Archive for October, 2008
Posted by dougiedonut in PES 2009 News on Thu 30 Oct 2008
Now that we’re in full swing with PES 2009, its time to turn our attention to PES 2010.
Yes that’s correct – we need immediate action to get our chance to influence the production of PES 2010.
I have plans to meet up with a Konami representative some time in early November. The agenda is simple:
1) pesgaming.com and our associated gamers have a voice which we want heard by Konami. They said they are keen to foster a relationship between us, to help bring them closer to the masses and show that they are listening to their fan base.
2) to put forward a list of improvements we feel are necessary to make PES 2010 the definitive football game, and to put FIFA back into second place where it belongs.
So this is an open invitation to you guys out there to respond back with what you think would make for a better PES experience. So we would appreciate constructive comments on the site, to help us put together a definitive list of enhancements for the next game.
For those wondering why we need to do this so quickly after the launch of the new PES title, I should point out that the development road plan has probably already been put into action for PES 2010, and if we’re lucky, we may have just made the cut for changes!
Once we have collated information from you guys, we will put together a summary of the changes we shall be advocating on your behalf to Konami. From there, let’s hope that we can influence the outcome of the next game.
I’m not sure how many of you guys are happy with the new PES game, but there must be plenty of people, like me, who would really like to see some major changes in the game.
I think to help start this off, I should list the suggestions that I have come up with, and then you guys can add to it, and/or rubbish the ideas I’ve made (politely please – I do have feelings!!).
Environment:
Stadiums – all the pitches were exactly the same colour – a bland green.
I was looking forward to an assortment of shades of green and patterns mowed into the pitches. They’re all bland.
In fact – why can’t we edit the pitch colours?? I would love to play on a weird colour pitch (as long as kits don’t clash with it). Even the old ZX Spectrum allowed you to change pitch colours!! (this is of course a very low priority suggestion, but one I’ve always wanted!)
Chanting: absolutely nauseating! Playing the same chants over and over and over again is awful. Who play tested this game??
Why not introduce better crowd dynamics such as:
Spells where the home fans are quiet and the away fans are singing their hearts out.
Away team scoring to mostly silence, apart from the away fans who would be heard relative to their position from the goal end scored at.
Dodgy tackles getting the crowd on the back of players – with boo-ing of the dirty players in a game – or just at Ashley Cole whenever he plays.
Camera angles – a major issue for me – why can’t we have customizable camera angles? Even FIFA allows you to zoom in and out on any of their preset camera angles.
Why not go one better and give us total control over the camera angles?
I really used to love the overhead camera angles of footy titles of old. I would love to have an isometric overhead camera angle, which was zoomed out to my preference.
Why are we still restricted to a handful of angles?
We get total control of angles during replays – why not be able to do that in game?
Teams and Kits:
I think its fair to say that most of us don’t care about licensing. As long as we have a full editor which allows us to change kits, teams etc then we have a big enough community to share plenty of decent option files to keep us happy. This would save Konami a bucket load of dosh and also ensure money is spent on the areas that need it.
I think the customization side of PES games is what truly brings the community together.
Gameplay:
Trick stick – bring it back! I think its fair to say we’ve seen the “casualisation” of the control system – is this to appeal to the casual market??
Take the PES6 control system – you could do the basic controls easily, but would have to use a bit of effort to pull off tricks – a direct effort-reward system which is fair.
Now, any old Joe is pulling off fancy stuff – I think this detracts from the game. Advanced players are now penalized for their abilities on the ball.
Defending – I find it hard to use defensive abilities of players to jockey attacking players, or affect their path when they’re dribbling. Could just be a case of me having to adjust more.
Play acting:
When a player is tackled – how about the ability to play act a little?
Why not allow players to roll around on the ground clutching their leg/face/or whatever
Trying to get a player booked? This again could be a double-edged sword, where too much theatrics gets you booked, or gets the fouler booked for the tackle.
Get to know your team:
I think more should be done with hothead players. If you have Joey Barton in your team, then you know he is likely to stud someone when the chips are down. Do you stick with him, because you know he could turn the game, or do you sub him and play with a less volatile player? There should be more risk/reward dynamics with players.
Equally you could have a very talented prima dona of a player, who walks around the pitch when he doesn’t get possession of the ball, and sulks. This would then mean that you either pander to his ego and give him the ball, or you sub the little shit.
Free kick taker: why does a free kick taker totally freeze for around 4 to 5 seconds after they’ve taken a kick? I’ve had numerous occasions where players take a kick, the ball hits the wall, comes back to him, but the player remains frozen on the spot. You then miss the opportunity for a shot on the rebound.
Invisible barriers – why, why, why?? You don’t have barriers in the real game! Why can’t I stand in the face of someone taking a throw-in, or a defender when a goal-kick is about to be played short? Its called pressing the play – why provide an easy route for people to being passages of play. Why can’t defenders move into space to call for the ball?? Perhaps keep the invisible barriers on the easiest difficulty level for casual/new players.
