Interfering With Play – Tuesday 5th May 2009
Posted by Dan Bolas in Interfering With Play on Tue 05 May 2009
IWP League Champion 2009: Ivan Kostic (Internacional)
Welcome to this week’s Interfering With Play. Another busy week as Konami start to show some interest in the PES community with the release of their new widget, which can be found in Double D’s article, couples with a few new posts regarding the Nintendo Wii version of PES 2009 and the final standings in the Interfering With Play league. I have not forgotten about promised “Big Survey” feature. Instead I felt I would hold it back a few days to tie in with this week’s column. Last week, there were some interesting views raised regarding team statistics and also, for the first time in a while, a mention was aimed towards the famous, arrow fitness system. I will mention both of these in this week’s column, as well as briefly touch on a couple of new discussion points I hope will get you guys talking. With that said, lets get moving with this week’s Interfering With Play.
“You’re The Best, Around”
First off this week, I would like to officially announce the plans for the Interfering With Play World Cup, scheduled to take place on the X Box 360 this summer. This is a brand new concept for both myself and PESGaming.com, and hopefully will provide a different challenge for gamers. I have received a fair amount of applications for this tournament as it is, but would like to let the entire community know a little more about the league, and hopefully get a few more applicants on board.
The competition will take place in the months of June and July 2009. The official start date is yet to be decided, however if you are going to be away on holiday during these months, it is strongly recommended that you do not apply, for the simple fact you will not be able to fit your matches in. The tournament will take place on Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 for the X Box 360, and every match will be played using the online multiplayer option. It will feature the 16 best international teams on the game, and successful applicants will be randomly assigned a team in a lotto style drawing. The format will then follow a group basis, with four groups of four teams, and each team playing the other members of their group. Following this, everyone progresses to the ‘last 16’ stage, whereby finishing top of your group will guarantee you a game against someone who finished bottom of their group. This mode will be elimination, and will carry on until one team is left standing, as the IWP World Champions!
If you would like to take part, make sure you have a paid up X Box Live account and a copy of PES 2009, running on the latest online patch. Applications must be sent to the usual IWP e-mail address, and include your name, age, location and gamer tag. The final date for applications is Monday 18th May 2009. If you have taken part in the IWP league on PS3, you are still welcomed into this competition, but you must have an X Box 360 with PES2009.
“This Is The Crossing At The Main Intersection”
One feature that set earlier editions of Pro Evolution Soccer ahead of its opponents was the inclusion of the conditioning arrows. Some gamers may have played for years without ever noticing these, and it would be interesting to see if there is anyone out there who still ignores them to this day, but the conditioning arrows play a large part in determining how your players are going to play in any given match. On the formation screen, pressing a shoulder button will replace your team’s numbers and positions with a collection of one of five arrows, pointing in a range of directions. If the arrow is red and pointing upwards, this implies your player will perform above and beyond their regular ability. This carries on down, with players ability suffering until you reach the dreaded purple arrow, which on top of making your players perform terribly, also makes them more susceptible to getting an injury. This has been the way on Pro Evolution Soccer and ISS before it since the mid 1990’s, and overall has worked pretty well.
As mentioned in last week’s comments section by regular contributor, Amateur, the arrow system is now starting to look out of date, and a number of people have been suggesting alternatives in order to make the game’s simulation aspect more effective. I feel the difficult part for Konami is achieving this without losing the randomness it brings to Exhibition matches. For example, when playing against friends, I know some gamers will happily put the default arrow setting to all red for both teams, and play with full strength sides. This is an option available, just as in a similar way it is possible to play with the random selection on, and have the game determine which players are ‘up for it’ on the day. This provides much more of a challenge, as playing against a mate as Liverpool without Gerrard and Torres is a completely different task when both are available. In this mode, I believe the arrows work well, as it is a one off encounter which forces two players using the same teams in two consecutive matches to play different tactics, players and styles.
However, in Master League or Tournament modes, the arrows turn the game into a true lottery, and I personally believe this issue needs to be sorted out. Instead of these arrows being dictated by a random generator, it should take into account issues such as form and recent performances. Too many times throughout the course of a season, key players are handed blue or purple arrows for no reason, which makes the game beyond your control. An example of this would be my use of Dembele. Knowing I had a couple of crucial Master League games coming up, I rested the Belgium centre forward for a couple of games, before bringing him into a game against Arsenal, where he scored a Hat Trick. For the following game, a European Cup semi final, he was on a blue arrow, and even after doing a ‘Team Training’ session, his arrow stayed blue.
