Tested Games

Neymar and Rabbids kick off the season

In some ways, last season’s Pro Evolution Soccer was a better game than FIFA 17. It was more nuanced, less reliant on pace, and allowed you to employ more varied tactics.

The 2018 version aims to build on the positives – but can it solve the underlying issues that have kept it behind FIFA for so long?

The first thing you’ll notice is that passing feels looser than before. You’ll spend the first few games raging at your players for their inability to complete simple passes, until you get used to this new and realistically imperfect style. Creating chances is about taking risks. Players are better at shielding the ball now, so you can combine changes of direction with bursts of pace to keep things moving. But against AI, PES 2018 is a tougher game – you really have to keep your defensive shape as forwards look to exploit the gaps. Defending seems harder all round, in fact, but more satisfying.

Konami has added what it calls Real Touch+, which basically means that dextrous use of the left stick can be used to manipulate the ball in tight spaces. That trickery aside, the football is played at a slower pace than FIFA fans will be used to – but it’s a better game for it. Tear around the field at full speed and you’ll often be dispossessed. Laying off the sprint button opens up the pitch, giving you time and space to find a team-mate or surprise your marker with a burst of pace.

Visually, this is almost identical to last year’s game. Player likenesses were already impressive and that hasn’t changed – Olivier Giroud’s beard is a thing of beauty and Kevin De Bruyne’s ‘grown-up child star’ look is absolutely spot-on.

It’s too early to judge whether the online mode has corrected last season’s shambles, and the licensing issues remain (see right); but this is a football game with real depth – one that recreates the patterns of play you see on real pitches every weekend more closely than ever before. It rewards teamwork, vision and patience. Tom Wiggins

STUFF SAYS Gameplay is ood, but the new PES is let down by the same old issues