Archive for May, 2009
Posted by Dan Bolas in Site Updates on Sun 31 May 2009
Well, unsurprisingly no one managed to beat the first challenge this week, and therefore I feel is only fair to start with an easier one. 9.0 as a rating is achieveable on both PES 6 and PES 2008 on the Sony consoles, however, it is not a run of the mill rating, and as has been pointed out, the rating system if flawed at best.
Therefore, this week’s challenge is
With Barcelona, Beat Manchester United 2-0, With Eto’o and Messi Scoring The Goals.
You must take a screenshot of the final game screen showing the goalscorers, and send it to interferingwithplay@hotmail.co.uk The first person to do so becomes the PRO-ve Your Skills Champion, and gets to set next week’s challenge. It doesn’t matter the order of the goal scorers, the level the game is being played on or even the version of PES (although i don’t think Messi is actually on PES4)
Good luck, and remember, it really is the first e-mail through that becomes the champion.
Posted by Dan Bolas in Interfering With Play on Tue 26 May 2009
IWP League Champion 2009: Ivan Kostic (Internacional)
Welcome to this week’s Interfering With Play. Before we go any further this week, I would like to make a couple of facts perfectly clear. The first, I am passionate about Pro Evolution Soccer, and football gaming in general. I have been coming to this site for many years, and been writing this very column for almost two years now. I think improving this game on a yearly basis is a serious issue, however I still try to have a laugh and joke, and make this as light hearted as possible. I think the majority of the community members are in a similar boat. I would like to follow this up by saying if your one of those people who takes everything to the next level of intensity, then maybe this community isn’t for you and you’d be better off elsewhere, but if like myself and many of the others out there, you enjoy PES and enjoy discussing it, and most importantly can have a laugh and a joke, you are more than welcome at PESGaming.com. Secondly, the log in issue is something many people are pressing towards. I personally have no control over the log in system, and the powers that be are the ones responsible for its implementation. The smart money would see a log in set up occur in late July or early August, to coincide with the busiest time of the PESGaming.com year. I will be very surprised if it doesn’t happen, so my advice would be to sit tight and watch this space. With that said, lets crack on with this week’s Interfering With Play.
“You Gotta Lose Yourself”
The new competition, PRO-ve Your Skills has got a few of you talking on the boards, and has been the subject of a number of e-mails. I am going to quickly use this area to answer a couple of questions that have been raised. Firstly, it is definitely possible to achieve a 9.0 on Pro Evolution Soccer. I am not 100% sure whether this can be achieved on Pro Evolution 2009, but have photographs of PES 2008 and PES 6 of me achieving the score. This challenge is open to any version of PES, on any console and therefore if you’re struggling to achieve the goal on PES 2009, maybe take a step back a year or two and bring in an older version.
The second point regards who is the champion, and how winning overall actually works. Basically, whoever wins week one becomes the champion, and it is there job to set a new challenge. That challenge will become available to the public on the following Sunday, and kind of like n eBay auction, the champion will remain so until someone beats his or her challenge, So for example, someone who gets a 9.0 might set their next challenge of get 100% of your shots on target with your team. Therefore, unless someone does this, they will remain champion for the following weeks. If someone does, the champion title changes hand, and the new champion must set a task for everyone, including the old champion to beat. There will be a couple of twists and turns on the way, so as soon as someone beats the challenge posted below, and e-mails an image of the screenshot proving it, the game truly begins.
Finally, I am well aware the average ratings are awful on Pro Evolution Soccer. It is something that will be addressed in a future IWP, but whilst it is present within a challenge situation, I am going to keep tight lipped and let you guys get on with it. Send your photos to the usual e-mail address and remember, it is first come, first champ!
“Get This Party Started”
Over the bank holiday weekend, I got a few of my mates round and we fired up the European Championship on PES 2009, playing fix. Fix is basically the same as Become A Legend, but instead you take the role of one player within a team, as opposed to your individual created character. Incredibly, some people don’t realise you have been able to do this since PES 3, and it shows that there are certain features included within the game which simply get ignored. Anyway, we took control of the Netherlands, and irrelevant of condition arrows, you had to choose one player to stick with throughout the tournament. I chose Seedorf, and following a 1-0 defeat against a strong France side, we went on to qualify through the group stages. A couple of 7.5s and an 8.0 in rankings earned me player of the Tournament, including a very decent display against Portugal, in which I scored and set up 2 in a tasty 4-3 victory. We ended up having to save and head our separate ways before the final, a game which sees us return against the one side that defeated us in the competition, France.
This right hear is the beauty or Pro Evolution Soccer 2009. One of my mates would consider himself a FIFA convert this year, and another would say he doesn’t play PES as much, but there is no other game that really binds a group together like PES. Yes, you can do the same of the EA Sports title, but in my experience it is never as enjoyable. Games like Call Of Duty and Gears Of War may have ‘mastered’ online multiplayer, but when gathered in a room of mates, with no one sitting off and everyone involved, PES truly still is king. I have mentioned this before, but playing fix with a group of mates is truly the way forward, and if you regularly get together, a league would be perfect! It is fair to say PES has been criticised, and rightfully so, for certain aspects of its multiplayer, but when offline, on one console, I don’t think there is a better game available.
