Archive for January, 2010
Posted by dougiedonut in PES 2010 News on Sat 30 Jan 2010
There were some great tips from you guys for getting that little bit extra from the sliders and formations to counter teams, so a big thanks to the contributors for that.
As you guys are aware we will be driving our next PES improvements initiative shortly, but this week I’d like to focus on what we still enjoy about the series. Yes we all have various issues with the game, and the next few months will be testimony to that, but for now, how about we celebrate what we enjoy about the game?
What better way to start that off, than with me just going over why PES is still the game for me.
Firstly I’d like to point out that I have played FIFA 2010, and I am still considering doing a comparison of the two games at a later date. In order for me to objectively do this, I would have to play FIFA for a considerable length of time in order to give a balanced review. There’s no point me spending only a couple of hours on it, and then comparing it to PES. That said, I haven’t been able to muster much in the way of energy to actually play FIFA.
Going off on a slight tangent, I’ve recently lent both FIFA and PES to a good friend, as he has been out of touch with both games, and I have to say it’s been tough going whilst I didn’t have PES2010 available to play. I am planning on getting feedback from my friend on what he thinks of both games, but that will be later, once I do my own comparison. Anyway, now that I have PES back, I’m really enjoying my football fixes!
I don’t want to go into any of the issues I have with the game, so for those of you who will be wondering why I’m wearing rose tinted specs, it’s purely to savour what is great about PES - the time for moaning is coming up soon!
So then, what is it about PES2010 that has me coming back for more?
Primarily I have to say that I am really really enjoying the new Master League game. It has me hooked big time. My current team has been languishing in the Second Division for just over 3 seasons. The first three seasons were spent rebuilding my team. I used one of the default generic teams (Team B with average stat players) and have been spending time on getting in players that are out of contract, as well as to bring through some youth players. The first two seasons were tough, as we couldn’t really match the better teams in the division, but then I have also been fielding weaker sides in some games if I came close to the top three, as I didn’t want to be promoted without winning the league. This of course gets me into trouble with some board members and fans (yeah – this bit is in my head, there’s nothing anyone can do about it!), as they lose faith in me, but thankfully the club owner has faith in me. The tail end of season 2 and most of season 3 I have been leaving match day to the coach. This hasn’t gone down well with the fans since they expect the manager to be there on match day. It’s a radical approach to building for the future which I hope will pay off. I have been spent with me concentrating on wheeling and dealing players – where I’m trying to get the kids off on loan to other clubs to butch up, and try to chase better freebie players.
My budgets are low, and money is scarce, so there’s no big name players in my team. But I have promised the fans and the club that Season 4 we will be crowned as Champions. I’ve now fully taken over match day games, and currently have a settled side, with far too many fringe players sat doing nothing. I’ve got to trim the club’s wage bill, and deliver the league this current season.
At the end of the previous season we finished third from bottom. Over the summer transfer window I only managed to get in a couple of wide players. So overall it’s the same squad being used for Season 4. So far we’re top of the league with stats: P9 W6 D1 L2
Slowly the fans are beginning to believe, and if we can maintain our momemtum this will be a fanstastic season that no-one at the club will forget.
That in a nutshell describes why PES2010 does it for me. I have many obstacles to overcome, players to keep happy, games to win, and a league to deliver. The pressure is mounting, and I’ve got a long tough season ahead which I’m sure will have me elated and pulling my hair out in equal measures.
One of the best things about the Master League is that you can just get “sacked”, and start all over again in Division 2 trying to get back into the elite of the footballing world.
Right, it’s over to you guys to share your where your passions with PES2010 are.
Thanks for reading
Dougiedonut
(dougiedonut@pesgaming.com)
Posted by Dan Bolas in Interfering With Play on Tue 26 Jan 2010
Welcome to this week’s Interfering With Play. When writing a weekly column like this, on a subject as specific as football gaming, it is sometimes quite tricky to find talking points or things to discuss, especially at this time of year. Fortunately, due to the sheer involvement of the community over the past seven days, I am actually cutting down topics and trying to prioritise which points would be best discussed this week and which would be best lest for future instalments. Hopefully I have got the balance right this week, but it is testament, once again, to the devoted and committed PESGaming.com community, whose passion for this franchise is exceptional. Instead of me babbling on any further with this introduction, let’s crack on with the week’s hectic Interfering With Play.
“It’s Nothing Personal”
To start this week, I will open in direct response to a comment made in last week’s IWP by regular contributor, MagicaRoma His comment can be viewed by all in the comments section of last week’s IWP, but for those who missed it, the topic was basically my lack of discussion regarding FIFA 10 this year, and how I had not posted reviews for PES 2010 and FIFA 10. I am not the kind of person to take such a well constructed and honest comment personally, and his main question was whether or not I actually preferred FIFA over PES this year, and that I was keeping it quiet because of that.
I can categorically assure you that I am 100% a Pro Evolution Soccer 2010 fan. Whilst the FIFA franchise has vastly improved since its PS3 inception, I don’t feel the progress made between 09 and 10 was all that great, and I found myself being bored after a single game on FIFA 10. It is not a bad game, and nor is that my official review of the title, but in my personal opinion, PES is a more enjoyable experience on near enough every level. Many people have claimed that if I spent enough time with FIFA, I would grow to appreciate it more than PES, but on that philosophy alone, I would end up preferring Dr. Pepper ahead of Coca Cola, or Five Live instead of Radio One. At the same time, if I genuinely enjoyed FIFA 10, my brand loyalty wouldn’t matter two bits. I spend my time working throughout the day, when I come home I want an enjoyable gaming experience, and would not suffer playing a game I genuinely didn’t enjoy just because it was made by Konami, or because I had an affiliation to this site.