Goalkeepers – power bar for throws out/kicks out.
Why not give the goalkeeper the ability to throw the ball under-arm or over-arm, depending on how YOU want to??
Keeper confidence – if a keeper concedes a few goals in consecutive games, let him get the wobbles during games. That would make you think about resting him for the reserve keeper, or sticking with him through thick and thin.
Player movement – can we please progress from 8 way directional control??
New concept: Team Confidence
This is me going out on a limb, but introducing “Team Confidence” (trade mark applied for) would be fantastic.
Stringing more than 10 passes together in your opponent’s half(not all in defence!) would swing a confidence meter (could be displayed next to the radar at the bottom of the screen) in your favour would be brilliant. This would encourage you to gain possession of the ball quickly and get that guage swinging in your favour as your players are more galvanized and will better chances at scoring. Equally when your confidence is not high, when you do gain the ball, the chances of keeping it are harder until you string passes together. This could also help with league games where if you get into a run of games, your players respond a bit more than usual.
This could be applied to devastating effect in the Master League mode as well as online play.
Equally, go on a losing streak, and you’d have to mix it up to try to get your players to break out of the losing run, and to go on from there. This would mirror real life team dynamics too.
Teams at the top of the league get into winning habits, and teams at the bottom lose their way. Which mirrors what happens with teams in real life. This would affect the formations you choose to try to break teams down etc. I think it could introduce a whole host of meaningful tactical decisions to the game.
Scenarios:
Having scenarios would be fantastic again. Some suggested scenarios could be:
a) You’re down to 10 men with Stoke and are 1-0 up against Man Utd at the end of the first half. Cling on in the second half.
b) You’re at the bottom of the league with 10 games to go and low on morale. You need no less than 7 wins (and praying teams immediately above you drop points)
c) An older player is close to retirement, but is on 999 goals. He has 3 sub appearances to make it to 1000. (this could be in Become A Legend Mode)
d) Come back from 2-0 at half time.
e) Come back from 3-0 at half time
f) Come back from 4-0 at half time
Add your own scenarios to the list!
Online:
Everything is slow when play is stopped. It takes a while to move from a ball going out, to play resuming, be it throw ins, free kicks or goal kicks. It really detracts from the experience. As a point of reference – please check out PES6!
The whole online pre-match experience is confusing. It takes an age to figure out what to do. I still don’t really understand it all! Some sort of explanation of how to navigate and work on the online system – some sort of tutorial even – would be very useful.
Beta testing: COD games are the leaders on this front. Why not give us the opportunity to help get the online side of gaming right? It would help us to get an early sight of the game, and also to ensure the online experience is spot on.
I hope the above will help you guys get off the ground with your suggestions, so let’s have them. Please remember to respect each other in the comments section – we don’t want petty squabbles detracting from the main thrust of this effort.
FIFA is pressing hard, Konami is stagnating. Konami needs to embrace its adoring masses, not isolate it.
I think its time to go from Pro Evolution Soccer to People’s Evolution Soccer.
Thanks for reading.
Dougiedonut.
P.S. I’m thinking about starting a new addition to my weekly column where you guys can issue a challenge to all and sundry. To start us off, a good mate has thrown down the gauntlet to all 360 owners. His gamertag is: Unitedsnumber7, so do give him a sound thrashing if you can. Please report back scores to me, as I don’t want to rely on his version of scores…
If anyone else wishes to challenge anyone In particular, or wants to invite others to try their luck, then please leave a comment with “CHALLENGE” clearly written so that I can find them easily.
Posted by Dan Bolas in Interfering With Play on Tue 28 Oct 2008
IWP League Champion 2008: Martin Ginnelly (River Plate)
Welcome to this week’s Interfering With Play. I would like to start this column with a look forward towards the next few weeks at PESGaming.com, and in particular what the site is planning to bring you, the PESGaming.com public. As always, the site has its three regular columns, In The Red, PES Off and of course IWP, which will continue to run throughout the next few months, featuring talking points from the world of football gaming along with other relevant issues. If there is a topic you would like to see raised in one of these columns, feel free to get in touch with the relevant author, who will be more than happy to bring up any new features or discussion points. To compliment my weekly Interfering With Play, I will also be writing two reviews, one of FIFA 2009 and one of PES 2009 which will be made available for download. These will be coupled with a comparison of the two games, which will be as fair and equal as I see possible, and will use the views from my own personal experiences as well as those from other websites. This will all be backed up with the latest Pro Evolution Soccer news, regarding downloadable content, server and online issues as well as online leagues and tournaments PESGaming.com plans to run over the next 12 months. With the future looking busy, lets move onto this week’s Interfering With Play.