“Don’t Worry, Don’t Panic”
Just a quickie to let all those people involved in the IWP World Cup know I haven’t forgotten about you guys. I have had a pretty hectic week away from the Internet, and therefore e-mailing has kind of taken a back burner. Roll on the iPhone when is can all be done on the go! The competition is currently being set up, and therefore I am open to suggestions for the 16 best national teams on Pro Evolution Soccer 2009. I have a rough list, but anyone wishing to give their two cents will be listened to! Expect the e-mails through later on this week, or over the weekend, outlining the rules, timing and tournament structure.
“Do You Have The Time, To Listen To Me Whine”
Moving on to the final portion of ‘The Big Survey’, this week I am going to take a look at some of the statistics you guys suggested, along with how they may affect the game play. In my opinion, any new statistic added would need to be accompanied by several new animations to compensate for it. I would also like to point out that unlike the personality traits mentioned in last week’s IWP; the statistics I am focussing on would relate to an attribute with a rating between 30 and 99, similar to the long pass accuracy, long pass speed etc. featured in PES.
Firstly, a huge talking point has been that balance takes too much dominance within the game. For example, two players that use balance in different ways would be Drogba and Messi. Lionel changes direction at such speed that his balance seems perfect, whereas Drogba has better balance regarding holding up the ball, irrelevant of his diving tendencies! In my experience, I feel the strength aspect that has been talked about so much should relate to the player’s body type. When creating a player, it is possible to choose his weight and physique, something which surely would have more effect on strength than a simple number. I am not against their being a statistic for strength, but if this was to appear instead of the body type option, I would much rather it was left out. As a general rule within football, the smaller players are weaker and more skilful, whereas taller players are stronger with less pace. Of course there are exceptions, but overall, strength needs to be related to body type as much as it does balance.
As mentioned in the survey, I feel some statistics suffer in translation. I am suggesting for one second that these should be removed, but instead maybe ask the Konami do a better job of translating them in relation to the way the affect the game. Technique is such a broad blanket to have for one stat, and therefore this could maybe split into three of four separate issues such as first touch, changing direction etc. Again, using Drogba as an example, sometimes his second touch is a tackle, because his first touch lets him down, whereas Crouch seems to take the ball like glue. However, both players are affective at what they do, and this technique stat should have a way of reflecting this.
The attack and defence stats also need to be looked into. There are certain attributes that are definitely missing, such as awareness, off the ball movement, interceptions, concentration and positioning that would really help define players within their position. For example, Titus Bramble may have a lower concentration rating, because he tends to make more mistakes, whereas John Terry would have a high rating for positioning because he always seems to be in the right place at the right time. These stats would aid both the human gamers and the AI, and would give a real feel for player’s mentalities as well as just their physical attributes.
Finally, in my opinion adding stats for tricks and skills would be a double edged sword. I feel every player should be able to do a basic range of skills, for example the scissors step over and the shot fake. However, the more advanced the number, the more skills the player has at their disposal; with 95+ being dedicated to the Robinho and Ronaldo group. The problem would lie on where the lines are drawn, and which skills are seen as the most advanced. For example Berbatov loves using the 360 spin, but rarely uses a flip flap, whereas Van Persie is the other way round. Having ratings or special abilities for each individual skill would be, as mentioned on the comments, a chronic waste of memory, so finding a balance would be so very hard.
I would love Konami to come and ask us, the PESGaming.com community what statistics we would like to see within the game, but at the same time know this is a no win situation for them. So many people want different statistics in the game that sooner or later, a line would have to be drawn of the stats would stop affecting the in game action. One of the things that has made the Football Manager series so great is the way stats actually affect the game, and this is something that PES needs to stick to, or risk losing touch altogether.
“You Can Write It In A Letter Babe”
Last point this week, and something which regular member Dave O has brought up to me regarding a letter to Konami outlining some ‘last minute additions’. I may leave this to Double D, if he is interested, but I am more than willing to play the part of the interest is relevant. Like many of you guys, I sometimes forget that these guys are just human beings, and we all think we can do a much better job than they can. Truth is, the Konami team have been making PES for long enough now to hopefully have some idea where the franchise is heading. If they want our ideas, then I will certainly be more than happy to give them out, but I am adopting a Keep The Faith mentality for PES 2010, and hopefully I will end up as happy as ever with the end result.
