Five things we have learnt from the PES 2022 Open Beta Test


The official release of PES 2022 is not far away, and Konami has now released an 'Open Beta Test' giving us our first taste of the new game.

This also means that the PES 2022 demo can't be too far away either, so keep your eyes peeled.

Open Beta Test

Konami has released an Open Beta Test under the name 'New Football Game' into the PlayStation and Xbox stores.

You can play the New Football Game Online Performance Test from Thursday, 24 June to Thursday, 8 July, giving you a two-week window.

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EXCITING TIMES - What is this New Football Game

The beta test is available on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.

All you need to do is go to your console's official store, download "New Football Game Online Performance Test" and launch the game. You do not need to pre-register to participate in this test.

Gameday build-up

Our first impressions in the trial were that the game looks brilliant from the get-go.

The in-game graphics are great as expected (we were playing on PS5), but all the build-up as you reach kick-off is excellent too.

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SMILES ALL ROUND - The game looks fantastic even in its early stages

Watching the teams go through a full warm-up while your sort your team management is a real one-up from seeing two or three of your stars idly keeping the ball up...

Life-like graphics

As we mentioned above, the in-game graphics are terrific and couple with the Unreal Engine, PES 2022 will look insane upon release.

We played as Barcelona (it is Messi's birthday after all) and we may as well have been watching the real thing.

All the players were brilliantly done, and the emotions showed after scoring added an extra depth to the proceedings.

Snail-pace gameplay

Yes this is the first test and Konami has stressed this is not the finished gameplay, but boy was it slow. Painfully so in fact.

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SLOW AND STEADY - Build-up play is slow in the trial

Punching the ball into your players' feet with a bit of pace was nigh on impossible as the ball trickled around the pitch unless there was a tackle in which case it would fly off in any direction.

We are almost certain this will improve, so let's not be too hasty.

Outstanding Neuer

This may just say much more about my finishing ability in the game rather than anything else, but finding a way past Manuel Neuer proved rather difficult.

In a 5-0 win (yes, flex), the goals came from a penalty, three rebounds, and a pass across the goal.

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NOT SO CLINICAL - Barcelona were great at reacting to the second balls

My opponent appeared to have similar struggles against Marc-Andre ter Stegen in my net, so it could be a low-scoring season in PES 2022.

Matchmaking

It did take us a while to get into a game, but it is early days so it could just be a case of a limited number of users.

The purpose of this beta test is to evaluate the quality of the online matchmaking and connection to the servers.

Once in a game, the connection was faultless so again a tick in that box.

For more articles like this, take a look at our eFootball page.