Posted by francis in PES 2009 News on Mon 25 Aug 2008
This is what was unfortunately not posted last Friday for me, although now I’m a little more knowledgeable about the blog-writing software, it shouldn’t happen again!
Introduction
Hey guys. I’m currently at Reading Festival so I’ve only had until Wednesday night to write this column. This is the second edition of my ‘In The Red’ column, and I’d like to thank you for all of the [almost all positive!] responses from last week’s.
New season
So, the new season has started, and with a 4-0 thrashing of Pompey, Chelsea are looking good. It’s obviously early days, but with Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool winning their first matches, and United not playing as well as they would have liked against Newcastle, I can’t help but think it’s quite obvious that there’s going to be the ‘Big 4’ divide again this year.
I am going to talk about the England League season as it goes on and on, and for those of you who didn’t like me focusing on Liverpool in the last edition, I apologise. I was only trying to raise a little discussion about the influence of boardrooms on the football pitch, and talking about Liverpool every week is something I am not going to do.
New ideas for PES
The thing I’ve come to realise whilst getting older and watching England League football on Match of the Day (no season ticket for me…), is how defences can’t afford to let strikers have even two seconds of room outside of the box, otherwise they might find themselves in a lot of trouble. I’m not even referring to the big name players such as Rooney or Lampard, but any club striker really, such as Dean Ashton or Heskey; obviously, still big names in their own right.
I was thinking whether this should - or even could - be incorporated into Pro Evo? Maybe if a forward manages to turn past a midfielder, setting the ball up for a long range effort, the shot could be a little more accurate?
New ideas for PES are always welcome, and I hope you don’t mind me sharing mine occasionally.
I can’t remember who responded somewhere saying that a ‘PES petition’ should be created and passed onto Konami. I thought this was a good idea, but surely this petition wouldn’t work? Everyone has different ideas about what should be incorporated in Pro Evo ’09, just as everyone has different music tastes, so maybe in this petition the best we could hope for would be a list of general ideas and opinions?
The Contract Debate
With the Cristiano Ronaldo debacle this summer, it’s made me think about the loyalty of players, and the ability of big name players to almost force their managers to sell them. They don’t seem to realise that a contract is exactly that, a CONTRACT. Maybe CR should have thought of his wish to play in Spain before he signed for United. I don’t think there is going to be a way around this really, apart from managers standing up to players who try to do this, so I wholeheartedly applaud Alex Ferguson… however much it pains me to do so!
This week’s ‘column’ is a little shorter than I would have liked, though having had to finish it before Thursday, I was a little pressed for time! As always you can email me at francis_newall@hotmail.co.uk and comments on your preferences to what I talk about, whether you liked it, or just general comments on the article, are all very welcome.
Posted by Krishna in PES 2009 News on Fri 22 Aug 2008
Well, so far so good for all you PESGamers. All sorts have been coming in thick and fast, I have been finding it hard to keep up. This information has been gathered from various playtests. Playtesters played a 70% completed game therefore certain flaws might be fixed when the finished game is released. Here is another gameplay video, click here and credit to “muzza798″ for posting this gameplay video in the PESGaming forums.
Here are some of the improvements, facts and flaws in this years game:
Some new features enhance game’s realism, like players calling for the ball and a sense of genuine intelligence
Animations have now been smoothed out, more of a natural flow to the game now
A Major European Competition will be Licensed in this years game
No La Liga License this year
4 Players able to play in a game online (2 vs 2)
‘Become a Legend’ mode can be played online
Cannot play as a Goalkeeper or Defender in ‘Become a Legend’ mode
Better edit mode, very intricate
Master League points have change to currency (Apparently)
New Manual Pass system
Goalkeepers have improved
Improved tackling, now harder to beat players
Shooting is also harder, Striker’s stats and body positioning play a bigger part in how accurate a shot will be
Player models have improved, players look more realistic (Beckham even has his neck tattoos)
Lighting effects have been improved
Long balls and crosses seem a bit ”floaty”
The ”Invisible wall” around throw in taker still exists
New “clearer” menu system
Wembley confirmed to feature in this years game
French Ligue 1, Italian Serie A and Dutch Eredivisie will be licensed in this years game
Argentina, Brazil, England, France, Greece, Holland, Italy, Ivory Coast, Japan, Portugal, Spain and Turkey are the confirmed national teams at this point
Manchester United and Liverpool FC are the only 2 English teams licensed in this years game
Jon Champion and Mark Lawrenson return in this years game, with a few new lines and comments
Custom MP3 files can be imported into the game to be played on the menus
Still no mainstream music, but there are over 60 rock songs to choose from
The Lobby returns in this years game making it easier to find your opponents online
Boots will be fully customizable in this years game too
New ability to import sound files, so players can create their own chants
The look of the grass has been improved
The ball does not seem to roll for an enternity along the grass
LED advertising boards have been added (Only on the next gen versions)
Goal nets have been improved
You may well know some of this information already. It’s just a quick heads up. There are many more videos and updates in the PESGaming forums, check them out. Leave your comments on how this will improve the game plus what would you like to change?