PES still needs some work, I don’t think the most die hard of fans could deny that. For me, it is still the best football game currently available to play, matching the balance of enjoyment and realism very well indeed. The claims of half finished, broken or simply unplayable are a little far fetched by some community members, and for the minority who don’t find either FIFA or PES enjoyable, the solution is simply play neither. I am still surprised to see FIFA fans turning up on this site, people who play FIFA commenting on PES and even PES fans who have since turned to FIFA returning here to add their views. Maybe this is because the FIFA community isn’t as strong as this one, or maybe it is because you believe Konami have come closer than EA Sports to making that perfect football title in the past. From my point of view though, PES is still closer to the perfect end result, the Holy Grail if you will, of football gaming, and I believe that is why this site, and the franchise in general is still going strong.
In response to the review situation, I did actually pen a review for PES 2010, which was posted on this site just prior to the games release. If anyone would like a copy, I have no problem e-mailing it through to them if they get in contact via e-mail. I received my review copy of FIFA 10 in November, and after playing the game for a few hours over the course of a week, I ended up in the situation of the Yellow Light Of Death on my PS3, a problem which took near enough 3 weeks to resurrect. Upon getting the new PS3, FIFA 10 was two months old, had many reviews already out there and I simply had other issues to concentrate on leading up to Christmas. The review fell down the list of priorities, and although the game falls into the ‘played once a week to see if I am missing anything’ category, I honestly don’t think I could write an in depth review of FIFA 10 at this time and say anything that hasn’t already been said. Hopefully, that answers any questions, and if you have any further MagicaRoma, or anyone for that matter, my e-mail is at the bottom of the article.
“Screaming Infidelities”
To keep you guys informed regarding the PES 2010 crashing issues on PS3, I have actually had some pretty good conversations with Konami, having them take on board the issue and ‘pass it on to the right people’. As a community site, it is steps like this that hopefully make it all worth while, and whilst there are very few other PES sites even discussing the crashing issue, we are more than open to get it out there and hopefully put the problem to bed. I appreciate the comments made about playing the game disconnected from the internet (again, a measure we really shouldn’t be having to do) but both times I have had my modem switched off, the game crashed first time up. Maybe I was unlucky, and my game never seems to crash at Anfield or Old Trafford, which I know people have had their game crash at.
The question Konami have asked me, which I will relay on to you guys, is which Firmware are you running on your PS3? I am using the latest update version, and you can check this by going to system information on the X Media Bar of your PS3 Home Screen. Basically, Konami need to recreate the exact issues we are experiencing in order to solve the problem, so any information I can pass on to them will further help the case. Yes, it is glorified testing for Konami, but I want to be part of the solution, and should the crashing end up being eradicated, I will know that PESGaming.com have played some part in sorting it out.
“It’s Getting Hot In Here”
So, for most of you, this is the whole chase now. I have cut out two or three smaller points to allow for the big issue, and that is how to improve PES for the future, how to help play our part in history, and in doing so have the ultimate football gaming experience. Yes, we have been burned before, and yes, some people will refuse to offer their views and opinions, but I am open for one more try. One more year of seeing if we can have it all. All the old features back, all the new features in, the AI, the animation and game modes. A working online system that actually makes the game universally playable online. A Master League mode that sticks to its roots but at the same time offers a new challenge to rival the early years. An edit mode that allows the game to look more realistic than an episode of Match Of The Day. I am willing to lead the campaign along with Double D, and the road to October starts here and now!
The idea I would like to try and follow is to dedicate a couple of weeks to each specific topic, as to not mistreat any issue or end up going over old ground. Last week, I mentioned about features that have been removed from previous versions of PES, and would be welcomed with open arms back into future versions. The lists people provided ranged from the absurd to the blatantly obvious, and I will leave this topic open another week before we move onto the next issue. I feel by going through the features with a tooth comb and noticing what Konami did well on previous games can really lead the way forward over the coming months, and also give us a base for a list of improvements.
Some of the issues coming out of the previous weeks posts, and ones that will be included in future lists are
• More stadiums – The PS2 version still boasts a high 30, whereas PS3 and 360 are stuck with 22
• Scenario Mode – Made famous in the ISS series on N64, it gives an alternative way of earning trophies/achievement points and a short fix challenge.
• PES Shop – A way of unlocking a variety of novelty and unique items as and when required, and rewarded gamers for playing exhibition matches as well as competitions.
• Training Mode Challenges – Similar to scenario mode, a bit of light fun to take away from playing matches and test your skills
• All Star teams / Random teams – A way of playing against Human players with a level playing field, selecting a random team of players (PES6).
• Attendances – The ability for the stands to be empty or full, relating to the atmosphere.
• Goalkeeper Control – The ability to roll or throw the ball out instantly, in a wide range of directions and at different levels of power.
If your feature isn’t on there, it has not been ignored, but simply wasn’t as supported on the e-mail or comments. Other features will be added to the list next week, so if there are things that used to feature on PES that currently don’t make sure you let me know about them so I can include them.
One feature that I don’t understand was button sensitive passing. It has been to my knowledge that in PES, the longer you hold the pass button down, the stronger the pass, but also the longer it takes to hit the pass. For example, if I was Gallas for Arsenal, a short tap of the Pass button would play the ball to Vermarlen. However, if I hold the pass button down longer, the ball would by pass the Belgium and go to Clichy, this has always been the case for me, and I wonder what people exactly mean by the button sensitive passing. The same can be said for the loft through ball. If my CB has the ball, a quick lofted through ball is absolutely useless, but by holding down the shoulder and threw ball buttons, I can lift the ball over the opponents defence for a striker to run on to. Maybe I am missing something, but this is surely the same thing people are asking for.
That’s your lot for this week. The return of Amateur to the community will no doubt start off a few more talking points over the next seven days, and I may even have a Second Phase column coming out in the week to address an issue raised by him in last week’s IWP. However, for now at least, I will leave you with what you have. Please get in touch with your ideas for features from previous PES / ISS you would like to see included in future PES. Bullet point lists make them easier to manage and review over at a rush, but I do read every comment, so follow your own style. interferingwithplay@hotmail.co.uk is the place to get all your e-mail through to me. I read it all and reply to as much as my time allows me to. Finally, don’t apologise for writing long posts. If they are well constructed and valid they will be exactly as long as the need to be! If they are offensive dross, or simply pointless and off topic, that is when they become too long.
