[Free-Game Friday is a new weekly feature in which a writer from the GamerLimit staff looks at a completely free game and discusses their experience with it, allowing you to download it at the end. Feel free to check out our full schedule right here!]

Once again it’s Friday, and that means that we’ll be taking a look at an indie title that’s free to download.

This week’s game is Firequark: a first-time indie project from a U.K-based developer, better known by his nickname, Pilch.

Firequark is a breakout-style game with a twist. The aim is to destroy every brick on the screen without dropping the ball. You get three lives to progress as far as you can through ten levels. Rather than controlling just the one paddle, however, you use the mouse to control four – one on each side of the screen. What this creates is an enjoyable and addictive game that’s very easy to pick up, yet intensely challenging as you progress.

Having four paddles comes at a cost, though; the ball can leave the game by any side of the screen. This means that you have to pay attention at all times and be doubly cautious when it comes to aiming your shots. As you progress through the stages, the ball moves faster, and the blocks take more hits before they break.

In addition to this, sometimes breaking the bricks will release power-ups. These power-ups float slowly around the level until the ball makes contact with them. At this point, they shoot off in a random direction. Catching an orb with a paddle will also grant you a power-up.

The effects of the power-ups are varied: some have positive effects, and some will hinder you, so you’ll need to watch to see what colour the orbs are. Green and red are good and bad, respectively. However, you can also come across the super versions of these orbs, with blue providing you with massive benefits, and purple signifying certain doom, if caught. Benefits include slowing the speed of the ball down, multi-ball and a laser beam that instantly vaporises one brick, whereas collecting a bad orb can shrink your paddles, or even reverse the controls for a short time.

In the later levels, when the ball is traveling at a faster speed and you’ve gathered power-ups that have increased the size of your paddles, it can be difficult to avoid picking up a stray purple orb. This means that there is a very low chance of completing the game. Despite this, the developer has promised that both he, and his girlfriend, have completed the game. So hopefully this knowledge will spur you on.

Although it’s obviously simplistic in design, the game is presented with a lot of polish. The color scheme works well, and it’s a nice touch. The audio for the game is also oddly catchy, reminding me of some of the tracks from Pixel Junk Eden. Best of all, it’s an innovative, new take on a formula that worked well, and in an indie game like this, that is what really matters.

The only real negative I can see is that after you’ve completed the ten levels, there is no added incentive, such as a score, to get you to replay the game. However, Pilch is running a leaderboard of sorts on the game’s forums and has promised a reward to anyone who can beat the game.

If you enjoyed titles like Peggle and Super Breakout, and are looking for a quick, challenging distraction, then Firequark is worth investigating. It’s nice to see someone building something up from scratch, and hopefully, if he gets enough exposure, we’ll see more levels or perhaps a new game from Pilch in the future.

You can pick up Firequark here.

Earlier this week GamerLimit was excited to reveal a trailer for the new Alice game by American McGee, unfortunately we, alongside many other sites, had been misinformed.

Hit the jump for the official comment from McGee’s blog.

Yesterday, a few sites picked up a video of Alice made by one of our fans and confused it as an official trailer of Alice 2. I wanted to clear up any confusion – as I mentioned in my post it was unofficial, and does not represent any of the final art direction or story elements in Alice 2. We look forward to sharing information on the game in the future.

The first Alice game was a darkly unique take on the traditional children’s story, and I for one am looking forward to the sequel with baited breath. There is no doubt that the fan made video is still a treat to watch, and it can be found at it’s original location here.

Source: American McGee’s Blog

Halloween is here, and so I thought it would be a good idea to have a reunion with a classic horror game of the past.

When it comes to survival horror and Resident Evil, the two will never be separated, despite its evolution. Although Capcom’s previous title, Sweet Home, was the true pioneer of the genre, and Alone in the Dark had created the recognizable framework that later titles would copy, it is Resident Evil that represents the “everyman” of the genre.

The game’s creator Shinji Mikami was originally tasked with making a survival horror game set in a haunted mansion. However, he thought that things needed to be more visceral in order to have a more significant scare impact. Mikami, inspired by George Romero’s films, therefore decided that zombies would be a more appropriate enemy than ghosts.

The resulting blend of extreme violence and lateral thinking was named Bio-hazard. Unfortunately, Capcom realized that they would find it extremely difficult to secure a trademark under that title. Resident Evil was thus born, and it arrived on the PS1 in 1996. Hit the jump for more fond memories.