That’s your lot for this week. Make sure you check on the PRO-ve Your Skills competition, and send your entries to interferingwithplay@hotmail.co.uk if you’re good enough to do so! Feel free to leave your comments on anything you have read here. I am hoping to put the statistics to bed over the next 7 days, and look towards a new ‘Big Survey’ for early next week. Last of all, I have been chatting so someone who runs a very interesting Spanish speaking league on PES. The site is all in Spanish, and based in Mexico, but if it’s something that you would be interested in reading, you can do so on http://www.ligatsuru.net/
Thanks for Reading
Posted by Dan Bolas in Site Updates on Sun 24 May 2009
With the lack of a PES Off this week, I thought it would be as good an opportunity as any to start up a new competition on PES Gaming. The format is pretty simple, I will set a challenge this week. The first person to send a clear photo of them completing the challenge, either on a mobile phone or digital camera, to interferingwithplay@hotmail.co.uk becomes the one to beat. The current champion sets a new challenge, and whoever completes the challenge first becomes the new champion. This will go on until the end of July, and whoever is the champion at this stage will win a football related prize. Challenges will be set every Sunday, unless no one has completed the previous week’s challenge.
This week’s Challenge is Have One Player Achieve A Ranking Of 9.0 or Higher In A Match
Simply take the photo and send it to interferingwithplay@hotmail.co.uk. The challenge can be completed on any console, and any version of PES!
Good Luck
Posted by Dan Bolas in Interfering With Play on Tue 19 May 2009
IWP League Champion: Ivan Kostic (Internacional)
Welcome to this week’s Interfering With Play. I’d like to start this week with a polite and dignified response to many people’s comments, and indeed the views expressed about my own personal comments in Double D’s column. The ‘controversy’ surrounds the screenshot of Lionel Messi from PES 2010. I came out, on record saying that whilst I was very impressed with the screenshot, it could easily have been a pre rendered image and not represent the actual in game graphics. The kind of thing I am talking about would relate to the fact that ever year, Konami release a hype video which features graphics which are usually superior to the end product. Last year I believe the video showed the Argentine scoring a diving header. I have since been corrected that these images do in fact come from in game, and are not pre rendered scenes. I am more than happy to hold my hands up and admit my error. Other football games in the past may have used different graphics for cut scenes than they do for the match action, however PES has never been one of these, and therefore I can, like many of you, only assume the Messi image will be what we have to look forward to in PES 2010, whilst actually playing that game. I genuinely look forward to seeing how the other players look on the game, and whilst don’t expect every play to look as detailed as the PES poster boy, have high hopes for the graphical capabilities of Pro Evolution Soccer 2010. With that said, lets move on with this week’s Interfering With Play.
“Say You Will, Say You Won’t”
The application process for IWP World Cup is now officially closed. Successful applicants will receive an e-mail within the next 7 days informing you of your next stage. The response has been good, but the numbers have been small in comparison to the masses that applied for the previous PS3 IWP League. This tells me that either there are far more PES players using the Sony console to play the game, or the Microsoft contingent simply don’t have an interest in playing Pro Evolution Soccer 2009. Hopefully PES 2010 will change all our experiences of PES online, and make it the product we have all been hoping and dreaming of since its next generation arrival.
I would also like to respond to a comment which queried why I am not running a world cup on the PS3 version of the game. I believe the point was answered by community members, but would like to reiterate the World Cup has been designed because of demand by 360 gamers. I ran a very popular and quite successful PES league on the Playstation 3, a competition which finished just over a month ago. I fully intend to do the same in 2010, so any PS3 gamers who are new to the site, and want more information, add this page to your favourites and keep on returning!
“I’ve Got Charisma, And Personality”
Over the next two weeks, I will be using “The Big Survey” results from the statistics survey to shape some of my points. It is no secret that there are some vocal individuals within the community who like to express their views on these subjects. This is the whole point of PESGaming.com, and I welcome this. If you have remained quiet on the issue, or feel you have more to say regarding the stats issue raised in the survey, feel free to respond to this week’s IWP in the comments section.
The first topic I mentioned was borrowed heavily from the Football Manager series, and fitted under the heading player personalities. In the simplest form, there would be a selection of maybe 60 different player personalities, which would effect how the players on your team and those on the AI react to certain in game situations. These would range from things like Leader and Wonder Kid to Hot Headed and Show boater. Each personality would have different positives and negatives, with certain aspects affecting fitness, others moral and others performance.
For example, Steven Gerrard would have the personality’s midfield dynamo and leader. This would mean that when he is playing well, his whole team plays well, and he seems to be popping up everywhere on the pitch. This personality would affect things like stamina and determination, with him seemingly getting the ‘lucky breaks’ within tackles. His performance would influence other players, meaning his team mates would start to improve in their own aspects to, be that in a defensive format or taking on opponents. Michael Essien would posses a similar trait for midfield dynamo, but may lack the leader personality trait, meaning he and Gerrard would play and feel different.
Ronaldo on the other hand would posses’ very different personality traits. He may posses a show boat trait, whereby he has certain tricks or skills other players do not. This would be couple with a diving trait, meaning he is more likely to fall down looking for free kicks and moan when he doesn’t get them. When he performs certain tricks or beats defenders, his confidence may raise, whereas when he dives and doesn’t get free kicks, his confidence will fall, making his performance ability drop.
