The Big Four: Week One

Over the month of May, Interfering With Play will be looking at four of the biggest titles in Football Gaming history, focussing on why they were so important and giving you the opportunity to decide on whether or not you agree with their place in the ‘Big Four’ category.

Just to give you a brief introduction upon this feature, having played through a number of old school football titles over the past 12 months, it got me thinking which ones were true classics, and which ones were really nothing more than copies of original masterpieces. Of course, everyone is going to have had that one game, be it football or any genre, that will have eaten away hours and days of their childhood, and view it through rose coloured glasses when discussing it in a forum environment. I have tried my very best to put those glasses away when writing this article, and have left one or two of my all time favourites on the bench, opting for titles that are not only considered to be universally ground breaking, but also have offered enjoyable and lasting gaming experiences. Please note, these games may not be considered great games during a modern day market place, but at the time, they provided ideas and options that were ground breaking.

Sensible Soccer (1992) Amiga- I have started at the true beginning of football gaming. Up until Sensible Soccer, football games fell into two very distinctive categories. They were either top down experiences, almost indefinable from Rugby or Basketball games, and featured very little in the way of aerial based football, or side on games, which provided oversized players upon tiny pitches. This of course was mainly down to the power of the systems they were running upon, and many games actually only featured 7 or 8 players per team, due to graphical constraints. This is not saying these top down titles or small-pitched games didn’t catch the imagination. I personally loved both Kick Off and Emlyn Hughes International Soccer as much as anyone, but they lacked the realism of a proper football match. Sensible Soccer revolutionised football gaming in so many ways. In spite of being on the Amiga, it managed to feature hundreds of playable teams, all of which were completely editable. Some of the teams and players names may have been fake, but one night spend editing and you had a game that was as realistic as the episode of Match Of The Day you had just watched. This was taken further by the comedy teams, completely made up teams based on things you would find in your kitchen, or parts of a car. These would not have been to everyone’s taste, but the casual gamer could pick up a side and have a laugh seeing their star striker “Fridge” score past the opponents goalkeeper “Exhaust Pipe”. Again, these were easily editable, so you could end up making your entire school team, or in one of my mates cases, a team for each class at school, giving a real personal feel to one of the domestic leagues. For the first time on a football game, skin colour and hair colour were also customisable. Gone were the days when everyone playing for Italy must have dark hair, and everyone from Brazil must be dark skinned. This was something unheard of in 1992, and really paved the way for future titles to do the same thing. Up until this point, strips were also merely one of 16 different palette colours, meaning yes, you could wear your team colours, but realistic interpretations of your team’s shirt were not available. Sensible Soccer offered hoops and striped shirts among other designs; featured games in 2008 are still missing! The ability to save highlights is now something very much taken for granted, with memory cards and huge hard drives sitting in our home consoles, it’s a simple way of showing off our best goals or pieces of skill. Sensible Soccer allowed you to do this first, saving your best games to show to your mates. But the mode that really strode onto new ground was the game play. Whilst still being very close to top down, the camera was on a slight tilt, giving the illusion of height and power when kicking the ball. The fact that having two buttons, one for pass and one for shoot, worked so well is a testament to the pick up and play ability of the game. Still to this day, there is little more satisfying then a well-timed diving header flying in on ‘Sensi’, and that is a sign of a top game.

I am going to now open the floor to the PESGaming.com public. I am aware that Sensible World Of Soccer, the games follow up title is available on X Box Live, and the original is available for download off a number of different sites. Please feel free to share your experiences of Sensible Soccer, love it or hate it. Do you feel it is worthy of its place in the Big Four, or are there any other key points I have missed when describing it. At the end of May, there will be a poll on PESGaming.com allowing you to cast your vote for which of the Big Four is the overall champion.

