Posted by Dan Bolas in PES 2011 News, Site Updates on Sun 27 Jun 2010
A while back, I (Dan) asked for people to write their own columns for PESGaming.com, to offer an alternative view for the community, and to potentially find a new columnist to joing PES Gaming in the long term. Phil’s “Do I Not Like That” column has since taken that title, however there was a concept that couldn’t be ignored, and therefore I am publishing Tom Horgan’s piece, which I hope you will enjoy and comment on.
The future of Football Gaming in 10 years – it’s a blur!
I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together!
- I am the Walrus – Beatles.
Hi I am based in San Diego California. I love this site, and I thank the guys behind it for what they do.
I have been playing PES since 2003, first on the PC, then PS2, and now PS3. I threw out EA FIFA when I discovered PES and its marvelous game-play, but I am taking an interest in EA FIFA again having played with their World Cup edition this year.
When Dan asked for guest articles, I thought it would be fun to combine my interests in PES and Semiconductor Physics, especially the application of Moore’s Law, with a view to predicting where we get to in 10 years time. It is one persons view and I am no expert.
Predicting the future of a game, which depends on a collection of state of the art technologies, is very difficult and perhaps even a complete waste of time. What makes it more complex again is that gaming itself is changing due to massive online gaming which is altering perspective on gaming business models (e.g. Farmville by Zynga), and the mould breaking Wii which has changed the gaming developer’s perception of where games can go.
So in this article I will firstly discuss the basic evolution of hardware technology encapsulated by Gordon Moore’s now famous observation and referred to as Moore’s Law. This helps us understand where Graphics processors and gaming platforms in general will end up. I expect a PS4, or XBOX 720 sometime in 2012, and perhaps even a PS5 by 2018 – 2020, although tablet computing thanks to the iPad – could produce the next gaming platforms.
Finally I had the good fortune to speak to senior executives at well known gaming companies about what sports gaming in general will look like in 10 years. The insights are quite interesting and not intuitive given that our feedback to Konami generally revolves around, animations, AI, and specific features. The game developers are beginning to see a broader picture which will impact our games significantly.
Gordon Moore – and his observation; The gaming platform outlook
PES and EA FIFA mostly sell on PS3, and XBOX 360 platforms. What we forget is that these platforms are 4 years old. In the world of technology that is a long time. These are not state of the art systems.
At the heart of every technology based product lies an integrated circuit, a chip, be it a fancy Intel microprocessor, an NVIDIA graphics chip, memory etc. Within that integrated circuit you find a common element, known as a transistor, which is the fundamental building block. Some chips such as Intel or AMD’s multi-core microprocessors have over 1 billion transistors inside them.
Moore a co-founder of Intel observed in the mid 1960’s that the number of transistors that could be put into an integrated circuit or chip of the same size, doubled every 2 years. What is amazing is that this doubling has occurred nearly every 2 years now for 45 years, and looks likely to continue for the next ten at least. To put that into perspective, if I gave you $1 in 1964 and doubled your total dollars every two years, so that in 1966 you had 2, then 1968, you had $4; by 2010 you would have $8.4M. That would make me almost as profligate as a European Bank.
So with semiconductors, the power you had in a integrated circuit back then, would fit into one eight millionth of a chip now. No other economic force or rate of progress such as that of the chip industry has existed in history. It is why we get to whine at Konami and EA’s sorry asses every year that they can do better. We have all taken Moore’s law for granted. The day it stops will not be pretty.
Now at this most basic level, we can say that in ten years time processing power could, assuming all goes well be 32 times better than it is now. But as we know the PS3 is a machine that is 4 years old, so in theory by 2020 we could be 128 times more powerful than what we are used to playing with today, if we get a PS5 in 2020. This is a big oversimplification by me, but the general idea holds, the power of a PS5 platform would be huge compared to now.
We will have a tremendous amount of memory, multi-core cpus, and multi core graphics processing units. The state of the art in graphics processing which has the potential to be a complete CPU solution for the gaming platform of the future is made by NVIDIA and AMD’s ATI unit. These have several processors within the chip. Software tools, such as Microsoft’s DirectX11 allows developers to use these processors to add further realism. The key trends will be increased tessellation (more smoothing of corners, and greater surface detail) and geometric performance (better depth of field, more graphic content and information). To put it into English – Henry Moreton of NVIDIA says with regards to gaming graphics “We look at the film industry as an indicator of where we should be going in terms of the quality of their computer graphic content. We can create imagery that looks like Toy Story (1995 (1), 1999 (2)) now, but we can’t do the character effects seen in Pirates of the Caribbean yet” He is referring especially to the Davy Jones character rendered in 2005.