The plot of Resident Evil was threadbare. After a series of bizarre murders in Raccoon City, Bravo team, part of a special forces unit named STARS, is sent in to investigate. When they don’t return, Alpha squad is dispatched to find out what happened to their compatriots.

The game opens with a live action cutscene: Alpha team is conducting a helicopter search over a remote forest region. They arrive at Bravo team’s broken down helicopter, where they come across the severed hand of one of their colleagues. Suddenly, they are attacked by a pack of vicious dogs. One of the group is killed, and Alpha team’s pilot panics and takes off without them. The survivors run for their lives, stumbling through the doors of a large, seemingly abandoned, mansion in the nick of time.

The presence of the dogs makes it impossible to venture outside, so the remaining squad mates: Jill Valentine, Chris Redfield, Albert Wesker, and Barry Burton split up, trying to discover the fate of the other members of Bravo team. It soon becomes clear that the creatures that first attacked you were just the tip of a nightmarish iceberg.

The first zombie encounter is now regarded as an iconic moment in gaming. Soon after entering the mansion, you hear a gunshot. Upon investigating, the noise leads you to a zombie devouring one of Bravo squad’s members: Kenneth J. Sullivan. Although the CG cutscene now looks dated, at the time, watching the zombie tear off the head of one of your dead teammates while it feasted on his flesh was pretty terrifying. This was the first evidence that this game was going to be darker than anything you had ever played before.

As you explored deeper into the mansion, fending off more zombies and avoiding traps, you would stumble across disturbing evidence of clandestine experiments, as well as the remains of the unfortunate members of Bravo team. Small things, like finding the maddening entries in a guard’s diary, or coming across some notes about the condition of a test subject, strengthened the atmosphere.

Your investigation reveals that the mansion was home to a research facility owned by the Umbrella Corporation. As the player travels through the lab, s/he begins to uncover the secrets behind Umbrella’s scheme, and the player sets out to destroy the facility, and the terrible weapons it contains. Of course, to make matters more difficult, by this stage the most powerful enemy in the game had awakened and was out for your blood.

The game used 3D models on top of pre-rendered 2D backgrounds; this meant that the superior processing power of the PS1 was able to shine. The Spencer Mansion was an eerie character all on its own. Large portraits leer down from walls, and the ornate furniture seems ghoulish and macabre. It was all classic haunted house material, but never felt corny. The lab was also ghoulish, in a clinical sterile way, and provided a nice contrast to the mansion. Of course, today, the graphics are not impressive, but in 1996 they were considered cutting-edge.

Having pre-rendered screens meant that each scene could only be viewed from a static camera position. Mikami used this to ensure that the player was never quite aware of what was lurking around each corner. You might have entered a room and heard a zombie groaning before you saw it, forcing you to raise your shotgun and wait for the abomination to lurch into sight. These moments of waiting were undeniably tense.

Combine this with the nature of the controls and combat, not being able to move and shoot, and rarely having a large stockpile of ammo, the player was reluctant to fight in the most pivotal situations. Combat in Resident Evil really did feel like a struggle for survival, especially against the faster, stronger foes. Although today people complain that the controls feel clunky, the static camera angles and the nature of the opponents you faced meant that the limited maneuverability suited the game perfectly.

The monsters of Resident Evil came in many variations. For example, basic zombies were slow, but durable; you could only be sure they were dead if you had blown their head off. Zombie dogs, known as Cerberus, moved with deadly speed. Similarly, later on you would face off against giant spiders, reptilian-like hunters, and the strange insectoid, Chimeras. These latter foes could withstand several close range shotgun blasts, and cause far more damage with each attack.

Although, towards the latter half of the game, players would be used to search every nook and cranny for ammo and health to fight off those monstrosities. Similarly, to aid your fight, more powerful weapons, such as the Magnum and the Grenade Launcher, gave you more stopping power, which was a necessity for defeating some of the more brutal enemies.

The boss battles also provided memorable encounters. The final fight with Tyrant on the roof of the mansion was an awesome climax to the game, but a battle with a giant snake comes close to toppling that moment in terms of enjoyment. These fights forced you to stock-up on healing items, like green herbs and first aid sprays, and they also required the expenditure of vast amounts of ammo in order to overcome the beasts. These moments served to break up the sections of the storyline, and created focal points to drive the game onward.