The difference between play personalities and special abilities is that they would affect the player’s entire game. Because a player has a good one on one special ability doesn’t mean they should score a one on one every time. This comes down to their confidence, their performance and the way they are playing on that particular day. Of course, someone like Defoe is more likely to put a 1 v 1 away than some such as Alfonso Alves, and therefore special abilities are important. But the fact that no two players are the same could easily be reflected by combining one to five of these pre determined personality traits.
This would become even more helpful when the AI is controlling a team. All of a sudden, you would be watching certain players throughout the game, and having to make on the fly decisions on how to deal with them. For example, if you were playing Manchester City away, you may give Robinho a few firm challenges, knowing he is likely to shy away from the physical side of the game. At the same time, you know passing the ball around players like Joey Barton and Danny Guthrie will result in them losing their temper and potentially lashing out.
For many years now, football games have been relying on numbers to determine how the players play, but coupling these statistics with attributes such as player personalities would bring a whole new football gaming experience, one which I am sure PES gamers are itching for.
“One Way, Or The Other”
Before I carry on with this topic, I would like to point out I love showboating. I posses a decent array of flicks and tricks that I am constantly updating, and thoroughly enjoy trying out new ones. Irrelevant of the above views regarding Robinho and Ronaldo, I genuinely do believe the Premier League is a better place for having these kinds of players producing these kinds of skills in it. I would also like to point out I have spoken about showboating in football games before, and therefore this may be going over some old ground. However, there were a fair few comments raised in the survey regarding the subject, and therefore I feel it is worth looking at once again.
FIFA 09 has employed a very impressive array of show boating moves, the majority of which you will never use outside the games arena. The fact that you can perform kick ups and around the world, flick the ball with your chest before overhead kicking the ball in is all very nice, but it is not real football. These are novelty moves that don’t really bring too much to the in game experience. Even the variety of moves you can pull off within a match have very little effect on the defenders, who seemingly don’t buy the tricks and stand there in amazement, before dispossessing you. I know that many PES players were initially impressed by this feature on the EA Sports title, and I feel it is important to mention it within relation to this topic.
The truth is that there are only 5% of footballers in the Premier League, a percentage that may rise to 10% when taking a look in major European leagues, which have the ability to perform these tricks within a match situation. I am pretty sure Stoke City fans haven’t been witnessing too many flip flaps, Fulham fans seeing their players using donkey kicks to flick the ball over their opponents. Including these in a football game ahead of features such as shepparding the ball out for a goal kick or having the ability to take a quick free kick long is ludicrous, because the later two features can be seen in any major footballing stadium on a weekly basis.
At the moment, PES has a pretty varied range of tricks on the game. Move such as the scissors, Matthews and V feint (drag and push) are all dragged straight out of the FA Coaching handbook. My personal problems with the moves on PES in more the fact of their control, and their effectiveness .The shot fake, for example works more often than not when one v on with a defender, whereas the scissors step over rarely fools them. At the same time, using the shoulder buttons to perform skills is far more appropriate that simple d pad or analogue stick commands, in my opinion.
At this point, I am going to open the floor to you guys. What are your views regarding the tricks and flicks in PES? Are there any moves you would like to see that aren’t included? Do you feel the moves available or realistic enough? Personally I would like to see another nut mug move, along with the V feint being remapped to the R2 button, as in PES 2008. I would also like the ability to tee the ball up for a volley when the ball is played to you in the air, something that is a little touch and go on PES 2009. Your comments will be greatly appreciated, and followed up in next week’s column.
“Welcome To The House Of Fun”
Juts a quick point about stadiums, something which I know has been on Double D’s to mention list as of late. There has been talk of customising stadiums, and even more big name stadiums, but I wonder how many of you would like to see smaller grounds within the game? My point has always been that all the pitches play the same, and all the conditions seem perfect for passing football. I was wondering what it would be like to include some grounds more akin to League One or League Two football, with smaller pitches and even areas where the ball just holds up! These grounds wouldn’t have to be licensed, but I feel it would add a completely new dimension to the game play without even changing the controls. It would require new tactics and ways of playing, something which I know many of you are passionate about! Let me know your views in the usual ways.
“If This Is The War Of The Worlds”
Finally, I would just like to give a quick mentioned out to the team at WENB, and quash any rumours about us being in direct competition. It is pretty funny at times that within the community, so much drama can be raised over something that doesn’t even exist, and in my opinion, I have nothing but respect and admiration for the job the guys over at WENB do regarding PES. I have spoke to Adam via e-mail in the past, and find them to all good guys who are genuinely PES fans.
That’s your lot for this week. interferingwithplay@hotmail.co.uk is the place to direct any e-mail to. I am fully aware of the issues raised by certain people regarding forging comments. I ask that Amateur e-mails me within the next 48 hours, or all comments by Amateur will be deleted, irrelevant of if they are genuine or not. If you have read anything on here you wish to share with the community, hit the comments button below. A new “The Big Survey” should be with you guys within the next 10 days.