Thanks for Reading
Posted by dougiedonut in PES 2010 News on Sat 23 Jan 2010
Whilst last week’s article was somewhat at a tangent to all things PES, I still feel the core point of the article was about AI in the single player game. I think that my mindset is one that is now trying to look ahead a few years at the future direction of gaming.
Single player games were once the only way to play games. Splitscreen playing then opened up the first real avenue into multiplayer gaming (excusing the types of games where more than one player can play on a single screen – football games being an obvious example). These days more and more games have a single player game tagged on to the real meat of the game – the multiplayer game. As less focus is given to single player games, the amount of effort put into AI routines are reduced, since people will be playing against other people for the real challenge of the game.
Of course football games are still very much reliant on the AI routines they employ. PES 2008 introduced Konami’s new AI system – Teamvision. This was a big step up in trying to improve the AI for the game. There are many people who didn’t take to it, but I have to say I applaud the idea. Yes people worked out how to beat the new system in no time at all, but Konami have been refining it since, and I think it’s getting there. AI for PES is not a simple process. We now have the sliders to help us create our own style of play, which is a fantastic move forward. The AI routines are now configurable, and therefore giving us more options to how we play the game.
One of the biggest challenges to the game is how to realise your own personal style of game. There are millions of people who play the game, and not everyone plays it the same way. There are people who can do amazing things with some teams, which other people would have no idea how to do. To give us this ability is something that marks the progress that the AI is making.
How many people actually have tried to experiment with the sliders? I have a feeling it is a side to the game that not too many people have tried to meddle with that much. One problem with it is that it is not conveniently accessible. Being hidden in a sub menu means that you’re more inclined to leave it, rather than seek it out to experiment with your team.
But, nevertheless, there must be people out there that are using it to great effect, which I think we would all like to hear about. So if you’re a slider-meister, then please leave comments with some tips and tricks for us lesser gaming mortals.
Getting back to the AI in the game, do we have any ideas of the direction we’d like to see gaming AI go for PES? Are you happy for Konami to work alone on how the game should play, or do you think we should have more input on the AI? If so, then what sort of ideas do we have? I can remember a football game on the Sega MegaDrive, the name escapes me – though it could have been called Total Football, which had a phenomenal system which allowed you to decide on where players should be on the pitch at any one time. The pitch was split up into 9 sections. You could define where players should be whenever the ball was in any of these sections. I don’t recall how well the system worked, but the idea was very original, and worthy of mention I feel.
The reason why I was talking about single player games last week, was to try to highlight a general trend in gaming to let us create the challenge for ourselves in games. Instead of gaming companies trying to come up with more and more creative enemy AI in games for us, they now create a virtual world where we can decide how we play. Most multiplayer games these days have a few basic modes and stop at that. There aren’t very many games that go beyond the usual MP modes.
Football games are a different kettle of fish, unless we’re talking about playing 10 v 10 online. Now I don’t want to get into an argument about the online system, but I think it’s fair to say that most gamers would settle for a maximum of 4 v 4 with PES.
Yes there could be other online modes – like Dan’s personal dream of getting a 5 a-side or 7 a-side games, but given the current state of play, these proposed modes are a little ambitious, shall we say? So even if we stick to trying to get 4 a-side games, we will still have to reply on AI for non-human controlled team-mates and opposition. Are current non-human controlled players acceptable? Do we have people who have manipulated the sliders to give optimal control over these players in games?
Personally I think the area is probably due some potentially radical re-thinking. I don’t have handy ideas off the top of my head right now, but I’d like to throw the floor open to you guys for discussion. Not only that, but I would like to invite anyone out there to take centre-stage with possibly next week’s column space with your ideas. If you’d like that, please email me at my usual address.
As Dan as already mentioned this week, we’re going to be kicking off our official feedback sessions shortly. My personal crusade is to bring the online system up to scratch. I think a total revamp of the whole online system is required. With resolutions to the online issues encountered to the whole interface and modes of play. I would like to start an initiative whereby we could design screenshots and menu options of the proposed new solution to put forward to Konami. If anyone would like to help me build these, then please email me and let’s get talking.
For those of you who didn’t think last week’s article was relevant to PES, I hope I’ve redressed the balance for you.
It’s just a shame some people aren’t able to make their comments known in a polite respectful manner. It doesn’t cost anything, and can actually make for a better world – real and virtual.
Thanks for reading.
Dougiedonut
(dougiedonut@pesgaming.com)
Posted by Dan Bolas in Interfering With Play on Tue 19 Jan 2010
Welcome to this week’s Interfering With Play. Another busy week in the PESGaming.com planning stage, with a handful of new ideas and features coming out of the recent meeting between myself and Double D. This week sees the start of our look to the future of PES, by actually going back in time. The first point of this week’s Interfering With Play will address this. I am also going to look at a couple of the issues that have been once again raised by you guys in the comments section. A quick thank you must go out to the couple of people that have already got in touch with me regarding their own personal ‘Master League Magic’, the next instalment of which is just a couple of days away. For more information on this new feature, scroll down past PES Matters and check it out. With that said, lets move on with this week’s Interfering With Play.
“Where Have You Been?”
As promised, here lies the start of the future. Over the next few months, the PESGaming team are going to gaining ideas and asking for the views of the community to be passed on to Konami, regarding PES 2011. Whilst PES 2010 has only been out just over three months, we believe that by getting our points out there early, we can genuinely affect the development stage of the future PES. Personally, I have been burned by Konami in the past, but having actually spoken to them first hand, I have renewed faith in that we, as a group can actually make a difference, and furthermore, I look at some implementations in previous versions that were exactly what was requested. Things such as genuine music play lists, the ability to import multiple chants per team, expanded editing capabilities and downloadable boot packs are all things that were discussed on this site 18 months ago, and whilst they may fall into the coincidence category, the power of community should not be underestimated.
