By Neil Flynn 07.10.2020
Every year consumers are faced with the choice of usually buying one of two football franchises, PES or FIFA. These annualised franchises are the stalwarts of the soccer scene, both of which have in their own way managed to perfect their game engines over subsequent years of tweaks and adjustments. What looms however, is a more daunting task, a task of leaping forward into the next generation with the chance to build something new from the ground up. In the meantime, we have the tasty starter to tuck into first before taking one giant leap for game-kind.
Konami have openly declared that eFootball PES 2021 Season Update is pretty much what it says on the tin, and that they are hard at work on a brand spanking new title for the next release. Developing for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series is taking up the studio's resources, so much so that they didn't really have time to put into this year's iteration of PES. The transparency is key here, as this is a reskin of last year's sublime eFootball PES 2020, right down to the presentation including menus, graphics, commentary and cinematics. Positively, the gameplay is also the same as well, meaning that passes feel great to make and shots still feel as sumptuous to make. This gratification from a sports game is what makes PES very special, as it doesn't just look incredible with all the detailed and realistic counterparts on field but replicates the passage of play for football so fluidly.
Authenticity of presentation is something that FIFA often dominates on. The long and storied history of FIFA having fully licensed leagues, competitions, teams and players is something that is well known. eFootball PES 2021 Season Update on the other hand still retains a large number of licensed teams as well as their updated kits and sponsors. Furthermore, the free DLC update to PES 2020 which included the international tournament, Euro 2020, has been included in PES 2021, which means that a number of European football teams also have their real squads, kits and emblems. Club teams on the other hand have been a bit hit and miss, with AC Milan and Inter Milan licenses being removed and made exclusive to FIFA, including the San Siro stadium. While one hand takes, the other one gives, and that is because Roma, like Juventus, have now become exclusive to PES 2021. This is perhaps not as exciting as the Milan clubs but at least there is a silver lining to losing both AC and Inter. Finally, team squads are not yet quite up to date, but with the transfer window still open at the time of writing it is hard to expect this to be in line with all the permutations that are happening.
Don't go into eFootball PES 2021 Season Update thinking that it is different game from the previous iteration, it's not. However, if eFootball PES 2020 is not already in your game library then PES 2021 is a sublime football game that benefits from all of the tailored updates that PES 2020 received. Konami perhaps missed a beat and could have been a tad bit more generous by making this an even more budget-priced game than what it is being sold for to capture any FIFA players who are on the fence, but it is still worth the price of admission. If fluid, tactical and sublime football is what you are looking for then look no further than eFootball PES 2021 Season Update.
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