Thanks for Reading
Posted by Dan Bolas in PES 2009 News on Sat 16 May 2009
Just a quick reminder that the closing date for applications regarding the Interfering With Play World Cup is Monday 18th May 2009. I appreciate some of you may not read my weekly column, and therefore thought I should PR this event in its own post. I currently have 20 or so applications, but seeing as this is as a World Cup style tournament, feel a qualifying round would be a appropriate, as to truely get the cream of the crop. The competition takes place exclusively on the X Box 360. So if your a PES2009 gamer, with an X Box 360, an up to date copy of the game (running the latest version) and have a valid and working X Box Live account, and would like to take part in an online PES Tournament, send your name, age, location, gamertag and a valid hotmail e-mail address to interferingwithplay@hotmail.co.uk to be entered into the application process.
The tournament will feature the strongest 16 national teams on the game, and take place throughout late June and early July. 16 teams will be split into four groups and then play against the other members of their group. Following this, everyone goes into the knock out stage, with the top group sides going against the bottom ones from a different group. the will be an exclusive PES related prize for the winning team, as well as a touch a fame within the PESGaming.com community.
Please apply via e-mail, as I can’t accept any applications via comments.
Posted by dougiedonut in PES 2009 News on Thu 14 May 2009
I’d like to kick off this week’s article with a quick look to Dan’s IWP this week about the new Messi screenshot released by Konami. By the way – some of you may be under the impression that it was released to WENB exclusively, but that is not the case. Konami have been issuing the screenshot to many different sources, ourselves included.
Anyway, Dan basically questioned whether the screenshot released was just “..taken from a cut scene or entrance video, and could actually in no way represent the graphics of the end product.”
Jon Murphy, PES Team Leader at Konami read this article and had the following to say, which I can exclusively reveal:
“I totally understand why Dan and members are questioning whether the screenshot we’ve released is in-game or not. However I can confirm this has been taken from a machine running dev code. I saw for myself the lighting techniques and new textures actually running on test kit when I recently visited Japan. The screenshot WEP has released is genuine and has not been rendered.”
Whilst I totally understand the cautionary nature of Dan’s statement, it’s very heartening to hear directly from Jon to let us know that it is the real deal!
Personally speaking, the screenshot has really got my imagination going wild! I have to say that I have a new found optimism in the forthcoming game, primarily brought about by the unprecedented level of openness that we now have from Konami. We can safely say that our cries and pleas are not falling on deaf ears, and that we’re truly being valued.
The next couple of months should help consolidate our optimism for the series. These are indeed exciting times!
Thank you guys for the comments to my article last week – it’s great to see idea generation and open mature debate on the subject. It’s good to see that we agree that goalkeepers should have a life of their own, and not be as passive in their abilities are they generally are in all football games – the complaints against current goalkeepers isn’t aimed solely at PES.
As we are now well and truly into the current generation of super consoles, we have much higher expectations from football games, and quite rightly so. PES on the PS2/Xbox had peaked by PES6, and were fantastic games. But even Konami back then were talking about architectural limitations hindering the progress of the series. But now that isn’t an issue anymore, we should expect truly groundbreaking representations of the game, and judging from the Messi screenshot, PES2010 should see the dawn of the new era in football games.
As some of you may recall, my primary gaming machine was the 360, but I’ve now moved on to the PS3. I never did hear from Major Nelson about Microsoft allowing option files to be edited in a controlled manner.
So as a result, I decided to move to the PS3 to allow myself to take full advantage of the PS3’s editing abilities for PES. I have to say I am a complete beginner with editing files on the PS3 and not very good at it. I got hold of an option file via our Editing Forums, but found it a bit of a pain having to copy across files individually to the system. I was expecting to just copy over a folder into a set location, and job done. In fact, even having copied the files over, I haven’t done anything else with them.
Part of this has been down to being blatantly lazy – with so many games and so little time, I haven’t been able to dedicate that much time to the editing side of PES. But if there is any helpful tips you guys could give me in terms of instructions on how to go about modifying the option files, that would be very much appreciated. I have already looked in our forum pages for help, but haven’t been too successful with it. I do want to pull my finger out and get to grips with editing on the PS3, since that was the primary reason for ditching my 360 in favour of the PS3!
Finally a note to the real Amateur – we’re discussing user logins for leaving comments on the site.
I understand your frustration at the fake Amateur, but I have been reluctant to delete the comments or ban the individual because they’ve not written anything offensive (although you are clearly offended by them spoofing with your ID.) so it’s no harm done in the bigger picture. We should have a resolution on this matter shortly.
Thanks for reading
Dougiedonut
(dougiedonut@pesgaming.com)
Posted by Dan Bolas in Interfering With Play on Tue 12 May 2009
IWP League Champion 2009: Ivan Kostic (Internacional)
Welcome to this week’s Interfering With Play. Its seems every week now, I am mentioned ‘a busy week for PESGaming.com’ but the truth is everything is starting to fall into place. Publicity is starting to surround the latest release of Pro Evolution Soccer, arguably more so than any of its predecessors, whilst Play.oom has given us a provisional release date of October 30th. I will be very surprised if Konami wait that long to release the game, but I only believe in posting facts and opinions, not rumours and hearsay. The next few weeks and months on this site will no doubt turn into the usual media circus, with pieces of information being fed through, and people writing the game off months before its release. On thing is for sure though, with PESGaming.com, you will only get the truth, it’s something we are very proud of and in my opinion, is the only site you need to visit for news of Pro Evolution Soccer 2010. With that said, lets move on to this week’s IWP.
