Konami·Released Sep 15, 2015·Single player
Pro Evolution Soccer 2016 is a football simulation game. It is the fifteenth edition of the Pro Evolution Soccer series. The game features improved artificial intelligence, dynamic match weather, larger set of player animations, new night time lightning and a revamped Master League.
PES finally finds the balance between stout sim and accessible arcade, but a poor port cast shadow on an otherwise great game.
PES 2016, while not being perfect, feels true to its title - it's an evolution. Master League has been revamped and fine-tuned into an excellent mode that only suffers thanks to the lack of licenses, MyClub is growing well and differs enough from Ultimate Team, and the gameplay feels refined and balanced enough to make every game a challenge but not a chore. Thanks to all of these factors, PES 2016 currently feels like it's in a league of its own.
In Malcolm Gladwell's 2005 book Blink, the pop science writer casts his contrarian gaze over the Pepsi Challenge, the 1…
Pro Evolution Soccer 2016 is a strange entry in the series. The improvements are obvious and clear to see from the outset but the areas in which it has taken a step backward take a lot longer to actually uncover. You don't realise that you haven't conceded a free kick for ages until you've played more than a handful of games. You don't realise that the keepers pretty much can't save low shots until you've conceded a dozen goals in the bottom corner. This means that your time with PES this year will be spent playing for an hour or two and then putting the controller down in frustration. It's to Konami's great credit that it somehow always calls you back to it.
Konami's dethroned soccer series has entered a new golden age.
Pro Evolution Soccer is back on PS4 and Xbox One, with an improved collision system, more animations and a frighteningly powerful editor. Will it topple FIFA?