“Video Killed The Radio Star”
I would like to start this week with a topic that is a personal favourite of mine, video editing. Anyone who watches Soccer AM or the majority of Sky Sports football broadcasts has to agree that the quality of the video highlights packages are excellent, and at times steal the show from the actual topic at hand. Features such as Showboat are a simple yet effective way of showing off the latest tricks and skills quickly, and are very easy to watch. The fact that Pro Evolution Soccer, for many years now, has given us the option to save our replays and goals to be viewed at a later date seems to put forward the question, why are we unable to create our own little video highlights packages, maybe for distribution in a community environment?
Consolegoals, a popular football gaming website, has for many years ran a Goal Of The Month competition using goals from Pro Evolution Soccer. The video clips however, range from the very shaky camera phone quality on consoles, to crystal clear screen grabs from PC versions of PES, leaving the average gamer with no real opportunity to get their best efforts onto the world stage. At the current time of writing, I know Sony are looking towards adding an action grabbing feature to their XMB, allowing you to physically record the game your playing and turn it into video format, but this is still along way off. Whilst at the same time, the latest instalment of Smackdown Vs. Raw 2009 allows you to edit a group of Replays together, using screen and sound effects in order to create a top draw highlights package to brag to your mates with.
I said in last week’s column, that community gaming is the way forward, and this can expressed in a huge way with the ability to manipulate your own goals or video packages. The simplest solution would be for Konami to turn replay saves into common video formats (.avi or .mpg) meaning they could be saved and viewed on the console, or imported via USB to a PC where editing and online posting is easier. The other alternative is to have a piece of editing software built into the game, as the latest WWE game has, and allow you to edit ‘on the fly’. Other games out there, notably Halo, also provide this service, and with showing off a huge part of football gaming, it’s a feature that should definitely be featured in future instalments of football titles.
“When Two Tribes Go To War”
I have to smile when I read some of the comments left on PESGaming.com, as I mentioned last week. I praise EA for showing decent marketing initiative, and I become a FIFA fan. I slate Konami for poor PR skills and suddenly I hate Pro Evolution Soccer. That’s kind of like saying because I dislike Pickled Onion Monster Munch I hate crisps! I have cleared my case in last week’s column, but would like to bring out a point that will compliment the comparison between Fifa 09 and PES09 in a few weeks time. I am a football fan. I am also a gaming fan. I want to play the best football game available. I don’t care who makes it, if its Konami, or EA or even Codemaster’s or Eidos! I am not sure whether the best football game would be an accurate interpretation of the sport in game format, or a version of the sport that is tailored towards playability, yet I am sure that for the past few years, my personal choice has always been Pro Evolution Soccer. Familiarity also plays a huge part, as it does with many other gaming franchises. There are, no doubt, people who will argue between Halo 3 and Call Of Duty 4, or Metal Gear Solid 4 and Gears Of War and in each of these cases, the game that you have spent more time on, or are more used to, will normally win over your personal opinion. This is why I have spent a fair bit of time with FIFA 09, trying to work out that familiarity in order to give an impartial and fair review of both titles.
Its not going to surprise many people which game is going to win my personal battle, and indeed which game I will still be playing come September 2009, but my decision will be based totally at the games involved, not the company that makes them, the players that sponsor them or the colour box they come in!
“We’ve Only got Four Minutes”
I have always been one to edit my PES straight away. As I have said before, it’s either spending my first weekend editing or download an option file pretty soon. I would like to reiterate a point raised last week, that there are some great option files already available on the web. People spend a lot of time creating them, and whether it is just an e-mail or comment to say thank you, the relevant author will always appreciate it.
The main purpose for me saying what follows is down to the huge number of e-mails received on the subject. At the current moment in time, no one is 100% sure what the official Konami patch is going to edit or change, or even when it will be made available. What normally happens in these cases is that the game automatically updates, and anything that it needs to change it will do so without asking. As a result, transfers and editing may all be changed as soon as this patch installs itself, and it will install itself, meaning you might lose everything your have edited. This includes custom teams, kits and option files. I therefore encourage the solution to wait and see what happens when the patch installs, which should be no longer than two weeks away before creating your own teams or spending hours making sure every player is created and at the right club. It may save you a lot of frustration in the long run.
As I have said there are some top option files available, and as soon as the patch issue is done and dusted, PESGaming.com will provide a comprehensive review of the best files out there. I personally also find it very frustrating not having the correct kits and logos for the English sides, but a couple of weeks waiting is better than a couple of weeks wasted. You have been warned!!
“Lets Get These Teen Hearts Beating Faster”
I wrote a few weeks ago regarding trophies, and how I was hoping they’d be featured in Pro Evolution Soccer. I am fully aware that the achievements for X Box 360 work exceptionally well on the title, as well as being aware that trophies or achievements are exceptionally addictive. Hopefully the patch will also add trophies to the PS3 version of the game, although there is no official word on this from Konami, so I wouldn’t be holding my breath. What I am quite sure of though is that trophies will not be backward compatible, meaning if you want to earn these trophies, you may have to complete tasks you have already done. Very frustrating, as I am sure those of you playing Burnout Paradise or Grand Theft Auto IV will back up.