Still Got It

As I said I wasn’t going to dwell on GTA IV this week, over the past 7 days, a certain game has spent hours in my PS3. Its an exceptionally strong game that will take weeks for me to finish, and is a thoroughly enjoyable experience. However, I go back to one of my original points, and that is following a heavy gaming session, I always seem to sneak PES2008 back into the console for a cheeky game. This is the pure beauty of Pro Evolution Soccer, and always has been, its ability to entice you back. This is not aimed at the people who don’t own PES, or those who traded the game in after two weeks, as they don’t understand it. This is not aimed at the casual player who pops round his mates and plays the game with a beer in hand, as they won’t have experienced it. This is aimed at the gamers, or PES players who have put the hours in, who have got to know the game, and love it for all its faults, and still want to play it. In my 3rd year of Master League, I have gone undefeated, and sit one game away from the Champions League final, having won the Division One cup and League on Top Player. I am not saying this to boast, I am saying it to show that once I win that Champions League, I will have to all intents and purposes completed the game. Yes there are further achievements to unlock, but the main game mode, in the same way that Assassin’s Creed or Rainbow Six Vegas have mission modes, will be done and dusted. But of course, with PES, the game never truly ends. You can carry on that season, and keep it going, potentially for as long as you wish. With the European Championship’s just around the corner, I know I will be dipping once again into an International League to be playing with one of those very sides. The fact that after 7 months, I am still playing PES as much is a testament to the lifespan of an ‘unfinished’ game. It’s not perfect, but its still very good fun!

One Two

Having played Sensible Soccer this week, prior to writing the Big Four, has anyone wondered why it hasn’t been made available for PSP or DS? It makes me smile that people have been complaining about the lack of two shoulder buttons for the PSP version of Pro Evo, yet Sensi used to keep so many gamers captivated using just two buttons!

A Life Sentence

A point that has been mentioned a few times upon the forums here, and indeed everywhere else on the net is the lifespan of computer games. I mentioned earlier how I am still playing PES 7 months on, and GTA IV has been dubbed with over 40 hours of Single player game play. Some gamers seem ‘ripped off’ that certain titles, for example Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, feature such short single player modes, and therefore can not be considered as ‘full games’. The dilemma is something that has raged on for many years due to the fact of Eastern gamers. Japanese gamers like to fly through games quickly, they like to get quick achievements and like to feel good about themselves. Western gamers tend to prefer a sterner challenge, and would rather graft away at a title for many hours in order to get a ‘hard earned’ reward. This is how the gaming industry stereotypes the different cultures, and for many years, this would strictly set to. Games like Tomb Raider were frowned upon in Japan because of their long complex levels, whereas many Japanese games never made it to Europe due to them being ‘too easy’.

Nowadays, the lines are less clear, and titles tend to be released more universally, allowing the audience to pick up whichever suits them. Some gamers will have loved the Call Of Duty 4 single player experience, as it allowed them to follow a very strict line and end up jumping through the hoops to complete the game. Others will have found the game too short, and may feel that the game could have been drawn out. No denying though, whilst playing COD4, you were never bored, as it was 6-8 hours of action sequences. Compare this with a game like Oblivion, a game that features in excess of 50 hours (or so I am informed) worth of game play. Some people will see this as great fun, and riding a horse from village to village in order to pick up items will be exactly what they are looking for. Others will find this exceptionally tedious, and therefore will stay miles away from the game. These games are completely different to each other and should be judged as such. A game should only be as long as it needs to be, and whilst COD may have been short, it was great fun while it lasted and definitely the finished product. People who claim these kind of games to be poor because they are short are missing the entire point of them, and that is for quick action fixes. To put it into media context, a new DVD may cost £13.00, and give you 1 ½ hour’s entertainment. Whilst a game may cost almost three times that, it will give you at least three times the lifespan. If you wish to complain about companies cashing in on titles, I ask you to look no further than EA Sports, who are charging £40.00 for Euro 2008, a game which is little more than a watered down Fifa 2008.

That’s it for this week. As always your comments are more than welcome at the bottom of the article. danbolas@hotmail.com is the address you can reach me on if you have anything you wish to say personally! Please include your views on Sensible Soccer if you do comment.

Thanks for Reading

Voting has begun for the Consolegoals.com Mar/Apr GOTM competition. Please go here to vote for your favourite

WINNER WILL WIN A GAME OF THEIR CHOICE ON ANY CONSOLE FORMAT OR PC

Good luck to the winner.

