PES 2018 Demo Impression

How do I change formations in the demo?
Can't seem to find anything beyond simple player swaps


Edit: Nevermind, just found out on Reddit that you can't, Demo deleted 🤢
 
No PS4 Pro support in the demo (not for 1080p screens anyway, don't know about 4k TVs).
Game looks kinda rough, like there's a sharpness filter...
 
SunhiLegend said:
aZu5ezZ.gif
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Great, as always. I'm in tears.
 
Well hopefully the demo isn't representative of what the final version will be..saying that I had a couple of 0-0's in the demo..but that's probably because I am not on a super-pro level with the game...
 
Certainly feels better than 2017 to me, which I loved. Dribbling is more responsive and the CPU feels more like a natural balanced opponent rather than a rigid footballmaster17 robot.

Very happy.
 
Finally got round to trying this earlier today, actually felt alright to play which is nice. Through balls are way, way too OP but I haven't tried the highest difficulties yet which ought to fix it.

Anyone else tried it on Xbox because I need to know if there is something wrong with my eyes or if it really does look like absolute shit? Cutscenes all look great, both pre-game and in-game but gameplay on a zoomed out camera does not look like a current gen game at all.
 
Other than the AI defenders sometimes making silly errors, I LOVE the game. Cannot wait.

Hopefully it's actually decent on PC. I know they said it was, but they said the same shit last year, even to my face.
 
Played a few games and it seems fun. Scoring goals feels very satisfying, as does pulling off some tiki-taka. Trying to learn all the buttons though while unlearning FIFA at the same time. I feel like I'll enjoy it more once I get to grips with the controls more.
 
Savantcore said:
Played a few games and it seems fun. Scoring goals feels very satisfying, as does pulling off some tiki-taka. Trying to learn all the buttons though while unlearning FIFA at the same time. I feel like I'll enjoy it more once I get to grips with the controls more.
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Just change the control type to type 2
 
Lashley said:
Just change the control type to type 2
Click to expand...

It's still not quite the same (no driven through balls from what I can tell, and it's still double tap X to tackle). If I end up buying PES instead of FIFA this year I figure I might as well learn the 'proper' controls anyway.
 
Been playing this over the past few days and have been impressed by it so far. Minor tweaks to the foul system and crosses then it should be perfect imo.
 
Fakeknowledge said:
Certainly feels better than 2017 to me, which I loved. Dribbling is more responsive and the CPU feels more like a natural balanced opponent rather than a rigid footballmaster17 robot.

Very happy.
Click to expand...

it seems like best footy game ever made... so many new ways to score, different goals that look really great.

I am sure some fine tuning is going be done, as usual, but it is really fun to play.

Also looks a lot cleaner than before, really good... at least on my PS4 Pro, not sure if there is any difference between it and PS4.
 
The beta was much better as the overall pace of the game was slower and the player had weight, passing assistance 1 had more freedom aswell. The demo has been sped up and now passing assistance 1 is way too accurate.

This is the first time I've felt such a change between two codes. Konami don't need to chase the casual crowd as most of them will buy FIFA.

The fouls in the game are few and far between, when there should be at least an average of 6 per game, rather than 1 or 2. You still won't get a penalty against the AI either which is ridiculous.
 
I havent tried it yet but my friend played a bunch and even in the highest difficulty he noted:

-he could not get a red card, no matter what he tried
-CPU defense in the box was really, really dumb, not marking or covering spaces for passes that end in goals

What are the odds these issues are caused on purpose to make the demo easier?
 
Malcolm9 said:
The beta was much better as the overall pace of the game was slower and the player had weight, passing assistance 1 had more freedom aswell. The demo has been sped up and now passing assistance 1 is way too accurate.

This is the first time I've felt such a change between two codes. Konami don't need to chase the casual crowd as most of them will buy FIFA.

The fouls in the game are few and far between, when there should be at least an average of 6 per game, rather than 1 or 2. You still won't get a penalty against the AI either which is ridiculous.
Click to expand...

Thing is...They didn't change anything in the code between the beta and the demo. They were submitted for release at the exact same time. You're obviously tricked by the fact that Beta was online and demo is offline.
 