What I will say though, and this is going back against my previous views that I am impressed with how good trophies or achievements are. I was the first to think that developers would add these as opposed to quality unlockable items for games, but instead they have enhanced many games that would have been too easy to complete or too short. I know 360 gamers will appreciate this, but it is a great way to compete against your mates, and is a genuinely solid reason for playing many games to completion, on harder difficulties or even multiple times!
“You’ve Got The Music In You”
Thanks to everyone who supported the IWP PES Playlist feature over the past month. The full list is available below, but be sure to check out some other peoples alternatives in the comments section, as there are some fine tunes in the mix. I would like to take this opportunity to once again remind you that PESGaming.com and Interfering With Play does not support warez or illegal file downloading. Please support the artists or bands and download via official means.
I am personally delighted with the ability to import music and chants, but at the same time have a cheeky smile on my face every time I hear Go For The Goal in the background during the pre match scenes and build up. Like an old school teacher, it really used to bother me to the point where I would intentionally stop listening, but when I hear it now it has a nostalgic value that makes it almost good! A very nice touch from Konami! The music overall in PES2009 is much better than 2008, and although the ability to import tracks could have meant that Konami completely slack on the preset tracks, they have actually provided one or two songs of genuine quality. Two hats off to Konami on one paragraph, must be nearly Christmas!
“These Word Are My Own”
My final point this week is a quote made by regular poster passthedutchie, member of the IWP Hall Of Fame.
‘A couple of friends of mine will be over at the weekend to rehearse for our band. In between rehearsing, we will have a few games of PES and a few beers, this, to me is entertainment and at a cost of £40 (pro rata over a year) + beers. That type of weekend will be repeated a number of times over the coming year, so, you may understand that I do not feel let down at all.’
Right there is exactly what PES is all about, and when you put £40 into the context of a year, or over 250 hours of game time, your realise that the game isn’t a rip off, and that if you feel let down by it, simply don’t purchase it or play another title. As I said earlier, I know which game I will be playing come September 2009, and I know that £40 is cheap for the amount of time spent using that game.
That’s your lot for this week’s Interfering With Play. Feel free to get in touch via the usual channels, interferingwithplay@hotmail.com is your safest bet, but comments are also appreciated. I am still working my way through the huge number of e-mails from the past 7 days, so please bear with me if you haven’t received a reply. I am currently playing a great deal of Warhawk on PS3. In my personally opinion, it’s a great game, and also a superb starting point for collection trophies, if you’re a newbie to all of that. If you play the game, and would like to either join a clan or have a couple of games online, send me and e-mail with your PSN ID and I will add you. Am looking to make an official IWP Clan, so would be nice if it was done exclusively with members from this site. Thanks, as always to Dave Ostrander for the IWP Logo!
Thanks for Reading
Posted by Dan Bolas in PES 2009 News on Sun 26 Oct 2008
Following a great deal of e-mails requesting copies of the IWP Playlist, I have decided to post a copy of it on the site, for people to see for themselves. The selection of songs range from well known artists and tracks to up and coming bands or less famous tunes and has been created with the help of the PESGaming.com community.
These tunes are designed to compliment your own choice of tracks, aswell as act as an alternative soundtrack to Pro Evolution Soccer 2009. The tracks are in no particular order.
- Daft Punk – One More Time
- The Dykeenies – Waiting For Go
- Bowling For Soup – I Ran (So Far Away)
- MGMT – Electric Feel
- The Last Shadow Puppets – My Mistakes Were Made For You
- Fort Minor – Remember The Name
- Bloc Party – Flux
- Pendulum – Propane Nightmares
- Basement Jaxx – Good Luck
- Biffy Clyro – Who’s Got A Match?
- Prodigy – Diesel Power
- Korn – Word Up!
- Liquid – Sweet Harmony
- Inaya Day – Nasty Girl
- We Are Scientists – Nobody Move, Nobody Gets Hurt
- The Automatic – Recover
- Mylo – In My Arms
- Muse – Hysteria
- Girls Aloud – Sound Of The Underground
- The Offspring – The Kids Aren’t Alright (Wise Guys Remix)
- Rihanna – Umbrella
- LostProphets – Rooftops
- Republica – Ready To Go
- Billy Ray Martin – Your Loving Arms
- Ash – Angel Interceptor
- Sean Paul – Like Glue
- Guns N Roses – Sweet Child Of Mine
- The Verve – Bittersweet Symphony
- Skindred – Pressure
- Flobots – Handlebars
The tracks add up to 2 hours of music that would fit nicely onto 2 Cds, which can then be imported onto PS3. If you use thumbnails for you PS3 music, feel free to use the IWP Logo as the icon for these tracks!
