Interfering With Play - 30th September 2008
Posted by Dan Bolas in Interfering With Play on Tue 30 Sep 2008
IWP League Champion 2008: Martin Ginnelly (River Plate)
Welcome to this week’s Interfering With Play. Its demo week, which means, for the first time, Joe Public is going to get its hands on PES 2009 this Thursday, as the online console stores get updated. Whilst it is wrong to judge an entire game by the demo, this will give us an excellent indication of what to expect. Bare in mind that this demo will not include Become A Legend Mode, Edit Mode, Master League Mode or Online Play, and you will realise that even offering a review of the demo wouldn’t be beneficial to this site. IWP will review PES2009 a few weeks after is release, to allow for the honeymoon period to wear off and all game modes to be tested. Whilst I expect peoples opinions to come flying through, I ask that always you reserve you full judgement for the finished game, as I do with all titles. Another quick point before we start, I would like to lend my support to the excellent piece written by dougiedonut last week. I do not wish to dwell on the point, but in an environment when most people use aliases as opposed to their real names, issues such as race, colour or gender should never even be brought up. Simple as that!
“It’s The Magic Number”
I’d be a liar if I said I didn’t like the whole statistical side of football gaming. It opens up a world of unlimited possibilities regarding player uniqueness and style. Not being a gifted mathematician, I could not give you the exact figures, but if each player has a set of stats ranging from 30 to 99, the potential combinations run into the millions. Couple this with different physical builds and attributes, and what you do end up with is an each player being as individual as their real life counterpart. Adebayor and Fernando Torres are both excellent centre forwards that get goals, but despite both being quick, powerful and good in the air, they would not be considered as similar players. PES has always done a very decent job of making this distinction using the stats available, and this year looks to be no exception. With that said, I find it very hard to get excited about screen of stats, as they are taken out of context, and look forward to observing player stats whilst playing, as opposed to on PC screen grabs.
Football Manager, and before it Championship Manager always followed a similar pathway, of giving players a number of stats which all worked together to give you the overall indication of a players ability. Of course, from time to time, a weaker team would be beat a team with statistically stronger players, but more often than not, the best team would win. And following research, I believe this is the major difference between the ways players feel on FIFA as opposed to PES. I have said before there is very little difference between players when you control them on FIFA, and no better example would be than the Chelsea midfield. Certainly, Cole, Lampard, Essien Deco and Malouda all look different, but when they receive the ball on FIFA, they seem to have very similar touches, change of paces, shooting and tackling ability. Anyone who knows football knows these five players are all exceptionally good players, but all have very different ways of playing. Even on PES 2008, you would struggle to go on a winding run with Frank Lampard, but Joe Cole could do it with ease. Deco might lose an aerial header that Essien would dominate, and this is down to the statistics.
FIFA gives each of its players an overall rating, with 99 being the maximum stat. The other stats the players have, all work into an average to give the player an overall rating, which in turn judges how good the player is. Other successful football games shy away from using this average system, allowing the gamer to make their own judgement about each player based on a number of pieces of information given. FIFA dumbs this process down, giving casual football fans assistance in picking their team, but as a result insulting the intelligence of the rest of the football gaming community. I have said many times, I own all FIFA titles, and do enjoy the odd game on the franchise, but I am simply quoting facts and numbers here, to support my point from previous weeks, that the players do all feel the same. These stats mean that playing John Terry up front would be better than playing a Championship striker up front, for example Kevin Phillips, because Terry’s overall rating is better than Phillips. In some cases, a players overall rating my drop by a couple of points if he is played out of positing, but in real football, a players speed or strength wouldn’t change if their starting position did! I know this is more a policy of EA Sports than FIFA itself, as most of its sport titles offer this style of statistic, but I feel that because of the approach adopted by PES from day one, it provides a more realistic football experience than all the licenses in the country could!
“Now Let Me Go”
Quick point regarding the release date of PES2009, and in particular the rumours swirling regarding the game being delayed. At this time of writing, these have proven to be nothing more than forum hearsay, and I believe that Play.com’s release date of Friday 17th October should be taken as correct. Konami have a history of changing release dates, but never normally within the month of the scheduled release. The whole Metal Gear Solid 4 sage backs up this theory, and with advertising sure to begin on Champions League TV shows, it would be a marketing nightmare to delay the game. Previous years have seen the game be released early by unwise gaming stores, with some employees handing the disc over as early as the Tuesday of its release week. The best thing to do is keep your ear to the ground, any early release news will be posted on this site as it happens.
“Like Thelma & Louise”
Ok, so maybe not friends forever, but the community aspect of PES is something that is a great place. I have met some good people writing this article, had some interesting conversations, and some outrageous ones as well! But I am a realist, and I know that come October 18th, no one will be posting comments about when is the game / demo / screenshots coming out, it will be all about the option files.
