Wednesday, June 1, 2011

KONAMI shows PES 2012 improvements











Konami Digital Entertainment GMbH today revealed the first in-game images from its forthcoming PES 2012 title, showcasing the newly-implemented movements and animations the new game enjoys.
The new screens show a variety of situations from within PES 2012 that have been bolstered by new animations, visual enhancements and control elements. The Tokyo-based team has worked hard to ensure PES 2012 is a more fluid and playable experience, with the jostling system used in last year’s game now enhanced to offer proper bodily contact and physical reactions, while close control and the team AI has been reworked to provide a more realistic recreation of real football.
As such, PES 2012 gives the player total control, with dribbling now refined, while passing and build-up play are enhanced by AI that ensures teammates will make dummy runs and support the player with the ball.
PES 2012 will be released later in the year.

So it would appear that Konami are keen to emphasise that PES2012 will indeed see improvements in the animations department along with enhanced collisions which was always going to be welcome, especially if it is all going to add up to a more fluid gameplay experience. It is also encouraging to read that dribbling will be more refined (along with close control) because for as much as the dribbling mechanics were excellent in theory and certainly a strength of PES2011, the execution was just a little off in it’s consistency and responsiveness. Close control was lacking especially in first touch and taking down airborne passes so if these areas were to see improvement they would make a pretty big difference by themselves.

As for the screens themselves, they don’t give too much away but they do hint at a couple of things. First of all and probably most striking is the screen showing Sneijder appear to take a hit from De Rossi. Note the enhanced level of detail in Sneijder’s face which shows him emoting after the collision, right down to neck vein and muscle detail to go along with the contorted expression on his face. A small detail and certainly not one we will be seeing from a playing angle but a nice touch nonetheless. It is of course hard to read too much into a still image when trying to arrive at a conclusion regards fluidity and variety in animation but in the Sneijder/De Rossi screen it certainly looks like player interaction will be improved in terms of offering visual feedback to the player.
Moving on to the Spain/England screen, we have what is very much a familiar PES pre-release asset but it does look to show some potential improvements regards lighting in night time matches which any PES player will opine was quite possibly PES2011′s achilles heel in terms of the visuals. Kit detail and how it sits on the player models looks a bit more natural too, though Capdevilla does look as though he has piled on a few pounds. Player models generally look a touch better (more athletic?) and while these screens might not show vast improvement in appearances, they do display a little more in the way of smoothness of texture though whether this is a result of a touch up or added filter for the screens themselves is anybody’s guess for the moment. Still, it is good to see that we are getting some screenshots that show night time lighting straight from the off.

Finally, we have the Robinho close up. This one has proved to be a favourite for us at WENB as while it doesn’t give anything away at all regards gameplay, it does clearly show that PES still has a great eye for small details in kit design (numbering/lettering on Cassano’s shirt) and the way Robinho is emoting also worthy of note. Again we see the little details in neck muscle and facial muscle detail but we also get a glimpse of further detail in the form of sweat forming on the Brazilian superstars brow and forehead. Also, does it not also look as though the crowd might be more varied? Hard to tell again if this is a result of the asset having undergone some touching up but it could be that pitchside ambience and detail might see some further improvement.
So from starting the month of May not really any the wiser as to what would be happening with PES2012 we find ourselves ending the month having had two releases of announcements and assets. Hopefully this form continues for the remainder of PES2012′s pre-release cycle and you just now WENB will be there to cover it every step of the way! Stay tuned.
**UPDATE** Along with our own screens magnificent Marv and the rest of the team at Prorevo have higher resolution versions of the screens HERE

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