PES 2010 - Pro Evolution Soccer

By 2009 the PlayStation 2 was a console the football world had mostly left behind. The headline version of PES 2010 was built for the PS3 and Xbox 360, and the PS2 edition is a separate, lighter product from Konami's Tokyo team. That gap is the interesting thing about it. This is a series trying to hold its identity on hardware that could no longer keep up with where the main line was going.

What survives is the feel of the pitch. Pro Evolution Soccer built its reputation on weight: passes that need a moment of thought, players who carry momentum into a turn, and a ball that never looks glued to a boot. The PS2 version keeps that general approach. Matches reward patience in the build-up and punish careless possession, and the best goals come from moving the ball with a little foresight rather than from sprinting down the wing. It is a slower, more deliberate game than many of its rivals.

The cost of being the secondary version is plain. Animation is stiffer than on the newer consoles, presentation is simpler, and the roster leans on the unlicensed names that always marked the series. You will find real stars with accurate abilities beside teams wearing invented kits and strange club names. Fans in the PES camp used to shrug at this, since the licences were never why they played. Today it still stings a little.

The modes cover what you would expect from a football game of the period: exhibition matches, league and cup play, and the Master League career, which was always the main reason to keep a PES disc in the tray. Building a squad from modest beginnings and watching it grow remains a satisfying slow burn. Local multiplayer for two is where the game earns its keep, because the tension of a tight match against a friend does not need a modern engine.

It is not the best version of its own year, and it never pretended to be. But it is a reminder that a good football simulation can come down to rhythm and restraint, and those two things had not aged out of the PS2 yet.