Resident Evil gave you the option to play as one of two characters: Chris Redfield or Jill Valentine. Playing as Chris was slightly harder, because Jill could lock-pick, carry more items, and have the innate ability to solve certain puzzles; whereas Chris required help from Rebecca to solve some of those puzzles. To balance this out, Chris had more health, and could run faster, allowing a slightly different approach to combat.

Although the majority of each character’s game was similar, there was enough variation to make it worthwile to play through with both Chris and Jill. For instance, Chris never encountered Barry during his exploration of the mansion, whereas, as Jill, you never met up with Rebecca. There were also multiple endings to the game, and  it was possible for the characters to die depending on your actions.

I’ll be the first to admit, the script was bad. Lines like, “You were almost a Jill Sandwich”, will forever live in infamy. In a way, the hilariously bad voice acting helped cement the game’s reputation as an all-time classic. That is because it felt exactly as if it had been pulled out of a horror B-movie, and so, it made thematic sense. At the end of the day, the majority of the game was spent wandering the mansion alone, and in those few moments, where the dialogue was so atrocious, it didn’t damage the mood of the game too much.

The combination of violent action, dark atmosphere, and puzzle solving was a big hit. Not to mention the fact that the game has been remade several times, with arguably the definitive version, Resident Evil 4, released on the Gamecube. Today, Resident Evil is a massive series, arguably one of Capcom’s most important titles, and it is always important to remember the great game that started it all.

Sam and Max: Beyond Time And Space (S&M:BTAS) is a an episodic series of adventure games that originally appeared on the PC under the name Sam and Max: Season 2. Obviously, it doesn’t sound as cool, hence the name change.

Having finally arrived on the Xbox 360, fans of the series will be happy to hear that everything holds together well, and delivers what most people would expect from a Sam and Max game: humorous dialogue, superb audio, and well designed puzzles.

The concept behind this “Episode Pack”, is that S&M:BTAS gives you five episodes to play through, and although you can tackle them in any order you want, there is a loose storyline to be aware of. At its core, the plot consists of surreal events occurring at random leaving Sam and Max to deal with the consequences.

If you didn’t play the first season, there are a few gags that you will miss out on, but in reality, there is nothing major to worry about, as Sam and Max give helpful re-caps upon meeting certain characters.

The basic premise is that our protagonists, the iconic canine and leporine duo (or dog and rabbit to normal people), are partners in the freelance police, a detective agency. They must use their wits and occasionally heavy weaponry to solve a variety of mysteries and save the day. In adventure game terms, that means traveling to various locations, conversing with the locals, and solving some puzzles.

Speaking of the locals: Sam and Max’s adventures take place in a variety of weird and wonderful locations. They always begin at their office, but eventually travel to exotic locales, such as the north pole, Easter Island, outer space, and even Hell. These settings help set the stage for a number of memorable encounters with quirky characters, such as a possessed Santa Claus, a pop music loving giant robot, and a rave full of emo vampires (before Twilight made them fashionable).

The gameplay itself is exactly what you’d expect from an adventure game, with each scene having various items and characters who you can investigate by highlighting with your cursor. This “point and click” style suffers on the 360, as a controller simply doesn’t provide you with the same level of accuracy as a mouse does. It isn’t a game breaking flaw, because there are  no moments when failure to perform an action results in death, but it does hinder your fun on occasion, and makes things feel awkward.

Another reason why the imprecise controls don’t have much of an impact is because the puzzles you’re faced with are not exactly mentally taxing. Although they all fit well with the course of the narrative, and there are many variations of mini games, there is nothing that will trouble the average player.

Of course no-one plays a Sam and Max game because of the thrilling gameplay, but for a humorous and engaging experience that 90% of today’s games fail to deliver. To be blunt, S&M:BTAS is one of the funniest gaming experiences available: no gag feels too cheap, no exaggerated character falls flat, and the puns fly thick and fast.

Whether it’s hearing Santa being described as a hairy, bloated, pagan God or hearing Max talk about a re-animated Grover Cleveland, the jokes are witty and at times hilarious. Also, it’s not just the lead characters who hog the limelight when it comes to classic one liners; minor characters are just as likely to be the source of inspired dialogue.

On the other hand, the presentation leaves a little to be desired. Although the characters are hardly the sort who would start in a hyper realistic game, some textures are bland, and when there are close ups, the simplistic animations and character models start to stand out. That being said, characters and locations are all interesting and appropriate, but it’s a shame the game didn’t get a full HD remake.