Posted by francis in PES 2009 News on Sun 26 Oct 2008
The Proof Is In the Pudding
With Pro Evolution Soccer ’09 having been out for purchase for just over a week, people are beginning to make their minds up about this year’s version of the game. One thing no-one’s really mentioned is the fact that the game’s difficulty levels seem to be harder; from what I’ve found – having played on ‘Top Player’ difficulty for the last four or five releases, that on PES ’09 ‘Regular’ or the level above, seem to be as hard as ‘Top Player’ was on PES ’08. This may be because I’m not yet completely used to the new version, but the computer certainly seems to be able to keep the ball and create – and indeed convert – goal scoring opportunities maybe more than they were able to on Pro Evo ‘08’s ‘Top Player’ difficulty setting. This is one thing people were calling for over the last year, and to those people who have been disappointed with the new version, I can see a lot of things that show Konami have done to shape PES ’09 to be how people were wanting during the transition between Pes ’08 and Pes ’09.
On another note, one VERY good point in the comments section for this week’s ‘Pes Off’ was post 37 by Arctic Monkey, who noted that the reason for the online defence being seemingly so easy to go through, is most definitely because the (unalterable) setting for the game difficulty is set to beginner! This is something that seems so obvious now. Thanks AM.
Handball!
Dan mentioned (the now defunct franchise) ‘This Is Football’ in his IWP this week. It was a game I really enjoyed playing against my friends with, and brought back old memories when I read about it. One of my favourite parts on ‘TIF’ was the fact that handballs were free-kick offences. Seeing as the makers of ‘This Is Football’ had the means to implement this four years ago, why do Konami or EA not have the handball foul in their football franchises? Even the ability to turn off handballs would leave both people who were for, and those who were against the option, happy! I don’t really understand how you can now dive, edit your player’s eyebrows and choose the football to play with, yet the simple handball has been overlooked. Which leads me to;
The Big Question
So – Simply enough, do you think that the handball foul should be implemented into these next-gen football games?
If anyone knows how to put polls up via Wordpress (the software we use to publish these blogs) then please email me with how, on the email address listed below!
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.
Thanks,
-Francis
Posted by dougiedonut in PES 2009 News on Thu 23 Oct 2008
So a week on from launch, I’m almost dreading asking people what they think.
I’ve been monitoring initial comments from last friday, which have been a mixed bag.
But with a week’s worth of play, more concrete opinions are being formed by you guys out there no doubt.
I am still working my way through the game, and haven’t sampled the master league, become a legend or much in the way of online play. I want to take my time doing so, to form as complete a view on the game as possible.
I expect to offer a review of what I think of it in about 3 weeks time.
I think for a lot of people, the two key factors to measure success are the gameplay and the online playability. If these two factors are up to scratch, then most people will put up with other less satisfactory elements of the game.
I would like to offer an initial impression of the game, but by no means is it my final opinion of the game. I should also point out that my point of reference is PES6, since PES2008 didn’t exist for me.
I think I would describe the game as aesthetically pleasing (certainly a mark up from PES6 on the 360!). I am not too sure I like the dribbling abilities in the game. I seem to be able to find it fairly easing to jink into the penalty area from my own half with any player fairly easily – this being on top player mode.
I will play it a lot more to decide whether or not this is something that is commonly done, or whether my initial playing style is permitting me to do so. I hope you guys understand what I mean!
I think this is a very attack focussed game. Defending is very hard. I find I can’t press the man on the ball with physical presence, to force their direction of travel. In PES6 I could force a winger to play the ball out with pressure on the touchline. This isn’t quite as easy now.
The whole dribbling at right angles at pace and ease of turning between players is a little offputting for me. Perhaps as I play it more this will grow on me, but for now, its a bit strange.
That’s all I will say on the game for now, since I don’t want to appear negative about the game, especially since I don’t think I’ve given it a fair crack of the whip. I want nothing more than to be able to declare this THE footy game for me, but I want to do so in a methodical, clinical fashion – not like a loved-up little puppy.
I’ve also been suffering from a cold since the weekend, which has meant that I’ve not been as mentally astute as I would like to think I normally am. As I reach normality, I think I should be enjoying the PES experience a little more.
Now that PES has been launched, we will be expecting a fair amount of churn on the site. This is to be expected, since many people only check PES sites for details of the game pre-launch. But we at pesgaming.com would really appreciate it if you could show us your support through comments to let us know that you guys appreciate the PES experience we offer you. If there is any type of improvement you guys think we could make to the site, then please let us know, and we’ll see if we can do more to serve the PES community at large.
Our goal is to be THE place for PES, and that is only possible with your help. So help us to help you!
Thanks for reading.
