Support NeoGAF

[fabprems]

Anyone knows what the rainbow arrow mean in the new free kick system ??

 

[Chimkey]

I think the rainbow arrow signifies that the taker is excellent at free kicks (ronaldo, gerrard etc all have it when it scoring distance) hence higher chance of scoring.

Online is much improved! had 7 great games so far.

 

[Datschge]

The rainbow arrow was introduced together with the new 3D free kick system in 2010. In 2011 the players capable of it get a colorful up arrow on the selection screen when changing the player for free kick. Unlike the standard red arrow the rainbow arrow can be tilted (by twisting the wiimote, ideal for getting the ball around the wall and into surprising directions) or turned into a knuckleball (press Z while shooting for doing this).

PES Wii got another squad update today. Hopefully it's now finally on equal foot with all the other systems and reality (before Ibra was still at Barca, Diego at Juve etc.).

 

[marc^o^]

PES Wii 2011 is one of the best soccer game ever released.
It's been out for about a week: STILL NO REVIEW.

I feel so bad for Konami, they have produced the best gameplay breakthrough with the wiimote pointer, as well as the best lag free online experience on wii.

And journalists don't even test the game .

To make up for it, I'll post another gameplay video by tomorrow.

I LOVE this PES. My GOTY.

 

[Delodax]

Got it this Sunday. Haven't played enough to totally understand the playmaker control scheme, but it's still fun! Feels more like a team oriented game than when playing with the classic setup.

Does anyone perhaps have a link to an instructive video on youtube or anything to give some hints on gameplay? I have completed all the tutorial, but I still struggle a lot, especially defense wise.

 

[Datschge]

Did you watch the remaining videos in the training section already? There are several more general videos which are not part of the tutorials but give you a good idea about all the possibilities. There is also a very good defense tutorial based on PES 2008 Wii on youtube which still applies.

In general I'd suggest you to find out what team and what formation works best with your playing style. To become good at defense first and foremost needs experience. Counter the own formation against every opponent's formation to expose its weaknesses and have a stable defense row. Be sure to be able to outnumber the opponent in every possible situation. Close down if the opponent has the ball and open up when you have it yourself. PES Wii pretty much works like real football in these regards, that why reading e.g. Zonal Marking can also help as it excels at explaining real world football tactics in a way they can also be executed in the game.

 

[Delodax]

Yeah, I went through all tutorials I could find (certificates etc) plus the advanced tactics or what it was called... I did them all in one sitting, so I guess much information did not stay in my head

One issue I have is when of the opponents are making a break away. I want to catch up to him but it seems impossible, it just feels like noone ever runs I also lack the knowledge of how to react in a messy situation when lots of players are around the ball and it is bouncing everywhere, I have a total lack of control of what I am doing

Off to see the video - thanks!

 

[marc^o^]

Doyble click anywhere on the field with the A button: the nearest player will run to that point. Do it several times and you can easily make all your defense come back protect your goal in a hurry

 

[Delodax]

Is this double-click method the only way to make players "free run", otherwise they always "jog"? The only time I know for certain that I've managed to make a player run is by using control stick+'Z' and by "pull running"

 

[farnham]

can 2p choose more then 2 players this time around ?

 

[marc^o^]

Is this double-click method the only way to make players "free run", otherwise they always "jog"? The only time I know for certain that I've managed to make a player run is by using control stick+'Z' and by "pull running"

Maximum speed seems to be achieved by pulling your players indeed. It gives an edge to players using full "play maker" controls.

 

[Datschge]

While being pulled players run faster when you push up with the control stick (though it's easy to lose the ball then), push down to hold the ball, push left or right to put the ball aside before running further.

 

[jlevel13]

I also lack the knowledge of how to react in a messy situation when lots of players are around the ball and it is bouncing everywhere, I have a total lack of control of what I am doing

I feel like when using the playmaker controls, you do lose a little bit of that close-up play. Just like the camera being pulled back, so is the way to play the game - which on wii is more about moving your players into space, passing and trying to get chances - more big picuture teamwork & less individual play.

 

[Delodax]

To make up for it, I'll post another gameplay video by tomorrow.

Where is that video!?

 

[Datschge]

I've added following videos to the OP: Tutorial - Basic Controls, Tutorial - Technique Movies (recommended), online match, online match revanche (both matches against a strong member of my community)

 

[fabprems]

Your videos are cool Datschge !

I've played a dozen (!) matches online last night and I find that players are really good. And they don't miss oportunities ! I can easily kick 10 times to score 1 or 2 goals, but some of these players scored almost every time they were in front of the goalkeeper ! Defense is really a struggle in these matches...

