So where to begin?

Been a while hasn’t it. There’s been a few bumps down the road, but 6 DLC’s later the game is better off from when it got released. Here’s my late ramblings and insight into our beloved football game. PES 2020… Oh wait, they changed the name; eFootball Pro Evolution Soccer 2020. That’s the one.

Content Updates

I’m going to add both official and unofficial content info in here. The community option files and official DLC’s have been really good this year. In terms of OF, loads of different packs to choose from via forums / third party sites etc. And they’re all doing a great job. I myself have been using PES Universe’s file. And bloody hell have they done an immense job at getting every detail into the kits. I think I used PESWorld last year and that was fantastic as well. They’ve done a cracking job at keeping the kits updated and adding a plethora of new content into their packs, from classic to custom kits. So I would highly recommend people utilise their OF’s.

We are now into the 6th DLC. That’s a lot of content officially coming from Konami. Each including dozens of new boots, hundreds of face updates, multiple kit upgrades and more. I think there’s one more DLC on the way (Was the Euro 2020 DLC aka DLC 7), but don’t know how they’ll handle that one with the Euro’s officially being delayed to 2021. That we shall find out by the end of this month or early next. The patch that came a long with DLC 5, don’t know what Konami did, but a few things got broken game play wise. But thankfully are better again on 6. Which leads us onto the next topic

Gameplay, UI & Modes

What happens on the pitch is what truly matters, doesn’t it? Well majorly yes, but not so much nowadays. Modes & Online features, those two have been KEY for FIFA when it comes to their player base. Now don’t get me wrong, for myself it’s all about game play and this is why I hands down prefer PES to FIFA this year. I only play FIFA 2020 when we have family gatherings, 2 v 2 offline.

PES is no where near FIFA when it comes to modes and UI. Online stability wise both have not won the war in my opinion as an online match is a gamble, input lag or no input lag that is the question. Even though I LOVE Master league (which i spend 95% of my playing time on), feature wise it comes no where near FIFA’s career mode. I like the simplicity of Master League still, but I know they can do much better by going in deeper. Konami have done well with My Club, but Ultimate team still retains the crown. FIFA have embedded that into nearly every child’s brain, the amount of hype and promotion it gets is unreal.

Game play is the main reason why I put PES on top and why I play it so much still. It just feels a lot better, from the weight of the ball, to the crisp passing and power in the shots. This is Football. You can tell which player’s on the ball, the subtle differences from player to player is amazing (The power of VD, to the elegant strides and touches of Ozil). Kudos to Konami for always getting that bit right, Player ID as they used to call it.  Forget about all of that in FIFA, majority of the players are default dummies running around with misplaced passes and horrible touches. So yeah, DLC 6 really made the game a lot more fortified, there’s still a few niggles here and there and scripting which is hella annoying. But the foundation of pass and move to scoring is still a thing to behold. I still get surprised after all this time, words cant tell you the satisfaction you feel when a move gets completed with a sublime goal. Actually forget the goal itself, the touches from experienced players such as Pepe, De Bruyna, Salah etc. The animations are spot on.

A lot of people did get put off from the scripting and from the lack of umph in the game. And I understand why and don’t blame them. DLC 6 has done some good, so I do say give it another try or wait for the next big update in a month or 2 time.

User interface is pooor. Yeah it’s simple. but come on Konami! For those who know me, you know I’ve been complaining about this for years. If you look into the core UI, it’s actually been the same since Playstation 2 or 3 days. The Menu system is outdated, the resolution of some pictures are low quality. An official 1st party game with low res images dayyumm. To the UI team, really? From the first news splash screen that pops up, you can see it’s an outdated design. Everything is locked in. It does not flow. The best way to Understand how UI and transitions should be is to look at old versions of iOS and Android. And compare it to their latest versions; Android 10 and iOS 13. Basically what I’m saying is, everything is buttery smooth and fluid. Menu systems just flow. Yes it’s not something that matters to the masses. But its the forefront of everything. That’s what you see first, that’s what links you to your game and it’s what you end with. The User Interface plays a big role in making the overall presentation / package even better.

To wrap it up, it’s a great football game in core gaming principles, with questionable decisions in UI /  functions and AI scripting. Boot the game up and play Master League, you’ll probably enjoy the game a lot. Cause that’s all I’m doing 😅

Let’s see what the next DLC/patch brings to the table. And we can start talking about PES2021. Might delve into it in another post to see what needs to be added and improved on, if you guys have any ideas, post in the comments below or send us a tweet at Profifalution. And i’ll add it in to the post

Thanks for reading 🙂