I was rather sceptical after the beta and now playing the demo for a couple of matches I'm still in awe what a huge step back this game is. I don't want to sound too negative, but the list of complaints is bigger than it was when the series had the transition from PS2 to HD.

The most obvious and gamebreaking thing right now is the CPU.
Last years retail version was already weak when it came to AI, even after patches, but in this demo the opponent on superstar is no challenge even with the weakest squad against the strongest. There is more open space on the pitch than in an 6th divison game, giving you a lot of time to plan and fool the CPU which is fun for 3 games, but gets terribly disappointing when you notice that there is no challenge once you figured out how to exploit that AI. There is no change in tactics, no reaction to the players playstyle. This one dimensional AI that only follows one pattern was actually reserved for FIFA... That all with standard controls. No need to learn and use manual passes.

Keeper AI is also terrible. There is no balance or realistic goalie behavior. Yes, this has been a problem for years but what's worse in this demo is that there is no middleground. The goalie either saves the most precise attempts with superhuman speed or struggles to save a "pass".

Another point is the referee...
No red cards, even if you break the opponents legs in front of him, normal tackles that are clearly a foul remain unnoticed by the ref, sliding tackles might get a yellow card with a probability of 1:10k. This might sound like a minor complaint but it makes a match totally unauthentic.

Those incredibly bad animations...
Maybe I'm spoiled by Uncharted but the way players move looks off. The motions look terrible like there are 22 puppets on the pitch. Players have no weight or inertia when they accelerate or move in tight space. When you look closer the game even "puts" the players in position by force to make a contact with the ball, leading to missing or skipping animations where the player slides on rails. Terrible! Those hilarious facial animations when players sing the anthem...

There is no physics engine for clothes, weather and body. The latter missing kills any authenticity of what makes football so great. Tackles are just scripted events and there is no way to use body mass or weight into them. Messi winning every header against the best defenders because there are no body physics is pure comedy. This is only anecdotal but the kit and especially the shorts look so bad. Like a huge plastic skirt that has been frozen.

The mechanics...
Crosses. Every cross gets to the teammates, there is no skill or vision required to build up a decent attacking play. It's so arcady that I can't get any satisfaction because I never think that my skill or understanding of the game led to a goal. Same goes for shooting. Volleys are missiles from every position. They get deflected sometimes but mostly fly at 150 mph with perfect accuracy on the goal. Reminds me of Nintendo World Cup...

Visuals and sound are disappointing. Terrible Aliasing (PS4 Pro), level of detail is set to zero, the camera feels stiff and always sticks too much on the left or right side of the pitch, making it difficult to see what happens in defence when you use long balls to outplay midfield. The sound is such a huge letdown. With 120k people in Camp Nou this sounds like a Sunday evening kick of some 16 year olds. Tried speakers and headphones, the crowd is not existing, the atmosphere suffers considerably.

The only positive thing in this demo are the set pieces, but that is all..

PES was my favourite football series for nearly two decades and while I was able to live with it faults, because the core gameplay was fun enough to overshadow the negatives, this demo of PES2018 is literally the worst football game I have played in years. I don't know if Konami can patch such fundamental things into the final game but I highly doubt it. This will be the first PES I skip...
 
Sweep14 said:
Thing is...They didn't change anything in the code between the beta and the demo. They were submitted for release at the exact same time. You're obviously tricked by the fact that Beta was online and demo is offline.
Click to expand...

I'm not tricked by anything, I think most involved with the beta are reporting the same thing, it's not some placebo effect.

The keepers parry out constantly in the demo leading to cheap tap ins, this wasn't the case in the beta either.
 
I'll qualify my comments by saying I've played around 8 seasons of master league (playing every game) on the last 4 PES games, and I've been playing the series since since the N64 version. I've also played every FIFA pretty extensively since 1998.

Jack cw said:
I was rather sceptical after the beta and now playing the demo for a couple of matches I'm still in awe what a huge step back this game is. I don't want to sound too negative, but the list of complaints is bigger than it was when the series had the transition from PS2 to HD.

