Posted by francis in PES 2009 News on Fri 29 Aug 2008
Pro Evolution Soccer 2009
With the release of gameplay videos, screenshots, and all of those new details of how PES ’09 has developed since ’08, excitement is reaching fever pitch. Whilst the optimists speculate on how it’s going to be ‘like PES 05 but next gen,’ and the pessimists speculate on how it’s going to be ‘a slightly graphically improved PES ’08,’ all we can really do is wait. The demo will tell all, and whilst I’m not ‘in the know’ of when it will be released, my guess is around mid-late September, if the actual game is released in October. Then we’ll have some real, crazy activity on this website! You heard it here first! (Even though it was obvious…)
The Real Deal
I don’t own that many games for my Xbox360; Pro Evo ‘08, Battlefield: Bad Company, Halo 3, Rainbow 6 Las Vegas 2, and Splinter Cell: Double Agent, the latter which I got for £4 :)
For each of these games (with the exception of Splinter Cell) I paid around £35 for when they came out, and to me that’s a fair price. I played Halo 3 and BFBC online for a good four or five months after their respective releases; and Pro Evo is the game I constantly go back to, the one which I never bore of. Rainbow 6 was a great game in its own right, and a lengthy one at that. However, I can imagine that if you’re someone who likes a lot of variety, then you’re going to be spending a large amount of money on new games, and might have a solid view that videogames are too expensive. I apologise to those from other countries, but I assume that if you’re in America, then your brand new games are going to be $70-80?
Are there gamers amongst you that think games today are overpriced? £40 is a little under a days work at minimum wage in England, so I can definitely see how people could think games are overpriced, especially if you enjoy a lot of variety in your collection!
Kicking a hornets nest
It seems the majority of people aren’t fans of PES ’08, and even though I am, I know it could have been better; more like PES 6 maybe, but why not spread some love and write a few things we liked about it? I liked the fact that footballers with more powerful shots were more accurately represented with regard to this ability – hit a shot with Gerrard, Rooney, even Lampard to a degree, and you know that it’s been HIT! Having written that, I realise it’s a lot easier to write what I don’t like about it…
Visitors
I never really noticed how many people from different countries visit, and indeed comment on this site. It does make me slightly proud to be a Pesgaming.com blogger, and I like the fact that people are able to come on this website and share their ideas, views and opinions freely and easily.
Apologies about the slightly brief post this week, but with all the new information coming out I didn’t want to clog up the news page. 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 29 Aug 2008
Thanks to “2-Face” and “Miggy” in the forums for posting these scans from PSM3 Magazine. I’ve outlined a few points that you might find interesting.
The Magazine states:
“PES 2009 is the official game of Team England, allowing official kits and, better, a realistically rendered new Wembley.”
“Everything that was ‘broken’ in last years game is largely, if not entirely, fixed. Slowdown? Good as gone - in over ten games in multiple stadiums, we barely noticed it.”
“The weather’s dynamic too, so showers mutate into downpours as play progresses - with weather dependent on the country and stadium.”
“It’ll be possible to share Option Files online.”
“It’s still possible to streak pass multipls defenders.”
This is new:
You can now put the radar anywhere on the screen.
You can draw emblems from scratch.
There’s a range of licensed footwear.
You can now preview hairstyles from a menu.
If I failed to mentioned something I should of, please comment this post or comment in the forums and let your opinions be known. And if you haven’t seen Cristiano Ronaldo’s trademark free kick in action click here to watch it.
Posted by dougiedonut in PES 2009 News on Thu 28 Aug 2008
FIFA 2009. Apparently there’s a lot of buzz around the game this year.
Yes, I know, there normally is around this time of the year, but if you’ve seen any footage of the game at all,
I think you would agree that we have a serious contender this time round.
After years of mediocre, superficial titles, they may finally have caught up with PES in the gameplay department.
We know that FIFA has always had presentation and style at the forefront, but we always dismissed that side of the game, because we prefer the solid gameplay that PES delivers.
My question to you all is quite simply, what if?
What if this year, they have a better game than PES? I know I’m entering the terrain of blashphemy right now, especially on a PES site, but please hear me out. I would like to encourage serious debate about this question. I’m not advocating FIFA above PES, or trying to start a fight, but just asking the question.
We all knew that this was a possibility, albeit a remote one. But could FIFA finally have the upper hand?
Personally speaking, I’m looking forward to the demo of FIFA arriving soon, to test it out myself.
I would like to know how much it has come along, and will be looking to compare it to PES.
For the record I haven’t bought a FIFA game since buying FIFA ‘95 on my megadrive years ago.
I have played the odd FIFA title over the years, but only to laugh at it, and ridicule the owners of the game. But this year, we may have a very hard decision to make.
I would like to refer you all to the warnings that Dan has been giving in this week’s IWP, and like him,
ask us all to take a step back from the building euphoria surrounding PES.
PES may finally deliver a title worth purchasing, but then again, we thought that last year.
