Archive for May, 2008
Posted by Dan Bolas in Interfering With Play on Tue 27 May 2008
Welcome to this week’s Interfering With Play. The domestic football season is now officially over, and all the silverware has made its way to its rightful owners. Even the most die hard Chelsea fan would have to admit that Manchester United played some breathtaking football over the course of the season, and were worthy winners of both the Premier League and Champions League trophies. To shy away from giving out awards for certain aspects of the season just gone, this Interfering With Play will take a quick look forwards toward the European Championships, as well as touching upon ‘the Big Four’ and other musings from the world of football gaming.
Everyone’s A Winner Baby
It seems ages ago that we saw the most depressing site in recent memory, an under qualified England manager standing under a brolly as his side threw away qualification to a major tournament for the first time in 12 years. This image will be more painful to remember for any Englishman than any other football fans, but still none of the UK will have a team playing competitive football this summer, an issue that further raises doubts about the ‘golden generation’. So to Euro 2008 and the question seemingly on every TV networks lips, “Who Do You Want To Win?” I would much rather see England at the finals, but instead we have the opportunity to watch some top quality football in an unbiased frame of mind. Sure people will have their favourites, from world champions Italy to the silky football of the French to the underachieving Dutch, so I would like to know which team will you personally be following? I am going to back a surprise package, who were ultimately too good for England both home and away in the form of Croatia. I have enjoyed their style of play for many years now, and they were my team of choice on ISS Pro 98, featuring stars such as Boksic, Suker and Boban, and have brought together a new generation of solid footballers mixed with flair players. The loss of Eduardo is a huge blow to them, but players like Modric and Niko Kovac provide midfield guile that will be a handful for any of the top teams on their day. Your views on the tournament and whom you will be following are more than welcome.
The Big Four: Week Four
Over the month of May, Interfering With Play will be looking at four of the biggest titles in Football Gaming history, focussing on why they were so important and giving you the opportunity to decide on whether or not you agree with their place in the ‘Big Four’ category.
Pro Evolution Soccer 6 (2006) Playstation 2: The final offering in this section is hardly a shocking one. For the past three week’s I have chosen games that at their time, were either leaders in their field or brought something completely different to the table. Every since ISS Pro on the original Playstation, Konami’s football series has been offering the most realistic football gaming experience, but each time with something missing. The first few versions restricted you to International teams, and when the club teams finally game through, it was a very select group that definitely did not cater for everyone’s tastes. Pro Evolution Soccer 6 was the pinnacle of football gaming in its current form, and was the best football game of a generation.
Anyone who has been playing PES for longer than two years will need no reminding about the quality of the title, but just as a recap for those who do need their memories jogging, PES6 was the culmination of five years development and implementation of ideas. Features such as the ability to create your own logos, boots and players, some with ultra realistic appearances was present in the most comprehensive edit mode ever seen on a football game. There was an in depth master league that had been tweaked over 7 years in order to be the most addictive football gaming experience on the market and a shop where you could spend your hard earned points on unlock able items, some of which were silly, but most highly sought after. The game speed, controls and graphics were the best the Konami series had ever produced (at this point) with a collection of leagues, cups, stadiums and training modes to keep gamers coming back for more. To truly appreciate how good the game was, you would need to play a game of each Pro Evolution Soccer from the PS2 era, and notice each little change as the years passed. The end result, as many people support, is a breathtaking experience.
So why, I hear people asking, is PES6 the fourth game as opposed to the newer, shinier and ‘better’ PES2008? For the last 6 months, I have said, supported by many, that this PES 2008 is a better game than last years title, and that not too many people would be playing the old version of a PES when the newer one is on shop shelves. The simple fact is PES6 on the PS2 was as far as football gaming could go within that generation. It took 6 years worth of development, additions and tweaking but the end product was a thing of pure beauty. PES 2008 is the first coming on the next generation, and will only improve. All the games I have picked upon in this section, Fifa, Sensible Soccer and Actua Soccer all went on to improve, sell by the bucket loads and become better than their originals. My points with all of these was they brought something different, something that made a benchmark for others to emulate or even surpass. PES 6 was the benchmark on PS2 that, because of the next generation releases, will never be surpassed on that console. It is now up to Konami, EA Sports or whoever to start working towards making a benchmark for next generation gaming, because so far, there is no universal defining standard.