The most obvious and gamebreaking thing right now is the CPU.
Last years retail version was already weak when it came to AI, even after patches, but in this demo the opponent on superstar is no challenge even with the weakest squad against the strongest. There is more open space on the pitch than in an 6th divison game, giving you a lot of time to plan and fool the CPU which is fun for 3 games, but gets terribly disappointing when you notice that there is no challenge once you figured out how to exploit that AI. There is no change in tactics, no reaction to the players playstyle. This one dimensional AI that only follows one pattern was actually reserved for FIFA... That all with standard controls. No need to learn and use manual passes.

Keeper AI is also terrible. There is no balance or realistic goalie behavior. Yes, this has been a problem for years but what's worse in this demo is that there is no middleground. The goalie either saves the most precise attempts with superhuman speed or struggles to save a "pass".

I agree for the most part, although have seen plenty of middle ground saves personally. The thing that frustrates me is that keepers rarely (if ever) come off their line to close you down. Meaning that it's pretty rare that you'll ever get to take it around the keeper


Another point is the referee...
No red cards, even if you break the opponents legs in front of him, normal tackles that are clearly a foul remain unnoticed by the ref, sliding tackles might get a yellow card with a probability of 1:10k. This might sound like a minor complaint but it makes a match totally unauthentic.

Yep, the referee is pretty bad. You can get away with some shocking tackles, and by the same token you rarely get many free-kicks. The system they had on PES a few years where you would get fouls given when you had had a shot, but the CPU had slid in and caught you was great.


Those incredibly bad animations...
Maybe I'm spoiled by Uncharted but the way players move looks off. The motions look terrible like there are 22 puppets on the pitch. Players have no weight or inertia when they accelerate or move in tight space. When you look closer the game even "puts" the players in position by force to make a contact with the ball, leading to missing or skipping animations where the player slides on rails. Terrible! Those hilarious facial animations when players sing the anthem...

Gotta disagree here, the animations when it comes to movement, shooting, passing and tackling are miles ahead of FIFA's floaty, skatey unrealistic animations. It's to do with how the ball physics behave, as the ball on PES actually feels like it has weight. Same with skill moves, running full pelt at someone with the ball and performing a step over is still so incredibly satisfying. The physics and movement are the highlight of the series for me.


There is no physics engine for clothes, weather and body. The latter missing kills any authenticity of what makes football so great. Tackles are just scripted events and there is no way to use body mass or weight into them. Messi winning every header against the best defenders because there are no body physics is pure comedy. This is only anecdotal but the kit and especially the shorts look so bad. Like a huge plastic skirt that has been frozen.

I'm unsure what game you are playing to be honest, I don't get really any of the above.



The mechanics...
Crosses. Every cross gets to the teammates, there is no skill or vision required to build up a decent attacking play. It's so arcady that I can't get any satisfaction because I never think that my skill or understanding of the game led to a goal. Same goes for shooting. Volleys are missiles from every position. They get deflected sometimes but mostly fly at 150 mph with perfect accuracy on the goal. Reminds me of Nintendo World Cup...

The crosses are a bit overpowered for sure, however again I disagree that 'every cross gets to the teammates'. That simply isn't true. I played a game last night as Germany against Brazil and spent 90 mins crossing it in to Muller who barely got a sniff.


Visuals and sound are disappointing. Terrible Aliasing (PS4 Pro), level of detail is set to zero, the camera feels stiff and always sticks too much on the left or right side of the pitch, making it difficult to see what happens in defence when you use long balls to outplay midfield. The sound is such a huge letdown. With 120k people in Camp Nou this sounds like a Sunday evening kick of some 16 year olds. Tried speakers and headphones, the crowd is not existing, the atmosphere suffers considerably.

The pitch textures are miles better this year than the last few. But yep, I agree the game is lightyears behind FIFA.


The only positive thing in this demo are the set pieces, but that is all..

PES was my favourite football series for nearly two decades and while I was able to live with it faults, because the core gameplay was fun enough to overshadow the negatives, this demo of PES2018 is literally the worst football game I have played in years. I don't know if Konami can patch such fundamental things into the final game but I highly doubt it. This will be the first PES I skip...
Click to expand...