Dougiedonut
Posted by Dan Bolas in Interfering With Play on Tue 21 Oct 2008
IWP League Champion 2008: Martin Ginnelly (River Plate)
Welcome to this week’s Interfering With Play. For anyone who was in any doubt, Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 is now available all over Europe, with American and Australian dates following in the upcoming weeks. If you’re a fan of the series, chances are you have already picked up a copy and have spent a fair bit of time with the title. Opinions will already be formed and most people will have already decided on whether or not it is the greatest football game ever, or just another Konami botch job. True to form, I will be reviewing the game next week, after spending a bit more time playing the various game modes and using different teams. I will also be reviewing FIFA 2009, with both reviews being made available for download on this site. I will not be posting either review in blog format, as I do not wish to force my review upon the PESGaming.com community, and would rather give you the option of reading it should you wish. I will, however, be posting a blog comparing the two games in a few weeks time, with an honest and frank assessment of which game, in my opinion, is the better title. That’s all to come, so lets just take a few steps back, and crack on with this week’s Interfering With Play.
“If My Life Is For Rent”
Just wanted to start off this week with a quick response to some comments made last week about EA Sports sending me a complimentary copy of FIFA 09. The more astute of you will have realised I am yet to pass comment on EA Sports latest title, and was merely praised the PR department of a huge gaming company for taking the time to get in contact with the fans of football gaming. I would also like to point out that in my response e-mail to EA Sports, I informed them in no uncertain terms that my views or opinion were not for sale, and I would be perfectly honest about EA Sports and FIFA football in all future blogs, articles and conversations.
It should be once again brought forward that they made contact with me, yet I had to make contact first with Konami, a point that will no doubt be looked back upon again in future months. My views about the company of EA Sports remain the same, and I would like to once again state them for all to read. EA Sports are a huge super power within the sporting gaming world, and are responsible for the progression of the genre on a number of platforms and different levels. At times, their cut throat style has seen them put an end to some of the best loved sporting franchises and they have a very ruthless streak when it comes to eliminating competition. However, as soon as that competition disappears, the company does seem to rest upon it laurels and produce average video games on a less than regular basis (Rugby, Cricket) and the true people who suffer are the fans of that particular sport, as no other gaming companies have the clout to compete. Whilst this is the case, they do produce games towards a key demographic which tend to lap up the titles on a regular basis, and for that reason the company must be seen as successful. If games like Actua Soccer, This Is Football or even Sensible Soccer had progressed in any way, then they would still be released on a yearly basis, supported by a loyal fan base. As is it, these games were simply not of a high enough standard to compete with PES and FIFA, and therefore dwindled away into nothing. Comparing EA Sports to Chelsea is an analogy that has been done to death, but rings fully true, even if you dislike the company, which at times I definitely do, you must at least have an admiration for the way they do certain things.
“Whatever Makes You Happy”
Reading the hundreds of comments that have been posted following the release of Pro Evolution Soccer 2009, I have to smile at some of the points made. I am not sure what people were expecting from Konami with this title, but a fair bit of the criticism given is harsh. I am trying my best to keep my views on the game held back until the review is made public, but there are certain things that should be praised, and instead are getting a great deal of unnecessary stick. People complaining that you can ‘only import 60 tracks’ into PES2009! This is a progression of both the Pro Evolution Soccer series and of gaming in general, incorporating your own sound track. Sixty songs may not be huge in this day and age, yet it is still enough to offer a wide variety of tunes that mean you could play for a couple of hours and not have to listen to the same song twice. People complaining that the chant-importing feature doesn’t sound perfect. In my experience, using a chant pack I have found online, the chants sound perfectly fine, and add to the experience. However, even if they don’t sound as accurate as the real life ones, it is still the introduction of a new feature, which, over the next few years, will become more and more commonplace within the gaming world. Providing this is deemed to be successful by Konami, both features will hopefully be enhanced for future editions of the game and become ‘part of the furniture’.
I have always been very open about my views regarding Konami, be they negative or positive and in this situation; I must applaud Konami for trying to add these new features. The quality of the edit mode cannot be questioned this year and for the first time in a while, it seems that Konami are encouraging us, the PES community, to make the game our way. This may go further, with the option to customise menu screens, or even video highlight packages, but for the time being, the ability to import images and songs into the game via hard drives is a huge step in the right direction. With games like LittleBigPlanet providing limitless potential for editing the way we play computer games, it seems that Konami are actually embracing the “do things your own way” path which video gaming in general seems to be heading down.
With this said, and as a question to PESGaming.com visitors out there, what aspects of PES would you like to see editable in the future? Perhaps the ability to create your own stadiums? Would you like to be able to compile Showboat style video clips to post online? Or is there something else? Customisation is the future of gaming, and its nice to see Konami getting in at something on the ground level, for a change.
“My Only Words Of Wisdom are RADIO EDIT”
To all of you who have purchased PES2009, you will probably be exceptionally disappointed with lack of up to date transfers within the game. Normally, I would have spent the previous few days slaving all night getting the game as up to date as possible, however I have held back for one very simple reason, Konami’s downloadable update. In case you haven’t heard, Konami have ‘promised’ a patch within the next 2 weeks, which will update transfers and add extra teams into the game, all for free! Whilst this raises the obvious question, why weren’t these added to the game before its release, it also explains the delay suffered by the last generation versions of the game, as they would have no way of updating.