This year, however, I have decided to go with no letter or formal request statement, but instead put together a list based on a number of events that we will hold, to determine priority features as well as new additions. This will allow us to get a feel for not only what the majority of the community want to see, but perhaps as importantly which features are only desired by a handful of people, and would not be seen as a big issue in the overall picture, especially by a company such as Konami.
So where to start? The obvious grumbles about online modes, enhanced controls and animations will definitely come, but to start off, I want to take a trip back down the line. As mentioned before, people all have their favourite PES, and in some cases these even go back to the days when ISS was still tagged on the front. In all of these game modes, there were features, some big and some small, that have seemingly vanished from the modern version of the game. This can be something as simple as the fact shirt pulling has been removed from PES 2010, after being present in the 2009 version, to something greater, like the PES Shop or Penalty Shoot Out mode, both firm favourites from PES gone by. Instead of me carrying on and firing off a 20 or 30 strong list, I open the floor to the PESGaming.com community, and ask what features you want to see from previous PES gamers in the next and future instalments.
Originally, I was going to try and limit this point to simply the older PS2 versions of the game, but I think it is important we look back at the ISS franchise on the N64 too. These games had some very enjoyable ideas ranging from Scenario mode to Story mode, and whilst they lacked club teams and were produced by a different developer under Konami’s wing, they were still top football titles produced under the Japanese company.
So the topic is open for debate. I am looking for features that do not feature on the next generation version of PES 2010 (PS3, 360 and PC versions) that you would like to see, which have been removed from previous instalments of the game. You can get in touch via e-mail, which is included below, or comment on the article in the usual way. The best and most popular suggestions will be discussed further in next week’s IWP.
“She Loves Me Snot”
Bit more of a trivial topic, but one that I find exceptionally interesting. Over previous versions of PES, I have always found myself to have bogey team, a side that always seems to get a result against me when being controlled by the AI. Back in the olden days, this used to be Cameroon, and then throughout the PS2 years, Fiorentina did me over more times that not. In fact, I would go onto to say that when Nuno Gomes played for Fiorentina, I would be guaranteed a tough time, and usually end up being eliminated in a cup competition by his head or right boot. At the moment on PES 2010, I haven’t found my bogey team, and the past couple of years, there hasn’t been one side that have stood out to cause me problems.
So I ask, is there a side out there that cause you constant problems on PES 2010? Of course, I would rather they not be a Real Madrid or Barcelona, I have enough of playing against them online, but a side from either Other Teams A or a less fashionable side from one of the leagues that always seem to give you a heck of a battle. I expect that certain players struggle against different sides, but just to get a feel if there are one or two notoriously tricky matches available if I am ever in the mood for a quick challenge. Get in touch in the usual way.
“League Time”
Just a quick one regarding the IWP League, the planning is pretty much over now. In the next 2 weeks, you will receive an e-mail with someone else’s PSN id on. You need to add this person and play a match against them online. The rules to the match will be included in the e-mail. At the end of the match, both parties will need to include the match score, and answer a couple of questions about their opponent’s ability and connection status. This will allow me to better judge the quality of the league as well as pick up the better connections. It will also let me judge which gamers can follow the rules correctly and deal with e-mail correspondence. At the current time, the league looks to start in April and run for 2 months. If you are unable to take part in the league for any reason, please respond to the upcoming e-mail so an alternative arrangement can be made for your opponent. If you have any questions regarding the IWP League, please feel free to e-mail me on the usual address, as I do not respond to comments discussing the league.
“Never Gonna Get It Right”
I had to smile at some of the comments from last week. People going absolutely off their rocker that I failed to mention the crashing issue. The same crashing issue that has had nearly a thousand words dedicated to it in the previous three Interfering With Play columns. The same crashing issue that I have been dealing with e-mails about for the past month. I can only assume that these people do not read IWP on a regular basis, and therefore I will give you an update on the situation.
For the past few weeks, I have left the door open to people to get in touch if they experience PES 2010 crashing during the tunnel sequence. When the camera pans down the starting line up, the game freezes and a hard rest is required to sort it out. The issue only occurs on the PS3 version of the game, and in my experience only occurs at certain stadiums. The simple way to avoid the crash all together is to press the start button straight away, skipping the tunnel sequence and pre-match screen, something which insures you will not have a crash occur during a Master League match or online game.
However, this is 2010, and this is obviously not acceptable that a game periodically crashes. I for one enjoy watching the tunnel scene, as it provides a build up to larger games. Therefore, I asked people to get in touch if they experienced it, of which there was a huge number, in fact I would go to say that most people who regularly communicate with me either via messenger or e-mail said they have had it occur to them. I have since been given a number of different suggestions as how to stop this happening. Some claim a custom play list causes the crashing, other claim using an edited option file. Some even say that playing with your PS3 disconnected from the Internet will solve the problem. All of these are false, as I have experienced the crash despite following these rules. An e-mail has been sent to Konami this week informing them of the problem, and its unknown causes, which is where our part in the journey ends. If Konami address this issue with a patch in the future, it is both proof the system works and that Konami take this site seriously. Any other response will no doubt draw negative criticism towards the company, which may I say is fully justified.
I would finally like to point out that we are the only PES site (to my knowledge) that have addressed the crash on their home page in any way shape or form, at that any relationship we currently have or will have in the future will no way affect my own personal honesty towards PES or surrounding issues. The day that PESGaming is being constantly edited by Konami is the day that IWP is finished, of that I assure you.