Posted by dougiedonut in PES 2009 News on Thu 21 Aug 2008
PES off!! 21st August 2008
I’d like to start by thanking you all for your contributions to my new PES Off!! column,
I look forward to serving you up more topics to discuss - especially in the run up to the eventual launch of PES
in October.
So last week I covered topics on what we find annoying about PES, and this week I’d like to talk about
our online experiences of PES. My primary focus on online play is based on PES6 for two reasons:
1) I boycotted the purchase of PES2008. For me the game doesn’t exist! Especially since the online mode was broken.
2) PES6 online is still superb!
Anyway, This week I wanted to talk about the sorts of teams we play online with.
Personally I never use Brazil or Inter for games, for obvious reasons. In ranked games I used to pick England to do battle with national teams, but mostly that was because I was always up against a lot of Brazil players.
I always argue with mates that using the best team in the game is the easiest thing to do.
You’re always going to be fairing better with them against lesser players, especially if you’re a decent player.
Personally I like the underdog status. I prefer taking on the likes of Brazil with teams such as South Korea or Turkey.
I am pretty good at defending, so can nullify the impact of the likes of Adriano, Ronaldo and Ronaldinho to a handful of chances between them. And at the same time, because I am user lesser known teams, people don’t know what to expect from them! Straight away their guard is down, since they think they’re going to win before a ball has been kicked.
And then I let them have it.
I should point out that this doesn’t always happen - I have had very good players beat me, but even then, I’ll make them work for that win.
My most enjoyable experiences with club teams have come with a team I’ve come to love called Constanti.
The number of times I’ve heard people whilst we’re picking teams say over their mic - “Constanti - who are they??”!
They’re a turkish club team, and I’ve beaten the likes of Real Madrid, Inter, Barca, Man Utd, Arsenal etc.
Its amazing the reactions you get from people when you beat them with a lesser known team.
I’d be interested in knowing whether anyone else does this sort of thing, or whether they tend to stick to the top teams to battle it out.
Which brings me on nicely to my next main point - quitters. When I first started playing online it would really bother me if people quit on me. I would work myself up about this, and be asking myself - why are these people playing online if they can’t accept the fact that they can’t win every match??
Surely everyone knows and can accept that they are not the best player at PES, and that they will have to take a beating once in a while? I don’t claim to be the best around, I know I’m not. What I can claim is that I will give anyone a good game, and make them earn that win against me.
But now, I am more philosophical about people quitting on me. I take it as a compliment. These quitters knew that they were outclassed by me, and the only thing they could do is quit. This has helped me to accept when people quit on me.
I would personally like to see a new system implemented to help combat quitters online.
If you quit more than 10 games (you have to allow for net disconnections), then you face an hour’s online ban.
20 games, and that’s a day’s ban - and so on, on some arbitrary scale. I think something like that would help
to make people think twice about quitting. I’d be interested to know what other schemes you guys can think of to help combat the curse of the quitters.
And for the record - my worst defeat was something like 9-1 (everything went wrong for me! own goals, silly defending - and the other guy was pretty good too!), and my best win has been something like 8-0.
I tend to try to not beat people by more than 4/5 goals, since this normally results in them quitting.
I would like to end this short post with a little anecdote - I once played against this kid, who was clearly out of his league playing against me, and I punished him by scoring at least 6 goals. But to his credit he kept on trying and trying, and didn’t quit on me. I even left a message for him saying he was a credit to the game for sticking it out
whilst knowing he was in for a spanking. Most people would have quit in those circumstances.
If there are any people out there reading this who have tendencies to quit - just remember - in every game you play where you are outplayed - think of it as a learning experience to help better your game.
Quitting whilst losing doesn’t improve your abilities.
Posted by Dan Bolas in PES 2009 News on Wed 20 Aug 2008
This footage is taken from the Leipzig Games Convention in Germany, the usual place for the first PES footage of the year. Obviously this has been taken on a handheld camera, and features no sound, but the game itself looks very similar.
What is interesting to see is there is no slow down at all. Hopefully this will be a positive omen for the online experience. The footage shows two human players competing against one another as Brazil vs. Portugal. The end of the video shows a human player (France) playing against the AI, controlling Brazil.
Posted by stevestoke in PES 2009 News on Sun 17 Aug 2008
“Am I going to s**t on my idols?”
Well…..no. Neither am I here to praise, grumble or even give you hardcore updates on our beautiful game. My purpose is to bring you a more relaxed weekly Sunday diary looking into the weekly life of an EvoGeek. And heres what I found.