Vote here

Kiss My Seabass

It has taken a great deal of patience to stick to the original plan, especially with so many people asking me, regarding the result of the Seabass Letter. For those who have only recently come across PESGaming.com, I compiled a letter to Seabass, expressing some of the views and concerns shown by the PESGaming.com public about PES2008, along with suggestions for the 2009 edition of Pro Evolution Soccer. This letter was finalised on February 29th 2008, and sent the following week. Having waited two calendar months, and sending the letter to numerous people at Konami, including Seabass’ “Official” e-mail address, I have heard no word back from anyone, other than the standard auto-reply messages on certain e-mails. Of course, this is highly disappointing, if slightly expected that a large game developer would spend time speaking to a dedicated fan site in some form that was other than an official interview. However, in my opinion, it was worth a shot that some of the views expressed by this gaming public would fall upon influential ears, and this remains to be seen. Of course we all expect issues such as the lag and the online play to be fixed, but if new game modes appear, or old options return, I for one certainly won’t be complaining come mid-October. I would like to set straight that not once did I claim to know anyone from Konami personally, nor did I state that I was ‘in the loop’ regards the games developments. Due to many hours of dedicated research, I try and keep on top of all the latest rumblings in the world of gaming, and when these rumblings involve PES, my ears do tend to be slightly more sensitive. Like many of you, I am a huge PES fan, having just clocked up over 250 hours of playtime on the game, and simply want the best possible gaming experience.

Heads, Shoulder Buttons, Knees and Toes

One of the biggest criticisms of Sony’s PSP since its introduction was the fact that it only had one shoulder button on each side, as opposed to the usual two buttons found on both PS3 and 360 controllers. Of course, on a portable system, every cm counts but this has made playing a lot of console orientated games slightly off-putting. Pro Evolution Soccer requires all four-shoulder buttons as much as any title, and it has been a huge debating point as to whether the game would be worthwhile playing on the handheld console. In my experience, and in the experiences of my mates, I highly recommend PES on the PSP, but warn that it is a lot more difficult alternate between playing the console and handheld version. The idea of sitting on the train or playing wirelessly against mates is a huge draw, and coupling this with a slightly watered down Master League you have a game that provides as much of a lifespan as any other title on the system. If you are contemplating buying the title, I believe most games shops have it on sale for under £20, or you can support Konami sponsors, Play.com and get it for a very reasonable £19.99

Age Rage

As many regular readers are aware, the whole age ratings on games feature which has spent so much time in the news in recent months has been a personal choice topic. Speaking to a lot of people, ranging from teachers and parents to avid gamers, there are many different views and outlooks on the subject and I thank all those that have expressed their views as a part of this site. Of course, its an issue that will rage on for many months and even years until computer games begin to receive a similar level of recognition as music and movies when it comes to adult content, with some believing this may never occur. This week though, I am bringing it closer to home, and asking the question why do these age ratings apply to Pro Evolution Soccer. Surely with football being on TV pretty much every hour, and being a popular sport amongst children as young as 3, there will never be any desire to make games like PES and Fifa anything other than a 3+ PEGI rating. Common sense tells us all this fact, but once again, as realism develops, so too will the over cautious censors. WWE Smackdown Vs. Raw 2008 has received a 16+ rating, even though WWE is shown all hours of the day on Sky Sports, and Tony Hawks Project 8 received a 12 sticker from the BBFC, even though children as young as six can be seen skateboarding in their local parks. The subjects themselves are not particularly offensive, but some of the issues in the game are, including violence and bleeding which occurs in both titles. Only a few weeks ago in Interfering With Play, a great deal of interest was shown as to regards more realistic injuries on PES, and if these became represented in graphical form, the people responsible for the age ratings would definitely step in. What are your views on this as football gaming fans? If you have played either WWE or Tony Hawks, do you feel the graphical content is worthy of the age rating it has received? Taking this one stage further, and I am playing devil’s advocate slightly here, should PES have received a higher age rating due to the diving aspect on the game? The big concern is that we do not want children emulating the games they are playing if it is a negative influence, and diving is a problem that children as young as five are starting to get in on. Ridiculous it may be, but its there to be debated, and your views are the ones that count.