One of the more important aspects of the game is the sound. S&M:BTAS’s soundtrack of swinging jazz numbers is superb, and gives a classy film noir feeling that fits well with the detective story theme. In fact, the music is so good, I sometimes sit with the game playing in the background. The voice acting is also top notch, with the actors giving distinct and memorable performances, especially in the case of the two protagonists.

If you are a fan of Sam and Max and haven’t yet picked S&M:BTAS; now is the time. It’s a big step up from Season One, and yet, it still provides all the elements from the series you already love.  If you haven’t heard of the series before, and are looking for a game that provides laugh out loud moments with colourful characters and some enjoyable puzzle solving; then picking up Sam and Max: Beyond Time and Space is definitely better than getting tuberculosis for Christmas.

In a fairly lengthy statement Robert Bowling, at Infinity Ward, has described why the matchmaking system in Modern Warfare 2 (known as IWNET), will be beneficial for PC gamers. It’s a fairly detailed explanation, so take a deep breath before jumping in:

I recently broke news on a PC community member’s podcast that Modern Warfare 2 would be introducing a completely new backend infrastructure called IWNET that would allow matchmaking for multiplayer games on PC. The news, by default, means no more browsing through a Server List for a server with the settings / ping you want among other things, and sent shockwaves through the hardcore PC community, leading to many more questions than answers as to ‘HOW’ this would work, and if it would really be better for the PC community as a whole.

Hit the jump for the rest.

Questions, assumptions, and speculation I intend to dispel.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is actually the biggest investment Infinity Ward has ever made into the PC version of our games. It’s also the most feature-rich PC version we’ve ever made. IWNET takes the benefits of dedicated servers and allows them to be utilized and accessed by every player, out of the box, while removing the barrier to entry for players unaware of how to maintain a server on their own.

How does it do this?

Matchmaking & Smoother Gameplay: When you want to player a multiplayer game on PC, in the past. You’d have to scroll through a Server Browser which listed every available server which was hosted by individual server admins. Each had their own private rules, mods, or ways of playing the game. Most players would also use the server browser to find just the best quality game (based on PING). With IWNET matchmaking, it takes all that into account for you. All you have to do is select the playlist (pre-set gametypes with custom rules) that fits the style of play you are in the mood for. When you do, it will automatically find you a game with the best performance, ping, and preferences based on your location and individual connection as well as matching you with players of your same SKILL. So you’re always guaranteed the best game performance for where you are and what connection you’re playing on as well as an equal game with other players of your same skill level, not rank, but skill level. It doesn’t mean you’ll just be thrown into a random game! It will put you in the game that will give you the smoothest gameplay possible without you having to manually find a server with the best ping.

Playlists and Private Matches: As I described above, Playlists are pre-set game modes and gametypes for public games. If you just want to jump into a public game of Search and Destroy or Hardcore Search and Destroy and you don’t care about fully customizing it, then you can utilize playlists to do that quickly for you. However, say you’re in a clan and you want to play a Clan match with another team, or you want to practice for an upcoming tournament that has specific rules in a private game. Then you can start a Private Match (which is essentially like running your own private server) where you have complete control over the rules, who can join, boot players you don’t want, and essentially control the entire game or tweak it to your liking. Once the rules are set, you can invite the other team in or just start it up with your clan to practice with the custom rules before the match. This now allows you to play custom games out of the box without the need to install mods, find a modded server with the rules you like, or worry about not being in control of the match.

Party System and Friendslist: Modern Warfare 2 on PC also makes it much easier if you want to party up with your friends, or again, with your clan for a match. You can utilize the friendslist to see when your friends are online, and invite them to your Party. A Party allows you to move from game to game as a group. It’s great for clan matches, because you can party of with your clan and move from public game to public game together. Or if you’re doing a scrim, party up and invite the other clan (who is in a party) and they’ll all join at once. Set up a private match together and play. It makes setting up scrims or games with friends easier and hassle free.

Cheat / Hack Free Games: The biggest benefit of using IWnet by far is the fact that you don’t have to worry about joining a server full of aim-bots, wallhacks, or cheaters. Or relying on the server admin of the server to constantly be monitoring, banning, and policing it. Modern Warfare 2 on PC allows us to control the quality of the game much more than ever before as well as utilizing the VAC (Valve-Anti-Cheat) system to keep games clean of hackers and cheaters.