Subject Number 1 - Myself
I walk to and from my mundane 9 to 5 and while on the way I drift off, in deep thought about my beloved custom Staffordshire United team. As you fellow obsessives know, when that negotiation period comes round you get to fall in love with a number of signings all over again. Bored as I am on my walk I find myself drifting deeper, even talking to these players in my head preparing them for Man United away. Then when im in full drift I then take my unhealthy geek obsession to the extreme by having full blown press conferences and being vocal about my squad/promotion chances/whether i’ll sign a new contract.
Subject 2 - The Family Man
I never told that to anyone but my friend Chris and, nervously waiting for his reaction do you know what he said? Keep taking the pills? Get help dude? Not quite. I think his exact words were: “Thank F**K im not the only one” and he proceeded to spin off about driving to work and constantly having to defend his beloved Matuidi to the harsh, nasty press we’re forced to deal with on a daily basis (in our heads)
Subject 3 and 4 - The Social Whores
A lad i know was telling me back in the day he was at school and, not being bothered with the subject, proceeded to write a number of variations on his Newcastle United formation on the back of his work. What he didn’t realise was that he needed to hand it in at the end. 2 weeks detention was a bit harsh. (i’d have thanked him for giving me the tactics i needed to sort out my underperforming misfits but thats just me). My best friend also told me he can’t wait for his fiancee to go to her friends cos he gets to blast out Evo full volume while turning the commentators down and shouting out his own variations of what he assures me is professional commentary.
Subject 5 - The Celebritys
I got a call from a mate reading out an exert from Rio Ferdinands book. I’ll let the big man’s quote speak for itself : “Pro Evolution Soccer is our favourite when not in training. and I reckon i could easily get a job as a commentator as mine is unbelievable. On one particular time when me and Fletcher annihilated Rooney and Wezza we held a mock press conference and made them explain the problems between the two and to justify their poor performance while i filmed it on my mobile”
Geek Chic : Not for everyone………..but not so uncommon either. See you next week.
Posted by francis in PES 2009 News on Fri 15 Aug 2008
Introduction
Hey guys. Seeing as Dan publishes his weekly column, ‘Interfering With Play’ on Tuesdays, I’m going to start posting a weekly blog on Friday evenings so as not to ‘piss on his bonfire.’ I always look forward to Dan’s IWP come Tuesday, and I hope that eventually people can start looking forward to Friday evenings too! My name is Francis, I’m 20 years old and a lifelong Liverpool fan. I also do games testing once or twice a week for Microsoft/Xbox, so I’m waiting on the call to go and test PES ‘09!
I’m one of the five new bloggers, and along with Krishna, paulc, Steve from Stoke and dougiedonut, I hope we can raise a few more issues, and share opinions and views in a friendly and well-mannered environment!
Love of the game
I’ve always loved ‘PES’. Ever since Pro Evolution Soccer 1 came out on the PS2, I’ve been hooked! I still remember having that red and grey case sitting next to the console. Unfortunately I only ever saw the disc a couple of times; the first being when I put it in my PS2, and the second, when it got replaced with Pro Evolution Soccer 2! Since then, the gaming world and indeed Pro Evo itself have undergone large changes. Back then I’d dream of the day I could just turn the console on and play against someone from America! Unfortunately because I own an Xbox 360, that dream is yet to become reality…
I am a fan of PES ’08, and I do still play it regularly. For me the pace is not too fast, and the only things that trouble me are the free kicks, and the online lag which is just incredibly frustrating! In my opinion, it was a big step up from PES6 simply because of the power of the next generation consoles.
The Big Question
My big question this week is what would we, as PES fans, look for in the ultimate Pro Evo? Would it be an exact, lifelike replication of live football? For me, possibly. But if a completely realistic football game was released, would it be too slow paced? Would 70% of ten minute games end up 0-0? This leads onto the question of how realistic a game can get? I believe that in ten or fifteen years, games will be so unbelievably lifelike to the point that one wouldn’t be able to tell if they were watching a real football match, or a computerised one.
It’s a fair Kop
As I’ve mentioned, I’m a Liverpool fan. And a hugely frustrated one at that. We just can’t seem to consistently win the ‘smaller games,’ which I believe is the difference between being Premiership Champions, and third or fourth place.
The crisis at Anfield is one I’m sure most of you have read about in the papers or on the internet. Our American owners just don’t seem to be able to let Benitez do his job; they said Gareth Barry was too expensive, and then offer Benitez the same amount of money to make a bid for David Silva! But who can blame their misplaced faith? The squad rotation system obviously hasn’t been working, and Benitez seems to be the only one who can’t see this. I apologise for going off on one, but I truly believe that this season we have the strongest squad for at least ten years, and it seems as if somehow, come the end of this season, we again will be going for that elusive runners up spot!
That’s all for this Friday. I didn’t want to write too much with all the PES news, screenshots and everyone looking forward to an ‘official news release’ on Wednesday, but I’ll get my brother to upload my blog for me next Friday as I’ll be at Reading Festival! If people like, they can email me at francis_newall@hotmail.co.uk and comments on your preferences to what I talk about, whether you liked it, or just general comments on the article, are all very welcome.
