PES 2015 can be a little stiff in places, but I have not experienced anything close to this moment with EA Sports equivalent, FIFA 15. This year, “the land is ours” is the mantra of developer Konami. This year, the field is accurate.

First, we’ll highlight the area where PES compares very favorably to its biggest rival. It is no exaggeration to say that artificial intelligence here is some of the nicest I have met in any sports simulation. The fact that it will go unnoticed by some is perhaps the greatest compliment you can pay; perhaps it is more clearly perceptible to me because of its apparent lack of FIFA. Here, the wing-backs appear to overlap; midfielders fall when possession is lost; supporters come out to play strikers offside; sprint guardians of their boxes to clear lofted shot just before the center of opposition before it can lash goalward. Errors occur, but are rare and most often attributed to your own mistakes. It is important because it means that every time you lose the ball every time you concede a goal, it’s hard to blame anyone but yourself.

PES 2015 is a soccer video game elevating on-field realism to all-new levels as it recreates the heart-pounding feeling associated with being part of a crucial top-flight match. Oct 10, 2014 - PES 2015 PC requirements released. Windows 7 SP1/Vista SP2. Intel Core i3 530 (AMD Phenom II X4 925 or equivalent processor) 2GB of RAM. Nvidia GeForce 7950/ATI Radeon HD 2400/Intel HD graphics 3000. Direct X 9.0c Compatible Video card with 1024MB. 8GB free HDD space.

You will not see the intelligence in your own teammates, either. If a full return is booked, you can bet a smart opponent will try to exploit this reservation, focusing their outputs down that side of the field. If you have a slow center-back pairing, then you will see many attempts to play Pacy strikers behind you, either by sliding rule by bulletproof or high passes aimed into space. You will need to identify not only the strengths and weaknesses of your opponent, but your own, fill holes, and changing your offensive style.

There are no means an infallible to win, and while there are some soft spots (corner struck with just above average power in this corridor of uncertainty between goalkeeper and defense was a source of goals for myself reliable enough), you rarely able to count on the same tactic twice. Opponents seem to fit too: after scoring from two, against the attacks as fast direct Real Madrid, Liverpool managed to cut the supply of Cristiano Ronaldo online, and it took a last-minute strike deflected Scrappy before he won the match point.

Pace and stamina material, too. You will be able to rely on feints and cunning at times, but the changes of direction and sudden bursts of speed are more likely to get you after your man. Sprinting full you will usually get addressed, but with wingers like Navas and Stirling, holding the ball before suddenly accelerating is the way to go that extra yard of space to fizz a cross. Your attackers will anticipate this, waving his arms as they pull away from their bearings and move in the box ready to receive the ball. Runs are best used judiciously, also because they are the only way to save you enough stamina to remain effective for 90 minutes. Opponents tires, of course, it is not particularly noticeable until the later stages. Bring on fresh legs – especially when you oppose a nippy striker against an industrious defender – and you’ll be able to see the difference. It is gratifying to see substitutions that have a tangible impact.

As a result of this, not to mention the ability to more effectively control the pace of the game by putting the foot on the ball, PES is simultaneously predictable and unpredictable. It is foreseeable in the best sense: in that you learn to read certain strategies over time, get used to the peculiarities of a team, to respond to changes in personnel and tactics – even knowing instinctively where the ball will end when you release a pass or let fly with a shot. And it is unpredictable in the right way, too: in that you can never rest on your laurels, as the game unfolds organically, and there is no sure-fire hit single route.

NEED TO KNOW

What Is It: Football. Soccer.
Influenced By: Football. Soccer. FIFA.
Reviewed On: Windows7, AMD FX 4100, 3600mhz, 8 Gig RAM, AMD Radeon 7850
Alternatively: FIFA 15
DRM: Steam
Price: £30/$40
Release: Out Now
Publisher: Konami
Developer: PES Productions
Link:Official site
Multiplayer: Yes

By Jon Denton.