Opinion are like noses eh! :)

PES isn't perfect of course, but for pure 'fun' it still is the football game to beat. Sure I'll play FIFA for the graphics and authenticity but for long sessions against the CPU PES will always be the one for me. I love me some Master League.
 
Jack cw said:
I was rather sceptical after the beta and now playing the demo for a couple of matches I'm still in awe what a huge step back this game is. I don't want to sound too negative, but the list of complaints is bigger than it was when the series had the transition from PS2 to HD.

The most obvious and gamebreaking thing right now is the CPU.
Last years retail version was already weak when it came to AI, even after patches, but in this demo the opponent on superstar is no challenge even with the weakest squad against the strongest. There is more open space on the pitch than in an 6th divison game, giving you a lot of time to plan and fool the CPU which is fun for 3 games, but gets terribly disappointing when you notice that there is no challenge once you figured out how to exploit that AI. There is no change in tactics, no reaction to the players playstyle. This one dimensional AI that only follows one pattern was actually reserved for FIFA... That all with standard controls. No need to learn and use manual passes.

Keeper AI is also terrible. There is no balance or realistic goalie behavior. Yes, this has been a problem for years but what's worse in this demo is that there is no middleground. The goalie either saves the most precise attempts with superhuman speed or struggles to save a "pass".

Another point is the referee...
No red cards, even if you break the opponents legs in front of him, normal tackles that are clearly a foul remain unnoticed by the ref, sliding tackles might get a yellow card with a probability of 1:10k. This might sound like a minor complaint but it makes a match totally unauthentic.

Those incredibly bad animations...
Maybe I'm spoiled by Uncharted but the way players move looks off. The motions look terrible like there are 22 puppets on the pitch. Players have no weight or inertia when they accelerate or move in tight space. When you look closer the game even "puts" the players in position by force to make a contact with the ball, leading to missing or skipping animations where the player slides on rails. Terrible! Those hilarious facial animations when players sing the anthem...

There is no physics engine for clothes, weather and body. The latter missing kills any authenticity of what makes football so great. Tackles are just scripted events and there is no way to use body mass or weight into them. Messi winning every header against the best defenders because there are no body physics is pure comedy. This is only anecdotal but the kit and especially the shorts look so bad. Like a huge plastic skirt that has been frozen.

The mechanics...
Crosses. Every cross gets to the teammates, there is no skill or vision required to build up a decent attacking play. It's so arcady that I can't get any satisfaction because I never think that my skill or understanding of the game led to a goal. Same goes for shooting. Volleys are missiles from every position. They get deflected sometimes but mostly fly at 150 mph with perfect accuracy on the goal. Reminds me of Nintendo World Cup...

Visuals and sound are disappointing. Terrible Aliasing (PS4 Pro), level of detail is set to zero, the camera feels stiff and always sticks too much on the left or right side of the pitch, making it difficult to see what happens in defence when you use long balls to outplay midfield. The sound is such a huge letdown. With 120k people in Camp Nou this sounds like a Sunday evening kick of some 16 year olds. Tried speakers and headphones, the crowd is not existing, the atmosphere suffers considerably.

The only positive thing in this demo are the set pieces, but that is all..

PES was my favourite football series for nearly two decades and while I was able to live with it faults, because the core gameplay was fun enough to overshadow the negatives, this demo of PES2018 is literally the worst football game I have played in years. I don't know if Konami can patch such fundamental things into the final game but I highly doubt it. This will be the first PES I skip...
Click to expand...

Very good post. These are more or less my feelings as well... especially the bolded. Played more of it over the weekend trying really hard to like it but came away feeling more frustrated.

I don't have faith in the creators anymore. I wish they'd hand the mantle over to someone else for a fresh approach -- it's seriously been way too many years of underachievement and disappointment. Just feels like a cycle of never-ending hope right now and I'm really really bored of it... Wenger out.
 
CosmicRomancer said:
Very good post. These are more or less my feelings as well... especially the bolded. Played more of it over the weekend trying really hard to like it but came away feeling more frustrated.

I don't have faith in the creators anymore. I wish they'd hand the mantle over to someone else for a fresh approach -- it's seriously been way too many years of underachievement and disappointment. Just feels like a cycle of never-ending hope right now and I'm really really bored of it... Wenger out.
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I couldn't disagree more! It's just getting better and better after the dark ages of PES.
 