As mentioned, this mode seems a little out of date now, but what would an acceptable alternative be. Having nothing to replace it would make the game totally unrealistic and just an arcade affair. So what would be a solution to this issue? One alternative would be to replace the 5 arrows with some kind of 10 point scale, which can change throughout the course of a match. For example, a centre back could go into a game with a 6, but following a few good challenges could be on an 8 or 9, which makes them read the game better, get more distance on their headers and time challenges better. At the same time, if that centre back got turned a few times, or started giving away a few free kicks, their number could drop to a 3 or 4, making their touch worse and their timing way off. This would encourage gamers to do the simple things well, and get their players’ levels up high before trying things such as running with the ball every time, or shooting from miles out. Over the course of the season, these numbers would follow on from game to game, and could be linked closely with the stamina bar, which would effect how long the player could maintain a high number. Again, this is only an example, but Steven Gerrard would have a high stamina rating, which means he could perform at a level 9 or 10 for a handful of matches. Whereas someone like Geovanni would need to be substituted a lot or rested, as his stamina levels would be lower, and he might only be able to maintain that rating for one or two games. This would be further coupled with player personalities, which would help define what aspects make them tick, for example midfield work horse or tricky winger.
Of course, this is just an example, and has taken on board some of the views raised by you guys, both in the comments sections and via a couple of very interesting e-mails. Each position would have different targets to hit, and again, this could tie in with the player statistics found on the rating screen at the end of each match. So for example, Frank Lampard, who plays attacking midfield, would gain points by completing a certain number of passes, or hitting the target with a certain number of shots. Every time he reaches a target, his ‘condition arrow’ could go up a level, whereas if he fails to complete passes or misses the target a lot, it could drop back down. Whereas Essien, who is a defensive midfielder may still have the passing aspect of his game, but tackles and interceptions could also be added, to help him reach his peak performance. This would also mean that if a player was having a stinker, it would be in the gamers benefit to substitute them, again adding a further tactical aspect to the game.
Your views on this idea would be greatly appreciated. I have mentioned for the last few weeks I have held back my ideas on PES2010 to allow Double D the opportunity to get in touch with Konami, but this is one I think many hardcore PES gamers, especially those who play a lot of Master League, would love to see.
“Pain, For Pleasure”
Playing a match earlier on, I hit a beautifully struck volley from a crossed ball. It was a set piece, and therefore my opponents had a player on the line. The ball hit the defender with some velocity, and was cleared well. Impressed by the clearance, I fired up the replay to see the ball had hit the defender, Scottish full back Alan Hutton, clean in the face. Of course, the player carried on as if nothing happened and the danger was cleared. But in real football, the defender would have been flat out on the line requiring treatment.
Since early PES, whenever the ball has hit a defender in the stomach or slightly below, you have seen the player slightly wince, in some cases them falling to the ground but nearly always getting straight back up. When it was first implemented, this was a nice touch, but now we are looking to the future, surely these kinds of knocks should have some kind of physical affect on the players involved. For example, a player being hit clean in the face by a well struck shot should stay down for an allotted period of time, or until the ball goes out of play, which would lead to a cut scene in which they could be shown getting treatment. The same, albeit a shorter time scale, could be shown for players being winded. Similar to the cut scene in which a player helps up someone he has just fouled, it could show a team mate helping the winded party to his feet.
I have spoken in depth about the injuries, or lack of injury animations, within PES before, but it is very rare a player goes off injured after being hit in the face by the ball, so therefore it would literally be a case of the player staying down until the ball goes out. Of course, this would need to take into account such as the power of the shot, the trajectory of the ball and even the aforementioned players’ personality (something which will be mentioned another time), but is definitely an issue which could be addressed simply, but ever so effectively, and would actively influence the in game action.
