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Konami has officially announced PES 2014, confirming that this year’s footy game will launch on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC and PSP later this year.
Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita or Wii U versions have not been announced.
This year’s PES “represents a quantum leap from what football fans have been used to”, Konami says, and is being built using Kojima Productions’ new Fox Engine – the same engine powering Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain.
It also features multiple new gameplay additions and tweaks that have been built “from the ground up” to “rework every element of play, creating a fresh and energetic new standard for football titles”.
New ‘TrueBall Tech’ is said to offer players greater control over the ball, letting players chest down a ball or knock it past a defender using an analogue stick. It also offers players “full 360-degree, two-footed control” over the ball, with advanced methods for shielding it from defenders or controlling it with subtle movements.
“The PES series has long since treated the ball as an individual entity, allowing the player huge amounts of freedom to pass into space, run on to a knocked-on counter, or produced short triangular passes to make space,” says Konami. “TrueBall Tech adds even more freedom, with the player’s movements worked around those of the ball and, unlike any other football title, as opposed to the other way round. Players will be able to truly control the free-moving ball, use its pace or alter its movement to master close control in PES 2014.”
A new ‘Motion Animation Stability System (or M.A.S.S.) also appears to recreate FIFA’s Player Impact Engine, simulating contact between players based on their size, force and direction they’re facing.
Over 100 professional footballers have been recreated for PES 2014’s PlayerID system, too – twice as many as included in PES 2013 – while smaller tweaks, including improved facial animations, enhanced kits and revamped penalties and free kicks are also set to feature.
“Thinking outside the box on an annual series such as PES is not easy,” said creative producer Kei Masuda, “but the Fox Engine has allowed us to develop such a level of freedom that we are constantly realising ways of making PES 2014 a true representation of football.
“From the moment football fans pick up the controller and experiment with the close control, player movement and get to know how teams work and move, we are confident that they will see a game no longer limited by technology, but capable of growing with them and constantly surprising with the breath-taking quality they have to come to expect from the real thing.”
“All the materials we’re releasing are taken from current platforms and fully in-game, which is at about 70% completion,” he added. “We want fans to get a true feeling of the actual product they’ll be playing on the consoles most own this year, not some marketing dream. Our new engine and systems are dedicated to the current generation of platforms, which will continue to be dominant in the market, but are fully scalable for future versions.”
A release date for PES 2014 has yet to be announced. Head through to our PES 2014 screenshot gallery for a first look at this year’s game.
Source: Konami Press Release