Last year, there were some exceptional bad natured and down right rude individuals, who expected an option file available, and were both foul mouthed and insulting when it turned out to be a lot harder than expected. We all need to remember that humans, many of whom have busy work, school or family schedules to fit their gaming around, create option files, and they need to be treated with the level of respect they deserve for giving their free time.
With the game still a few weeks away, I am considering creating an editing pack, which will be made freely available to anyone who wants it. The pack will feature up to date squad lists for many teams (both those in the game and those that are not), images and logos as well advice on editing and sharing your own option files. Again, I am only one person though, and would like the help of anyone interested to provide information for this editing pack. This could be as simple as going to your home teams website, and copying the list of players into a notepad document, and e-mailing it. It could be collecting the badges of all German Bundesliga teams and sending them this way. All work will be credited, and it would be of great assistance to anyone who is spending the time making an option file to have all this legwork done. I know many of the people who want these option files will expect them for free, but giving an extra 10 minutes of your time in order to help create your local side would be a great help, and appreciated by many!
“I’m Writing Again, These Letters To You”
I was hoping this point wouldn’t come up until after the games release, but community poster Camilo Rojas raised it, and it would be rude to ignore the fact. In February, I penned a letter to Seabass, taking into account all the views of the PESGaming.com public about how PES2009 could improve upon the 2008 offering. The reason is was sent at this time was for two reasons, firstly because the views could be taken into account whilst the game was in development, and secondly, because I knew only dedicated PESGaming.com members would be viewing the site mid February! Unfortunately, the letter was never replied to, and neither PESGaming.com nor myself received feedback. Upon PES2009’s release, I will take a look back at the letter, and see if many, or any, of the suggestions were taken into account in the end product. FIFA has made a big deal this year about how its game has been designed, ‘by the fans’ so it will be interesting to see if Konami has followed suit, or if the letter was just a waste of time!
“Its Along Way To Come From Your Bedroom Dance Routines”
I recently read through the achievements list posted on PESGaming.com and hope with both fingers crossed that these are converted into PS3 trophies as well, although I won’t be holding my breath! For those still gaming on last gen systems, a brief history lesson. Upon the release of X Box Live, the online service for X Box 360, gamers were treated to a new reward system called achievements, which add up to give you an overall gamer score. These achievements were, well, achieved by completing certain tasks or challenges in each game, with difficult challenges rewarding you with more points. For example, you might be playing a game, which requires you to kill a group of enemies, but if you kill them all without dying yourself, you would unlock a basic achievement. This points are then all added together to give you a gamer score, which is a fun way of competing again online friends, and to show off your gaming abilities. Playstation 3 recently added a similar service called trophies, which follow a very similar pattern. Instead of points, trophies are awarded for Gold, Siler Or Bronze achievements, with a platinum trophy available should you master all other trophies within the game.
To someone who is not that fussed, this might seem like a waste of time, hut the more you start getting into trophies, the more addictive it becomes. For any child growing up in the 90’s collections (stickers, cards, pogs etc.) were all the rage, and having more / better trophies than your mates is a great way of earning bragging rights. Sony are still trailing against Microsoft when it comes to this feature, with nearly every 360 game offering achievements, but few offering trophies on PS3 at this moment in time. Should PES make the move across to PS3 trophies, it would be a big step to levelling the playing field, and also give me a huge advantage in catching up with my Warhawk / Burnout playing mates! If your reading Konami…
“The Final Countdown”
It has gone exceptionally quickly, but this is the last week to cats your vote for the Interfering With Play Player Of The Season Award. Over 100 votes have been cast so far, and over the next 7 days, all those who are yet to vote have got the opportunity to let their favourite players be entered into the fray. Simply choose the players that have performed well for you over the last 12 months on PES2008, and either comment or e-mail me with their names. All votes will be counted, but voting twice will simple invalidate your second vote! You can vote for up to three players, and all three players will be given one vote towards to final total. Last years winner, for Pro Evolution Soccer 6 was Cristiano Ronaldo, who has received a fair bit of backing over the past 7 days, but unless a big influx of votes come his way soon, I feel their may be a new name on the award. Get your votes in by no later than Tuesday 7th October 2008, and votes will be counted and announced on the 14th October, just in time for the start of PES2009!
That’s your lot this week. Comments or e-mails about anything you have read here are more than welcome. If you’re interested in providing information for the editing pack, please e-mail me with your data, be it team logos, photos or simply squad lists. This particularly applies to lower league fans, which would like to see their team make it into an option file! interferingwithplay@hotmail.co.uk is the place to reach me at, or add simply adds me to msn if you have any views you would like to express. Thanks go as always to Dave Ostrander for the IWP Logo!
Thanks for Reading
