PES 2013 Demo Is Now Available For Download: First Impressions Review

The demo for PES 2013 was released this week on Xbox, PS3 and PC, and is now available for download.

The features of the PES 2013 demo include:

5 min matches
8 teams: England, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Flamengo, Fluminense, Internacional and Santos
2 stadiums: Royal London Stadium and Vila Belmiro

Before I got started, I set up a game between England and Germany on PES 2012 on the PS3. Both systems were connected to the same TV and running through the same sound system. The aim was to give the PES 2013 a fair review, in comparison to PES 2012. My wife also came in, to give me an extra eye as an observer. And after playing 3 games with the demo and the 2012 version, here is what we saw:

1. There is no real graphical difference between PES 2012 and PES 2013. Those looking for a massive graphics update will be disappointed. However, the color palette for 2013 doesn’t look as muddy or washed out as its predecessor.

2. The frame rate looks much steadier on close-ups and cut scenes. I’m wondering whether this has anything to do with this game running from the demo as opposed to running from a disc?

3. In my opinion, the Player ID is a ‘gimmick’. Yes you want your players to be distinguishable. And yes, they are. Nani does his somersault after scoring goals, Ronaldo has his sick dribbling skills. Welbeck has his shirt pull. Balotelli set his house on fire, and so on. But these are features that should already be in these games, right?

4. The AI needs a little more tweaking. In at least one game, the CPU playing as Italy had nearly a dozen offsides called…in the second half! Also I noticed that in this year’s iteration, when there are missed goals with balls still in play with the potential for second chances, the AI makes more of an effort to try and play that ball to make another attempt at scoring. Too many times in 2012 (both in FIFA and PES) when you missed goals that sometimes bounced off of the post back into play, forward momentum from the attack seemingly just stopped with no one trying to get on the ball and try again.

5. The controls are the same. But you can pull off some nifty combo moves with a bit of practice.

All in all so far, there looks to be no real difference on the surface with PES 2013 and PES 2012 but while the AI is seemingly getting some tweaks and new moves, PES 2012 is going to need a lot to push FIFA 13 off of the top. The game is set to release on October 2, 2012.