I think this year, PES will rectify most of the complaints we had about PES2008, but not really give us the total overhaul that Seabass talked about last year. I think they have slipped back into old habits, and just tried to patch up the game, rather than think about a proper current-gen version.
As some people have commented, it could be PES2010 that does that. But right now, it seems that FIFA may be onto a winner.
So the natural question to follow the “what if” question is - how many of you would seriously consider purchasing FIFA over PES? Or both?
I think it would be more prudent to take in the demo of FIFA, then once PES is released, to contrast and compare, should FIFA have a proper game on their hands.
Something else I would like to ask is - does anyone else feel they can easily pick up and play past versions of PES, and relive just how good they were? I do this on occasion, and feel each version had its merits and still are playable.
Now that’s something FIFA fans can’t really claim to be able to do. Whilst each version for them has improved,
I think its safe to say that the previous versions do compare unfavourably. Again, this could be interpreted as FIFA making steady progress, or as showing how poor the “current” version was, when revisited after a better version is released.
To help this debate, view the following:
www.gamersyde.com/news_7031_en.html
OK that’s me done, now over to you guys - and please remember to respect each other’s views, no matter how much you disagree with them. We’re not all the same, and it would be a boring world if we were.
Welcome to this week’s Interfering With Play. The news from the PES world is starting to steam roller, to coincide with the pace picking up in the domestic football season. There is no denying that in this respect, Konami and EA Sports have their release timing spot on. Unlike other gaming franchises, which tend to release slightly closer to major holidays, the October releases show that both PES and Fifa have a decent marketing concept, something that has definitely improved over the years. Yes excitement levels are beginning to rise, but in some cases, so to is naivety, especially among a large section of the PES public. Lets get rolling with this week’s Interfering With Play.
“Have I Told You How Good, It Feels To Be Me”
For those of you unfamiliar with my gaming situation, I would consider myself a borderline addict. I own a lot of games, some that are still yet to be played, and am a stickler for completing games before moving on to the next one. Some people would call it an addiction, which is of course totally your opinion. I have a very physically based job, am outside a lot of the time, and have a great deal of social commitments, so when I have free time, I do like to sit in front of the PS3, or PC and play some top quality entertainment. I also like reading and finding out about the industry, and am starting to understand developer talk. For example, a developer saying, ‘We don’t feel it is the right time to release the game into the market’ usually means ‘a similar title is coming out that is better than ours, and we won’t be able to compete!’
Unfortunately, Konami has dropped the ball with its press release the other day. ‘We’ve stopped worrying about what FIFA’s doing and started concentrating on what PES does best’ was a comment made by the Konami press officer a few weeks ago, and for me alarm bells immediately went off. When ISS and PES began, they could not care less what Fifa was doing, and as a result the game started to build up in its own right. Features such as unique player appearances, different free kick styles and even more control over which foot your player struck the ball with, were all huge, unique selling points of ISS Pro Evolution Soccer in the late 90’s, and they were things that it took FIFA along time to catch up on. Indeed, features such as an in-game shop, featuring unlockable items were first brought in on the Konami franchise, only for EA Sports to follow suit. The main factor that stopped PES being purchased by the ‘casual’ footballer gamer was the lack of official kits and names, something that in the last 5 years, Konami have done very little to rectify.
This year’s offering gives us more similarities than ever with FIFA, and makes me begin to wonder. Features such as Be A Legend, whilst I am sure will be enjoyable, are virtually a copy of FIFA’s Be A Pro mode, and the fact Konami have snapped up a couple of strange licenses implies that more than ever, they are trying to play catch up. Those who visit at regular intervals will know that not only have Konami lost the Spanish La Liga license (and with it the rights for official team strips and badges) but they have gained the license for Wembley, which featured on last years FIFA, and for Liverpool football club, which means that in spite of having the official license, they will be unable to display an actual sponsor due to it being alcohol!
I am as big a PES fan as you will come across, but I am also a realist. There are some very exciting new features in PES 2009, but in true Konami style, they have already dropped the ball on a number of occasions. Instead of trying to play catch up with the EA Sports, they should just keep their mouths shut, and let their game, which is still the best footballing franchise in the world, do the talking.
“I Don’t Belong Here”
Resorting back to PES 2008 now, and as with many of you, I am still playing it as much as the first week I brought it. It spends as much, if not more time in the PS3 as Metal Gear Solid 4 and Grand Theft Auto IV, which give you an idea of how highly it is regarded amongst my mates and myself. However, I have another exceptional grumble about penalty kicks, something that I am sure many of you will have experienced. In a recent Konami cup game against Torino, the game went to a penalty shoot out, which is part and parcel of a cup competition. As Middlesbrough, I chose 5 players with decent shooting and accuracy, Downing, Mido, Arca, Alves and Tuncay. Downing has scored each penalty he has taken during normal time, and Mido was top scorer with 6 goals in 3 games. I saved the first Torino penalty, guessing the right way, and then scored my first, again with Downing. The second Torino penalty hit the post, and I felt I was well on my way to a victory. How very wrong I was! My next four Penalties all went wide, no matter where in the goal I aimed the shot. Torino scored their last three, one with me even going the right way! I appreciate that a Penalty shoot out is a lottery in real life, but once again, must stress that when you have no control over event, it is hardly a level playing field. I stress again, that different types of penalties, such as chip, power and placement should be included as options, which each having their own strengths and weaknesses as appropriate. I open this up to the PESGaming.com community, and ask for your experiences on the subject.