“I Think I Fell For The Girl On TV”
Arguably the worst ever heading to start an article, but also one of the most predictable IWP opening topics ever. The first ‘screenshot’ of Pro Evolution Soccer 2010 being made public this week has led to the usual hype, excitement and general good feeling amongst fans of the series. Whereas many gaming franchises tend to release every two years, with sports titles we are truly blessed with yearly updates. If you have not seen the screenshot, it is available in the post below, and unsurprisingly features PES 2009 poster boy, and IWP Player Of The Season Lionel Messi.
At first glance, I am exceptionally impressed by the screenshot. In my opinion, PES 2009 was one of, if not the, best looking football titles ever made, and yet in comparison, this 2010 screenshot looks a completely different world. As to be expected, the feeling is shared amongst many community members, with a renewed faith in what Konami are doing and a quiet belief that this may be a truly next generation experience.
However, I do not wish, for one second, to take this screenshot out of context. What we have on show here is a pre rendered image of Lionel Messi, which shows nothing more than an upper body. Three years ago, Konami released a similar attractive image of Adriano, which to all intents and purposes proved to be some what of a false dawn. This screenshot could have quite easily have been taken from a cut scene or entrance video, and could actually in no way represent the graphics of the end product. The truth is, I have been doing this dance, as so many of you have, with Konami for the past 8 years. I am now at a stage where I need to say in game footage, with real humans playing before I am in a position to make any real comment. Even then, I will hold back my thoughts until the demo or even full game is in my console. I don’t wish to be negative, because in my opinion, Konami have a far better record of pleasing than disappointing (Metal Gear Solid) but I will reserve my feelings on PES 2010, including its final potential, until I have seen more. One thing is for certain though; the PR machine is working, because people are interested in seeing what the latest Pro Evolution Soccer title has to offer!
“When, Will I, Will I Be Famous”
Just a quick reminder, the X Box 360 World Cup Application process ends next Monday. If you wish to take part in the first ever IWP tournament exclusively for 360 gamers, simply e-mail me on the regular IWP address, with your name, age, location and Gamer Tag. It goes without saying, you must have a working, valid X Box Live account, and an up to date copy of Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 (running the latest patches). I will post one final reminder over the weekend, but I know there are many 360 gamers who may have missed the opportunity to apply, and I wish to take this time to inform them. If you have any questions about tournament rules, structure or times, feel free to e-mail me.
“You Got The Style”
A huge talking point within the football gaming world is the style in which teams play. It is something that has yet to be really captured within a football game (with one or two exceptions) and the AI fails to give many teams and accurate portrayal. Football Manager definitely comes closest, with its amount of sliders, which in turn are cross referenced with the player stats, that particular game engine makes the most of this to produce a pretty realistic interpretation. However, for years, both Konami and EA Sports have tried, and the most part failed, to find a system that makes for realistic team playing styles.
I am wishing to move away from the AI though, and address an issue I feel is a much overlooked point, and that is how we, as human players, adapt our play styles to the teams we play as. The most obvious examples are usually the best, so I will pick out a couple. If you play as Barcelona, without to much thinking you know you tactics will focus slightly down the right hand side. The pacey combination of Daniel Alves and Messi is far too much for most left backs, and especially if you are a goal down or require a late winner, this route will be one most travelled by the majority of gamers. A similar tale my be said for AC Milan using Kaka, or Manchester United using Ronaldo, get the ball to your danger man and let him do the damage. There may be slight variations on this tactic, for example get in range and give the ball to your best striker then let him shoot. Inter Milan are renowned for this within the PES world.
But what happens when you play as a Stoke City, or Fulham. These are two sides that have had impressive Premier League seasons, picking up victories against some of the leagues biggest clubs and have achieved this by playing a very different way of football. Some gamers may never venture to being these sides, and there are others than will only to come up with the conclusion they are ‘rubbish’, something which the Premier League table would disagree with. I played against Sparta Prague with Stoke City the other night. Now, there is no denying that if I had tried the tactic of running with the ball, I would have had no chance at all. The technical attributes of the Stoke City players make this an impractical game plan, and in the early going, I lost possession every time as I started to adapt. So I hit Formation Settings and started tinkering. Changes were made so I had the tallest players I could in each position, with the exception of James Beattie up front. I pushed my striker as far forward as I could, and gave two of my three midfielders the license to break with the attacking settings. I deployed a deep defensive line, meaning there was little chance of the Sparta players getting in behind my defence, again playing to my strengths. Finally, I ensured my set piece taker was of the highest quality available, and coupled this with sending up my best header of the football for set pieces. In the game, I launched the ball forward to Beattie at every opportunity, allowing him to hold the ball up and bring my midfielders into play. I won 2-0, with both goals coming from set pieces, and never really looked like losing the match.