CosmicRomancer said:
Very good post. These are more or less my feelings as well... especially the bolded. Played more of it over the weekend trying really hard to like it but came away feeling more frustrated.

I don't have faith in the creators anymore. I wish they'd hand the mantle over to someone else for a fresh approach -- it's seriously been way too many years of underachievement and disappointment. Just feels like a cycle of never-ending hope right now and I'm really really bored of it... Wenger out.
Click to expand...

Thing is, and that is not the creators fault - Konami simply cut budgets, so there is only so much the devs can do. It has to do with Konami focusing on other business models than AAA game development and PES feels more like a free to play game by an indie developer. It's not FIFA they are competing with, that is a juggernaut that has come to mainstream and is simply nothing they can compete with. Not even on gameplay and modes, because they have to find a system based on licences and microtransactions and they even added a story mode, manager personalities, gave career mode a depth in detail and options which is nearly overwhelming. Details, that only money can achieve. PES made a turn from arcady gameplay to simulation and is now back at being arcady football but lacks essential features to reproduce a gameplay that is actual fun. Playing PES 2018 demo is like playing Germany vs. Brazil in 2014 in EVERY match.
 
I'm honestly baffled by those who say this looks worse or is less detailed than FIFA.

Overall I think this looks really nice, and I think these stadiums are the most detailed they've ever been in football games. Dortmund especially looks stunning.
 
Bumhead said:
I'm honestly baffled by those who say this looks worse or is less detailed than FIFA.

Overall I think this looks really nice, and I think these stadiums are the most detailed they've ever been in football games. Dortmund especially looks stunning.
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I'm not trying to destroy the game but "look" is not graphical fidelity alone. In a sports game it's animation, lighting and physics. While Fox Engine delivers some great visuals, the game really loses it when in motion, because of the said parts. In replays the level of detail is high and some nice motion blur and depth of field is enabled, but while playing, the LoD is very low, textures are basic and the weird animations with missing cloth physics makes the game "look" not as good as other sports games. The stadiums are indeed incredibly well crafted, but you only see the pitch and the best modeled stadiums do not give more atmosphere when the crowd is non existing in sound. The game looks decent, but has terrible aliasing and suffers from some missing things and flaws.
 
Jack cw said:
I'm not trying to destroy the game but "look" is not graphical fidelity alone. In a sports game it's animation, lighting and physics. While Fox Engine delivers some great visuals, the game really loses it when in motion, because of the said parts. In replays the level of detail is high and some nice motion blur and depth of field is enabled, but while playing, the LoD is very low, textures are basic and the weird animations with missing cloth physics makes the game "look" not as good as other sports games. The stadiums look great, but you only see the pitch and the best modeled stadiums do not give more atmosphere when the crowd is non existing in sound. The game looks decent, but has terrible aliasing and suffers from some missing things and flaws.
Click to expand...

Not sure I agree with much of that either. I actually thought the atmosphere was pretty good, notably so enough for me to notice it as what felt like an improvement. I also think the game looks perfectly fine in motion and while playing. Just not seeing the amount of negativity towards the atmosphere and visuals that you're portraying here.. especially not in comparison to the competition.

I actually thought to myself while playing the other day that I believe it's a shame the game with all the licenses and stadiums doesn't use this engine, because I vastly prefer the overall look and style of PES. For me, this engine does vastly more for the stadiums, licenses, teams and competitions it does have than FIFA does.

I have some concerns with the gameplay, particularly around the ease of it, but overall I've been enjoying the demo quite a lot. The final product ending up totally different to the previously released demo is basically an annual tradition these days for both series', so it's absolutely possible a lot of these concerns will be sorted.
 