Fast Forward The Ads

Assache has been going on for most of the week about the adverts in PES, and how they seem to be constantly updating and changing. Rumours have spread that Konami adapts the ads and having a broadband Internet connection sees the game ‘self-update’ to the latest sponsors. Whilst I have seen no proof of this, I believe Konami is onto something regarding advertising in computer games, and they have done so by taking it further than the simple advertising boards, which surround the field of play. Certain games have relied heavily on one sponsor, the awful Adidas Power Soccer springs heavily to mind, but in the digital information age, it shocks me that very few other genres of games have taken up this money spinning idea. I am obviously thinking outside the sporting genre, and into the worlds of RPG’s and FPS. Loading screens could be cluttered with the latest products instead of ‘overused’ in game imagery, and with no option to skip these, people will have to pay attention to what is being displayed on the screen. Companies would also be able to focus certain advertising campaigns to certain demographics, meaning 18 rated games could have more matured based adverts for products that would never be allowed on prime time TV slots. Whether it is a case of contracts and legalities, or whether its just as case of gaming developers wanting to keep out of that mainstream marketplace for as long as possible is totally up for debate, but with Internet sites like Myspace and Play realising the importance of in-game advertising, its only a matter of time before some of the big guns follow suit. May I also bring up, I notice that IGN.com features heavily within PES2008, popping up at the end of every game and throughout the Master League menu screens. IGN.com is a highly reputable site that provides quality information and details about pretty much every game ever made for a home console, yet on re-reading its review of PES, it seems to be written from a more Fanboy perspective than many of the others out there. This could be mere coincidence, as I am not for one second implying IGN would trade review scores for advertising, but it is worth taking a look at. As you know, personally I would agree with the rating given, but in comparison to the other reviews of games, some of the text does seem slightly generous.

Four Is The Magic Number

I have received some interesting nominations for the Big Four article that will feature throughout the month of May. Basically, it is a look at the four most influential footballing games in History, with a different one being highlighted each week. Needless to say, Adidas Power Soccer is not in the top four. I am pretty much set with the four titles that will be featured, but am still more than open for any suggestions. They need to reach me by this time next week in order to be considered for this feature, and must be available on a home console (so no PC or Arcade Games). Please e-mail suggestions to me at the usual address with the subject, Big Four in order to ensure a prompt reading and response.

You Do Not Have To Say Anything…

Finally this week, I would like to make a few comments regarding the whole purpose of this article, and indeed exactly why I write Interfering With Play. I write Interfering With Play on a weekly basis, and it is designed to discuss topics of a football gaming nature. As a result of this, some topics will be about football, some about gaming, with the majority of topics being in some way related to the two. I love PES, but like to consider myself objective and do not wish to appear as a Fanboy, not open to other games, even the dreaded F Word (Fifa), and blind to everything other that PES. Peter Willis does an excellent job keeping PESGaming.com up and running, and ensuring that all the latest news about PES in right here for you to digest as and when you see fit. Interfering With Play centres on PES, but will go off on other angles, tangents and provoke different discussion topics. If these topics appeal to you, please read them and respond, if they do not appeal, ignore these and read the ones that do. Each week, I write four to seven sections, with at least 2 focussed on PES, and will continue to do so, in spite of seemingly ‘no new topics’ available. I fully appreciate peoples input, be it either positive, as so much is, or negative, which obviously provokes more talking points. To cut a long story short, I play a lot of PES, but I appreciate there are other things in life, and like to bring up related comment with the belief that the majority of readers will find it either interesting, thought provoking or slightly amusing. An example being Soccer AM, which in spire of being a football show, features bands and actors along with many moments of pure comedy genius. It still centres on football, but drifts off on all angles, something that I like to think Interfering With Play also does. The main thing though, is that moaners, fanboys and everyone in between get their views across, because that’s the whole point of PESGaming.com
That’s all of have time for this week. As I said, I wrote this on Monday night (although it will be posted on Tuesday) so I am, like many gamers, looking forward to sitting down with a copy of GTA IV. If you have any comments about anything you have read here, either add them at the bottom of the page, or send them to danbolas@hotmail.com

Thanks for Reading

Yes, Grand Theft Auto IV is almost here (or here if you’re in the know). I have made the executive decision of adding a new GTA IV section to our forum for all of your discussion and questions. And, judging by the size of the ‘GTA IV’ thread on the forum already, something tells me it’ll be popular! You can check it out and join in the chat here.

What’s My Age Again?