At the heart of the PS3 lies a proprietary NVIDIA graphics engine (RSX), which was made purely for the PS3. NVIDIA are now producing graphics chips for use in Netbooks today that are 3 to 4 times more powerful.
So 10 mores years get is to the level of realism of Davy Jones and not Woody.
The bottom line is that graphics won’t take a tremendous leap over where they are today until we move to a new platform – say late 2012, but that move will be significant in terms of surface detail, lighting, shadow, camera angles, and movement. Animations could increase 4 fold by that time too, since the additional computing power would be present to leverage them. By 2020 we will have unbelievable graphics, compared to now. I predict we will be able to see mud patches open up on the pitch after extended use, dirt appear on a player, scars and scrapes on legs, socks droop, variable rain, Mourinho graying before our eyes (he’ll be bald by then anyway), perhaps even a zoom in feature as you are playing so that you can home in on the action. Replays will have complete depth of field when you zoom in on a player, crowds will be rendered in great detail. Hair will flow on players, as will gear when moving. There will be so many in-game animations that you will be surprised constantly by one you have not seen before. Stadiums will be a delight to look at; with perhaps a possibility to navigate your way through them, as if you were walking around it. Frame rates will be such as to support full 3D rendering at 120 frames/ second.
The significant boost to CPU power will also give us greater AI capabilities, and game play wizardry. Ultimately Konami and PES will be full on simulations, and the game play difference will come down to who is better at understanding football tactics, and real world game flow. How the controller changes will be interesting – I would expect that tackles will be felt, as will ball kicks either in your hand, or perhaps even an extension of the effect to your leg. Become a Legend, will have much greater similarity to you. You may even be able to rent time at a mo-cap studio and pay for a download that will render you more faithfully in the game.
But…But – there is an additional way games can evolve – The Developers view.
The gaming developers such as EA and Konami hate platform changes. As one of them said to me – imagine making a movie and every-time you want to make a new one, you have to start everything from scratch – design and make new cameras, editing gear etc. This is how a change from PS2 to PS3 feels like for them. They have to re-engineer all their in-house software tools, learn a new way to code a platform. In his view it takes 2-3 years for a company to transport a core game from one platform to another. Because you don’t get to optimize things for some time, until you are familiar with the new platform. This may partially explain why Konami struggled to adapt to the PS3 in 08 and 09. A good rule of thumb may be that if you are the dominant game developer for one platform, then you will not be for the subsequent platform. Because, you want to extract as much revenue or turnover out of the old platform as possible you don’t focus your resources on the new one. Until gaming platforms are based on open standard systems, this dynamic will continue. Developers can go bust from this transition and have.
So the game developers want to find new ways to make money off their product, which in itself will change our experience considerably. I learned the following having interview some people at senior levels within the Industry;
1) Accessibility: Hardcore gamers drive the interest, the chat, and the current business model. But gaming companies want more newbies to take up their game. There are 12 – 15 million of us football fans who buy these games every year or so. That is a drop in the ocean when you think of all football fanatics. So a key development will be to make the game more accessible to absolute novices. The two button controller option in EA’s World cup 2010 is an indication of what is in store here. I have a four year old son. One day I will play against him – do I want to have to teach him how to use the controller, or do I want to be able to have him play with the least amount of fuss. Accessibility is about getting more people involved in the experience without the need for a hardcore gaming background.
2) The evolution of DLC, towards valuable content. Today we are used to DLCs that fix a problem, change a jersey, team rosters, new balls and what not. In the future expect this to be the way we buy our game platform (heck the game may even be free in the future), get weekly updates from leagues around the world in terms of players ability scores, and scenarios from major competitions. EA sports are showing the way here with their NBA Live 10 DLC. They pay a company to watch every live NBA game on a given weekend, and rate each player’s contribution in that game according to parameters that are found within the EA game. Then you can DLC the latest matches, rosters for these games, and the latest performances of the players in order to re-create these matches. Bringing close to real time performance of the professionals whatever the sport to your gaming experience is the trend. So imagine you are in master league and you are tracking the Premier League season, you can essentially play the same match list and have up to date player performance stats in your game. It is all about blurring the distinction between your game and the real world. It is also about finding a way for you to pay for content. Would you pay a pound to download Stamford Bridge to your game – I would. Konami will consider ways to modularize their game to allow them to sell you add on features such as new stadia.