Jack cw said:
Thing is, and that is not the creators fault - Konami simply cut budgets, so there is only so much the devs can do. It has to do with Konami focusing on other business models than AAA game development and PES feels more like a free to play game by an indie developer. It's not FIFA they are competing with, that is a juggernaut that has come to mainstream and is simply nothing they can compete with. Not even on gameplay and modes, because they have to find a system based on licences and microtransactions and they even added a story mode, manager personalities, gave career mode a depth in detail and options which is nearly overwhelming. Details, that only money can achieve. PES made a turn from arcady gameplay to simulation and is now back at being arcady football but lacks essential features to reproduce a gameplay that is actual fun. Playing PES 2018 demo is like playing Germany vs. Brazil in 2014 in EVERY match.
Click to expand...

When I said creators, I meant both Konami and the devs. I just don't think I share the same understanding of football as the devs do. There are some good ideas but there are bad ones as well.

I realise Konami don't have the financial clout nor ambition of that of FIFA, that's why I wish for change. Whether that's realistic or not is not the question. It's just my desire.
 
Bumhead said:
I have some concerns with the gameplay, particularly around the ease of it, but overall I've been enjoying the demo quite a lot. The final product ending up totally different to the previously released demo is basically an annual tradition these days for both series', so it's absolutely possible a lot of these concerns will be sorted.
Click to expand...

I bought that excuses for too long. The last demos were better than the final product, especially in freedom and goalie AI. This demo is so bad, that I can't imagine Konami deliver an even worse final code. Image quality could be helped with temporal AA or supersampling from 4k. It's too late to fix animations though or build a working physics engine. And all the tweaks in AI and CPU ability in the past never really helped because they simply can't find a balance without being too easy or overpowered by cheap and unstoppable attacks. It's just no fun for me to live with the same faults year over year.
 
graphics are all right. Gameplay wise is better than fifa. The problem is the licenses. On xbox Microsoft doesn't allow option files so for xbox users fifa is better in the end.
 
Thought this was very poor, honestly felt like I was playing an older demo rather than the latest version.

Some poor visuals (motion blur of the ball during replays especially), lack of atmosphere/excitement and generally easy to score.
 
Okay, why the hell is every fifth pass a back heel pass? What is this madness? So annoying. Other than that it's pretty fun to play and it looks amazing.
 
I like it but, after 3 years in a row, I'll skip it. The fact that you still can't easily edit licenses on X1 (like you can on PS4) is unexcusable at this point. If they want to sell us a game without a pretty big feature, then make it cheaper for us. I'll wait until it goes on sale on PC and play it on my laptop if it can run it.
 
Can you use player cam online yet? I have been playing Pro Evo since the ps2 days when they implemented the player cam( from Libero grande) as the other camera views do nothing for me, Why have a great engine and stadiums when most people use side to side cam kinda thing. But for some reason they allow it offline but not online, Would be immense to be down on the pitch and see your friend make a run and you ping the ball too him.

Only reason i'll still get this, Is the co-op mode they have mentioned, In the hope it is similar to FIFA's Pro clubs mode.

From what me memory serves, They have always altered the demo versions of the game to make them more easier to score than the final retail game.
 
im_dany said:
I like it but, after 3 years in a row, I'll skip it. The fact that you still can't easily edit licenses on X1 (like you can on PS4) is unexcusable at this point. If they want to sell us a game without a pretty big feature, then make it cheaper for us. I'll wait until it goes on sale on PC and play it on my laptop if it can run it.
Click to expand...

Blame MS

It's cheap as chips on PC atm, I got the deluxe edition for £24 off of CDKeys
 
I'm one of the few who thought that PES 2017 was a really good game. I played the fuck out of it for a whole year. If the final game plays like the demo I don't think I could play it until next year's iteration. I did hear from the WENB lads that the demo code is actually from last year.
 
maxxpower said:
I'm one of the few who thought that PES 2017 was a really good game. I played the fuck out of it for a whole year. If the final game plays like the demo I don't think I could play it until next year's iteration. I did hear from the WENB lads that the demo code is actually from last year.
Click to expand...

They're usually full of shit tbh
 
maxxpower said:
I'm one of the few who thought that PES 2017 was a really good game. I played the fuck out of it for a whole year. If the final game plays like the demo I don't think I could play it until next year's iteration. I did hear from the WENB lads that the demo code is actually from last year.
Click to expand...

I thought 2017 was pretty well received? I really liked it at least. 2018 looks (from the demo) like it seriously pales in comparison.
 
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