As I have mentioned before, I try not to comment on posts, due to plagiarism and the sad people out there pretending to be me. It was more of a problem directly after the release of PES2008, but it is something that has made me sceptical about leaving comments on my own articles. This means in some cases I have to go 7 days without replying to a very valid comment, and there were several of these over the past week. As I spoke at quite a length regarding age ratings within gaming, I will not dwell on those same points, but rather elaborate on those made by a couple of comments. Original? Made some quite frank comments about his dislike for Bully, the 360, PS2 and Wii game, which sees u, take the roll of a schoolboy, raising havoc around the educational facility, Bullworth Academy. Of course, this game is not for everyone’s taste, and whilst most gaming review sites, magazines and individuals seem to highly rate the title, there will of course be those out there who it is less suited to. My point regarding Bully was that is was no different to the schoolyard stereotypes found on shows like Grange Hill or Saved By The Bell. The weapons are not high powered or controversial, and the game modes are light hearted. If gaming is to be an escape for people, which is the way some do treat it, then surely its important that it does cater for different age ratings. I would much rather see a 12 year old talking about pulling pranks in a classroom than ‘gunning down a prostitute’ on Grand Theft Auto. Again, full respect to your own personal taste in games, however it will appeal to different audiences. My other point goes to the excellent comments made by Assache, and how he treats age ratings for his ten-year-old son. The whole point of the fact though is that you are a gamer. You have obviously grown up playing games, or being involved with gaming. From reading previous posts, I assume you haven’t just picked up a next generation console as your first gaming experience, and also how you made the comments regarding how important a working console was to your marriage. This is exactly the kind of thing that needs to be promoted and expressed, and unfortunately is not among many parents. A good mate of mine has an 11 year old little brother, who owns a PS3. His parents encourage gaming as a hobby, but also stress the importance of physical activities and socialising. As he has grown up with two older brothers, he has seen a number of films and played a number of games, which may not be suited to a more naïve child of the same age. For example, Resistance: Fall Of Man was not seen as anything other than a supernatural game, whereas both his brothers and parents would not let him purchase a copy of The Darkness as the images in it were still a little too graphic. Of course, it does depend on the child, what they can cope with and how they react to other forms of media, but the bottom line should stop with the parents. As assache knows about gaming, he therefore can judge games on their merits, and allow his son to play games that he deems to be appropriate. For many parents, gaming wasn’t a part of their free time growing up, and more needs to be done in order to raise awareness about age ratings within the gaming industry, and stricter standards to be set in place.

Is This Real, Cause I Feel Fake

Some great comments and e-mails left regarding the pure addiction levels of the Master League, and its no surprise so many people left a list of their teams. Your Master League team acts as your family within the Pro Evolution Soccer environment. You blame players for mistakes and bad performances, even though its you controlling them! You are physically annoyed when your star striker gets cropped down, and hobbles out of action for 7 games, and your exceptionally proud when his replacement comes on to score a last minute winner, especially when it’s a wonder goal. As a result of this, you do want to show them off! My point I want to follow though regards the realism of the Master League, and how different it is to ‘real life’ competitions and tournaments. Yes, there is no doubting some factors about it are out of date and need modernising, however too much tinkering may just ruin its underlining magic. More divisions would be welcomed, but not too many, and more focus should be brought upon rivalry. Playing a side maybe 6 times over the course of two seasons, in the form of cup competitions should make for more aggressive matches, more ferocious tackles and higher stakes. The same could be said for ex players of clubs, just like in real football. Difficulty is an interesting point, as most of the top sides in Europe do tend to win every week, and once you create a top squad, you will become one of the top sides in Europe. Maybe an extra difficulty level for the Champions League would make for a greater lifespan, and many gamers have requested the option of changing clubs, a subject which I will raise another time. The biggest mistake Konami and the PES team could make would be, is to try and compete with ultra realistic management simulators on the market. I am talking about Football Manager and Championship Manager, two titles instantly recognisable for PC football lovers. Pro Evolution Soccer Manager was brought out in 2005, and was a considerable flop due to poor menus, a frustrating match engine and basically the console style format it was created for. If PES tries to emulate the ‘big two’ it will not only fall far short, it will ruin the currently solid Master League set up. By all means, adapt and try to improve the current Master League, maybe even give it a facelift, but trying to compete with games like Football Manager would be suicide.

Your Simply The Best

Over the month of May, Interfering With Play is going to feature a new segment called ‘The Big Four’, in which each week, we will look at a football gaming title that has truly defined the genre. There are many out there, from Fifa International Soccer on the Sega Mega Drive, to the even earlier World Cup Soccer on the NES. I have a couple of the big titles lined up, but am looking for you opinions and views on which games have played a huge part in making football gaming what it is today. I am only looking at games in which you physically control the players on the pitch, so I am not including games like LMA, Football Manager, and Premier Manager etc. If you have a title you wish to campaign for, please send its name, along with your memories of playing it to my e-mail address, along with which console it is for. In event of a huge number of entries being submitted, a poll will be placed on PESGaming.com next week, giving the PESGaming.com public the opportunity to vote for which games should make it into ‘The Big Four’. I will try to reply to all requests personally, however as always; due to sheer volume this just may not be possible.