If you are still playing PS2, and are yet to invest in a next generation console, then I am pretty sure you will still be playing PES6 (PES 2008 was a meagre update) and therefore know exactly what I am talking about. Whilst playing it now after getting used to the next generation titles feels like a step backwards, anyone willing to will be able to pick it up for a reasonable price from your local computer game store. If your after a true trip down memory lane, a rummage through second hand PS2 games saw me find PES 1, 2, 3,4 and 5 for a combined total of under £20. A great way to complete your collection, if you’re into that kind of thing. Your views on the PES6 or any of the games included in the big four are more than welcome, either by e-mail or by comments.
Sometimes I Stumble, Sometimes I Fall
The single most controversial inclusion in PES2008 was the option to dive. Some people felt it was encouraging cheating within sport, others felt it was a natural progression and the way football is going. For its first time in a Pro Evolution Soccer game, the dive feature was actually implemented rather well. A player on a yellow card had to strongly think about whether or not to risk that fall in the box, knowing that the ref not buying his plunge would result in an early bath, At the same time, the button combination (three of the four shoulder buttons) made it literally impossible to dive by accident and made you more than responsible for your own actions. The feature should definitely remain in future PES, but maybe could be made more of a conscious decision, as opposed to downright cheating. Many times, my players are tripped, pulled back or forced to fall over under a challenge that would be 100% awarded a foul on any amateur or professional football pitch, however due to the players in ability to go down, a free kick is not awarded, and instead my player stumbles and loses possession of the ball. If you dive at this stage, you immediately get booked and although you were fouled, you end up getting a yellow card. There should be the option of ‘going down under the challenge’ whereby whilst your player is stumbling or having their shirt pulled, the dive button combination allows them to leave the ball and fall to the floor, emphasising the infringement and meaning play pretty much has to stop. It would also put the advantage rule more in the hands of the attacking team, as more often than not, the advantage rule works in favour of the defensive team on PES. It is something that players like Michael Owen have been doing for years, and whilst it is technically not diving, it is putting the decision of going on the floor totally in the hands of the gamer, as opposed to randomisation from the computer. I still think players should fall on their own regard, but this gives you as the player a bit more control.
How Much Is Too Much
My final point tonight stems from UEFA 2008 by EA Sports, and the fact that it costs a handsome £39.99 in order to purchase a watered down version of FIFA 08. Yes, some of the game modes have new names and yes ‘new features’ are added, but it is predominantly FIFA 08 with international teams. As someone who owns a lot of computer games and has been buying games for years, it is a very conscious decision when I decide to buy a new title. How does it differ from the others in my collection? Will I get my value for money from it? Is it going to be a game worth playing? Simple questions that most people ask when buying a new title, and for all the reviews and hands on experiences of gaming websites, the decision basically stops with you as a gamer. My argument is that the generic pricing of games at £40-£50 for a PS3 game or £30-£40 for a Wii game means that certain titles are not being represented as value for money, and may put gamers off paying the hefty sum. Grand Theft Auto IV is a bargain at £40, seeing as it will give you in excess of 40 hours game play, whereas a game like UEFA 2008 should be priced more appropriately for its content. I personally own 26 PS3 games, ranging from brand new titles picked up on their release dates to £17.99 bargains off Play.com. I would love to hear your views on the cost of gaming, and whether or not you think games should be priced at different levels as to regards their content. And just to show my age, you used to be able to go to a local games shop and pick up games for £3.99 for the Spectrum!
That’s all I have time for this week. As always your support is very much appreciated and welcomed. A quick shout out to Steve From Stoke, who has been involved with a number of e-mails over the past few weeks. Like I said I reply to as many as I can, but have a number of commitments that do limit time online. If you have anything to say about things you have read here, you can add a comment, which is public domain, by clicking on the red button below, or you can e-mail me personally, danbolas@hotmail.com
Thanks for Reading
Posted by Dan Bolas in Interfering With Play on Tue 20 May 2008
Welcome to this week’s edition of Interfering With Play. As usual, we have topical debate from the football, gaming and football gaming worlds as well as the feature of the month, entitled the Big Four. This is your area to stress your views on anything written on these pages, and you can do so by adding a comment at the bottom of the article. Off we go.