“Look At The Stars”
Pretty cheesy tag line, but my final point this week simply asks the question that will hopefully lead into next week’s column, how many yellow cards on average do u receive a match. If this is easier to work out by simply going to your stats page and checking your games played and yellow cards received, that’s fine and I will do the math. The more people who get in touch with this number, the better, as it will hopefully lead to helping make the referring more accurate in future PES games.
That’s your lot for this week. A great deal to mull over there, and a heck of a lot for you guys to get involved about. Please let me know your favourite features from old versions of PES that you would like to see returned, and furthermore if anyone has a sure fire way to beat the crash! interferingwithplay@hotmail.co.uk is the place to direct any messages straight to me, and whilst I do read the comments, I obviously have no way of responding directly to them.
Thanks for Reading
Posted by dougiedonut in PES Matters on Sat 16 Jan 2010
I’d like to start with my first post of the new year by wishing everyone a happy new year. We enter a new decade, and with new hopes and challenges, especially with PES.
This week I would like to discuss a topic which whilst initially may not seem particularly relevant to PES, will hopefully come together. Recently I’ve seen a few single player games in the gaming mainstream which around 3 to 5 years ago I would have snapped up without a shadow of a doubt. But these days I find myself hesitating to do so. No I’m not tiring of gaming, or getting that deadly disease called “growing up”, but just find myself questioning the validity of single player games these days.
One of the games I am hesitating to get is the new Batman Arkham Asylum game. It has been getting rave reviews on metacritic, (http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/ps3/batmanarkhamasylum) but I haven’t bought it because of the challenge factor in the game. What I mean is that playing against AI is not challenging for many people any more. Plus add in the factor that thanks to the likes of Nintendo we now have a new demographic for games – casual gamers, because of whom, games are dumbed down for everyone.
Because these people can’t handle proper games, everyone suffers if you ask me. Games are shorter and easier – even on the harder settings, which I’m sure many of you out there can testify to. Batman’s detective element for me summarises exactly what is wrong. Everything is laid out on a plate for you. Where to go and what to do. Where’s the intellectual challenge exactly?
Uncharted was another game which dissappointed because of the monotonous theme to the game. Endless mindless enemies, although to be fair, they at least ducked and dodged and threw grenades at you if you stay in a stationary position during battles. We need only look at one of the worst offenders for me – the COD series – particularly since COD4. Completely moronic enemies that just charge at you. Proper cannon fodder. Then consider the length of the single player game. Shockingly short and very very much on rails. No room for developing a sense of achievement in how you complete objectives. No options on how or what to do, just follow the arrow for idiots and keep shooting. Job done. (Uncharted 2 is another game I’m considering but hesitating to get)
Maybe I am getting older, but is that all there is to games now? Can some of you older gamers remember a game called Deus Ex on the PC from around 10 years ago? For me it is still the single most complete single player game ever. I can’t remember how many hours I put into it. There were various objectives in the game, from which you could pick the ones that you wanted to develop. You could also enhance your character with a skills base that you chose, and made moral decisions at strategic points to enhance your experience. With several different game endings thrown in, the play time for the game is really massive.
I’m going to go off on a quick tangent, but please bear with me – I think it’s worth it! In Deus Ex, you can take drugs and drink beers too. During the story I went into a bar, ignored the barmen and got plastered on beers. When you do this, the effects in the game made your character’s head (it’s played in FPS mode) whirl round and round, and the colours on screen went funny. It actually made you feel physically nauseous, and when you tried to walk, you would stammer around! I then pulled out a bazooka I was carrying and wielded it, to the horror of the people in the bar! They were screaming and running everywhere. I couldn’t shoot straight and so was letting off random shots. It was fantastic, but indicative of an experience which I still don’t think can be matched today.
Can anyone name a game that even sounds remotely as feature rich as Deus Ex today? That is my point!
What has this got to do with PES I hear some of you ask? Well a fundamental gripe people have with the game is that the AI is not challenging enough. Which is a fair criticism to have I believe. But to be fair, we really need to consider just what was possible with football games 10/15 years ago, and what is possible now. 10/15 years ago, we accepted that we couldn’t expect there to be many different ways the AI could be programmed to challenge us. We had to accept that a basic formula was used with some tricks to help the AI get almost undefendable goals against you, to try to help create the challenge.
Nowadays we are tired of the formula and want the AI to interpret how we play and what we do, and to work out how to stop us. Sorry if this is ignorant, but isn’t that incredibly hard to do? We’re pretty much asking for human levels of interpretation of dynamic playing situations to give us the challenge we crave in single player games!
So back to my original question – are single player games relevant any more?
I remember a few years ago, I only ever played PES games in single player modes. I hardly ever played against human opponents. When I would play against friends, the game changed considerably.
A good friend of mine would always have the upper edge during games because he knew how to play against humans more than me. I would play the game as though I was taking on AI, and the difference was there to see.
So where am I going with this question? Well, I’m certainly not advocating we lose the single player game that’s for sure, but wondering whether we need to see a new direction in how AI plays against us. I don’t know how much it has changed on the current generation of games. I personally find how AI plays very robotic (in both major footy titles for the record), and not enjoyable really. Would people say they would like to see changes in how AI fundamentally challenges us? With increased computing power, surely rethinking the whole apprach is worth thinking about?
Thanks for reading.
Dougiedonut
(dougiedonut@pesgaming.com)
Posted by Dan Bolas in Master League Magic on Thu 14 Jan 2010
PES Fans are a nostalgic bunch in general. I don’t think there is a week goes by whereby someone doesn’t mention a previous version of the game without throwing it a compliment. Whilst everyone no doubt has their favourite game from the archives, the one feature that has been around throughout the last decade, and arguable the USP of the Pro Evolution Soccer franchise is the Master League.
In fact, the Master League started way back in 1999, meaning that for the past decade, people have been building up their teams, selling on their stars and conquering the virtual football world. As a result, the game mode has at times felt dated and is still searching for that overhaul that made the football gaming community stand up and take note at the end of the 20th century.
