How am I supposed to review a game when I’ve had no prior experience with the sport it centres around? It is for this reason I’ve chosen to review PES 2013 from the lens of a complete amateur. So the thought of reviewing a soccer game when I’ve had zero experience with soccer was a daunting one. I am a complete and utter newbie when it comes to soccer and soccer games. After all, most people you ask will choose to be the striker 99% of the time because scoring goals is the main thrill I get from playing these types of games. Maybe it’s just not fair to compare PES 2013 to FIFA but given the average cost of buying a game these days I would have to say that FIFA just beats out PES 2013 on the basis of the smoothness of gameplay and goal-shooting capacity. The game offers some new variations such as earning nicknames, special items to enhance players and obtaining new boots to boost player attributes. You are basically told to aim for the net without any apparent option to put spin or curl on the ball.
I didn’t feel that there was enough complexity (or instruction given) on how to take free kicks. I have to admit that I have always found it somewhat tricky to use all of the special moves while immersed in the hustle and bustle of gameplay. PES 2013 offers a lot of special moves such as “pass support” (you can choose the degree to which the ball tracks and homes onto the player receiving the ball) and deft touching (not in the rude way!). I didn’t like that once your player is tackled with the ball then the computer automatically switches to another player who may be a fair distance away from the opponent with the ball, even when the tackled player could have recovered and tried to win the ball back. Was it Torres or the game? Once I got the hang of scoring it then became quite addictive. Ironically, I was playing with Torres when I experienced shooting wide a number of times when I was one on one with the keeper. Compared to the FIFA games I have played in the past the shooting in PES 2013 seemed to be almost simultaneously clunky and over-sensitive and made playing the game less enjoyable as when I got one-on-one with the keeper it would shoot wide. I had to move the difficulty level down to Amateur to get a handle on goal shooting. PES 2013 offers a variety of games modes, including playing in the Champion’s League (it’s main drawcard) and the Copa Libertadores (best of the Latin clubs) as well as Football Life (equivalent to FIFA’s manager mode). I finally worked out how to exchange team members at half-time. Maybe I am just having a dumbed down week but I found it extremely hard to simply set up my team prior to a game – every time I selected a player the CPU would ask me if I wanted to “use as comparison” when all I wanted to do was to put out my top line-up. FIFA must have the rights to use the team name of Chelsea so it was somewhat disconcerting playing with “London FC”. The teams were up to date with the most recent transfers. While there are enough teams in PES13 to satisfy the average user the range of teams could be significantly improved, though the variety of teams seems to improve when playing in Football Life mode. And I have to say that I am definitely not going to be converting to PES 2013 over FIFA any time soon. Playing PES 2013 was like comparing The Beatles vs Elvis or the styles of Lionel Messi (who happens to grace the cover of FIFA 13) and Cristiano Ronaldo (who is the sole play on the cover of PES 13). Okay, so let’s be upfront and say that I have always been a FIFA fan personally. Is PES 2013 able to appeal to both? Take a look at both reviews below. By asking both to share their thoughts, we’re hoping to canvas two very different outlooks – a review from someone familiar with soccer and soccer games, and a review from a total beginner. Sacha is a soccer fan and enjoys playing soccer games, whilst Tash is a complete newbie when it comes to all things soccer. We’ve asked two people with very different past experiences with soccer games to provide their thoughts.
We’ve decided to tackle our review of PES 2013 in a different way to usual – this review is a two-in-one.