Warning: Graphical Content
Since the release of Grand Theft Auto IV, it seems everyone is raving about the graphical ability of the next generation consoles. There has been a lot of praise in both main stream media and the gaming world for the way the game looks, and whilst it is a definite improvement on the PS2 titles, in comparison to other games on the market, its not a market leader. Do not get me wrong, as a game, GTA IV is awesome, the sheer size of it and the level of features keeps you going for weeks, along with a multiplayer mode that is potentially everlasting. The story is well padded, the missions offer a great deal of variety and the characters are both believable and voiced well. And yes, the game looks very good. But, and strictly on a graphics level, it is still not on the same level as Assassin’s Creed, and outside of the cut scenes, some of the game characters are far less human looking than the players on the PES pitch. Some of the players on PES lo0ok nothing like their real life counterparts and this is rightly criticised, but it’s obviously easier to create characters that don’t have real life counterparts, in other words Niko and company. Some people out there are saying that GTA is how PES should look, but from my point of view, I would rather have the current PES models than those which feature in the Rockstar title. With that tiny bit of technical text aside, I would like to once again state my love of GTA IV and anyone with an X Box 360 or Playstation 3 should stop reading this article right now, go to heir local game retailer / supermarket and purchase it immediately. No spoilers here, just more praise for a top quality game.
The Big Four: Week Three
Over the month of May, Interfering With Play will be looking at four of the biggest titles in Football Gaming history, focussing on why they were so important and giving you the opportunity to decide on whether or not you agree with their place in the ‘Big Four’ category.
Actua Soccer (1995) Playstation One: This was probably the most difficult of the four titles to pick, for the simple fact there were so many worthy contenders. It was at a time when both Fifa and ISS were starting to find their feet and console football games were becoming the game of choice for casual gamers. Whilst never being a personal favourite, Actua Soccer was a game that I can relate to and looking back realise just how much it experimented and tried to bring forward into football gaming. Firstly, and quite surprisingly for some people, Actua Soccer was the first full 3D football title. Its 1995 release meant this was something well ahead of its time. Gone were the 2D, paper like players and 3D sprites were at your control, giving you a real sense of control on the pitch. This meant new animations, like goalkeepers actually going to ground in one v one scenarios and back heels travelling at a more realistic angle.
One the subject of players, it was actually one of the first games to also feature real player names. Fifa was still using the names of its producers for its star players, and ISS was muddling everything up, but Actua Soccer brought the Shearer and Sheringham partnership into your control and even thought it was only national teams, it was still pretty cool to be actually playing as your heroes. This was taken further by the contentious skin tone issue involved in Sensible Soccer. Up until this point, Fifa was using generic skin tones for each country or team, with no differential between individual players. This of course effects realism, and is still a fact in modern day Fifa games, with some lower league players having the wrong hairstyles and skin tones. Actua Soccer allowed players of mixed skin tones on the same team, adding personality to you midfield and again making you feel like your really playing as England etc.
Actua Soccer was also the first game to offer play-by-play commentary on a football game (albeit by Barry Davies) and player’s names were called out for the first time. Up until this point, standard ‘It’s a Goal’ shouts were used when a team scored, but the addition of this feature really made other developers step up and take note, making FIFA hire professional commentators for their next Playstation One offering.
Of course, all of these were a natural progression of where football gaming was ultimately heading, but it was Gremlin and their Actua Soccer series that stood up and tried them. The game itself spawned a Club Edition, followed by two sequels that tried to build upon the initial games benchmarks. However, due to a lack of progression in the face of stiff competition, and a dreadful camera angle, which ruined some games, Actua Soccer 3 was the last title made in the series. It is still available online for a nominal fee, or a scrounge in bargain bins at your local games shops might see you pick up a copy, but with today’s titles looking far more polished and playing a heck of a lot smoother, it might be cheaper just to look at a few videos online if you are feeling nostalgic. Anyone with any views on Actua Soccer is more than welcome to express them in comment form, or e-mail me direct; my address is at the end of the article. Actua Soccer may be a somewhat controversial choice for the big four, but when taking on board all the facts, a worthy contestant.