2 things piss me off :
- the damn last pass in front of the goalkeeper
- the passivity of the goalkeepers


Really good game otherwise

 

[Ushojax]

2 things piss me off :
- the damn last pass in front of the goalkeeper
- the passivity of the goalkeepers

If you point at the keeper and press A he will come off his line and try to win the ball. It helps when someone is through on goal.

 

[fabprems]

If you point at the keeper and press A he will come off his line and try to win the ball. It helps when someone is through on goal.

Yeah, I know that, but it often make things worst :/

 

[Datschge]

I struggled quite some time to make my rather offensive formations with Atletico from 2010 work in 2011 without getting defeated left and right. My personal solution turned out to be to add another center back (now 3 altogether, one or two staying ahead and able to take part in the midfield), move my second striker to the offensive midfield (with an arrow forward so he gets into striking position while attacking) and change my two full backs to wing backs. This gives me 6 players in the midfield (mostly consisting of offensively strong players) which allows me to outnumber most of the opponent's attacks while moving swiftly on my own attacks (e.g. changing tactic to 5 on free/corner kicks etc.). In any case, yes, the games definitely got harder. There is no longer an easy way out due to some flailing connection. =)

In other news and without comments, some more reviews I found (links are in the OP): MeriStation (in Spanish) 8, Official Nintendo Magazine (UK) 80%, GameSpot UK 7.0, GameKult (in French) 6

 

[marc^o^]

Just watch this great goal I just scored:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzeJB8Oqd_8

Se how I could set up this long pass, 100% manually?
This kind of control is in essence why I love this game .

 

[Gamecocks625]

Just watch this great goal I just scored:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzeJB8Oqd_8

Se how I could set up this long pass, 100% manually?
This kind of control is in essence why I love this game .

I wish I would have recorded some goals I made in PES 2008. Man, I had some good ones.

 

[marc^o^]

I wish I would have recorded some goals I made in PES 2008. Man, I had some good ones.

Yeah me too, I scored some amazing goals following +20 passes sequences. I wanted to record and post a full match this morning but I ended up selecting the best moments. What do you guys prefer for next time: a full match or highlights?

 

[Datschge]

The game is out in Japan now. How many thousand units will it sell? :lol

 

[Little Green Yoda]

Finally, a sale - $35 on Amazon!

Bought

 

[Datschge]

When playing online this version also allows one to hide the controls (man marking, arrows etc.) of the opponents. I've started using this since a week and think while it's harder this way it's also much more satisfying. Anyone else tried this already?

 

[marc^o^]

When playing online this version also allows one to hide the controls (man marking, arrows etc.) of the opponents. I've started using this since a week and think while it's harder this way it's also much more satisfying. Anyone else tried this already?

How do you hide it?

 

[farnham]

while playing coop

can the second player choose more then 2 football players now ?

 

[Datschge]

How do you hide it?

It's the last option on the screen before starting a game against a friend/rival or before searching for a free match (the screen where you also confirm your stadium selection, your control setting, custom team and mixed play style etc.).

farnham: no, looks like they changed nothing in that area.

 

[jlevel13]

Anybody in the US have any luck getting into online games? Finally just got this today, but so far I haven't been able to find any matches online - just searches and searches. Not super surprising, I guess, but still disappointing. Maybe on the weekend I'll have better luck?

 

[Datschge]

It's definitely unfortunate that online matches are still restricted to within the same regions. A better filtering according to the actual connection quality would be far more useful.

 

[jlevel13]

After waiting around for a while, I did finally manage to get a game online tonight, unfortunately a very laggy game, but I did squeak out a 3-2 win, which was a nice way to start things. It's definitely always more fun, even with lag, to play against a real person... so much more unpredictable.

I just hope whenever the next generation of consoles come around (in the next couple of years), Konami doesn't give up on this type of controls for at least one of the versions of PES. Even though I'm no expert, I do find it much more satisfying and challenging and I've really grown to appreciate the potential for creative freedom playing this way offers. I'm definitely worried that with their sales troubles we may not see more of these.

 

[Datschge]

I think Konami wont drop it as long as they do PS2 and PSP versions and the Wii version at least sells better in Europe than in Japan. But the controls still not being ported to anywhere else is indeed worrying.

 

[jlevel13]

Played some more and maybe especially because I skipped 2010, the game seems really improved from the 2009 edition - more fluid motion & the graphics really look surprisingly better - especially in regards to player likenesses and overall atmosphere (crowds while not great are much much better than in 2009), but also less screen tearing and generally smoother feel, more variety to the animations. Sometimes I feel like things happen on their own maybe a little more than in the past, like there is more AI at work - that's one thing I'm not sure if it's for the best.

