender. After the tricks were switched onto the direction stick, I found it near impossible to pull off anything other than the roulette with any regularity. With the tricks being implemented onto the right stick, it should allow for more expression and easier to use.

There are plenty of other nice little touches in the trailer. I've always liked the celebrations in PES, and this year looks even better. Similar to the teaser trailer released last month, there's a focus on foot planting and the inverse kinematics. The second half of the trailer focuses on the Copa Libertadores. The entrance scene is ridiculously good looking in my books, and it's nice to see the real Ronaldo feature as well.



We've also now seen a first proper look at the drag and drop tactical screen. You can see the return of the hexagon alongside the overall stat which is more than welcome. I was a little sceptical at first when I heard that the formation screen was going to be changed, I mean, why change something that wasn't broken? As more images and information come out, the more open I'm becoming to the change. The timed and situation based strategies are a nice touch, and as long as you're still able to quickly make substitutions and tactical changes, it should be a positive change.

What are your thoughts on this new trailer and batch of screenshots?