Genre: Sports
Developer: Konami
Publisher: Konami

There are two ways to approach sports games: the implicit "clever minimalism, let the player's imagination take over" approach, and the "let us try to make this look like a photograph" methodology. Every Pro Evolution Soccer title since the PlayStation 2 era has gone for the latter approach, and in the very recent editions, the players have looked vaguely ape-like and creepy. This year is more of the same, although a saving grace is that the game's animation system is at a "best ever" level, and really produces a convincing product on the pitch.

In the contemporary era, one always knows what to expect from a Pro Evo title: bizarre licensed music, horrible match commentary, and muted crowd noises. While a cynic would say that all three of those points still apply to this year's title, there are small improvements here and there. Crowd noises are a little more varied this time, Peter Drury has come on as the new play-by-play commentator and does a pretty decent job, while the licensed soundtrack grows on one, becoming more endearing-- in a Forza Motorsports kind of way-- than annoying.

The Pro Evo match engines have always produced very good representations of the ebb-and-flow of real matches, replete with plenty of tactical options. But this year's edition, almost unbelievably, eschews canned animations in favor of a very nearly fully-dynamic physics engine. And it is absolutely awesome! This reviewer's favorite mode, Master League, has had a complete overhaul, and one really feels a personal connection to one's club and acquired players.

The Pro Evo titles have always felt like "the connoisseur's football games", what with their accurate portrayal of the vastness of football, from small grass roots teams to international mega clubs, with their ultra robust edit modes, and nuanced tactical options. But this is the first Pro Evo in practically forever that is just a flat-out great game, full stop. The user interface is all-new and is actually not awful, while the tactical options now available are almost unbelievably flexible. And that match engine, always a Pro Evo speciality, is the best that Konami has ever released. Pro Evolution Soccer 2016 is the best modern-era football game yet.