All of this may sound like a great deal of effort, and to some gamers, they may rubbish claims, but if your want to get the best out of each side, you need to adapt your game tactics, and play to your strengths. Using the tactic of lumping the ball up to Messi would not have worked, but when you’re playing as Stoke, you have the players to use this tactic. Andy Griffiths isn’t going to bomb forward down the line like Alves, but when sitting back and deep, he will stop many crosses getting into the box. At this moment in time, the AI cannot work to this level of human interactive with teams, but it is something that Konami need to look towards, giving the manager claims from the previous IWP further weight. I would like to hear from any of you guys regarding tactical changes, both within match situations or changing the way you play when controlling a specific team.
“I Want To Go”
Another famous heading, but one that is very appropriate. I am still in the process of compiling a couple of videos using PES 2009. A problem with my TV has left me slightly behind schedule, but with a new one of the way, it should be something picks up pace over the next week or two. Therefore, I am looking for great goals from the community to be edited into a cool highlights style package. I have a fair few already, along with some from my personal collection, but obviously the more I have, the longer the video can be. If you would like to be included, you must have a PS3 version of Pro Evolution Soccer 2009, a USB pen and the ability to e-mail! Drop me a message on the usual IWP address and I will send you the relevant information.
“Sing it Loud And Proud”
Finally this week, a great response to the first ‘Big Survey’ on PESGaming.com. The new PES news didn’t stop your getting involved in your hundreds, and the results pretty much supported everything that has been spoken about within the community over the past few months. One thing that is very important to maintain is that with Pro Evolution Soccer, stats can be edited if you feel a player is underrated or has attributes missing; it is totally within your power to change that. The joy of football is that it is based upon opinions and therefore everyone is going to see things that others don’t. I find it very hard to believe that Konami use OPTA stats to rank each Premier League player, and therefore if you feel that Theo Walcott should be faster, or Owen more injury prone, the ball is genuinely in your court!
From the survey, the views given regarding goal keepers were pretty much that mirrored by Double D and the PES Off comments from last week. I don’t wish to tread over old ground too much, so will leave that for Double D. The interesting point was that so many of you actually pay attention to the stats on the game, and allow them to influence your team selection. This for me means Konami need to start making these decisions regarding players as true to life as possible, so when you take charge of a club whose players you are less than familiar, you get as accurate starting eleven as you can.
The biggest thing that came out of the survey though was how you guys feel PES is weighted towards attacking players. Many of you feel that new defensive attributes should be added, and that the current set of statistics lean heavily towards attacking players, in particular wingers. Was surprised me the most though, was that people felt the stats where balanced in favour of players such as Xavi Alonso, Carrick and Fabregas. In my opinion, these players, who are so influential for their club teams, have very little say in the outcome of matches on PES, and this is something that needs to be discussed at a greater length in the next few weeks. Finally, the majority of you were in support of player personalities, an issue that I will go into detail with next week.
These results will now be mulled over by myself, and then be spoken about in greater detail next week. The ‘Big Survey’ is still up and available for completion, and will be throughout this week. This is not a weekly survey, and therefore the next one, regarding the edit modes, will be available for completion in a couple of week’s time.
That’s your lot for this week’s column. As always, I look forward to hearing from you guys either via e-mail or in the comments section, and hope you have read something here that may inspire you to get in touch. As I have mentioned in a previous column, I ask for Amateur to get in touch with me via e-mail, as I have a couple of issues I would like to discus with him. interferingwithplay@hotmail.co.uk is the address you can reach me on.
Thanks for Reading
Posted by dougiedonut in PES 2009 News on Mon 11 May 2009
“Messi brought to vivid life in PES 2010
Konami showcases massively enhanced graphics engine as PES revamp continues apace
Konami Digital Entertainment GmbH has released the first in-game image of its forthcoming PES 2010 title, demonstrating the stunning new level of detail and graphical refinement the new game enjoys.
The work in progress image shows cover star Lionel Messi in action in the new game, and showcase a massive advance in aesthetic detail. Crucial to the new game’s look are all-new dynamic lighting effects, where the position of the sun or the illumination from the floodlights is reflected in real time within the shadows cast both on the pitch, stadium, the ball and players.
The newly-expanded Tokyo-based PES Productions team has also worked hard to create the most vivid player recreations to date. Player expressions are now fully implemented, while the level of detail has been extended to individual skin textures and different weaves for the various kits to mimic the breathable material so many manufacturers now use.”
I think you will all agree that this screenshot just obtained from Konami is very, very tasty indeed!
I have to say that I had to question them about whether or not this was a real ingame screenshot, and was told (as the blurb above states – and I did read it before asking!!) that it was!
Not much else on the info front at the moment, but this one gorgeous shot to just drool over…
Enjoy!