3) Massive Online Communities. If you have not heard of Farmville, you don’t surf enough, and you need more work for your idle thumbs. It is played by 60 million people a day. Imagine every man woman, and child in the UK, and beyond playing the same game every day. Zynga’s Farmville is a game changing sensation (mind you I wouldn’t touch it). The company is the latest Facebook, Youtube type phenomenon. It changes the world. All gaming company’s will try and emulate that. So they will encourage you to go online, and not only play peer to peer, but will want you to play on their cloud, so you buy more, and get advertised to more. Again – and trust me I am not a shill for EA, but their 2010 World Cup game shows the thinking here. They include a scenarios mode, where you play a game from the qualifiers and continue the action after an event such as that imbecile’s handball against the Irish. EA are also offering scenarios that will be available for download after each of the world cup games. If I am correct it was originally generated by Konami in their PES 2008, where they provided a scenario, and you had to complete the game, and certain challenges. EA have taken that to a new level. In the future I expect these to include the event itself, so that your game will have the replay of the goal that occurred in real life, and you take it from there, or try and stop the goal that occurred. I keep thinking of Thierry Henry and how that goal could have been avoided. More ways to keep you engaged with the online community is what this is all about. The more time online, the more you are likely to consider buying online. I expect more competitions, run by the companies themselves, with grand prizes. Would you pay to play in a competition online, if you could win a trip to the world cup, and have dinner with the WAGs? You might. The online performance will be there in 5 years time, and it will be a much better run affair then it is now. I can envisage us buying new commentators, stadia, competition entries, even animations in the long run, scenarios etc.
4) Blurring the line between fantasy and real life. This is where you will see the biggest changes and the beginning of the key trends for the 2020s. There is work going on to bring your own personal reality into the gaming experience, and using the professional’s expertise that is embodied within your game to improve your own real life performance. Did you follow that? You get to compare your performance to a professional captured within the game platform, and then learn and improve from the interaction. An example would be; you buy a ball, the ball has a chip inside it. Every time you hit it, it records the pressure your foot put on it, the speed, and revolutions it underwent, and how far it travelled. You run home, put the ball beside your Playstation 5 and the information is uploaded automatically to your “Become a Legend” self. This information then varies your kicking parameters in game. I made this up, but this is the sort of thinking going on. You would then get in game tips on how to shoot like a pro, perhaps even tailored to your kind of shooting. Your game becomes your mentor.
And so we blur the line between your in game reality and reality itself, learning from each other.
I hope that we have 2 maybe even 3 developers in the football gaming world. Competition brings out the best, so support the weaker one if and when you can. It is not about which game platform is better today, but how each can enable the other to advance the game to football utopia. It’s all healthy in the long run.
Thanks
Tom.
Posted by Dan Bolas in Site Updates on Fri 18 Jun 2010
A new regular feature on PESGaming.com starts this week. Phil Powell, a regular columnist on Soccer Gaming, now has his weekly (Thursday) article featured on PESGaming.com. As with all other articles on this site, please feel free to drop your opinions and views in.
As we are all well aware the world cup is dominating all press and television at the moment and why should this column be any different!? If we’re being honest it hasn’t been a particularly memorable tournament so far, but with a shock Swiss win and the hosts receiving a three nil drubbing it looks like it might be picking up.
One thing I can say in Konamis defence of the goalkeeper AI is that the worlds best shot stoppers at the world cup seem to be playing out a real life version of pro-evo and are doing ridiculous things. I know they’re all blaming the roundest ever football but if we’re honest they are just not good enough.
This brings me nicely on to the subject of two things: player ratings and modelling football movements.
Fernando who?
