PES 2011 3D - Hands On Preview

Dateline: Amsterdam, 19th January 2011 - Nintendo's European press event for its incoming 3DS handheld. Messrs Enomoto and Hatsumi of Konami's PES development team reveal brand new features for PES 2011 3D and let gamers go hands-on with them for the first time. Does it get any more exciting than this? Well, perhaps Shingo 'Seabass' Takatsuka could have been there as well to put the icing on the cake but you can't have everything. Enomoto-san and Hatsumi-san also work as Producers on the PES series and are probably best likened to Assistant Managers or First-Team Coaches of Team PES - the Sammy Lee and Steve Clarke to Seabass' Kenny Dalglish.

Unlike the Liverpool management team though, which is merely struggling for the team's survival this year, Team PES is pressing forward. Following the marked improvement in performance with last year's PES 2011 on the home consoles, Konami is now building on this success with what is - according to TVG records - the first ever 3D football game for a mass-market gaming console. These are exciting times indeed and what better way to mark the event than with a brand new camera view? We know, we know - it doesn't sound very exciting, does it? We balked a little bit as Konami explained how the new 'Player's View' camera will immerse gamers in 3D, allowing them to pick-out team-mates more efficiently with pin-point passes thanks to the depth of vision offered by the 3DS' Autostereoscopic technology. Glasses-free 3D is all well and good, we thought, but surely it can't actually help you thread a defter pass...

Oh, how wrong we were. The 'Player's View' camera effectively follows your selected player at close range from a slightly above-and-behind perspective. There's some dynamic camera work - the view will pan around your player as you change direction and fly across the field as you make a pass - but other than that it's fairly persistent. Think of it similarly to a 'Become A Legend'/'Be A Pro'-style camera, only with you playing as all 10 outfield players rather than just one. And it really does immerse you deeper in the experience. The sensation of taking a long shot and watching the ball perceivably travel away from you, or noticing a team-mate slowly drifting from their marker so that you can float a lobbed through ball over the defender are all added to considerably with 3D.

It's not as if depth-perception has been a problem with 2D football games in the past - a sense of space and timing have always been key - just that you feel a greater reward for exploiting it with the 3D 'Player's View' than you would with a traditional side-on perspective. Somehow there's a stronger link between your vision as a player and the movement of AI team-mates. Where long balls became something of a lottery with the 'Become A Legend' perspective in previous PES titles, now they're something to exploit. When crossing the ball, you're no longer hitting and hoping into an indecipherable mass of players in the box. With PES 2011 3D, it's significantly easier to spot which of your team-mates has managed to edge in front of their marker or when your towering striker has subtly pulled off towards the back post for a deep cross.

But there are some detractions to the 'Player's View' at this stage as well. Movement can be awkward at times, particularly when you have to track back and chase a ball in the direction of your own goal, or when attempting a swift turn for example.  This kind of directional movement is sometimes followed poorly by the camera, which can obscure your vision of surrounding players making it harder to pass to team-mates or avoid opponents. That said, the 'Player's View' usually avoids these pitfalls and generally transitions more smoothly in play than it does awkwardly. And it's not the only camera type that's available anyway, as Konami has promised that at least five will ship in the full game. These are set to include a 'Vertical Wide' view that displays the pitch vertically across both screens and a 'Spider View' that's located above the field of play - presumably the remaining two will be more conventional side-on views.

Beyond glasses-free 3D, the Nintendo 3DS' other trump card is 'StreetPass'. It's effectively a mode where your 3DS wirelessly communicates with other 3DS units nearby and plays games with them without you even knowing. In PES 2011 3D's case, 'StreetPass' is used as an extension of the Master League mode. The feature uses your Master League team data to automatically decide the outcome of matches against other 3DS owners. So, you may be out walking your dog at the park with the 3DS in your pocket while your Master League team is battling it out with somebody who's feeding bread to the ducks, all without either of you knowing what's going on between your pocketed 3DS consoles. There's a ranking system for this Master League meta-game as well, with top users receiving the rank 'UEFA Champions League'.

However, if that all sounds like witchcraft to you, then there's always the traditional offline Master League mode to keep you happy, while PES 2011 3D will also ship with the UEFA Champions League mode from the home console versions and the standard Exhibition mode as well. One thing we were left slightly unsure about following our hands-on was how close this 3DS build is in terms of gameplay to the current-gen builds of PES 2011 on Xbox 360 and PS3. Our initial impression is that the game doesn't feature quite a few of the more advanced features from the home console versions (e.g. Enhanced Defender AI, 360-degree dribbling) but it does seem to be up-to-date in a couple of other areas. Passing appeared to have a kind of semi-automatic feel to it, for example, almost like the 360-degree passing system that was introduced in last year's current-gen games.

Modes certainly won't be as abundant as they are in the home console versions though. Judging by Konami's presentation in Amsterdam, the 'Become A Legend' mode won't ship with this 3DS title, while multiplayer games are limited to local wireless play only. Official licenses are also a bit of a grey area - the Champions League mode has been confirmed, although it's unclear whether the Europa League, UEFA Super Cup, and Copa Libertadores licenses will be included in the Master League mode as they were on last year's Xbox 360, PS3, and PC titles.

PES 2011 3D isn't only going to be a high-profile launch title for the 3DS; it's also going to be the first mass-market 3D football game, ever. That's a formidable billing to live up to but Konami appears to have tuned this edition of PES well to the 3DS. Features such as the 'Player's View' camera and 'StreetPass' Master League indicate that the handheld's key selling points are being well adhered to here, while the gameplay retains the integral parts that you'd expect from the PES name. It's certainly not going to be a disappointment for PES fans, while gamers looking for a decent footie game when the 3DS launches won't be disappointed either.