PES 2016 Preview - E3 2015

Pro Evolution Soccer is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. The football (or "soccer", you heathen) franchise once stood firmly at the top of everyone's "footy" list, but in recent years it has been more contentious with rival FIFA. The latter, in my opinion, has edged the former out in recent iterations. PES 2016 aims to not merely rebalance the scales, but put themselves firmly ahead. I tested the game at E3 to see if this PES is the best yet.

PES 2016's new motto is "Love The Past, Play the Future", meant to highlight the series' heritage and core values while looking forward to major improvements. Players can experience an enhanced Fox Engine, which the developers admit was going through a teething process in last year's game. This promises a huge boost in responsiveness and enhancement to every facet of the game from player appearance, online play and, everyone's favorite, Master League.

The cover of PES 2016 features the Brazilian Boy Wonder Neymar Jr., the third member of Barcelona's deadly triple-threat attack force. The star on the packaging never had much of an effect on me. I say bring back Pierluigi Collina the mad-eyed ref, or have one of those polygonal, slightly Japanese character models who graced the early covers.

PES 2016 now has a more advanced collision system. What this means is scrappier, more realistic interactions between players while they shuffle and push for space within the box and navigate the rest of the pitch. It's players being jostled around the pitch, struggling when being tugged by defenders, that hopes to bring a sense of real physicality to the (not always) beautiful game.

Another feature I was impressed with, and which reminded me of EA's recent addition to its Madden series, was "Aerial strength". Headers were often very frustrating for me in football games. Whenever I booted it out from the keeper or cleared the ball, my opponent always seemed to win the header. True, this made me a better player by playing the ball low and being conservative. But sometimes you just need to boot it to safety. In PES 2016, you can now use the left stick to put the player off or jostle for the better position making you feel like you actually have a chance.

The 1v1 control has been improved - one of the most crucial features in a football game. Dribbling around players, making that incisive pass at just the right moment is invaluable. A football game lives and dies on the responsiveness. You can move better in tight positions and better harness feint/skill moves (which I abuse). And it's not just the attacking player; it's the defender too. In PES 2015, I felt defending was awful. I'd execute a tackle but there was always a delay - an automatic red. Thanks, ref. PES 2016 has claimed to change that, allowing you to take those chances and make split second defensive decisions.

That above point regarding defense knits well with PES's so-called "Perfect Defense", which allows timed and effective tackles. Now the ball won't just go straight to your opponent once again or out of play; you'll get it.

You'll also appreciate sharper player AI. Another frustrating aspect of both previous iterations of the competing soccer series was that players did not make intelligent runs and strayed offside far too often. Obviously timing is crucial, as is the use of the one-two pass, but I was often yelling at my TV for a player to move away from the stands and get behind the back four. This applies to your goalkeeper, too. This should make your goalie not simply stand by as balls fly in the back of the net. He'll dive, catch, deflect, and anticipate a lot better.

Finally, "Celebration Control" has been introduced, which lets players have complete control over goal celebrations. Bad idea, PES 2016. I've played online enough to know that the only celebrations used are: Gangnam Style, Shhhssh, the Dead Fish, Flag kick, and Telling Off. They're fantastic when you're the one celebrating; when it's someone else you want to break the disc in half. Celebration Control lets you go across goal or into the stands, with a series of prompts appearing on the screen. I will wait to see how my online opponents plan to abuse these celebrations to infuriate me.

PES 2016 also features significant improvements to several key modes and features. Master League, a staple of my early PES experience, has received a complete revamp. It looks a lot cleaner now, as opposed to last year's effort, which I found to be a little clunky and confusing.

The visuals have also been greatly improved. Again, in PES 2015, I found the players - from randomly generated ones to the pros - had a strange, sentient mannequin quality. Now, players are actually recognizable and the unknowns have an individual quality to them. Weather effects, like rain, look nicer hitting the pitch, affecting passes and the rate at which the ball moves. Well, better late than never, I suppose. However, this extends to the footwear the player has on, such as the difference between blades and studs, influencing how well a player retains their balance.

Another interesting feature is dynamic weather. Your match may start of sunny, but then rain clouds suddenly roll in after a few minutes. If you're playing in the North West of England (Manchester City and United), you might as well set it to constant rain, and I say that coming from the North West.

Returning to player motions, there are more movement animations - three times more to be exact. The way the goalies saves the ball, how distinct players move (Arjen Robben's prancing, Ronaldo's signature sprint), as well as the way other defenders and attackers shoot, dribble, and pass have been upgraded. Now, players will also complain and react to situations around the pitch like late passes and poor referee decisions. And it's not just the players' movements that have been upgraded, the ball now moves more realistically across the pitch.

myClub, the long-awaited Ultimate Team imagining which debuted in PES 2015, makes an improved return. Player leveling was a fantastic addition and something I am very excited about. Being able to take those fledgling players with promising futures (Paul Pogba, Memphis Depay, Raphael Varane, etc.) and reaching their full potential with opponents online adds some much-welcomed variety to a football game. I can't be the only one sick of seeing the same players on everyone's team.

A new camera angle, the "Dynamic Wide Camera Angle", was also a big improvement. I hated the previous iteration's angle because I like to see a lot of the pitch. However, my choices had me feeling as if I could either stare into my players' souls or view them from the moon. This new camera system will also follow the action and ensure you see what you need to while playing a rapid and fluctuating game. PES 2016 will also exclusively retain its use of the UEFA Champions League club competition. This three-year deal means the game has the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League club, which will be featured in various modes.

So, what was playing the game actually like? Well, PES 2016 had a bar set up at E3, which was a lot of fun. I believe the best way to test any football game is playing against a real person, so I challenged NGN Executive Editor and fellow E3 attendee Alex to a couple of rounds. .

Firstly, the game performs a great deal better than PES 2015. Frankly, I lost a lot of faith in the series from the last version. I thought it felt too arcade-like and unresponsive. As soon as kick-off began, I could breathe a sigh of relief. It just plays better. The dribbling, the one-on-one situations, the off-the-line clearance, your athletic keeper - it's simply a better experience.

It was only upon writing this article, going through the list of improvements, that I can confidently say that I felt every gameplay aspect improved. If you ask me about the match, my mind conjures up some of my favorite moments. I can tell you of that insane and acrobatic clearance in front of goal; the moment I used my skills to weave around a player and rush on the break; that freekick scored against me that had me wringing my hands; that lovely flick off Benzema's ankle that nearly led to an insane goal.

If you're wondering, Alex won [Won the rematch, too! - Ed]. I won't make excuses...expect that I was tired, hadn't warmed up properly and that header was disgraceful.

PES 2016 did everything I wanted it to. I'm a fan of both games. I don't see them much as rivals any longer, but diverging game experiences. I always enjoyed the fluidity of skill moves in PES 2016, the contextual player reactions- they make it feel like a real game. If you had a hard time guessing, I am certainly looking forward to Pro Evolution Soccer 2016 and can't wait to get back on the pitch.

PES 2016 launches September 15 for Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and PC.