“Pick that one out” – Pro Evolution Soccer 3

Something unusual happened during my first game of Pro Evolution Soccer 3. It was a friendly match between my North London and an AI-controlled West London Blues. I went behind early on, it stayed 0-1, there was scarcely another chance on goal all match. It was not a very exciting game of football by most normal standards. And yet I found myself totally focused, hanging on every interception and deflected pass, almost out of breath at the end of the match. Even compared to Pro Evolution Soccer 2, it felt involving in a new way.

There is not a single dramatic change which explains why Pro Evolution Soccer 3 feels like such a great football sim. Dramatic changes were not how Konami had got to the position of Pro Evolution Soccer 2 beating FIFA 2003 in every sense in a head-to-head the previous year, and scared EA into giving Pro Evo a week to itself this time. Pro Evolution Soccer 3 is again slower and more thoughtful than International Superstar Soccer, but it’s a product of the same philosophy, a through line that couldn’t be seen in the same way for their rivals: close control, close-up view, situations developing as naturally as possible.

The title Pro Evolution might have only been a later substitute for Winning Eleven in some parts of the world, but it’s an apt one. With Pro Evolution Soccer 3 it’s all of the small changes to increase the fluidity and sense of real space that make the difference. Matches ebb and flow. The commentary, never previously much of a highlight, includes occasional assessments of the momentum of the match, and it’s a twist of magic that outdoes the accuracy of any specific details.

It took me five matches and a switch to easier opposition (England v Saudi Arabia) to even score a goal, but it didn’t get any less compelling along the way. A good part of the reason was the very sensitive power bar for shots, which makes for quite a test of finesse and technique. Much of it was also the way that working angles to find a way through is a sophisticated and always shifting challenge. The ball can get snatched from your player’s foot just as you’re preparing to shoot if you don’t clear enough room. Passes go in the direction you intended much more often than not — which various FIFAs showed isn’t that straightforward to provide — but you have to think quickly and clearly for that to have a good result.

At which point it would be easy to turn this into something on video game difficulty, on how making things tough makes the end result so much more rewarding. There’s an element of that, but as enjoyable as the eventual success was there’s more to it. The most enjoyable things about Pro Evo 3 are more akin to what I get out of Gran Turismo, at easier difficulties as much as harder ones. It’s the sensation of being in control of something detailed and finely tuned in which every reaction in every shifting moment has an effect that creates its own new range of possibilities and probabilities. And yet, with all of that, remarkably simple to pick up. It’s not pure realism or complexity, but somewhere that sits in a sweet spot in regards to both. There is more than one way to make a simulation, but this is a powerful one.

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Top of the charts for week ending 18 October 2003:

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