My personal gameplay experience with PES 2016 

PES 2016 is a top candidate for sports game of the year and it has all the makings of it. The developers have made a huge step from the disappointment of PES 2014 and great improvements since their 2015 game.

Player movements are fluid, trick moves are spectacular and each player on the field acts as if they were their counterparts in real life. Also, player physicality makes a lot of difference whether you win/lose the ball, sprint with top speed or win/lose aerial balls. Players with a low center of gravity - such as Eden Hazard and Sergio Aguero - are a joy to control and break through the opponent's defensive lines.

Controls are not much different from the earlier releases but what I would like to note here is the response to your movement on the keyboard/joystick are outstanding. Your movement on or off the ball is greatly and instantly affected by a simple press on a button which I find is a great improvement.

Passing and shooting have been the best I have seen in any game. The direction of a shot has been challenging in both PES 2014 and 2015, but that is not the case anymore. Shooting the ball is a hit or miss - as in real matches - but they are realistic regarding the position of the player and the ball, the power of the shot and the player's own shooting attributes.

Goalkeeper responses are amazing; they do not save every shot and they do not miss every shot. A shot is a hit or miss as in real like I have mentioned before and the goalkeepers responses are great depending on the keeper's attributes. I swear I had a passing thought they put the actual keepers into the game from how realistic the responses were.

Formation and tactics are easier to edit now, something we have suffered in both the '14 and '15 versions.

Commentary may be repetitive but it is much more enthusiastic in my honest opinion with the inclusion of Peter Drury. As of Jim Beglin, you won't find any new commentary lines than earlier releases which didn't amuse me at all. Also to mention, new commentary names have been included but that is normal with every new release of a football (soccer) game.

The only complaints about this game are the unlicensed EPL teams and the repetitive commentary, other than that the game is absolutely magnificent.

THE VERDICT - 9.5/10 

PES 2016 has all the makings to be the best sports game in history. It has already won Gamescom's Best Sports Game of the Year Award and it deserves all the credit from my personal experience. The game works on low-end PC's with no problems and I strongly recommend it to every football enthusiast.