All in all, IWNET adds a load of new features that the PC version of our games have never had before and allows us an infrastructure to continue to update and improve on the game post-launch.

Source: CVG

ABC has reported that “too much time playing video games may leave children with wrist and finger pain,” at least according to a survey conducted by a rheumatologist and his fifth grade son.

I have experienced this pain myself on at least one occasion.  When Snake was crawling down a microwave tunnel in MGS4, I had to mash a button for 3 minutes straight.  Hit the jump for more information on this half-assed report.

“Around 170 children ages seven to 12 filled out questionnaires about their video game habits. Among the results: the younger the player the more significant the pain. Also, those playing an hour or longer a day were more likely to have achy hands.”

Yes, that’s right, achy hands. Elsewhere in the report it’s referred to as joint pain, which sounds much  more serious.

The details of the study are being presented at the American College Of Rheumatology’s annual meeting. ABC reports that it’s just one of a number of reports indicating “(use of) video games, PDAs and cell phones can lead to repetitive stress and nerve compression injuries”

There is no doubt that the occasional videogame player will suffer a repetitive strain injury from the constant button mashing involved in Street Fighter 4, but I wonder how many American children are seriously injured each year playing American Football?

Source: abc7

For those of you who love to read every single new scrap of information that is released about EA’s upcoming title Mass Effect 2, we’ve got some good news. EA have opened up another section of the Mass Effect 2 website, dubbed the Arsenal.

In it you can view the weapons that Shepard and his squad will use as they embark on a new mission to save mankind. Currently the Arsenal is only home to a single weapon, the Avenger Assault Rifle. But no doubt in the next few months additional new weapons and perhaps even some of the classics from the original game will be unveiled.

So until the 26th of January go and sate some of your desire for Mass Effect 2 with a sneak peak at what’s to come.

Source: Mass Effect 2 official website.

GameStop director Leonard Riggio has sold 2.3 million shares in the US retailer, worth $60.2 million, which has lead to some analysts to predict that some tough times are ahead for the company, as the last time Riggio sold shares in 2007 he avoided making a 62% loss.

Hit the jump for a breakdown of this news.

A spokeperson for GameStop told Barrons, that the shares were sold for tax planning reasons. However Alex Romayev from Form4Oracle noted that it looked as if Riggio lacked confidence in the company’s stock.  He is also the founder and chairman of Barnes & Noble and holds a 31 per cent stake in the firm valued at around $369.1 million. Alex commented that “unless he desperately needs USD 60 million, he’s got a lot bigger stake in Barnes & Noble. Clearly he thinks selling GameStop is better than selling Barnes & Noble.”

The predicted outlook is postive, as Wedbush Morgan’s Michael Pachter believes the retail chain is well posistioned with price cuts, and improved year-on-year comparisons seeming to suggest the company will bounce back. GameStop shares closed down a fraction yesterday, dropping 0.4 per cent to USD 26.86.

Sources: Barrons, GI, Edge

Chinese online games revenues jumped 6.18 billion yuan ($906m/£576m) during the second quarter, an increase of 39.5 per cent year-on-year, according to data released by research firm Analysys International.

Hit the jump for the breakdown.

China currently has more people online than any other country in the world, unfortunately it looks unlikely like western devs will be able to take any advantage of it, after the Chinese government banned foreign investment in the country’s online games industry.

According to Reuters it’s free-to-play games operator Tencent Holdings that is the market leader, holding 20.2 per cent of the market and generating 1.24 billion yuan in revenues.

Shanda Games followed with 20 per cent of the market and 1.23 billion yuan in revenues, while NetEase, who have a deal with Blizzard Activision to run World Of Warcraft was in third place with 12.7 per cent of the market and revenues of 780 million yuan.

There are some concerns that the new government regulations will affect the relationship that NetEase currently has, and we might well see the end of WoW in China. At least for the time being.

Once again, rumours about these 2 big titles coming to the PS3 has been quashed.

The rumours started after EA Russia posted up listings of both games for the PS3, however in a statement to Eurogamer, EA confirmed that this was just a mistake.  It is unlikely that L4D2 will ever come to PS3, given that Valve do not like to deal with the console, but many had hoped that EA would port across the Mass Effect titles, with the lure of hitting another 20 million plus install base proving too hard to resist. Guess Microsoft have a pretty big exclusivity deal on that one.