Whilst this patch is no doubt good news for PES players, no one is entirely sure what affect it will have on your current PES data, and any editing that you may have done to your game prior to the patch’s installation. Basically, what this means is it could, potentially, delete all the editing you have currently done, including club logos and strips and replace them with the generic ones. This would no doubt prove to be exceptionally frustrating, and therefore I can offer the following advice. If you haven’t already started editing Pro Evolution Soccer yet, don’t start until after the patch is out. If you play a lot with mates, it might make sense to do the latest, big name transfers, but other than that, wait and see what goodies the patch brings. It is for this reason that I will not be hosting or recommending any option files until after the release of the patch. PESGaming.com will have all the latest information regarding patch release dates, and what the patch actually does when the data becomes available.
“Come Feel The Noise”
For those of you who are interested, the Interfering With Play playlist is up and running on iTunes as an iMix. The idea of this playlist is to offer an alternative selection of tracks for you to download and use as menu music for PES2009. I would like to thank everyone who took the time to suggest tracks for the list, in particular Tom Laskowski, who provided a number of songs for the final collection. Following a brief trimming, I cut the final list from 30 to 21 songs, in order to help save the expense of buying an overpriced playlist for a number of unknown tracks. If you wish to obtain a full list of all 30 songs from the original IWP Playlist, please e-mail me with your request and one will be sent to your inbox.
I would like to take this opportunity to inform you that PESGaming.com, Interfering With Play or myself make no profit from this selection of songs, and that Interfering With Play supports legal downloading. The Interfering With Play iMix is available from the iTunes store by simply typing in ‘Interfering With Play’ when searching for an iMix.
“The World’s Greatest”
Finally this week, I am asking opinions of the community on who they feel the best team are on Pro Evolution Soccer 2009. Only a few days into the game, and having only used a handful of sides, my personal favourites are Chelsea, as they seem to suit my style of play down to the ground. As the year goes on, I will no doubt go through a series of phases of different sides, but at this early stage, Scolari’s men are my choice. However, there are no doubt a lot of top teams out there, and I am sure everyone will have their own opinion. Whilst not an official poll, I will be posting the results in next week’s column, so either e-mail me or comment me with your response. For this particular task, feel free to include the team’s real name, or their PES Name, in other words Arsenal or North London. Also, could we try and keep the results to club sides only.
That’s your lot for this week’s column. A lot of topics to cover, yet very little actually typed about the game itself. This is intentional, as I plan to express my views of the game in a review format, and do not wish to say too much about the title until that point. However, I will say that I am very much enjoying Pro Evolution Soccer 2009! interferingwithplay@hotmail.co.uk is the e-mail address you can reach me on. Please refrain from messaging regarding option files, as I will not be providing links or recommending one until the patch release. Thanks again to Dave Ostrander for providing the IWP Logo.
Thanks for Reading
Posted by francis in PES 2009 News on Mon 20 Oct 2008
Community Spirit
Ever since I started blogging for Pesgaming.com, I’ve been very impressed with the community spirit that there seems to be present here. Racist comments and insults apart, it’s always nice to see people commenting on each other’s points of view and coming up with ideas for new and existing versions of Pro Evolution Soccer. Now that the IP banning is in full force, I’d like to re-state how we’re taking a hard-line approach to racism with anyone that uses racist words or comments being banned within 24 hours. On the other hand, I’m starting to notice some of the regulars who leave insightful, well written and thought out comments, and I’d like to thank the thousands of people who read the column over the week for simply visiting the site and supporting pesgaming.com!
Release the Hounds!
Now that Pes ’09 has been released, the comments sections have filled up with reactions on the game, and I’m pleased to say it seems 8 or 9 out of ten people are very happy with it! The online exhibition games seem almost fixed lag-wise, and as far as I’ve seen the Be A Legend online game is flawless. I’ll refrain from commenting on the new version fully for a couple of weeks however, until I’ve given it a thorough testing. If you play on Xbox 360 and would like to organise a game or two against me then feel free to email me with your gamertag to the usual email address, which is listed as usual at the end of the article. Don’t be annoyed if I don’t get back to you, as I receive numerous emails each week in response to the column, and I unfortunately cannot reply to them all. With regard to an online league, Dan as you might know runs the IWP league, and when he’s ready I’m sure he’ll be setting it up. Watch that space! Dan does his weekly blog ‘Interfering With Play’ off his own back, and creates the option files and packs for free, we don’t get paid here at pesgaming.com and nor would we expect to; let me just thank Dan for all the effort he goes to, to ensure Pesgaming.com continues to be the top Pes fan site on the internet.
Bringing the Lol’s
I like to highlight a comment now and then, and this week’s is ‘Chevs285’ who commented on Dan’s ‘IWP Option File Pack’ post (Comment 92 if you’re interested). It reminded me of a MasterCard advert, which could read something like this;
Xbox 360 – £159.98
Pes 2009 – £27.00
Entry into the tournament against your mates – £5
Shipping the girlfriend off for the entire evening? Priceless.