Really my only disappointment (and it's a BIG one) is with the online. Other than that one laggy time, I've yet to be able to even get into a game & I've probably spent at least half an hour just sitting on that searching for an opponent screen over various tries and times (I even set it to any control scheme to increase my odds). Is it different for you all out in Europe - are you still able to get into ranked online games? I'd be curious to see the North American sales numbers - I'm starting to feel like I'm the only person over here to pick this up

 

[Datschge]

Finding someone in online matches is pretty much the same as always in Europe: Usually if you don't mind waiting for up to - let's say - a quarter hour at times at the lowest connection quality there is always someone popping up. It's even faster if one accepts mixed controls matches, but those got highly annoying as of late due to the way Konami chose to artificially favour the classic controls players through putting the AI quality through the roof.

For playmaker AI they actually did the opposite, if you get to play against a strong playmaker opponent the moves are often very likely to get behind the AI which at times seems to make bad decisions on purpose. Seems like there is a mechanism which is supposed to reward the player who set up their players correctly at any time and penalise those who rely too often on the AI.

Sorry to hear you have a hard time finding people online in NA (you already set the connection quality setting to the lowest level, right?). Exchanging FCs might be the only solution there.

 

[jlevel13]

Sorry to hear you have a hard time finding people online in NA (you already set the connection quality setting to the lowest level, right?). Exchanging FCs might be the only solution there.

I had the connection quality set to medium when I found one match & that was pretty laggy (near unplayable), so I was afraid to set it to lowest. In such a big region (and I'm on the southern west coast, not in the middle or something) lowest quality seems like it's asking for trouble. It's weird, because I had FIFA World Cup on Wii and had no problems finding matches (and that game was pretty rotten). You'd thinking releasing a great game, more people should be playing, not less / nobody.

If any NA players want to try some online matches my friend code for PES11 is 2064-6140-7422

 

[Datschge]

I keep it at the lowest setting since in my experience it doesn't work as advertised, even at the highest setting I got match connection I wouldn't call ideal. So why keeping it any higher than the lowest if the only thing that it affects is prolonging my waiting time for a free match? On the other hand I don't mind worse connections in 2011 since unlike in past versions they are still perfectly playable (both sides still see exact the same match, no dreaded independent lags and warps like in the past versions). Just keep in mind that while you can't do real time stuff like stick dribbling during those short pauses, things like pull dribblings, free runs and the likes can still be executed. So with worse connections the matches will just turn out more strategic, unless one side simply stop playing (which I'll readily admit unfortunately happens quite often against less experienced players, even though that only makes the matter worse to them than it really should be).

 

[jlevel13]

I'll try turning the search down to the lowest quality and see what happens this afternoon. Wiil report back.

One thing that bugs me when searching for a match, it's sort of a translation issue probably, but when it can't find a game to connect you with the message that eventually comes up in English is something like, "you don't have a very strong connection," as if not finding a game is your fault - I mean, I have a wired 10mbps down and 1.5mbps up - not a strong connection - what?

 

[Datschge]

That's just the silly message which appears when only players with supposedly worse connections were found. This is another reason to just keep it at the lowest setting.

 

[Little Green Yoda]

Really my only disappointment (and it's a BIG one) is with the online. Other than that one laggy time, I've yet to be able to even get into a game & I've probably spent at least half an hour just sitting on that searching for an opponent screen over various tries and times (I even set it to any control scheme to increase my odds). Is it different for you all out in Europe - are you still able to get into ranked online games? I'd be curious to see the North American sales numbers - I'm starting to feel like I'm the only person over here to pick this up

I finally picked up a copy of PES this year but it's technically a Christmas gift so I won't be on until after then. I've never played any of the Wii PES games; how much offline stuff should I play before heading online? Because it seems like only the hardcore fans are venturing online and I can't imagine a blowout to be much fun for either side. :lol

Lack of marketing and the success of the previous titles is what I'd attribute the interest level to. I don't think I'd even know about the game if it wasn't for GAF (hardly ever see it in a B&M store and there's pretty much no advertising for it in the U.S.). FIFA being a supposedly superior series on the HD platforms can't be good for word-of-mouth either when it comes to casuals who probably don't realize the Wii version is different in quality.

 

[Datschge]

I've never played any of the Wii PES games; how much offline stuff should I play before heading online?

