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Ball Ball Ball, Footie Footie Footie: PES 2016 Demo Is Out

Kick 'em up

Pro Evolution Soccer 2016 [official site] is not going down well. Once again, its graphics are somewhere between the PS3/X360 console version and the fancier one on PS4/Xbone, which is baffling considering how beautiful fellow FOX Engine game Metal Gear Solid V looks and runs on PC. Still, if you want a big old 3D footie game on PC, your choices are FIFA or PES, so... which will you go for?

As promised, a demo for PES 2016 arrived shortly after launch (sorry, I didn't notice its launch on Friday because I was busy shouting at a referee) and can be found on Steam for your sampling satisfaction. Its graphics settings are turned down, mind.

The 1.5 GB download includes seven teams: Juventus; AS Roma; Bayern Munich; Corinthians; Palmeiras; Brazil; and France. You can play as any of those lot in 7 or 10-minute matches down in Juventus Stadium or Arena Corinthians, fiddling with the time and weather too if you'd like.

I have downloaded the demo, but jokes about bombwarders and FIFA parodies are long in the tooth now, and updating it to riff off Rocket League would be a sorry attempt to milk an old routine. I'm better than that, man. Instead, I simply loaded the demo to take that screenshot up top, given that people have complained the screenshots publishers Konami use on PES 2016's page may be from the prettier PS4 version.

Given that the demo's launcher doesn't even support 1080p screen resolutions (Adam tells me you can edit a text file) and is locked to Low graphics quality, it is not helpful for seeing how the game looks but will show you how it plays. That screenshot is defs how the demo looks for me, though.

Update: reader 'sirdavies' points out he does have options for higher resolutions and settings, so who even knows what's going on there.

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