I’m not sure how many play FIFA world cup and if there are downloads available based on performance through the tournament. I know football manager has these available and theres no reason why it couldn’t be updated for many players in a more frequent download. As I know this topic has been widely debated already, I was thinking perhaps the players or the teams in the game with stats which are just not right. I’m talking along the lines of Adriano in PES6 or Ji-sung Park since the games inception. Why is it some players and teams are just wrongly represented in one of the most widely available football games. I know I’ve previously touched on this on soccergaming but as its reaching the wider audience I think there is more comments to be made. There are several notable players on the game who don’t seem right: Torres and Germany are a good starter for ten. Who would you add to this list as the players or teams who don’t seem right?
Talking balls
In the 4th consecutive world cup we have the roundest ball available, theres lots of press and excuses being aimed at it but at the end of the day – It’s a football. I’ve previously read many comments on IWP (pesgaming) relating to the modelling of the ball movement and the feel of it in the game with the question finally raised as to how do Konami go about modelling it… well now we know. Konamis PES iphone developer, Axel de Rouge, has pointed out just how they go about modelling the highly technical and difficult movement of players and a football.
It transpires they kick tennis balls and run around their office. So now we know…
“We?ve been simulating some shots and volleys with a tennis ball (windows are ok but a piece of the ceiling fell down), some u-turns and 90° turns (with ball), but no tackling or bicycle kicks: didn’t want anyone to get hurt”
http://uk.games.konami-europe.com/blog.do#blog-entry-166
2011 News
E3 is here; I’m sure many of you have been following it and excited by it.
Announcements of both PES and FIFA 2011 can be found there. Also if you have a look at Konamis ‘blog’ link above you can see several screen shots from the new instalment.
http://e3.gamespot.com/video/6265594/
(having wrote this earlier in the week I have noticed the embedded video on soccergaming.com if that’s easier!)
Finally……
Thanks for the comments on last weeks column; For those who didn’t read, I was suggesting there should be an option to ‘jostle’ defending set plays or pull some back once in a while; it happens in every game we watch so why not. Moving on; Brainplants made a comment that there should be a control to ‘Rage Tackle’. If we’re being honest, we’ve all thought it at one point or another !! Why stop there? We should be able to make random players kick back out at you and get sent off. Its all part of the beautiful game.
Thanks for reading. I’m off to see if France can actually score in the world cup finals !!
Posted by Dan Bolas in PES 2011 News, Site Updates on Tue 01 Jun 2010
Some people may have been aware, that June 1st was a bit of an embargo day for PES, with some of the big gaming media channels finally allowed to express their views on what they have experienced so far. Being a fan site, and therefore not technically being bound by the restrictions of the big boys, we are not invited to the early playtests. In spite of a good relationship with Konami, sites like ourselves and other PES sites have been kept away, although we are usually invited to a later build of the game. Expect to hear more from Double D at that time.
So, looking at the information we have gained today, there are a lot of interviews and posts saying very little. Of course, the journalists are given a very limited amount over what they can observe, which in turn leads to speculation and ultimately rumour, however this is not a criticism on either part. This is the earliest Konami have ever shown a PES in development, and IGN, Eurogamer and co. have to fill column inches with reputable information. Links to the major pieces from today’s press releases can be found below.
Video comparing the graphics of PES 2011 with 2010. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOKjKSu-CRo&feature=player_embedded
PSM3 Blog: Interview http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=249016&site=psm
New Commentator, Jim Beglin http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=249073&site=cvg
Eurogamer- Hands On http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/pro-evolution-soccer-2011-hands-on
IGN Hands On http://uk.xbox360.ign.com/articles/109/1092937p1.html
Of course, all of these can be taken as very early impressions, and remember that over the next few months, the coding will become more polished and the playtesting more frequent. I personally hope to try and get down to a playtest at some point in the next few months, but as said above, Double D is usually the man to sort this out. As more (official) news becomes available, the PESGaming.com will provide you with fact and honest opinion on the issues regarding PES 2011.
Posted by Dan Bolas in Site Updates on Thu 29 Apr 2010
This week’s guest post comes from Chris Tedds, a regular contributor to both PESGaming.com and Soccer Gaming. He is taking a slightly more in depth look at the Become A Legend mode in PES, something which I have not discussed too much in IWP.
Become A Legend
One of the few game modes I bothered with in PES 2009 was the ‘Become A Legend’ mode, and while it had its problems, I had a lot of fun with it and it almost made up for what is, in my opinion, the poorest game in the series to date. Sadly, due to Master League mode getting the overhaul it really needed, BAL mode got a little neglected in PES 2010 and most, if not all, of the problems that were there last year are still there this year, with a couple of new ones to boot.