The Big Question
A simple yes or no question this week. Do you think that Konami have done well with Pro Evolution Soccer 2009, especially with expectations mounting every year?
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.
Thanks,
-Francis
Posted by Dan Bolas in PES 2009 News on Fri 17 Oct 2008
By now, most people have picked up a copy of the game. I am not going to speak to much about it here, but one of the biggest requests I have had is regarding how to import music into the menu screens and over the post match highlights. Only having access to PES 2009 on Playstation 3, I am only able to give a step by step guide for this medium. If anyone has an accurate and proven step by step guide to the process on either X Box 360 or PC, please e-mail it to me on interferingwithplay@hotmail.co.uk and I will post it up on here.
In order to create your own play list, you will need some MP3s saved on your Playstation 3 system. If you have CD’s you can easily import these using the PS3, but if you want to use MP3 files from your PC, you will need a USB pen. Simply transfer the files onto the pen, then copy them across onto the PS3. You may have to click ‘display all’ if no files are being shown when you insert the USB pen.
Create yourself a play list on the PS3’s music section. Call the play list KONAMI_PES making sure there are no spaces at the end of the title.
Import your selected tracks into the play list. You can add or take tracks away from the play list at any time, but when first creating, try and have at least 6 songs in the list. The only time people have had problems inserting music is when they have included a play list with minimal songs.
When happy with your play list, start up PES 2009 and go to the Gallery section on the menu. Then select play list editor.
Scroll across until you reach MP3, and then your list of tunes should be readily available for you to sample. To import them, simply press square, and then choose which menu screen you would like them to feature on. You can view the play lists for each menu screen by using the shoulder buttons.
Hope that helps.
Posted by Dan Bolas in PES 2009 News on Fri 17 Oct 2008
As promised, here is the Option File Help Pack available for download. The pack features up to date squads for all Premier League, Championship and League One teams, as well as team badges and strips for all English teams. There are also a few extras on there including some helpful links, stat converters and one or two extras.
If you are printing any information out, i recommend using the Adobe fil for the Premier League teams, as all the data is pretty much straight forward.
Please Note: This is NOT an option file for use with PES 2009. This pack simply gives you the information to aid you with editing your own copy of PES2009, or create your own option file.
The link is http://rapidshare.com/files/154730835/Option_File.rar.html
Enjoy Pro Evolution Soccer 2009
Posted by dougiedonut in PES 2009 News on Thu 16 Oct 2008
Gentleman, (and the few ladies that might play PES) I need not remind you all that we are counting down the final hours to getting the single most important footy title to date.
We are talking about a defining period for PES games here on. The last year has been tough, as we have vented frustration on Konami, PES and probably even loved ones because of the disappointments suffered.
As we prepare to take on the latest installment of the beautiful game, please let me remind you all of how our love for PES has evolved over the years.
I don’t intend on naming all the previous reincarnations of the game, but merely to remind us all that over the years PES has year upon year delighted us. Every year we used to say this is the best PES ever, and somehow it always built on the previous version that we loved. And so we saw steady progress in the game, whilst somewhere in the shadows, year upon year FIFA laid out superficial games which we always felt was unworthy of our attention. PES was always the connoisseur’s choice.
But we have now reached a point where it appears that both PES and FIFA titles have reached a landmark era. PES, once unchallenged, unrivalled in gameplay, stands in the dock awaiting judgement from us. Whereas FIFA, from which little in the way of genuine competition was ever really expected, is now turning heads.
Many people out there have felt bitterly let down by Konami, and the daggers are definitely out for them. Will this PES live up to our expectations and set a marker for future games?
Will we once again say with conviction that PES is the only game worth considering for a proper footy session?
I think that Konami are now running out of steam with the franchise, and are in need of a change in philosophy towards the game. PES has long been the people’s game, but it is sadly in danger of losing touch with the people.
I will be making it a personal crusade to launch a new Pesgaming.com + Konami initiative aimed at giving them quality feedback not only on PES2009, but on where we, the fans, think the game should go from here. If Konami want to take on and beat EA, we are going to be key to that success.
Some of our regular site viewers will be aware of Dan’s attempts to deliver our collective gripes with PES2008 early this year, and how it fell on deaf ears. This time we will hopefully make a breakthrough in forging a tighter relationship with Konami to give them the sort of feedback that will make a difference to their game.
Konami can no longer afford to rest on its laurels.
On the eve of the release, I hope I haven’t sounded too pessismistic for the future of PES, but I want to prepare people for the worst. As one of my favourite sayings goes – plan for the worst, hope for the best.
Finally, if PES2009 doesn’t deliver what we’ve been waiting for, then ask not what PES can do for you, but what you can do for PES.
Thanks for reading
Dougiedonut.