Maybe it’s my age, but there’s a refreshing purity to PES 2015 that reminds me of a time when football games weren’t about card packs, microtransactions and screaming YouTubers. The simplicity and complexity of football is the focus of Konami’s long-standing series, and never before has it been as convincing or compelling. A killer one-two. A perfectly-timed tackle. A last-minute header. These are the things that should get football gamers screaming. And these are the things PES 2015 gets so, so right.

In truth, Pro Evolution Soccer has been threatening to return to former glories for a while now. As FIFA has stagnated, PES has refound its confidence, delivering a best-in-class effort in 2012, and a promising but sluggish engine refresh last year. This year, though, feels like its coming out party. PES Productions eschewed the ‘next-gen’ console launches last year in order to refine and polish its debut on new tech, and it shows.

This is the exact same game you’ll see on PS4, although you’ll need to do a bit of digging to actually get it running that way. For reasons only known to the overworked Japanese dudes at Konami, the PC version of PES 2015 defaults to 720p and a windowed-display, and the only way to change that is to actually launch a settings.exe in the game’s folders. Madness, but thankfully only necessary the once. Astm e1032.

And when you’ve bumped matters up to 1080p, you have a rather handsome looking game. FIFA 15’s lighting model and 3D grass is superior, but PES has world-class payer likenesses, and more importantly, specifically engineered animations for the world’s best players. Robben runs with his arms up. Messi appears elastic from the knees down. Ronaldo sprints upright like Michael Johnson and leaps into the sky like Kobe. Welbeck falls over a lot.

It’s this attention to detail that elevates PES above its nearest and richest competitor. At face value, the two games look very similar—both offer snappy passing games, a wide variety of shot types and crunching slide tackles. Dig just a little deeper, though, and PES demonstrates a unique understanding of how football actually works. Dribbling isn’t reliant on tricks (although they’re in there). It’s about timing, weight distribution and angles. Beat a man by convincing him you’re zigging when you’re actually zagging. Use runners to create space. Play the way you face. Simple footballing fundamentals, that when combined with PES 2015’s marvellous simulation physics, creates moments of football drama, without the need to script them.

At its best, PES 2015 captures the PS2 heyday of the series at its best, but does so with the kind of production values our mid-2000 selves could only dream of. This is a game of curling 30 yarders and scuffed tap-ins, of mistimed slide tackles and rounded-keepers. It’s the agony and the ecstasy of football, but also the drudgery and frustration. It’s really rather good.

Backing up the fantastic match engine is a front-end that finally feels like it’s from a modern videogame and not patched together by the work experience boy. The typical competitions (including the Champions League license) are joined by a FIFA-apeing online seasons mode, that lets you progress up the ranks by beating the world’s PES players in low-latency contests. It’s a shame it can’t be played cooperatively, but it’s still a step up from PES 2014’s broken online mess.

An even more obvious ‘homage’ to FIFA comes in the form of myClub, a very PES take on Ultimate Team. Very PES, because it appears to have been put together by madmen. Much like the ‘esoteric’ charms of Master League (itself back and as daft and compulsive as ever), myClub drowns you in the most baffling jargon before letting you go about the business of building a team. If anyone out there understands the instructions about agents (used to sign players in this acid-trip of a mode) then you might need to lay off the prescription meds.

Hilariously, once you figure out the nonsense, myClub is actually a simpler mode than Ultimate Team. Sign players from random draws, build a team that functions better when the players share traits, take on the world. It’s the same, but bonkers. I shouldn’t be surprised, this is the team that gave players bananas as an unlockable bonus in PES 2013.

As much as PES may try, it can’t compete with FIFA off the pitch. Licensing issues are prevalent as always, with only Man United officially included in the Premier League, and no German league at all (Bayern Munich appear as a one-off), and as enjoyable as Master League and myClub are, they’re not a match for the all-conquering Ultimate Team. Does it matter, though, when you’ve just beaten three men with Ribery, skipped past one lunging challenge in the box, then lifted it over the onrushing keeper with a flick of the right boot?

Of course it doesn't.