Everywhere You Go
Weather has been a subject that comes under a great deal of scrutiny when it comes to football games. Fifa 98 was the first to include thunder storms and snow in matches and Sensible Soccer was the first to include varying pitch conditions, however since its inception, it has been an area that has had very little to almost no advancement. Nowadays, PES allows the option of rain or sun, neither making that much of a difference to the overall game, and Fifa 08 does not feature weather at all. (Don’t worry though; it is on UEFA European Championships 2008 as a ‘New Feature’) Surely, with games like GTA being able to allow weather to influence the action, so it should on football titles. Rain should make the ball harder to control, slippier and the ball should hold up in particularly muddy areas. Pitches should deteriorate as the game progresses, if a right back constantly makes the same run, the pitch should cut up, making the run of the ball bobble. They manage to do it on Motorstorm, so the fact that technical limitations is no excuse. Heat should increase fatigue, meaning you have to slow your game pace down. Certain players, teams and tactics may suit the hot weather better, whilst other players may need to be taken off after half time due to exhaustion. Snow, a feature that was on PES6, but removed from the next generation games, is another game mode that could be manipulated. Cold weather means more chance of an injury, and players could find it harder to keep their footing, especially when turning sharply. This could be taken further, with certain countries struggling to play in certain conditions. Ecuador haven’t lost a home game in years, due to the humidity levels at the stadium. Most sides struggle to play in Russia due to the negative temperatures. This is where real football shines through from other sports, and needs to be incorporated into the future of football gaming. Your views, of course will be welcomed.
Coin Artist
Might just be me, but I do miss the coin toss to start the game in football games. It was a feature of both FIFA and ISS in the early years, but seemed to fade out. Nowadays, you can tell which side is away or at home by who gets kick off and which way they are kicking. I know currency is forbidden in PES world (due to the use of points in master league) but the flipping of a two-sided disk and the option of kick off or which way to kick would be welcomed back in my eyes. Not only would it make your captains have another responsibility, but if weather conditions or wind direction was brought into games, it could also become a crucial decision for the winner of the coin toss.
That’s all for this week. As per usual you are welcome to e-mail me direct on danbolas@hotmail.com or add any comment you see fit. If it regards this particular article, please make sure you add it below, and not as a comment on another article! Also Peter Willis, the owner of this fine site, is looking for new staff to be involved in PESGaming.com. Personally, I love writing Interfering With Play and highly recommend anyone who might be interested to get involved with one of the biggest PES fan sites in the world.
Thanks for Reading
Posted by Peter Willis in Site Updates on Sun 18 May 2008
If you would like to get involved with the community you can join the team here at PESGaming.com. We are looking for any type of contributions, whether it be that you are interested in posting up the latest news, or are wanting to provide hints/tips about Pro Evolution Soccer… we want to here from you!
Please use the contact form to get in touch and we’ll get back to you within 24 hours.
Posted by Steve Smith in GOTM on Wed 14 May 2008
Congratulations to uncleXXXmas for his winning entry. He will win a game of his choice.
Check out some other stunning goals/videos at http://www.consolegoals.com
Posted by Dan Bolas in Interfering With Play on Tue 13 May 2008
Welcome to a shorter Interfering With Play. I am currently having very bad luck with technology, ranging from Power Cuts to Sat Nav’s to Mobile Phones, and therefore have a lot of sorting out to do in a short space of time. As a result of this, I will be leaving some of the key talking points until next week’s article, and concentrating on three points in this weeks offering.
Congratulations
First point, may I hand my congratulations to Manchester United for their successful defence of the FA Premier League title. Whilst cup competitions can sometimes be won on luck and fortunate fixtures, any league season requires genuine quality, and once again Sir Alex Ferguson has managed to forge a team of top players together. Whilst I would have been glad to see Arsenal win the title, I am pleased that United did, as it proves that playing attractive football gets you rewards, and playing games to shut up shop, as Chelsea did on a number of occasions, is not the way to win over fans. As for the FA Cup, I really hope Harry Redknapp and Portsmouth do the business over Cardiff. I have nothing against Dave Jones’ side, but Redknapp has done an incredible job and fully deserves the silverware to cap off an amazing season. Your views on the title race and the FA Cup are of course very much welcomed.
The Big Four: Week Two
Over the month of May, Interfering With Play will be looking at four of the biggest titles in Football Gaming history, focussing on why they were so important and giving you the opportunity to decide on whether or not you agree with their place in the ‘Big Four’ category.