In other news, Atari are publishing a Project Runway game, based on the TV show. The Project Runway video game will put players in the role of an aspiring fashion designer. Similar to the show, players will be presented with different challenges as they create designs and adorn models with hair, make-up, and accessories.

Players can then become the model and strut their creations down the runway using the Wii Balance Board(TM) accessory. Does this sound like more shovelware yes, but I’d love to see one of our guys do a video review.

Finally, in more news you’d be hard pressed to find anywhere else, Left Behind Games Inc (otherwise know as  Inspired Media Entertainment), a leading publisher of Christian video games, are now available in select Walmart stores in the Dallas and Houston area.

Left Behind is a top selling Christian book series, and  Troy Lyndon, CEO of Inspired Media says, “The US market for Christian video games could reach $648 Million within the next five years based upon just 3% of video game sales being in the Christian segment.” This projection is based upon the prediction by PricewaterhouseCoopers that the sale of video game software will reach $21.6 Billion by 2013 in the US alone.

Sources: Reuters, PR-CANADA.net, Eurogamer

Yes, that right; according to Chart Track, Fifa 10 has held off the challenge of Codemaster’s Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising, to remain at the number 1 spot for a second week, despite a 64% drop in sales.

Hit the jump for the rest of the top ten.

1. Fifa 10

2. Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising

3. Need For Speed: Shift

4.Professor Layton and Pandora’s Box

5. Wii Sports Resort

6. Halo 3: ODST

7. Gran Turismo (PSP)

8. Wii Fit

9. Mario Kart Wii

10. Guitar Hero 5

Lower down the chart also makes for some interesting reading, with Killzone 2 in 16th and Little Big Planet in 23rd! It looks as if the big PS3 exclusives are seeing a revival in sales following the introduction of the PS3 Slim, which sold over a million units worldwide last month.

Will Fifa still be on top next week? Do you even care? Regardless you can check out our wonderful review for the title here.

Hot on the heels of their biggest rivals in the football genre, Konami have released a demo of the latest Pro Evo, demonstrating a keen intention to gain back the crown it narrowly conceded last year.

Hit the jump for our impressions of their new effort.

The current issues regarding Pro Evo were not that it was necessarily a bad game, but after so many years of dominance, it felt like the developers had rested on their laurels and not produced a title that fully took advantage of the hardware at their disposal. Whilst their major competitor,  Fifa, took massive strides in a positive direction.

The only option with this years demo is to jump straight into exhibition mode, where 6 teams are available; Barcelona, Liverpool, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. The various menus for making pre match substitutes are simple to use as ever and hopping into a match is quick and easy.

Once you get past the loading screens that show the lineup for the match, you get your first look at the players as they emerge from the tunnel,where it’s clear to see the refinements that have been made to PES’s graphics. Player likenesses are exceptionally detailed, with my only problem being that everyone tended to look a little pale.

Unfortunately these improvements aren’t matched by the presentation of the stadiums or the crowd.

Although there are photographers at each side of the field, catch a glimpse of one in a replay and you’ll find it hard to believe that something can still look so awful in this gen. Likewise, animations seem substandard, player’s legs whir at such high speed they resemble the Road Runner, keepers jerk like angry marionettes when making saves, and players shudder and vibrate at high speeds when they challenge each other for the ball.

There also seems to be no momentum, players can be running full pelt in one direction, yet instantaneously turn and direct a one touch pass with perfect accuracy. Combine this with the fact that defenders seem unable to hold back or nudge aside smaller players with any effectiveness, it can make getting the ball back a frustrating affair.

However Pro Evo hasn’t lost all of the things that made it special, as passing and close control work well and intuitively, and when you shoot you also feel that you are almost totally in control, able to pick the angle and the strength of your shots in a way that’s simple to pick up, yet deep enough to provide variation.

Specific players also maintain all of their real life qualities; Messi is able to skip between defenders with ease, and Steven Gerrard powers in shots from a distance and when you are in control of one of these players it’s a delight to the senses.

But Pro Evo has had all these things for years, and seems unable to make the adjustments necessary now that Fifa has improved so much. While it’s possible that many of the smaller aesthetic problems will be ironed out by the time the full game is release, the bigger issues seem to lie intrinsically at the heart of Konami’s engine, and a bigger overhaul is needed in order to regain PES’s lost place at pole position.

The demo is currently available on PSN and XBL.