Konami has released new details and screenshots of Pro Evo 2008, due on PS3, Xbox 360 and super-powered PCs this Autumn. The biggest boast, predictably enough, is the re-worked AI, or 'proprietary adaptive AI system' according to the press release. It's called Teamvision and here's a bit more info from the release:
"Unique to the Konami game, Teamvision is a sophisticated AI programming that learns and adapts according to an individual's style of play. As such, it will learn new ways to build attacks and to counter specific movements and previous attacking or defensive errors, ensuring games are more in line with the tactical but flowing nature of the real thing."
I always thought that's what the PES AI was supposed to have been doing all these years, but obviously I was mistaken. Still, it looks like I'm finally going to have to add to my two basic scoring tactics.
Also in the 2008 edition - enhanced close-control, with new subtle moves to beat defenders, and better dribbling. Konami is also promising to improve the set-piece system, which is a relief as it's currently easier to flick a frozen pea through a Hula Hoop crisp suspended a quarter of a mile away around a slight corner, than it is to net from a PES free-kick. Or at least that's my experience.
Finally, we're promised incredibly realistic facial animation thanks to the wonders of HD. Will we be able to lip-read what the players are saying to the ref - or for that matter, what they're whispering to each other in the game's touchingly homoerotic goal celebrations?
The strange thing is, though, all these promises hardly matter. The audiences for PES and FIFA are so entrenched it'll take an almighty fumble of the ball by one of the competitors to convince fans to defect to the other. Frankly, I'll buy this even if they make 'Man Blue' as ineffectual and sluggish as they did last time. That's realism for you, I suppose.