The purpose of this feature is to capture some of the stories, the events and the magic moments of the PESGaming.com’s communties Master League experiences. This could be anything from a young signing who went on to be the world superstar after a shakey start with your club, or the journeyman midfielder who went on a 6 game goal streak to carry your team to the title. The stories are up to you, and whilst I have a fair few of my own, I would rather be publishing your features and tales from the past 10 years of the Master League.
The rules are simple, send your story, which can be no less than 250 words but no more than 500, to interferingwithplay@hotmail.co.uk. Make sure to include your name (either real name, screen name or both), your location (city and country) and which version of PES you are talking about. Other details such as you age, console and any other information can be included if you so wish. Try and make you story enjoyable to read, as I will do very little editing to them unless necessary. This feature will run for around two months, until the start of the Interfering With Play League, and will act as an alternative to the focus this site will be putting on PES 2011 over the next few months. Get your stories penned, and to get the ball rolling…
Dan Bolas, Wolverhampton, England.
Pro Evolution Soccer (Playstation One)
My story relates to my very first Master League, on the very first PES to include the feature. I was in charge of Inter Milan, and had a very shakey start which included the flop signing of David Trezeguet. During the first season, a mid table finish was my realtistic aim, and the second season saw a top 6 finish, as a steadily built my squad. I had brought a very attacking side, and unlike nowadays, purchased superstars such as Ronaldo and Beckham to help me achieve my aims. Anyway, last game of the season, I was at home to Juventus, requiring a win and it to be better than AC Milan’s result for a title win. I started very badly, and went 1-0 down early on, and a second half equaliser seemed to be the best I could muster. With the clock ticking into injury time, I managed to work the ball out to Beckham, whose near post cross was headed well clear by the Juve defense. However, there was no whistle as the ball floated into the path of Denilson. I had been playing the winger just behind my strikers, and as the ball was travelling towards him, he stuck out a left leg and brought the ball down almost instantly, as it hit the floor, the ball bounced up perfectly for the Brazilian to hit a first time side volley, which flew into the top corner! This goal proved to win me the title, as AC Milan only managed a draw at Lazio, and I won the league by a single point. The goal is saved somewhere on a PS One Memory Card, and made me intstantly addicted to the Master League game mode. This happened around 10 years ago, so is obviously an incredible moment for me to remember all this time!
If you have a story for Master League Moments, please send it to interferingwithplay@hotmail.co.uk
Posted by Dan Bolas in Interfering With Play on Tue 12 Jan 2010
Welcome to this week’s Interfering With Play. Before we go onto the usual PES and football gaming related topics for this week, I would like to take this opportunity to address two serious issues from the past week or so. Firstly, the tragic news surrounding the Togo national football team, and the death of backroom staff. I do not claim to have an advanced knowledge of African politics, but from the brief reading I have done on the subject I know that life is very different in that particular continent as to the rest of Europe and in particular the United Kingdom. I would like to extend my thoughts and prayers along with those of the PESGaming.com community to the families of those involved in the tragedy, and hope for a safe and peaceful remainder of the tournament. Secondly, and slightly closer to home, I hope that everyone is staying safe on the roads during this extreme weather. Whilst certain countries may be used to these kinds of conditions, I assure you the United Kingdom is not, and driving conditions have been horrific. If, like me, your job involves you spending any period of time in your motor vehicle, I urge you to stay safe and take care. Yes, these above points are not directly PES related, but sometimes a slight deviation away from the topic helps put things into perspective. With this said, lets crack on with another week of Interfering With Play.
“It’s Not Difficult”
Firstly this week, I would like to address the issue regarding difficulty of PES I touched upon last week. When playing alone in friendly matches, I usually play on professional difficulty. This is not because I struggle on Top Player, in fact its quite the opposite, I find that the opposition actually try harder to score on the Professional difficulty, and even sometimes hit hopeless long balls into the box, whereas possession and laboured build up is the name of the game on Top Player. This does mean teams commit fewer men forward and as a result it is harder to create goal scoring opportunities, but it also makes it less likely for you to concede a goal, resulting in many 0-0 draws.
Following my comments last week, I believe I am not alone in this suggestion, as many gamers also believe that this is the truth. If you are finding Top Player too easy, try and have a drop back to professional and see how you go. It does however drill home the issue that Konami must address the difficulty settings in future PES games, especially as the Game Play system has been so similar for the last few games. On one hand, Konami probably do not want to alienate gamers who lose every game, but they also need to realise that PES is a 12 month game, and that gamers need a challenge to progress to and aspire to beat, especially with online mode still being far from perfect.
One other topic is the so called ‘Supermen Players’. The Cristiano Ronaldo’s and Lionel Messi’s of this world that can simply turn a game with a moment of brilliance. I will openly admit that in my many years of PES gaming, I have occasionally resorted to giving the ball to one of these superstars and letting them run at my opponents, safe in the knowledge that they had the ability to provide the spectacular more than say a Gary Neville or a Wayne Bridge. This is a tactic that many professional teams use, isolating their stronger players in one on one situations against a weaker opponent, for example Robben at Chelsea playing on the right hand side, cutting in on his left foot and taking the left back onto their weaker right. This is a tactic, and if a player has that ability, why not exploit it. If you don’t like a player having that ability on your team, don’t be that particular team, but you can’t moan or complain if someone else uses it. It is less of an issue when someone is Tottenham and lumps the ball up to Crouch all day, but it is exactly the same premise, just easier to use players than are quick and good dribblers.
Football at any level is a game about speed, both physical and mental speed. Players like Fabregas may not be super fast over the ground, but their mind works so quickly, whereas stars like Messi and Ronaldo have the physical pace to devastate opposition. Anyone who has played football at a decent standard will be able to tell you how dangerous pace is, and therefore I believe this is represented accurately in PES 2010. There have been years when pace was too much of an asset and unrealistic (ISS Pro Evolution Soccer 2 for the PS One being a prime example) but this year the balance is as close to perfect as it has been for a while, so just because players are quick in real life, they shouldn’t be punished for it on the game.
