Pro Evolution Soccer -- made just like SNES games

by Nick Doerr { Oct 16th 2007 at 5:00AM }

Soccer is awesome and its console gaming equivalent, Pro Evolution Soccer, can be touted as equally awesome for the football (if you're anything but American) enthusiast . So, how did development go with this title? IGN asks Shingo Takatsuka, known as Seabass, just that.

While claiming this year's PES the best yet, Seabass already has new ideas to work out for next year's game. In essence, this should make every year to come the best PES yet.
As for weak points in the development process/team, Seabass says that "the way we create the game is almost the same as when we made the SNES games. We've been creating games in the same manner for many years and in that sense it's good for upgrading AI and so on. However, if we want to dramatically improve the graphics and add hundreds of new stadiums and so on the SNES way of making a game cannot be applied." He also implies next year's game will be different from this approach, so think what you will.
The workload has been difficult across all platforms, not just programming for the PS3. It's refreshing to see a developer not jumping at the chance to claim the PS3 is hard to work with.
The PS3 and 360 games are going to be exactly the same, though Seabass admits he isn't sure why the PS3 version experiences some slowdown when the 360 does not. His guess is as good as ours, but we doubt it's the console.
You can dive in the game now, although it's not a do-or-die skill to learn, it will help you out if you master the timing.

It's more technical than anything else, but it seems that aside from a bit of slowdown, PS3 fans have something to get excited for, as long as soccer is their cup of tea. If you don't have a PS3, the game is going to continue to get released on the PS2 for a while, so no worries. Sports games are probably going to be the last titles to truly jump into next-gen development, because we all know they love releasing on every platform known to man.

Tags: konami, pes-2008, pro-evolution-soccer

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

zobar @ Oct 16th 2007 1:37PM

I don't get it.i payed 599 for ps3 and all u ps3 owners got to admit that we waited so long for what? LESS framerates? ( EA games) and now PES 2008 is slower on ps3? i mean WTF? whats next

Naaiif @ Oct 16th 2007 6:09AM

"The PS3 and 360 games are going to be exactly the same, though Seabass admits he isn't sure why the PS3 version experiences some slowdown when the 360 does not. His guess is as good as ours, but we doubt it's the console."

What...the...hell...

I just can not believe this.

leiwei @ Oct 16th 2007 7:11AM

@2 judging from that statement, it almost seems like they started development on the 360 then ported the thing over.

animekid3515 @ Oct 16th 2007 7:40AM

if the ps3 version supports 1080p, that would be why

Brian Spence @ Oct 16th 2007 7:47AM

I just got FIFA 08 last week (by the way, I'm an American with season tickets to DC United), and I've enjoyed playing it a lot. I have to say that the controls are really frustrating at times, and the instruction manual is totally worthless.

Anyone know of a good way to figure out how to get better at this? I can only play my brother, who's equally bad. The computer, even on Amateur mode, totally schools me.

Popfrogs @ Oct 16th 2007 8:31AM

I heard this was the game to get for soccer/football fans. If I was #5 I'd look at trading in FIFA for this when it gets released.

And yeah, if there's slowdown and they're puzzled, they need to call Sony's developers and get some assistance. I'm willing to bet they didn't use the SPEs to help with rendering duties.

mbyte84 @ Oct 16th 2007 11:23AM

The reason the PS3 and Xbox will be identical is cuz Pro Evo's graphics are awful(I'm not talking about the game). I'm pretty sure Mario 2 would look similar on the PS3 and Xbox360.

Tony @ Oct 16th 2007 11:41AM

@5 - I got FIFA 08 the day it came out and it has been AWESOME. Compared to FIFA 07, the computer's AI is MUCH better. This makes it a harder game. Just keep practicing. I find the computer is challenging in professional difficulty, but much better gameplay in the higher difficulties.

Graphics, gameplay, online, etc. are all fantastic. NO SLOWDOWNS AT ALL. Smooth in every camera view and game thus far.

I've yet to play a PES game but I must say FIFA 08 is a HUGE step above FIFA 07 and prior. FIFA 08 is more realistic, and plays should be thought out a bit more. FIFA 07 is more arcade-like but still fun as hell with a friend.

The controls are perfectly fine, just practice. There's little the manual can tell you to become a better player. You just need more time to learn the game.

Jason @ Oct 16th 2007 12:00PM

This is devastating news!! :(

Slowdown in PES!?!? Any little bit of slowdown during gameplay will make it totally worthless. I thought we were getting the superior version!?!? SONY FIX THIS NOW.

This is truly truly devastating. First Madden now this. This is really really going to hurt the PS3 if PES 2008 is not PERFECT. Even more so than Madden, the gameplay of PES needs to be 60fps without a hitch or the gameplay goes in the toilet.

We already lost a ton of users because of an unplayable Madden, and now the rest that have been waiting for the "superior" version of PES are going to go get 360s.

I feel sick. Please let this not be true. Please let this only be slight slowdown during REPLAYS and not GAMEPLAY. Please God. I love my PS3 and this will make it very difficult to continue doing so.

ryano @ Oct 16th 2007 12:50PM

jeez, if they quit porting them from 360 and instead make it from scratch the PS3 would definitely get a superior version.

take Call of Duty 4 for example. built alongside the PC and 360 versions it has better resolution and lighting.

the PS3 sucks at ports, just make it using the hardware it was built to use, not to try and decode programming from a 360 game.

frankym @ Oct 16th 2007 1:09PM

I've had FIFA 08 since it came out and the game is simply....SUPERB. Graphics, gameplay, etc. However, I was looking forward to also picking up a copy of PES. If there is a slowdown on the PS3 version I will simply not buy it. If this info actually turns out to be true it will be a huge dissapointment. This would be a huge mistake as most true soccer fans use PS3. Hopefully this is only a pre-release issue.

Tony @ Oct 16th 2007 2:39PM

@8. I've played Madden 08 on the PS3 and I didn't see any slowdown. It ran just fine. I'm not a Madden fan though but saying Madden is unplayable is simply not true.

Honestly, is there ANY way for you to actually measure fps on the PS3 or the 360? I know on the PC it was easy, hell, some games like Quake even had a command line for you to see the FPS.

For all you guys know Madden on the 360 runs at 35 or 40fps.

Anyway, I'd like to play the demo for PES but I really think FIFA 08 will be hard to beat.

russ99 @ Oct 16th 2007 3:08PM

C'mon Konami...

The USA Pro Evo fans like to play soccer year-round too. Why must we wait for the new Pro Evo until January, when the rest of the world gets it in October???

Pretty silly, especially when the only difference is packaging.

I guess this is paybackses for Sony shafting Euro gamers with the PSN store.

Loc13 @ Oct 16th 2007 11:27PM

While PES's graphic may not be as good as FIFA historically, it's the gameplay that matters. True, PES don't have all the clubs licensed, but you can change the names, or get save files from other people to correct that issue. When it comes to gameplay, FIFA feels like a game for kids.

Just look at metacritic's top ps2 game charts, the last three PES games all average over 90 points. And if you read the reviews, they're always about how the gameplay rocks.