I Need To See Some I.D
My final point tonight is one of the biggest cock-ups in next generation gaming, and is both shocking and at the same time, not that surprising. For none PS3 gamers, may I first set the scene. Konami announce that Metal Gear Online, a spin off of the famous Stealth Gaming series will be available for download from the PS3 Store on Thursday 17th April, as a Beta code. This basically means it will be available for gamers to sample, test, and report back their views along with any problems or bugs they experienced. Many Beta tests take part amongst company executives and never make it into a huge public domain, however Konami believe they have a product that is ready to be tested by the world, and there weren’t too many out there arguing. In the U.S.A and Japan, special codes were required to play this Beta, Europe was fortunate enough to be a ‘simple’ download and play scenario. Thumbs up for Konami then, good P.R and all that. Wrong, Very Wrong! After downloading the hefty 800MB file, you are prompted to install the game onto your hard drive. Standard procedure for any download. You then open up the game to be informed that the Beta will go live on 21st April, and run for approximately 14 days. Again, pretty standard, bearing in mind the finished article will probably cost something in the region of £20. Still this is pretty good from Konami, a company that has so far been less than impressive in the online marketplace, or indeed the next generation marketplace. A top, highly anticipated title is being made available, for free, for testing by real life gamers. And then it begins.

Upon clicking the User Agreement, you are informed an update is available for the game, and are offered an option of downloading from Konami, or via a peer-to-peer system. Obviously most people select the secure Konami option, to realise their having technical difficulties and peer to peer is the only way to go. Following download times in excess of 4 hours, with some gamers even finding their downloads crashing on 96%, you finally can open an up to date version of the game. It may have meant leaving your console on all day whilst at work, or all night, but your finally ready for Monday 21st April. Or not, because Koanmi, in their wisdom, have decided to go against using the already established PSN and require their own unique Konami ID and Gamer ID for the game. In order to access these, you must log on to id.konami.net. and fill out a number of forms, giving information the PSN already has. Simple enough, if it weren’t for the fact that Konami was unprepared, and the site constantly crashed, froze and ‘could not find the current page’. Many gamers spent entire workdays trying to get past the ‘confirm your age’ page, with the site being more than reluctant. Those lucky enough to get their Gamer I.Ds then had a further shock, when they realised that the Beta was no longer going to start on Monday 21st April, but instead Friday the 25th April. Since this has been announced, Konami has apparently boosted the strength of their website to cope with these demands, and spent a little more time reinforcing the servers for online gaming, however, it s far from acceptable.

Yes, I appreciate it is just a Beta of the game, but once again, it proves Konami are not ready for Next Generation gaming, and are struggling to cope with online gaming. Anyone who has played PES online will back up the fact that the outdated lobbies, poor connections and general lag are not experienced on many other games. Instead of using an established system, in this case the PSN, they have instead requested their own personal log in system, which is made considering the high levels of security both Sony and Microsoft employ, and Konami have provided doubts about their future projects, doubts which wouldn’t have occurred if they had taken the time to do things properly in the first place. Developers are under huge pressure to provide quality titles for consoles. PC developers can get away with a little more due to different graphics cards and machine specs, yet those developing solely for the PS3 or 360 need to hit the marks, or realise poor sales due to high competition levels. They need to get things right, and to be honest, Konami are falling way behind. Without doing any deliberate research, I can think of one Konami title available for PS3, Pro Evolution Soccer 2008. This is shocking from one of the big players in game development, who have brought classics such as Silent Hill, International Track and Field and Metal Gear Solid. Companies like Ubisoft and EA have managed to produce handfuls of decent selling titles, with every one or two being ‘must own’ games. As nearly everyone who has commented on this site over the past few months has been saying, Konami needs to pull its finger out and stat producing quality titles for the next generation, or avoid being a forgotten entity.

That’s your lot for this week. Comments about anything you have read here, agreeing or otherwise can be left at the bottom of this page. The all important e-mail address for your ‘Big Four’ recommendations is danbolas@hotmai.com. Please give the subject heading ‘Big Four’ when sending your mail, so I know what it’s regarding (as I said, I get a lot of mails a week)

Thanks for Reading

In association with ConsoleGoals , PESGaming welcomes your entries for the March/April Goal of the Month Competition. There are now just TWO WEEKS to get your entries in. The closing date is April 31st.