I, like many others, have ideas for improvements and I will mention a few of these ideas here. I’m not going to dwell on the AI because that applies to all game modes. The suggestions I give here will mostly apply to BAL mode only.
Suggestion 1:
At the moment, you start by creating your player, giving him a position, and then playing a friendly match, with the stats you receive being partly based on which position you selected. The problem I have with it is that the amount you get for each stat will be roughly the same no matter what position you choose or how many times you start a new game of BAL. You basically start out with the same guy, only under a different lick of paint and maybe taller or shorter, depending on what you did in the appearance part. You could have the option to completely customize your stats like in FIFA 10, but in the interest of keeping BAL mode from becoming too similar to FIFA’s own ‘Be A Pro’ mode, I’ll suggest something else.
You know how in ML mode you can get your scout to recommend a target man, a free-kick specialist or something else? How about having something similar in BAL mode when creating a player? You can still decide on your appearance and position, but it’ll then take you to a list like that in ML mode, acting as a list of presets for your stats. Want to twist and turn your opponents inside-out? Select ‘Top dribbler’. Want to bomb down the wings and deliver pinpoint crosses? ‘Explosive winger’ is begging you to choose it. Don’t mind sacrificing speed and movement in favour of being an excellent passer and shooter? There’s an option for that. Want to be the excellent all-rounder? Well, you get the idea.
Suggestion 2:
This might be redundant if PES 2011 is going to introduce lower-league teams (and I hope it does), but instead of choosing teams from your chosen league after your friendly, how about having to start out in one of the made-up teams introduced to ML this year (Wondengine Town, FSV Sartomberg, etc.)? You could have it so that one of the three offers is from the team that represents your chosen nationality if possible (C. S. Squanoer will want you if you’re a French player, for example), and you’ll get offers from the big guys once you’ve proven yourself worthy in the amateur league.
Suggestion 3:
I don’t expect to control a legend from the off, but why does it feel like I’ve got to teach my player to walk and stay upright first? Your first couple of seasons don’t make you feel like a promising youngster ready to be shaped into a world-beater… more like a bumbling buffoon who’s just stumbled into a feel-good movie about triumph over adversity (a shoddy sequel to ‘Waterboy’, perhaps). The new overall rating shows your player starting out in the high 50s at most, making you little to no better than the worst of the ML default team. While you do get better eventually (you also seem to get a lot more match experience this year aswell), I would rather start off with slightly higher stats and have them build up a bit slower. Agility has got to be made an improvable stat aswell.
Suggestion 4:
According to some people, the best way to play BAL mode is to have the camera set to ‘player cam’ mode. I, personally, can’t get on with that camera mode, preferring to stick with the side-on view, the default camera for every other game mode. While it’d be easy for some to say that I’m just stuck in my stuffy old ways, it’d be more accurate to say that I’d use the player cam more if it didn’t swerve drunkenly all over the place, which makes movement needlessly difficult. Keep the camera faced the way I’m facing at all times, and I’ll be more than happy to use the player cam and rely on my field of vision and the radar to determine when and where to pass and move.
Suggestion 5:
Okay, I said I wouldn’t get hung up on the AI, but there are some shockingly bad AI decisions that only ever seem to appear in BAL mode, most of them involving the control, or lack of it, of your player. Things such as your player suddenly, and randomly, becoming incredibly picky about which aerial balls he will and won’t go for, especially corners. Or when despite that, he’ll suddenly start charging berserker-style towards the ball, even when a teammate already has it. Or when you run into the box and wait for a cross, only for your teammate to take touch after touch after touch after touch, before finally crossing when the opportunity has passed. Sometimes, they won’t even do that, deliberately running the ball out of play when you’re hanging onto a slender lead. I have never seen these scenarios outside of BAL mode (except maybe the first one). I didn’t even see them in last year’s BAL mode. I know programming AI isn’t easy, but if it isn’t broke, don’t try to fix it, and if it is broke, don’t make it worse.
There are a few more, but these are the main ideas I have for BAL mode. Of course, I’d like to hear your suggestions and opinions on this.
Posted by Dan Bolas in PES 2010 News, Site Updates on Thu 22 Apr 2010
As the start of the season of guest posts on PESGaming.com, I would like to introduce Phil Powell, who is writes a weekly column on Soccer Gaming. Over To Phil.
