PES 2017 - Impressions

With PES 2017, Konami is introducing a host of new improvements that not only pertains to gameplay, but every other feature that supports the game. From myClub, to the presentation and live updates, to goalkeepers and data sharing, Konami is promising a well-rounded affair. Here’s what we learned with our time with PES 2017.

Adaptive AI

Konami is hoping that Adaptive AI will be a game changer for not just PES, but for football games in general. Adaptive AI is an advanced form of AI that actually learns how the user plays and actively tries to block their strategies or come up with an alternative method to tackle them. “Let’s say you always pass [the ball] to Neymar, the AI will actually cover that,” said Robbye Ron, Community Manager for PES. “It will push you to play differently every single game. And that’s the beauty of football, you know?”

myClub

PES’ myClub has always strived to compete against FIFA’s Ultimate Team. One of the things that myClub was lacking in, and that Konami somewhat admits to, is that agents in PES 2016 would not exactly sign the type of player they claimed they would, making it that more difficult for users to acquire their favorite players in their team. With PES 2017, Konami has taken player feedback into consideration and have made huge improvements to how myClub now works. Firstly, the tutorials have been overhauled to accommodate newbies and veteran players alike and get them oriented with the mechanics of myClub quickly. Secondly, you can now purchase scouts with specific specialties. If you purchase scouts whose specialties matches with the player you desire, you have a much greater chance of signing them on for your team. “It's less locked than we used to do in with PES 2016,” said Ron. “That's something I see people enjoying in PES 2017, trying to find the right scouts to get their preferred player. If you mix it the right way, you have very good chance to have them.”

Live Updates

Adam Bhatti, PES Global Product and Brand Manager, during the press presentation admitted that they did screw up with the team rosters in PES 2016. Konami has been desperately trying to correct the wrong ever since, with even making PES Euro 2016 free for all PES 2016 players. For PES 2017, Konami have committed themselves to a day one update which will refresh the roster right from launch, and will also make the weekly live updates available offline, as well.

Speaking of updates, when probed about new licenses, Ron refrained from commenting, saying that the team is looking at Gamescom to announce such news.

Goal Keepers

One of the most impressive things about PES this year are the goalkeepers. Thanks to their entirely rebuilt animations, goalkeepers now move and defend more realistically. The animations transitions moe smoothly, there are no jerky movements that results in any kind of ‘superman’ saves. Adam Bhatti emphasized how every goal keeper have their own identity, so certain goal keepers will match their real life counterparts, such as Neuer who is offensive and tend to run out. Both of these qualities combine to create this sense of trust in your goalkeepers. So if your opponent scores a goal, you will likely agree that it was a good shot rather than blame it on the poor quality AI of the goalkeeper.

Data Sharing

This might be the biggest, community-driven feature that has been included in PES 2017. In previous games, sharing user created teams and players meant that you would have to list out the exact settings for it to be recreated on another user’s system. This has been ditched for a more streamlined approach. Users can now transfer teams and players between PS4 consoles via USB, and across multiple regions, allowing users from Europe, Asia and US to share data among each other. Knowing the PES community, expect to find classic teams and legendary players available for download pretty soon after launch.

On Including Female Teams

EA surprised many by including female teams in FIFA 16. Does Konami sees value in doing something similar? “Execution is key, so we have to work really careful with what we want to represent and how we are going to do it,” said a spokeswoman from Konami. “Our mantra still relies on making playing against another opponent really fun, so if we kind of get the right formula to execute it [female teams], then we are always experimenting and we really do want to please the fans. So yeah, we would love to think about it.”