Once you think the CPU at the highest difficulty is rather easy the online matches are far more fun. In 2011 the CPU AI is improved compared to 2010 (which was waaay too easy) but compared to real people it's still very predictable (especially the build up). Local multiplayer (as in two playmaker players) is also great.

 

[jlevel13]

Datschge - thanks for the advice about turning online searches to the lowest quality - that seems to have (somewhat) done the trick and I've been able to find some matches now after not super long waits (under a few minutes) and they've been mostly lag free.

However I did just have an incredibly annoying match where somebody played with the team they had created themselves, of completely five star superstars (Messi, C. Ronaldo, Rooney, etc) - basically 100% offensive and defensive stats - I should have dropped when I saw that, but I switched to Barcelona and stuck it out for a 0-1 loss, but still just a very annoying type of attitude that soured me a bit on even wanting to play online against randoms.

 

[Datschge]

You can disable such custom teams, just set the second last setting "Match data" to "don't use". I agree that they can be quite annoying as most of the weaker players seem to like to use that feature for just exploiting high stats instead trying to play better.

Edit: Updated the OP with a screen of that setting page along with short descriptions.

 

[jlevel13]

You can disable such custom teams, just set the second last setting "Match data" to "don't use". I agree that they can be quite annoying as most of the weaker players seem to like to use that feature for just exploiting high stats instead trying to play better.

Edit: Updated the OP with a screen of that setting page along with short descriptions.

Woah thanks - that's great. I never would have thought to click on that - I just assumed "match data" meant something like saving your stats - well, actually I had no idea what it meant. Will definitely set that to off, even if that means it will take longer to find games.

Yeah - this person I played who was using ultimate team was nothing special and I should have done better against him, but I was frustrated and pissed at myself for even engaging in the match - I did make some good chances for myself, but just couldn't get the ball in the net. It just seemed so unsporting and against the spirit of the game, especially since I had picked a 4 1/2 star team (Arsenal) first, only half a minute later to to see him smugly load up his stacked world superstars (it's screwed up that you even have an option to do that in a ranked match, imo, poor design).

 

[Datschge]

Will definitely set that to off, even if that means it will take longer to find games.

Actually it wont take any longer with it set to off as it doesn't filter players while searching, both sides just won't be able to select a custom team.

 

[Little Green Yoda]

I just noticed the red Pay & Play icon on the front cover. I thought online play was free? Or is there going to be paid DLC?

 

[Datschge]

There is no such icon on my German PAL copy (just the standard blue Nintendo WFC one), no idea what's up with that.

 

[Little Green Yoda]

Hmmm. I found this in the manual (after like 20 pages describing how the controls work :lol):

While the Network Service for this game is provided free of charge, you will need to pay separate connection charges to your Internet Service Provider. There may come a time in the future when the network service is terminated after a notice period of some length owing to various reasons. Please note that in such circumstances, some features of the game will become unavailable. The network service may be unavailable under certain conditions.

Doesn't mention pay to play anywhere but I'm assuming the bolded is a warning that the servers for the 2011 version could be taken down once next year's version hits?

 

[Datschge]

That's just a general notice which is also in my manual. Afaik all the FCs and match connection mediation is done on Nintendo's WFC servers (which I don't think was stopped for any specific games so far, I'm pretty sure the infrastructure is game independent) while the actual match connection is done through P2P.

 

[jlevel13]

Getting pretty frustrated trying to play this online, spending more time waiting for a match than playing a match. But worse, in my experiences except for maybe twice, it has always been very laggy to unplayably laggy. I don't really blame the game for that, it's (probably) the lack of a player base, but the lag is ruining the Wii version of PES for me.

Other than the excessively soft penalties, I really love the gameplay and controls, which is what is killing me, since playing against the computer isn't very exciting and trying to play online basically is horrible 9 out of 10 times

 

[Little Green Yoda]

Apparently, I'm horrible at this game. :lol Took me several tries just to beat the Practice league tournament.

Since there's no way to aim your shot (outside of free kicks and penalties), it's all just a matter of positioning your players well and hoping it goes in right? Some of my shots are quite off the mark and I don't know if it's me or just my players' low ratings. When comes to headers, is it a matter of timing of when to shake to nunchuk that determines success? Because oftentimes the other players will outjump my guys for the ball on goal kicks and corners.

I feel like I get plenty of chances to shoot in my matches but I'm very inconsistent with my success rate. One match I can go off for 4-5 goals and another I can be shut-out despite double digit shot attempts.

Defensively, I'm pretty mediocre too but I can at least see how my positioning or careless passing resulted in the opposition scoring.