Fifa International Soccer (1993) Megadrive- It may seem controversial to include a FIFA title on a PES website, but anyone who grew up in the mid-nineties would have to agree that football gaming truly progressed with introduction of the FIFA gaming series. At its time of release, EA Sports were a minor company who had just won the license to produce a number of replica video games using authentic competitions. Nowadays, they have their fingers in pretty much every sporting pot, and rip off gamers with tournament based updates and ‘street’ versions of popular sports. Back in 1993 though, they were mainly responsible for the further innovation of the gaming genre. Gone was the top down camera view, as an all-new Isometric camera angle was brought into play. The game was not in 3D, and players could still only move in one of 8 directions, yet it game the illusion of a more realistic experience. Pitch conditions began to really come into their own as well. The option to play on an artificial pitch provided a different game mode, with bounce and roll being much more intense than the grass based game. Whilst the game did not feature real player names, it featured all the International teams you could require to play a number of tournaments and for the first time on any football game, featured on pitch trophy ceremonies for winning the title, a feature that made playing for an entire night in a league all the more worthwhile. Fifa has always been criticised for its passing engine, and the way players react to balls crossed into the box, and this title was no exception, however the shooting engine and block tackle features were so far ahead of anything out at the time, the game was regarding as the best football simulation available.
Of course, truly great games have truly great features, and through a number of intended events, FIFA International soccer was blessed with great features. The first was the ability to block down the Goalies kick, resulting in the ball looping over his head into the empty net. Whilst when playing against mates, you could opt to roll the ball out, the computer AI would constantly kick the ball straight at you, giving you an easy way back into any ‘lost cause’ match. Another bug was the ability to hack the keeper down when he had the ball in his hands. This resulted in a straight red card and was normally the result of a frustrated opponent missing a simple opportunity, but every once in a while was an accidental push of a button which could act as a real match turning event. My personal favourite of all the glitches was the ability to run away from the official when he was looking to caution you. Long before the days of in game football cut scenes, you were still given control of the offending player as the camera pans to the on screen referee begins his ominous jog towards you. This meant you could actually run away from him and he would continue to follow your chase, resulting in very frustrated opponents during multiplayer games.
The final factor for me, which I feel is exceptionally important to touch upon, is that FIFA International football was the first football game to offer a 4 player experience. Most gamers did not own multi-taps for their respective consoles at this time, and the mode was rarely used, however it paved the way for the future, and in particular the 4 on 4 games from PS2 Pro Evolution Soccer 6.
Your views of Fifa International Soccer would be most welcome. The game is readily available on a number of Internet download sites, and if you still have your SNES or Megadrive, chances are you still have your Fifa cartridge somewhere. The title obviously went on to spawn many follow-ups, with FIFA 95 including a number of club teams. The game today is well known for its excellent graphics and use of its huge array of licenses, and younger gamers will be unfamiliar with were ‘it all began’. If you were one of the originals, please get in touch and let us know your views and experiences of Fifa International Soccer.
Play That Funky Music
In Peter Willis’ recent 10 predictions for PES 2009, he expressed an opinion that popular speed garage outfit Pendulum would make an excellent choice when selecting a theme song for the next instalment of the series. Regular readers of this column will be more than aware of my feelings towards the music on PES, and I would personally love Pendulum to provide a number of tracks, including their excellent new single, for the PES soundtrack. However, the pessimist in me thinks this will never happen, and chances are we will be stuck with the same old generic Japanese pop the last few years have provided. So I open it to you, the PESGaming.com public, which artist would you list to see provide the cover song for PES. Kaiser Chiefs did a decent job for PES2008, yet it didn’t really catch the imagination the same way Song 2 did for Fifa 98 all those years ago. Anyone who underestimates the importance of music in gaming only needs to spend 10 minutes listing to the scores from GTA IV and the Condemned 2 to realise it can make a gaming experience. This is just a way of expressing your opinions on what music you would like to hear on the menu screens of PES, because if you play the game a lot, it makes sense that you are hearing tunes you can actually stomach. All together now, “I Want To Go….”
That’s your lot for this week. I have had a decent experience writing, with minimal computer slow down and actually zero crashes. Hopefully my technical problems will be sorted for next weeks Interfering With Play. danbolas@hotmail.com is the place to direct your e-mails to, or leave a comment at the bottom of this article!
