Pro Evolution Soccer 6 - The Official Guide by Piggyback

When you think of computer game guides the most common assumption would be towards the RPG genre such as Final Fantasy and other popular franchises. When you think of other genres such as sports game, guides aren’t that well known of as who would want to admit to perfecting a move with the aid of a guide… and when presented with a Pro Evolution Soccer 6 guide I was quite sceptical at first, as what could a book teach me about a game I claim to be a veteran at?

Now the first section in the guide is entitled “How to play” which like its name suggests is a basic break down of the game mode and options. Most of the info here is nice and easy to digest and is targeted mainly towards the new user of PES rather than the die hard followers.

The next chapter is a rather meaty section entitled Coaching Manual. In here it goes through the basics to the more advance areas of PES from defence to shooting with a varying degree of intensity. What first impressed me about this area of the guide is the way the information is presented to you. Each tip has a plethora if information at it disposal, starting with the button commands to perform the task. This is shown for the PS2, Xbox 360 and for the PC. After this it lists the difficulty and the effectiveness in a typical out of five rating system. Now we are shown the main ingredient of the tip which is broken into three main areas:
Overview – This gives the reasoning behind the tip/tactic
Execution Tips – Gives hints towards to successfully accomplishing the tip/tactic
General Advice – This basically gives you more information in using the tip/tactic.

The three main areas Overview, Execution tips and General advice all combine to give a strong amount of guiding and information. It’s always good to learn how to do tactic/move but actually learning the reasoning and the benefits are often much more useful. The final section is related player abilities, which gives often useful input to what factors the user must take into account when considering the tip/tactic in question.

One of the most impressive factors of this section is that each tip comes with a reference in the form of a Letter-Number combination which all refer towards a section on the DVD that accompanies the guide. The ages old saying “a picture is worth a thousand words” is proved beyond a shadow of a doubt here, as it easy to read and think about a tip/tactic, but actually seeing it in action is often priceless. Thankfully the DVD part of the guide seems to deliver messages that would be otherwise more difficult to explain. Each tip/tactic on the DVD is shown with the aid of a controller diagram so you can see what buttons are pressed and when. Also you are often shown the same tip/tactic from multiple angles, which really allow you to digest the information. The only draw back with the DVD is that I found it sometimes overwhelming, trying to watch the video clip and at the same time watching the commands being input. After you get used to way it’s presented you find yourself learning. Also included in this section are the ‘hidden’ moves that aren’t listed in the manual, some of which are there to perfect the repertoire of the more advanced players, such as the hidden cross.

The next main section is tactics and strategies which offers information in relation to formations and team/player instruction. The information here is presented well and gives detailed reasoning and pointers to help you out. Whilst most seasoned PES players will know tactics are only as good as the player using them, the guide respects this and doesn’t tell you what formation you *must* play. Instead it offers information on each area giving strengths and weaknesses. This I found quite useful as normally when playing PES I gloss over this type of stuff and normally just change formation. I found myself learning here and I will definitely try and use some of the information provided here to my advantage.

The section following on to this is dedicated to everybody’s favourite game mode Master League. It starts off by giving you the basics behind the game mode, by explaining what each of the options mean. Most of the information here again is aimed at new PES players as the working of Master League are fairly well known by frequent PES players. An interesting section is the “Talent Guide” which details the must have players in the game. A large amount of information is provided here, such as peak age, special abilities, initial wage…. Etc. Most other guide like this would have simply listed names in a long list, but the way this guide sets out the info it makes it very easy to pick out who to buy and when.

The penultimate section is a massive two page spread on a selection of the main club/national teams featured in the game. This details all the players and their skills as well as special abilities. Also shown are the strengths and weakness of the team, which is also divided into max/minimising risks as well as tips for opponents. The information provided here is more of a reference than a guide, but that said it does allow you to plan for playing against teams.

The final section is entitled extras and that details the other miscellaneous information such as PES Shop and Xbox 360 Achievements.

Like I said before at first I was sceptical when told about a PES “guide” but I’ll be honest and say that it has taught me a few things I had previously overlooked. For hardcore PES players I don’t think they will get the usage out of this as much as new PES player but it’s definitely worth the read. It obvious plenty of time and effort has been invested in producing this guide (the DVD is testament to that). For players wanting that extra knowledge I would quite happily point them towards this guide.