

But, together with the adjustments to defensive AI, I found myself having to be a little more patient and methodical in breaking down opponents. That doesn’t mean it’s sluggish, by any means – passing, for example, is as responsive as it was last year. These are the kind of tweaks that it’s hard to talk about on the back of a game’s box or its online store page, but it demonstrates a commitment to the basics of the game that goes beyond adding features for the sake of having something that can be easily promoted with a flashy name.įor me, the pace seems just a shade more measured than last year. So it’s with no small amount of trepidation that I say this: PES 2017 is better.Īs with last year, PES 2017 the kind of game that benefits from a host of incremental improvements that have a collectively beneficial effect. Over months of play, a few small cracks appeared in the façade – nothing that could convince me that this wasn’t the finest simulation of the beautiful game I’d played in quite some time, but enough to make me wonder if I’d been a little too generous in my early assessment.

I also said that think it was too early to say that with absolute confidence that it would be some time before its standing could be properly measured.

Last year, I said that PES 2016 might well be the best football game ever made.