“Is It Me Or…”
Two little points that I have noticed this week, mainly about the shirts the players are wearing in PES 2010. The first is the fact that I haven’t noticed any distinctive shirt pulling in PES 2010 with the matching animation, something which I was really impressed with in PES 2008 and 2009. Yes, it is slightly unethical but it is a part of football, and if Konami have removed it, surely this must be seen as a graphical step backwards. Anyone who has noticed any, please feel free to get in touch, either via e-mail or comment below.
The second point, and one that definitely caught my attention, was regarding the Sporting shirt. Before I go any further, I would like to point out that it is no longer politically correct to call them Sporting Lisbon, and therefore I will be addressing them as simply Sporting for this piece. Anyway, playing as PSG against Sporting in a winter match, I noticed that the majority of Sporting players seemed to be wearing base layers or ‘Under Armour’ shirts under their tops. I went in for a closer inspection and it definitely looked as if the players had their club shirts on with a long sleeve top underneath, as opposed to the long sleeve shirt option. Whilst this may only be cosmetic, it is a great step forward graphically for Konami as they are starting to catch up with the times regarding player styles and fashions, features which will only enhance the games realism. If you wish to make your own mind up, you can do so by playing for or against Sporting in a match set in the winter. I’ll leave that with you guys, make your own judgements.
“He’s Been Brought Down In The Box”
If I am entirely honest, I have failed to notice the mass improvements brought about by the recent patch. I have enjoyed PES 2010 since the game came out, and therefore I am not entirely sure what the patch is deemed to have improved. What I will categorically say, however, is that when it comes to penalty kicks, the referring is awful. Challenges all over the pitch are pretty realistic, with soft fouls occasionally being given and firm flying tackles missed by the ref. This is part of football, and I would go on a limb to say the refereeing from penalty box to penalty box is pretty fair. Sliders and unique refs aside, I am pleased with what little improvements Konami may have made.
In the area, however, it is a completely different story. Blatant fouls are ignored and late tackles that stop goal scoring opportunities mean nothing other than cheating is deemed acceptable. A ridiculously late challenge from Hughes of Fulham on my Arsharvin, which would have seen Hughes walk for a second yellow cost me during a recent league match. The ball was gone, Arsharvin was one on one and a tackle from behind was ignored and the ball rolled out for a goal kick! In fact, during however many matches I have played over both my PS3 consoles, I am yet to have seen a penalty during normal play, either for or against me. That must be close to 60 hours of gaming if not more and not one spot kick. There have been over 55 penalties on the Premier League, this season, yet I have not seen one on PES! This is not realistic at all, and I would go on record as to say I would rather have soft penalties as opposed to none at all!
If you have the time, I would ask you to go onto your Gallery screen, and check you own personal penalty number; I would love to see if anyone has managed to get into double figures yet! Comments and emails in the usual way! Even better, I would love to see a video of a penalty actually being given, just to prove that it actually can happen.
That’s your lot for this week. I have had to cut myself short slightly due to another project set to be released on PESGaming.com later this week. As always, interferingwithplay@hotmail.co.uk is the place to send your e-mails to, and your comments about anything you have read here are more than welcome. Double D is having some technical difficulties at the moment, and should be up and running again with a new laptop in a couple of weeks. Finally, the PES 2011 campaign and the IWP League process will both be up and running over the next 6 weeks.
Thanks for Reading
Posted by Dan Bolas in Interfering With Play on Tue 05 Jan 2010
Welcome to a New Year at PESGaming.com, and perhaps equally importantly, a brand new decade. Not to spend too long on the past, but 10 years ago, PES was just making a name for itself on the Playstation 2. There were no big names promoting the product, no cross console options (ISS was branded as a different game) and features such as downloadable content were nothing more than a pipe dream for the average gamer. 10 years on, and the game has improved, but is still fundamentally the same product. The limited number of games modes may have slightly been expanded, but the new additions (online and BAL) have so far failed to outshine the old favourites, most namely, The Master League. As we move into this decade, Konami’s awareness of its fan base is arguably greater than ever, and with EA Sports now producing a quality title to rival PES, it is time for the Japanese to prove they can still make a top level football game. Over the past ten years, it would have to be said that Pro Evolution Soccer won the battle for football franchise of the decade. However, it was a victory on points, and not the straight knockout that many would have expected after Pro Evolution 6 arrived in our consoles. The next 10 months will pretty much decide the future of football gaming once and for all, and whilst I much prefer PES 2010 to the FIFA counterpart, I am well aware that this is the year that PES will have to be nigh on perfect, or face being replaced as the top football franchise. With this said, lets crack on to the future with this week’s Interfering With Play.
“What’s Going On”
Two weeks off, and I for one and personally itching to get back in the saddle. I have received many e-mails regarding a number of issues, and thought it would be best to address the plans for this site over the next month or two. For regular visitors, the January to March time is usually the quietest period in the PES calendar. Excluding the post-January transfer window update, there is usually little official regarding news from Konami, with April and May seeing the announcement of a new instalment to the PES franchise. Therefore, we usually use this time to put together a structured suggestion list for Konami for future improvements for the next game, and this year, I genuinely believe we have a chance to make a difference.
Like many of you, I was exceptionally disheartened two years ago with the lack of response to my own personal letter to Konami. I felt let down by a company whom I have supported as a customer from the 90’s. However, the last few months have given me renewed hope a sincere expectation that we can actually make a difference, and striking whilst the iron is hot and the game is very much is its infancy is the way forward.
I will personally look at a couple of different ways of taking your views on board, with the option of holding a couple of chat room events to let people get their points across in a PM style environment. On top of this, I am sure Double D, the man responsible for most of the direct Konami contact, will have many ideas as of ways to get your ideas and formulate them into a working plan.