Thanks for Reading
Posted by Dan Bolas in Interfering With Play on Tue 06 May 2008
Welcome to Interfering With Play. The last week has seen the release of arguably the biggest gaming title ever in the form of Grand Theft Auto IV on Playstation 3 and X Box 360. With so much press surrounding the game, and it spending a considerable amount of time in my PS3 this past week, it would be foolish to not touch upon it during this article. However, I have decided against dedicating an entire section to the game, at lease in this week’s column. Anyone who owns the game will be well aware of its qualities, the sheer size of it and the attention to detail is spot on. If you’re a fan of the title, but don’t own it yet, I can only assume its due to lack of a next generation console or funding, as all the reviews will point you towards picking up a copy. And finally, if you don’t like the game, which I am sure the genre will not appeal to everyone, then you will simply not be interested in anything that is said about it. With that said, I would like to begin with this week’s Interfering With Play.
The Big Four: Week One
Over the month of May, Interfering With Play will be looking at four of the biggest titles in Football Gaming history, focussing on why they were so important and giving you the opportunity to decide on whether or not you agree with their place in the ‘Big Four’ category.
Just to give you a brief introduction upon this feature, having played through a number of old school football titles over the past 12 months, it got me thinking which ones were true classics, and which ones were really nothing more than copies of original masterpieces. Of course, everyone is going to have had that one game, be it football or any genre, that will have eaten away hours and days of their childhood, and view it through rose coloured glasses when discussing it in a forum environment. I have tried my very best to put those glasses away when writing this article, and have left one or two of my all time favourites on the bench, opting for titles that are not only considered to be universally ground breaking, but also have offered enjoyable and lasting gaming experiences. Please note, these games may not be considered great games during a modern day market place, but at the time, they provided ideas and options that were ground breaking.
Sensible Soccer (1992) Amiga- I have started at the true beginning of football gaming. Up until Sensible Soccer, football games fell into two very distinctive categories. They were either top down experiences, almost indefinable from Rugby or Basketball games, and featured very little in the way of aerial based football, or side on games, which provided oversized players upon tiny pitches. This of course was mainly down to the power of the systems they were running upon, and many games actually only featured 7 or 8 players per team, due to graphical constraints. This is not saying these top down titles or small-pitched games didn’t catch the imagination. I personally loved both Kick Off and Emlyn Hughes International Soccer as much as anyone, but they lacked the realism of a proper football match. Sensible Soccer revolutionised football gaming in so many ways. In spite of being on the Amiga, it managed to feature hundreds of playable teams, all of which were completely editable. Some of the teams and players names may have been fake, but one night spend editing and you had a game that was as realistic as the episode of Match Of The Day you had just watched. This was taken further by the comedy teams, completely made up teams based on things you would find in your kitchen, or parts of a car. These would not have been to everyone’s taste, but the casual gamer could pick up a side and have a laugh seeing their star striker “Fridge” score past the opponents goalkeeper “Exhaust Pipe”. Again, these were easily editable, so you could end up making your entire school team, or in one of my mates cases, a team for each class at school, giving a real personal feel to one of the domestic leagues. For the first time on a football game, skin colour and hair colour were also customisable. Gone were the days when everyone playing for Italy must have dark hair, and everyone from Brazil must be dark skinned. This was something unheard of in 1992, and really paved the way for future titles to do the same thing. Up until this point, strips were also merely one of 16 different palette colours, meaning yes, you could wear your team colours, but realistic interpretations of your team’s shirt were not available. Sensible Soccer offered hoops and striped shirts among other designs; featured games in 2008 are still missing! The ability to save highlights is now something very much taken for granted, with memory cards and huge hard drives sitting in our home consoles, it’s a simple way of showing off our best goals or pieces of skill. Sensible Soccer allowed you to do this first, saving your best games to show to your mates. But the mode that really strode onto new ground was the game play. Whilst still being very close to top down, the camera was on a slight tilt, giving the illusion of height and power when kicking the ball. The fact that having two buttons, one for pass and one for shoot, worked so well is a testament to the pick up and play ability of the game. Still to this day, there is little more satisfying then a well-timed diving header flying in on ‘Sensi’, and that is a sign of a top game.
I am going to now open the floor to the PESGaming.com public. I am aware that Sensible World Of Soccer, the games follow up title is available on X Box Live, and the original is available for download off a number of different sites. Please feel free to share your experiences of Sensible Soccer, love it or hate it. Do you feel it is worthy of its place in the Big Four, or are there any other key points I have missed when describing it. At the end of May, there will be a poll on PESGaming.com allowing you to cast your vote for which of the Big Four is the overall champion.
