The big, tremendous offering in PES 2011 is master league.
Become a legend hasn't been altered much, either, and it continues as a second-class version of EA's Be a Pro mode, which is now in virtually every one of its sports titles. League play is all well and good, allowing you to step into the shoes of a manager of any of the teams and lead them through several seasons. The offered modes are still standard league play, master league and become a legend. The gameplay modes haven't really changed that much.
It captured the feel of the event as well as it could for not being able to license all the teams within the league.
The presentation is spot-on, and the feel is just right. It was absolutely fantastic to take my favorite team (Inter Milan) through the entire league. PES is quite blatant and very, very proud of the UEFA champions league. On the flip side, the game has a couple of big licenses that FIFA doesn't. You might be playing as your favorite club, or perhaps you'll have to settle for awful stand-ins such as the North London Football Club. Finding your favorite team to play is a huge toss-up.
There are certainly more official teams than there have been in the past, with almost full lists of French and Dutch teams, but about half of the Italian teams are missing, none of the national teams feature actual players, a couple of the South American teams are licensed, and only two teams have been licensed from the almighty English Premier league. PES has always struggled to get team licenses, and it's still an issue here. Once you dive into those menus to start a match, things get disappointing really quickly. An easy-to-navigate menu system and a kicking soundtrack set the right mood for a game of football. Once you get past things like that, the presentation improves dramatically.
I don't need the big, ugly text to tell me which roster update is being loaded I just want to know that the game is loading my DLC. When you start up PES 2011 or enter any mode, you'll see some ugly, outdated text menus. For the rest of this review, keep in mind that Konami doesn't have nearly as much money to throw at this title as EA has to throw at FIFA every year. The difference between the games boils down to a single point: budget. There's only really one mode that stands out, and people will argue about which version is better, as FIFA also has a good equivalent. With all of that going for PES 2011, what's wrong with it? Everything that surrounds the game of football cannot hold up to what the competition offers. Players hit hard, ball control is a constant struggle, getting the ball into a good scoring position is a solid challenge, and the feel of the gameplay is pitch-perfect. It's an accomplishment to get solid control of the soccer ball in PES 2011, and that's a pretty big testament to how well it simulates a real game of football. The physics vary depending on the speed and height of the ball, and it just feels real. Players don't snag a pass and instantly have control of it. Each goal that you score is an absolute joy, and goals scored against you are spine-crushingly devastating. PES is significantly more satisfying to play.
PES 11 has absolutely nailed the feel of playing a real game of football, and while FIFA 11 also does a great job, it nails the spectacle. I suppose that's an explanation that may take a little more detail. This year's FIFA and PES offerings are both fantastic titles, but it boils down to this: PES 2011 is a better football game, but FIFA 11 is a better game. I've reviewed both football games this year, so which game would I recommend? The answer is not so simple. Now, any football fan is going to want me to just get right down to the nitty gritty. Thankfully, somewhere along the way, PES woke up to face the music, and PES 2011 is a fantastic product that is in many ways superior to the competition. PES had lost its crown and needed to do something drastically different to regain its glory. I gave up on PES after the 2008 edition and moved on to find that FIFA had become one of the best sports games.
Early Xbox 360 and PS3 efforts for PES were shameful ports of the PS2 versions that looked like PS2 games, were missing features and couldn't hold a stable frame rate. Gamers moved beyond the PS2, but Pro Evolution did not. It was the absolute king of gameplay when it came to soccer, but something happened. I used to adore the Pro Evolution Soccer series.