Hello and welcome to this weeks Do I Not Like That,
This is a special column this week and as Dan’s first guest column I’d like to welcome the readers of pesgaming.com to the feature and hope you enjoy the read and you can find more over at www.soccergaming.com.
Last weeks column about poor set pieces and collision detection generated a valid point from user Aku. This stated that throw-ins could be improved based on a players skill / card set and the action button could be used to set both power and trajectory. Do you have any points you’d like to make about set pieces? The columns from previous weeks are available for a read and comments about the points raised are always welcome for healthy debate. This may be worth a look for those looking to escape the weekly 10v40 min game time !!!
Also Brainplant commented on the games being scripted by the AI within PES. I think it is as my last column pointed out and he concurs, however, i know this was discussed on pesgaming a few weeks ago and is a touchy subject for Dan who disagrees. If you wish to carry this debate on by all means go to soccergaming.com and to last weeks ‘Do I not like that…’, if it is a big subject we can headline it next week.
Moving on to this weeks points,
I’m Tired !!!!
I feel the fatigue system does not seem quite right throughout pes. In exhibition matches, players generally do not get tired, fine. In master league or general league modes players seem to suddenly become fatigued and a rest of at least one game. There is obviously a stat per player for this and the older players, like Salgado, can only play 60 mins every other game. It’s this I find frustrating. The rest period for players seems to be based upon games rested for rather than a time scale. If a player is rested for a cup game they’re fresh as a daisy in the next, however if no midweek fixture is scheduled you need to rest a player for the next league fixture. If Master League is based upon weeks then everything else should be. I think it’s not far away from being right, I feel it just needs the parameters sorting out. Also, players who leave for an international fixture come back as if they’d played ten consecutive games for your club. I play many mini leagues with friends and for those who also do this you will have noticed that they cram the fatigue of a whole season across six games (based on 4 players). So after three games you need to rest about 50% of your standard starting eleven, this should not be the case if other factors are also not compressed into the same period; Such as bookings and weather. In addition for some reason the last fixture of the league often has the fatigue reset to zero for both full squads which is very annoying should you have played your last fixture without key players.
In addition to the on the pitch fatigue, should we start to include off the pitch factors which seem to take a toll on players these days. I’m not suggesting we include arduous coach trips to an away fixture due to volcanoes erupting, but if there was a true manager mode we should need to deal with lifes ‘little things’ for players such as having the whole country against you for ‘playing away’, being arrested for having drunk bar brawls and maybe having family. I’d suggest there aren’t many squads in the EPL who hasn’t let a player or two have time off across a season for something ‘personal’. Ok, maybe those examples are a tad extreme and maybe this is a ridiculous idea, or reading comments from previous weeks on pesgaming some people want a ‘true simulation’ so maybe its not, based upon N’Zogbia being arrested this week, this may affect his performance, discuss….
Teamtalk
I was wondering how many people like the tactical slider system. I think it should be a halfway house going forward. I like the idea of it for exhibition matches, online games and tournaments with humans, however I tend not use it that much once i’ve got my basic set up how i like it. I would prefer to see an option to develop tactics in CPU tournaments such as master league and cups. There is so much more to tactical decisions and play routines than the current options allow. Defensively you may want to press or double up on the likes of Messi or Ronaldo. Looking at this from the attacking point of view you should be able to develop your plays to bring others into the game such as your full back that has become redundant due to the opposition trying to take a key player out the game. Should there be an option for physical play? or should you even be able to try to ‘wind players up’ such as Bayern Munich did to Rafael. There is a host of options which could be introduced into a mode such as these. Whilst its no fun and I would never condone it, if you are winning in Europe and you don’t have a great team you may decide to put the squad behind the ball and go for a set play, should they be improved enough to make them a consistent threat. I’m not suggesting a full manager mode is everyone’s cup of tea, especially in terms of time spent on the game, and I certainly wouldn’t impose it, but I think it should be an option available. I play against some good players who use the auto settings available and this doesn’t seem to detract from their game. It really is personal choice; would you welcome an increased manager mode within the master league or other sections in a addition to the sliders and auto mode? Let me know.
Feel free to add any comments or debate below. Alternatively you can contact me on doinotlikethat@hotmail.co.uk should you want to keep your comments off the boards. I must stress the comments are moderated and we do only want to get constructive points and healthy discussion.
