Games with the year in the title are rubbish. That seemed to be the law. Even PES, Konami’s ever-playable football series, fell apart when they decided to put a “2008” after Pro Evolution Soccer instead of a “7”.
It’s something of a joy and a surprise then to find that PES 2011 is a splendid return to form. It provides a fun and unpredictable game of football again, and most crucially, the vastly improved level of control you’re given over passing makes it almost unthinkable that you’d ever go back to playing any of the older versions.
Admittedly 'almost' is an important word. There are a number of ways in which this is worse than some of its nobler predecessors. The most annoyingly broken thing is player selection, which refuses to behave itself even when you switch to “manual”, and that’s closely followed by the erraticism of the keepers and the lack of meaningful training options.
Yet a couple of steps back ultimately don’t overshadow the seven giant strides forward. Rejoice! Online play works, games have a flow and dynamism they’ve lacked for too long, and the new engine truly inspires hope for the future of PES.
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