“I Saw The Sign”
I do take time to read other peoples columns on PESGaming.com, as like myself, they do produce some very valid points. The results of last week’s poll showed that people did not really like the ‘different’ style offered by Steve From Stoke, and that Interfering With Play proved the least likely to fold, albeit because of a history of week in, week out postings. However, with these comments comes proof that PESGaming.com has received a great deal of ‘new’ visitors, and people who may not know the full story, especially regarding the subject on a Konami petition.
Firstly, any kind of petition to influence PES 2009 would have to have been sent around 6 months ago, when the game first went into development. At this stage, PES 2009 is around 75% complete, which means the majority of the coding is done and dusted. What will be happening now is Konami’s play testing department will be checking for bugs and errors in the code, which will be ‘hopefully’ removed before the game hits our shops. Features such as game modes, teams and graphics are done and dusted, and any petition now would have to look into PES 2010, and would be unrealistic, seeing as the 2009 version is not available yet!
Secondly, and probably the reason for the first point, is the fact that how I know so many new visitors have joined this site. In January and February, Interfering With Play led a campaign entitled ‘Seabass Letter’. Over the two months, I wrote a paragraph about each of the six key areas of the game, Presentation, Game Play, Graphics, Edit & Sound, Features And Game Modes and Online. Each week, the community either added to the points, or said some were not as important. Of course, as Francis said, this resulted in a conflict of opinions, but over the course of seven weeks, it left us with a letter outlining the views of the PESGaming.com community.
The letter was made public on this site, before being sent to various departments within Konami and to Seabass himself. It was sent on the 29th February 2009, and to this day, neither myself, nor PESGaming.com have received any response or acknowledgement for our efforts or contributions. No matter how you stack the numbers, and believe me, hundreds of thousands of unique visitors come through the PESGaming.com doors every month, Konami simply was not interested in hearing the views of one of the largest PES online communities. Who knows, they may have taken some of the points into account, only time will tell. I do intend, upon PES’ release to look back at the points made in the letter, and see exactly how many cross-references to the end product. But as far as a petition goes, I am afraid, like myself, anyone who spends the time producing it is just going to have their work falling on deaf ears.
‘Its Coming Home’
Just a quick point regarding the English national team, a subject that could have an entire column dedicated to it. Am I missing something, or has Capello actually made this side good backwards. An established, successful club manager is something that, bar Sven, England hasn’t had since Bobby Robson, and now we have one, we seem to be doing worse. I know we get many foreign visitors on this site, and even if your from other parts of the UK, I would love you input on how the English national side is reflected worldwide. I am sure most teams would love to have a Gerrard or a Rooney in them, but is it a case of too many big egos? Or is it because they have so used to playing with foreigners in their club teams that have a better understanding of the game technically? Your views, as always are greatly appreciated.
‘If We Catch A Criminal’
Another quick point, and it is something I will stress again before PES 2009 comes out. PES brings a great community together. In the past this included sharing option files or edit codes, hopefully something that will occur again in this version. However, there is on scam that is currently being worked that some of you may not be aware. When playing PES online, unlike many other games, you are required to log into Konami’s server and not just use X Box Live or the PSN, as I am sure many of you are aware. There are some people out there who will claim to have ‘lost’ their activation code and are unable to access the online section, requesting they ‘borrow’ yours. Of course, this is a huge scam. Normally these individuals have pirate versions of the game, and because of this, are unable to play online. This damages both genuine gamers and the companies that develop the game, and I would like to warn you about this problem. Do not give your online PES details to anyone, as it will 99% be a scam, and you will end up in hot water if Konami investigate the situation!
‘And I Wonder If You Know’
Finally this week’s poll. Konami have a reputation for removing aspects of PES games that in the past have been successful. This includes things such as the PES shop, the ability to mix and match home and away shirts and shorts and the simple ability to play a penalty shoot out with mates. Couple this with features such as poor edit mode in previous next generation offerings, and you can be pretty sure something will be missing from PES 2009 that was a key feature in PES2008. This poll is your opportunity to guess what it will be. Obviously, preannounced features such as Diving, which is in, or La Liga, which is out, are not included in the poll! Anything you think I have missed can be added in the comments section below.
That’s your lot for this week’s column. interferingwithplay@hotmail.co.uk is the new address you can reach me on, with your comments, queries or questions. I get about 20-50 mails a week, and therefore cannot reply to everyone, I will do my best to answer your question either personally, or if not in next week’s column. Dave Ostrander is the man responsible for the logo at the top of this article, many thanks to him for his excellent design work. And finally, the IWP League is drawing to its final stages next week, more news in next week’s article.
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.