- All goals must be from PES 2008

- Score the best goal you can on the hardest difficulty (we have final say as to who the 6 finalists are)

- Record your goal as a movie file on your PC

- Upload your goal to www.consolegoals.com and check the box next to ‘PESGaming GOTM Comp- Mar/Apr 08‘ when you are on the upload page.

- Post your goal in the GOTM forum as a new thread with a description of the goal in the subject line (starting with GOTM Mar/Apr), which can be found here.

To post your ConsoleGoals video’s directly into the forum, copy the Forum BB code that can be found on your ConsoleGoals video page under ‘SHARE DETAILS’ and then place it in your post/thread - It should end with [/cgvideo]

All goals MUST be submitted in the correct format and on ConsoleGoals to be considered.

WINNER WILL WIN A GAME OF THEIR CHOICE ON ANY CONSOLE FORMAT OR PC

In the event of a tie, the deciding vote will be left with ConsoleGoals/PES Gaming staff.

Good luck!

We’ve All Had A Drink

The Internet, as it is, is an excellent place to find out new forms of media and entertainment, a way of meeting new people and a way of finding out information. Sites like this allow people to express their views in an open and public forum, with now barriers or boundaries, and whether you feel this is a good or a bad thing is irrelevant to the fact of that is the way it will stay. One thing I have always appreciated about the comments and humor of this site is that they are taken in good faith, and no one really takes anything too personally. A comment made last week from abbafather claiming that he ranks PES2008 over his wife and kids is a prime example of this! People who actually believe a human being would rank a computer game over living people need to get out more, and realize that having a sense of humor is exceptionally important when doing anything involving the Internet. The other person, who undoubtedly is lacked humor, is Steven Gerard (Liverpool). Not the actual player, who is still proving himself to be one of the best centre midfielders in world football, but the person posting comments, and pretending to be him. As said before, I am pretty sure that Gerrard knows how to spell his own name (two r’s not one) and would not write in such a random way. The post was not only written in broken English, but made absolutely no sense to an English speaking public. The comment can be found at the bottom of the 10 predictions for PES 2009 post, written by Peter Willis a couple of weeks ago. People, keep up with posting, as I said above, but bear in mind to have a sense of humour whilst doing so!

PS3, The Debate

I own a Playstation 3. I purchased it the very same night that it came out, and queued up a good hour and a half on a cold March night to get my hands on the true next generation gaming experience. Personally, I have been very pleased with my decision. Being mere hours away from purchasing an X Box 360, I stuck by the Sony brand that has treated me so well over the past 12 years and spent the extra cash. I highly recommend the PS3 to any gamer, with many of my mates trading in their 360’s for PS3’s. I feel the library of games, excluding those backwards compatible, is ever growing and there are enough titles in the pipeline to keep me going well after 2010! These are of course my opinions, and like every one of you out there, I am entitled to them. What cannot be argued, however are the facts. At this moment in time, in the battle between 360 and PS3, the Microsoft machine is the market leader. It has a wider variety of titles available, a premium online service and a wider choice of consoles to suit different sized budgets. It is currently in the third circular of games; meaning the initial teething problems when developing for the console has been ironed out and now, the majority of games are bug and lag free. This is why, for PES2008, the 360 is probably the console of choice to play the title. The PS3 was still in its first calendar year, and on its first circular of titles, meaning the best titles available were ports of 360 games, and developers were yet to truly get the most out of the console. PES2009 will be a very interesting title when it comes to the next generation war. As PS3 is certainly finding its top titles, it will require a lag free online experience to compete with the market share that 360 is currently enjoying. I would love to hear the views of neutrals, people who have owned both consoles, as to which they prefer, and what makes them swing that particular way. If you are waiting for a next gen console, my personal advice would be a PS3. With titles like Gran Tursimo, LittleBigPlanet and Metal Gear Solid 4 all on the way, I feel that PS3 is the future of next generation gaming. I would not consider myself a Fanboy, and have played 360 a fair bit. I have been with Sony since Playstation began, and the overall quality is far superior to anything else. Again, my opinion, feel free to leave your own.