But this site won’t just become an ideas base. We support PES, and therefore will offer a number of different articles, features and competitions designed to get you, the PESGaming.com community involved. PRO-ve Your Skills will return in June, with the opportunity to show off your unique PES playing talents, whilst there will be a number of other events and tournaments taking place throughout the next 6 months, which will lead us nicely to the summer, when the hype begins all over again.
I would like to remind you that this site is up to you guys, if there is an issue or topic you feel needs discussing, let us know and we will get it out there. My e-mail address is located at the bottom of this column.
“Don’t You, Forget About Me”
Needless to say, I haven’t forgotten about the IWP League either. I am in talks with a couple of sponsors for the league this year that may or may not be able to offer some form of prizes. Until this is decided, I am reluctant to sort out drawings, groups and even the format of the league itself. With so many entrants, there will have to be a cut off, and a reserve list. I can only apologise in advance if you don’t make the league this time, and urge you to try again in future years.
What I will say as a quick reminder to those that have applied to the IWP League is that there are no ‘major’ teams involved. There will be no Real Madrid v. Barcelona dribble fests in this competition. I contemplating using unlicensed teams this time, for the first time, and maybe even upgrading the pay packet to include teams like Liverpool and Juventus, however if I feel a team would make a huge difference, and allow a weak player to outclass a far stronger one, then I will make sure they are not featured in the competition. If there are teams people would like to see added into the reckoning, please feel free to place them in a comment or e-mail, and I will take a look at them personally.
“Stop Me, Oh Stop Me”
Thank you to everyone who has got in touch with me regarding PES crashing. The problem seems to relate to the PS3 system only, and occurs whilst the players are waiting in the tunnel pre-game. This is completely unacceptable in this day and age, and whilst games may experience occasional glitches and crashes, especially in volatile online environments, to have an offline error constantly crash the system is not good enough, and this will be relayed back to Konami during our next correspondence with them. The problem does seem to be limited to certain stadiums, with Monaco’s home ground seeming to crash for me every single time, making the trophy for playing at all stadiums inaccessible
My nature; however is to solve problems as well as moan about them. At the current time, PES crashes before certain games, but I am not going to stop playing the game if I can avoid it crashing. My tip is pretty simple, and whilst not ideal, seems very effective. By pressing start as soon as you select Start Match, the PES starts come up in the bottom corner of the screen. This means the game is loading, and will cancel the cut scene as soon as the game is ready. Every time I have done this, the game has gone on and played perfectly, without a glitch. Yes, it is far from perfect, and I for one look forward to the big game atmosphere the pre game cut scenes bring to the table, but it does mean that in the short term, you won’t be penalised online or suffer any punishment from your Master League crashing with Cheat Prevention enabled. If this works for you, fantastic, and let others in the community know that you’re having joy, or in some cases failings with it. I believe it doesn’t matter if you have n option file installed or not, and that you lucky 360 gamers don’t have the problem. Any news let me know on the issue.
“It Hurts To Be This Good”
For those of you who don’t know, I am very partial to a bit of Fix mode with my mates on PES. This means we all control a single player on a team, and battle through a Champions League or World Cup sticking with that player, and allowing the AI to control the relevant other players. For people who play this game mode, the positives speak for themselves and on a slight deviance, how annoying is it that before each game, you have to once again reassign every player to their AI team member, a feature that used to be stored automatically on PES 2009. I now sympathise with those people complaining about not being able to play as opposition in Master League or League matches. Whilst this weighs no significance to me personally, it is the removal of good features that are some of the most annoying things Konami do.
Anyway, I digress. Following a disastrous with Liverpool in the Champions League (Fiorentina, a personal bogey team for us, knocked us out in the first knock out round), and a gutting loss in the semis as Portugal on Christmas Day, we approached the Champions League with Manchester City, both with a lack of confidence and missing one of our usual 7 players. Please bear in mind that we never managed to win the Champions League on PES 2009 in fix mode, losing once in the final on Penalties and 3-2 in another final, both to Inter Milan.
After a 3-1 hammering at the hands of Juventus in the first group game, some of us were making plans as to what we would be doing after the game, it being 11pm and knockout would have meant some of us could still hit the nightclubs. However, since that point we never looked back, and went on an unstoppable run. Usually a defensive midfielder on the game, I took charge of Adebayor, and managed to bag a very impressive 13 goals, although most were simply being in the right place following a free flowing move. We made it through to the semi finals following a brace by myself against Barcelona at the Nou Camp, with Chelsea standing between us and another final. We did play well, but to win the first leg away 6-0 really killed the tie off as an affair, and the second leg’s 2-0 defeat didn’t matter. It led to a final against Inter Milan, and arguably the biggest game of the year. We had maybe managed 12 evenings of this nature throughout 2009, and this would have been the final one of them. Inter had defeated us twice in finals before, a feeling that hurts when you realise it has take 4 and a half hours to get there and to lose thanks to a penalty kick.
We won the final 6-1, I managed to bag a hat trick, and we lifted the Champions League trophy. Yet it felt empty, we felt like in spite of playing well, we were given victory. I have never once complained about PES being too easy before, and believe it is the challenge you make it, but there is no denying that the difficulty level needs to be upped again for future years. I hate losing matches on PES, but I hate winning them without trying either, and the term anti climax was the best one to describe that Champions League. If you play the game mode, you may know how we felt, but a 1-0 victory in a cagey affair would have been much more realistic, and I dare say more satisfying too!
That’s your lot for this week. interferingwithplay@hotmail.co.uk is the e-mail address on which you can reach me. I hope that this year provides as many talking points, debates, arguments and laughs as the past year of PESGaming has done. There will be more news about more features coming up over the next couple of weeks, and feel free to leave a comment about anything you have read here, or anything you have the desire to discuss.
Thanks for Reading