Dougiedonut
Posted by Dan Bolas in Site Updates on Sun 10 May 2009
As Promised, here is the first in a new feature on PESGaming.com entitled ‘The Big Survey’. Every few weeks, a survey will be designed and released encouraging the PESGaming community to get their views across on some of the current issues doing the rounds in on the pages of this site. These surveys are designed to let everyone get involved, without the need to spend ages writing a comment expressing your views. This infomation gaining from these survey’s will help columnists address the issues that the community is speaking about, and may even double up as a bit of market research for Konami (You Never Know!!)
This first edition of ‘The Big Survey’ takes a look at the statistics used in PES 2009. Those familiar with editing the game will feel right at home with the attributes, but others may need to take a quick look at them before taking the survey. As always, if you would like to discuss any of this further, interferingwithplay@hotmail.co.uk is the address you can reach me on!
Click here to take The Big Survey
Posted by dougiedonut in PES 2009 News on Thu 07 May 2009
Thank you guys for the feedback to last week’s article. The Master League is definitely an integral part of PES, and long may it continue to evolve. A little message to Blade1889 – I have to give you credit for the main thrust of my idea on the Master League last week – perhaps I subconsciously stole it from you!
For those of you who follow the English Premier League, you will be aware of the Barton situation from Newcastle’s latest game against Liverpool. I am referring to the sending off he received for a dangerous tackle on Xabi Alonso of Liverpool. This incident got me thinking about one of the ideas I submitted to Konami last year. The idea was all about managing troublesome players. Having them in your team should be a double-egded sword.
So many of these types of players can produce the sublime as well as the outright disgusting side of football. To get an idea of what I mean, have a look at the following video hosted on youtube:
In the Master League, when you’re putting in bids for known volatile footballers, you should have to weigh up the benefits as well as the dangers of signing them for your team. If they don’t settle at the club, sulk and end up disrupting the team balance and morale, the effects could be devastating for the team. But if you get the most out of them, then they can make the difference for you. Implementing these types of players into PES shouldn’t be very hard, and could really help spice up the whole experience. Even the Become A Legend mode could benefit from such players – so that you try to make it as a player, with your Jekyll and Hyde characteristics.
I’d be very interested in your thoughts on the subject. Do we have enough footballing personalities in football games that are very individualistic?
In the same tone, I’d also like to see goalkeepers receive a total make-over. Again, having more keepers with extravagant streaks to their game would be brilliant. Goalkeepers of the likes of Higuita, Barthez and many other zany keepers would be worth introducing. Again, to illustrate my point, please refer to the following link:
http://www.whoateallthepies.tv/2007/10/the_mad_goalkee.html
There have been many other goalkeepers in the past who could easily make the article link above, but you get the point. These goalkeepers can give you spectacular performances, and then in a moment of madness they can throw a match. So again you would have a dilemma – do you stick with the man between the sticks, or do you send him to the nearest mad house?
Leaving these eccentric goalkeepers aside, I think we need more stats on the current set of goalkeepers. Getting stats like:
1) ball distribution – how quickly does the keeper initiate attacks.
2) average long kick distance – can he only reach the half way line, or can he kick it out as far as the opposition goal?
3) crosses – how good is the keeper at coming out to deal with crosses – does he punch out at the ball or flap at it?
4) prone to running out the area if there is a quick counter attack
5) dribbling with the ball
6) confidence – how many goals he let’s in a game before he gets demoralised
7) instinctive close range stops – how good is he at point blank saves?
These types of stats would help us to establish which type of goalkeeper you would like for your team. The keepers in football games are generally very bland.
I think that should do for points of discussion this week. I am hoping to have some exciting news for you guys next week, but for now, I’ll have to see how it pans out.
Finally, I would just like to say that I am here to stay. If you don’t like my articles, then please do yourself a favour and don’t read them. I appreciate I am not everyone’s cup of tea, if you don’t like what I have to say, then stay away from my articles – it’s that simple.
I would like to reiterate that relevant comments to what is being discussed are perfectly valid and welcome – be they positive or negative.
What I won’t tolerate is abuse to either myself or anyone else leaving comments. We are a PES community that thrives on debate. I reserve the right to remove inappropriate material, and to also issue bans where I see fit. We are in a privileged position where Konami not only visit our site, but also read comments left on the site. If all they see are petty squabbles, we’re not going to be taken seriously. So I would like to remind everyone of their responsibility on this site.
I write on this site to not only try to further our cause, but to generate interest in the game. When I can, I also report news pertinent to PES.
I know that when it comes to addressing my detractors – I’m damned if I do, and damned if I don’t. I would like to make a point of saying that if there are still people who object to my articles – then please email me at dougiedonut@pesgaming.com, or the administrator at pesgaming.com and lodge a formal complaint against me. I won’t be commenting in articles about this subject any more going forward. Otherwise can we call get a bit of perspective, and move on with our lives?
Thanks for reading
Dougiedonut
dougiedonut@pesgaming.com