“Working All Day, For A Mean Little Man”
My final point for this week’s column follows up from last week’s point about the way the AI plays against you, and indeed the who aspect of cheating AI. When you are playing PES against another human, you tend to find, as mentioned last week, which they will play a similar way no matter which team they take control of. Naively, I have a mate who will try and pass the ball through you no matter which team he is. Fine if you’re a top side like Arsenal, full of small, quick players with high passing attributes. Less successful however if your Bolton, with strong, tall players who have more power and better heading abilities, but lack reactions, agility and short passing stats. However, this choice is totally put in the hands of the human player. The AI doesn’t have this ability to decide how it plays. One would think that the game would analyse the players in the team, and play to their strengths, but more often that not this seems not to be the case. Sides notoriously defensive, such as Everton or Stoke City come out with two up front and over commit, which asks the question, how do you get the game to act ‘realistically’ and have each team play like their real life counterparts.
I think it would be fair to say that whilst we all want a challenging PES, we want it to be true to life. It would be wrong to play against Manchester United then against West Bromwich Albion and expect the same difficulty of game. There are going to be teams that you struggle to break down (for me its always Portsmouth) and there are going to be teams that seem to give you too much space, in my experience, I always seem to turn over Aston Villa. FIFA 09 introduced a number of customisable sliders, which allows you change the emphasis of each team’s play; however my experience was this didn’t really make too much difference, with the A.I always playing the same way. The solution almost seems too simple, and is something which I would love to see implemented into PES 2010.
It has been mentioned before on this site, and again in the comments last week, that there is no sign of any managers in Pro Evolution Soccer. In the last couple of editions, substituted players are congratulated by one of 5 generic figures in a suit following a good performance. These bear no representation to anyone at any club, and this nice graphical touch could be so much more. By simply adding a manager to each team, the game could be given a huge graphical boost and at the same time, improve the A.I of the individual teams. Each manager would have their own stats, maybe out of 10 as opposed to out of 99, and this would dictate the way their sides play. These attributes could range from things like tackling, one being soft, ten being hard, and passing, one being short and 10 being long. These sliders are present in the majority of football management simulations, and make each opponent different. These would be coupled with personality traits such as tactical changes or even number of subs. In all my hours playing PES 2009, I don’t think the AI has made one sub during the half time break. There are many managers, especially in the Premier League that will make at least one during this period, and this could be represented by a personality trait, which in turn would lead to a more realistic experience. At the same time, how often does Rafa take Torres off as soon as his side get a couple of goals up, yet this never happens on PES? Of course, this would not affect the way a human player would play with the team, but when the AI is involved, it adds both realism and a new challenge. Maths isn’t my strong point, but if each manager had 15 different attributes and space for 5 personality traits, the possibility for different experiences in each match would be in the thousands. This would also mean that when the player comes off the pitch, the man congratulating them might actually resemble the man in charge at the club.
On top of this, there would be the ability to create managers too. In the edit mode, there would be a number of slots available to create a new boss, with appropriate clothing options (suits, polo shirts, tracksuits, glasses) and the ability to assign a new manager to a team. So, for example, when Tony Adams was sacked, you could have created a Paul Hart, who would have different management attributes, preferred tactics and personality traits, and put him in charge of Portsmouth. Further more, I am pretty sure there would be some European club manager out there more than willing to lend his image to PES, and with features such as photo faces, and a few more hairstyles, I reckon the majority of managers would end up looking spot on. It would also allow for a few more cut scenes, showing the manager chilled out on the bench or going mental at his shoddy back line! Your views on the inclusion of managers in PES, as with everything you have read in this week’s article, are more than welcomed.
That’s your lot for this week. Quite a lot to mull over there, but hopefully some points to get you talking. Konami, if your reading, I am always open to discussing these ideas, I am really not a hard guy to get in touch with! interferingwithplay@hotmail.co.uk is the place you can send your e-mail to. If you want to air your views in a public forum, the comments section is for you. The Big Survey this week will focus on statistics, and will be available for completion later this week. It will provide the fuel for next weeks IWP, in which player statistics, both in the game and their physical attributes, will be looked into. Finally, make sure you check out the Wii Review (posted below) and the other features on PESGaming.com. This site is going to get much busier over the coming weeks and months, so make sure you don’t just read the latest article, and keep up to date with all that has been said since your last visit.
Thanks for Reading.