For those who’ve downloaded the FIFA world cup demo do we have any initial thoughts? I’ll not dwell on this too much as I know Dan is compiling a full review, as best as possible off the demo, but all in all I quite like it. I don’t think it will get me away from pes at the moment for two reasons;
It doesn’t feel as fluid and smooth as pes.
The one on one situations still occur too often, even in a 4 minute demo (and lets not get into the game time discussion.)
I think it’s a positive step forward and I’ll be playing a few more games on it and trying the full game as we know it may differ considerably from the demo, but it seems to be a step forward certainly in terms of refereeing and detail perhaps Konami could learn from.
Thanks for reading
Posted by Don Sweey in Site Updates on Sun 20 Dec 2009
I’m sure those of you with musical taste will join the entire PESGaming staff in congratulating Rage Against the Machine for claiming this year’s UK Christmas number 1 with “Killing in the Name” after a hugely successful internet campaign.
On that note, an early Merry Christmas to you all from PESGaming.com!
Posted by Dan Bolas in Site Updates on Fri 04 Sep 2009
Alright guys. Sorry to push Double D’s column down a level, but am looking for some help from the community. The updated PESGaming.com is pretty much completed now. However, I am used to working in either flash or HTML, using software such as Adobe Dreamweaver or Microsoft Frontpage. Therefore actually translating the design into WordPress is something I am not too familiar with. If anyone has experience using WordPress, could you please get in contact with me on interferingwithplay@hotmail.co.uk as soon as possible please. Any help will be fully credited. Thanks in advance.
Posted by Dan Bolas in Site Updates on Sun 19 Jul 2009
The first PRO-ve Your Skills competition has no completed its run. After six different champions over a 2 month period, it was Craig Grant who managed to set the unanswered challenge of winning the Dutch Division with a bottom half side, losing the last game of the season in the process. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those people who got involved in the event, both those who were crowned champion, and those who were just a little too slow. If Craig would like to drop me an e-mail, a hand signed Lionel Messi poster will be sent his way! interferingwithplay@hotmail.co.uk is the place to direct your message to.
Following the news regarding the PES2010 playtest, be sure to check out this week’s Interfering With Play, and sit tight for a new look PESGaming.com in a few weeks time.
Posted by Dan Bolas in Site Updates on Sun 12 Jul 2009
Its the 11th hour of the PRO-ve Your Skills competition. With news of PES starting to heat up, and this site becoming more of a resource for PES 2010, I am goin to use the next fortnight to draw this competition to a close. At the moment, Craig’s challenge has gone two weeks unanswered, and therefore I find the solution pretty simple. If no one can beat Craig’s challenge by this time next week, Craig will become the 2009 Undisputed PRO-ve Your Skills Champion. However, if someone manages to defeat Craigs challenge, next week will become a “Multi Challenge Week” to decide where the title is heading! Craig’s challenge is:
Win The Eredivise (Netherlands) With Any Team That Finished In The Bottom Half Of The 2008/09 Season, Losing Your Last Game Of The Season In The Process
Two screenshots are required. One showing the final league table and the other showing the final round of fixtures. E-mail these to interferingwithplay@hotmail.co.uk as soon as possible, and anyone who does so will become the Champion going into next week’s “Multi Challenge Week” A Busy week for PESGaming.com this week, so make sure you keep checking back, especially on Tuesday for the latest PES news and IWP!
Good Luck!
Posted by Dan Bolas in Site Updates on Sun 05 Jul 2009
Following the first ever PRO-ve Your Skills “Multi Challenge Week”, Craig Grant set the bar with a challenge that has yet to be bested. As part of the competition, the final date, in other words the date when it closes, will remain hidden, stopping people doing an ebay style, bid at the last minute and win the whole thing. So, if you want to become the champion, you need to complete the following tricky, but doable challenge.
Win The Eredivise (Netherlands) With Any Team That Finished In The Bottom Half Of The 2008/09 Season, Losing Your Last Game Of The Season In The Process
This can be done on any version of PES, and more importantly done on any difficulty level. I am aware this takes time, so anyone who does it, or started it last week will be well on the way by now. Send two screenshots, one of the final league table and one of the final round of matches to interferingwithplay@hotmail.co.uk as soon as possible. Good Luck