Still Got It
As I said I wasn’t going to dwell on GTA IV this week, over the past 7 days, a certain game has spent hours in my PS3. Its an exceptionally strong game that will take weeks for me to finish, and is a thoroughly enjoyable experience. However, I go back to one of my original points, and that is following a heavy gaming session, I always seem to sneak PES2008 back into the console for a cheeky game. This is the pure beauty of Pro Evolution Soccer, and always has been, its ability to entice you back. This is not aimed at the people who don’t own PES, or those who traded the game in after two weeks, as they don’t understand it. This is not aimed at the casual player who pops round his mates and plays the game with a beer in hand, as they won’t have experienced it. This is aimed at the gamers, or PES players who have put the hours in, who have got to know the game, and love it for all its faults, and still want to play it. In my 3rd year of Master League, I have gone undefeated, and sit one game away from the Champions League final, having won the Division One cup and League on Top Player. I am not saying this to boast, I am saying it to show that once I win that Champions League, I will have to all intents and purposes completed the game. Yes there are further achievements to unlock, but the main game mode, in the same way that Assassin’s Creed or Rainbow Six Vegas have mission modes, will be done and dusted. But of course, with PES, the game never truly ends. You can carry on that season, and keep it going, potentially for as long as you wish. With the European Championship’s just around the corner, I know I will be dipping once again into an International League to be playing with one of those very sides. The fact that after 7 months, I am still playing PES as much is a testament to the lifespan of an ‘unfinished’ game. It’s not perfect, but its still very good fun!
One Two
Having played Sensible Soccer this week, prior to writing the Big Four, has anyone wondered why it hasn’t been made available for PSP or DS? It makes me smile that people have been complaining about the lack of two shoulder buttons for the PSP version of Pro Evo, yet Sensi used to keep so many gamers captivated using just two buttons!
A Life Sentence
A point that has been mentioned a few times upon the forums here, and indeed everywhere else on the net is the lifespan of computer games. I mentioned earlier how I am still playing PES 7 months on, and GTA IV has been dubbed with over 40 hours of Single player game play. Some gamers seem ‘ripped off’ that certain titles, for example Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, feature such short single player modes, and therefore can not be considered as ‘full games’. The dilemma is something that has raged on for many years due to the fact of Eastern gamers. Japanese gamers like to fly through games quickly, they like to get quick achievements and like to feel good about themselves. Western gamers tend to prefer a sterner challenge, and would rather graft away at a title for many hours in order to get a ‘hard earned’ reward. This is how the gaming industry stereotypes the different cultures, and for many years, this would strictly set to. Games like Tomb Raider were frowned upon in Japan because of their long complex levels, whereas many Japanese games never made it to Europe due to them being ‘too easy’.
Nowadays, the lines are less clear, and titles tend to be released more universally, allowing the audience to pick up whichever suits them. Some gamers will have loved the Call Of Duty 4 single player experience, as it allowed them to follow a very strict line and end up jumping through the hoops to complete the game. Others will have found the game too short, and may feel that the game could have been drawn out. No denying though, whilst playing COD4, you were never bored, as it was 6-8 hours of action sequences. Compare this with a game like Oblivion, a game that features in excess of 50 hours (or so I am informed) worth of game play. Some people will see this as great fun, and riding a horse from village to village in order to pick up items will be exactly what they are looking for. Others will find this exceptionally tedious, and therefore will stay miles away from the game. These games are completely different to each other and should be judged as such. A game should only be as long as it needs to be, and whilst COD may have been short, it was great fun while it lasted and definitely the finished product. People who claim these kind of games to be poor because they are short are missing the entire point of them, and that is for quick action fixes. To put it into media context, a new DVD may cost £13.00, and give you 1 ½ hour’s entertainment. Whilst a game may cost almost three times that, it will give you at least three times the lifespan. If you wish to complain about companies cashing in on titles, I ask you to look no further than EA Sports, who are charging £40.00 for Euro 2008, a game which is little more than a watered down Fifa 2008.
That’s it for this week. As always your comments are more than welcome at the bottom of the article. danbolas@hotmail.com is the address you can reach me on if you have anything you wish to say personally! Please include your views on Sensible Soccer if you do comment.
Thanks for Reading
Posted by Steve Smith in GOTM on Fri 02 May 2008
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