Xbox Gaming in South Africa

The first day of June has seen a glut of information hit the internet about the 2011 version of Pro Evolution soccer, with both Eurogamer and IGN receiving unprecedented access to Konami’s Tokyo offices to play around with early preview builds of PES 2011. We’ve summarised the major changes for you in this easy to read bullet point list:

• Defending has changed with the tackle button now being tied to the direction of the analogue stick so the 1-on-1 duels between defenders and attackers can be far deeper.
• Feints are now also easier to pull off with a combination of the left bumper and the right stick and are useful for more than just showing off your silky smooth Ronaldo moves.
• This year’s biggest change is in the passing system with players now able to precisely place passes and lobs using the new power bar indicator in tandem with the manual passing system.
• The ability to set the game speed in the Options menu has also made a return to this year’s game from previous entries in the franchise.
• The tactics and management areas have also received a few changes with drag and drop functionality and the ability to set up tactics to automatically be implemented in certain situations such as switching to a more defensive system if you go 2-0 up.

It seems evident from the level of access and early previews that Seabass and his team from Konami are clearly going out of their way to listen to fans this year and try to rejuvenate the PES franchise. Only time will tell if it's enough to take on the marketing clout and gameplay finesse of EA and FIFA in a World Cup year.

Along with the new details come the first gameplay screenshots. Check them out below: