“I’m not here for to bury Pro Evolution Soccer, but to praise him “we could say to comment on the news that Pes changes its name, changes its skin and changes its philosophy to try to survive in a sector engulfed by Fifa and from its economic model of packages in which if you like and spend enough money maybe you will find Ronaldo.
His new name is eFootball, which on the one hand is a smart approach to the idea of positioning itself as a football game that looks to esports and on the other hand it seems the name of a title from the late 90s that you bought at newsstands, like Pc Football.
the analysis
Video games change so as not to end up like dinosaurs
by Lorenzo Fantoni
Thanks to the choice to abandon the old-fashioned concept is also a bit annoying of the annual soccer game that updates little more than roses, eFootball aims to become a typical platform Fortnite, from which it takes the graphics engine, in which the online game will be free (but obviously let’s expect packages and packets of rare players) and the offline one, as long as you use the teams that sponsor everything, otherwise we’ll see.
It is a very sensible move to counteract the excessive power of Fifa, which is somewhat reminiscent of the Xbox philosophy in front of the PlayStation: on the one hand the economic model that has worked so far, on the other a new idea that gives something extra hoping for a future return. However, it must be said that the model Fortnite applied to football does not envisage particularly encouraging scenarios for the monetization system. I doubt eFootball just wants to sell us skins and stadiums.
In the midst of this revolution there is a generation, perhaps two, that with Pro Evolution Soccer she grew up there and today she feels without a full stop, as if suddenly Castolo, Minanda, Ximeles, Iorga and the other key points of the Master League were gone. Although the latest versions have not convinced, even if the scepter for a few years has passed to Fifa and today a 20-year-old looks at you weird if you prefer anything else, Pes was like an old friend you didn’t deny an exit if he called you.
Ma the truth is that Pes it has always changed its name, because some have known it as Winning Eleven, others like International Super Star Soccer Pro. The only common point was a period between the first two generations of PlayStation in which the football video games have been defined by this title by the many names that, for convenience we will call Pes, with which the Japanese have shown that they know what this sport is.
My impact with Pes it was totally coincidental. The day before I was living peacefully, the next I needed a video game dedicated to the Japanese championship in which old glories such as Schillaci and Massaro played, as well as illustrious strangers that I would learn to love. Suddenly my afternoons were defined by nomi tipo Sanfrecce Hirosima, Kashiwa Reysol, Jubilo Iwata and a Japanese commentary made up of distortions of English terms and an enthusiasm worthy of Brazilian commentators. And then the choirs, even the audience choirs were perfect. Suddenly we had gone from games that wanted to imitate football to real football.
For years Pes, which he already had laid the groundwork on Nintendo platforms, represented the lingua franca of millions of Italian kids who for the first time found themselves faced with a football game that seemed to offer exactly what they were looking for. And never mind if the names were mangled, an artisanal solution was found.
While the competition, Fifa including, it seemed cast in pre-digested mechanisms, Pes he set up real football, made up of maneuvers, passes, rebounds, technique and cruel chance.
To make everything even more beautiful c’era la Master League, that is the football experience closest to the epic story that you could wish for: a management simulation in which it was necessary to bring an unknown team from the last places in the standings to glory, through a series of prudent purchases. Essential Babangida from Nigeria, great cheap winger. And then the brilliant idea of giving each player a state of random form, first with smilies, then with arrows, which could swap the cards of the matches already decided, cripple champions or make the bench players play the game of their life. .
The arrival of the PlayStation 3, it must be said without hiding, has damaged Pes irreversibly. While Fifa evolved and went from being an embarrassing and wire-guided title to new expression of football, with an eye to online, Pes remained on the bench, only to emerge in recent years as an excellent simulation title, albeit characterized by lower sales.
The transformation of Pes in eFootball it is undoubtedly a sign of the times. From a certain point of view it is the setting of an idea, of a project, of the only game that has held its own in recent years, preventing football simulations from becoming a monopoly, on the other hand it is the excellent example of an evolution in the sector.
These are no longer the times of Coliuto, Raggio, Carboni, nor those of Massaro and Schillaci, Konami’s choice, however cruel, is sensible: a free, modular game, which if you want the Master League sells it to you separately (and we hope so) while guaranteeing those who play online, or the people who matter most, a title in which every year you don’t have to start from scratch in forming a team with which to challenge others.
It is potentially the right move to turn the table, disavow the status quo and seek a way further Fifa, but for my generation it is yet another sign of time that passes and does not wait for you, of a world that you thought after all was within your reach and that suddenly vanishes from your hands like that memory of the early 2000s, when instead of studying you were aiming for an unbeaten afternoon with friends, game after games.
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Certain things must be experienced to be remembered, each generation has its own and each burns with a value that is all ours, so in a boomer moment let me remember the amazement of see Roberto Larcos taking a run on a free kick with many small steps before unloading a broadside, while I thought that more, in football video games, could not be done.
Now it’s your son, your grandson, it’s your turn eFootball, Pes is dead, alive Pes, which basically has always changed its name. And that’s right. How do you change, so as not to die.
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