Master League Madness

I am well into my Master League on PES2008, and love it, as I stated last week. Yes, the mode does need some new features, the inclusion of real world currency and interactive cut scenes would make for a much more realistic experience. The menus may be slightly outdated, and more stats should be made available, for example shots per game or tackles per game, when scouting another team. (Again see NBA 2K7 for how it should be done). With these criticisms though, comes one of the biggest praises in any game anywhere, and that is the sheer passion and replayablilty of the mode. The option has been available since ISS Pro Evolution Soccer on the Playstation One, and yet every year, I spend day’s worth of gaming time mastering my team, wheeling and dealing, and eventually winning back-to-back ‘Champions League’ trophies. I rarely buy big names, limiting myself to one or two per season, and try to find out new talent, viewed either on the Internet or via the Football Manager 2008 database. It may be taken for granted now by many players, but in a day and age where every focus is on Internet Gaming and Online options, Konami got the Master League mode right along time ago! Anyone interested in sharing their Master League Team for PES2008 with me, feel free to do so in comment form. Please note: I would much rather only see teams that have been started from scratch, in other words using Jaric, Ordaz and co. as opposed to taking over an existing squad. My team, which this time was Napoli is: Papadopoulos, Sidnei, Federico Fazio, Micah Richards, Diaby(c), Dudu, Ashley Young, C. Ronaldo, Modric, Benzema and of course Klass-Jan Huntelaar. (3-5-2)

Strike Up The Ban

My last point tonight is one regarding the age ratings computer games and why certain games are banned from being released. With GTA IV only two weeks away, the game that really started up this whole controversy, Grand Theft Auto, springs to mind. For anyone who ahs been under a rock, or is just too young to remember, Grand Theft Auto was a top down action game where, like the modern day equivalent, you had to do a number of illegal tasks, with the ability to free roam and basically do as you please. Picking up prostitutes, gun fights with cops and stealing motor vehicles were all seen as positive things and as a result, censors were determined to stop its release. Since then, a number of games have been lost, or severely edited due to adult content. We are yet to see sex in a mainstream game, and blood and gore games constantly receive bad press. It has gotten to the stage where Bully, a highly impressive game in which you play a school kid and have to complete a number of tasks, is receiving front-page media attention for promoting violence in schools. This is a product of belief that gamers are all aged 10-18, and sit in front of their parent-purchased consoles playing games, then being exactly influenced by the scenes in them. Censor groups would have you believe these games are the reason behind the yob culture in England, the gang culture in the U.S.A and in some cases, the glorification of war. Of course this is not true. All the aforementioned problems were going on long before the days of Pong or Space Invaders, and the same 10 year old children that grew up playing Mario and Sonic are now the 9-5 working generation that keep countries ticking over. For years, movies such as Saw and Hostel have pushed the boundaries of gore further than any computer games, and whilst I would not want to see a young child watching these movies, adults should be able to make their own mind up and see the films if they wish. Exactly the same with computer games. I am currently playing Condemned 2, a game that is exceptionally brutal and features some genuinely scary scenes. Under no circumstances would I ever try to recreate anything I have seen on the game, and I am sure many gamers would be in the same boat. The problem should not be banning games, it should be that age ratings are enforced much stricter, and international laws should be based so that, just like an 18 movie, young children are unable to get their hands on games that are potentially too graphic for them.

That’s your lot this week. I feel there is a fair bit to comment on, so feel free to do s. The e-mail address is danbolas@hotmail.com if you have any long comments or personal questions.

Thanks for Reading

I’m So Excited

My first point this week is one that will no doubt divide the community. I own over 20 games for my PS3, ranging from sports titles to FPS to driving games to a little bit of everything in-between. I play games online, on my PSP and on my PC, and have completed the majority of those games, which I own. I thoroughly enjoy gaming, and having recently whizzed through Devil May Cry 4, have just purchased Condemned 2 for my next gaming challenge. However, in spite of the entire Chimera, in spite of all the 13th Century assassinating and in spite of all the online headshots on COD4, the one game that still gets the most game time, and still is most enjoyable for me to play is PES2008. Many titles grab my attention on the first play through, and some will find their way back into the machine for a second go, but overall, it always results back to a quick game on Pro before work/bed/picking up the girlfriend. Yes, some games do have a limited lifespan, and therefore its difficult to compare a game like Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune or The Darkness to the multiple game modes that feature on PES, but I have a collection of games that includes Fifa, NBA, Guitar Hero and Smackdown vs. Raw, all games which can be easily picked up and played. Pro Evolution Soccer came in for a lot of criticism from both its fans and established reviewers, however when six months down the line it is still spending so much time in people’s consoles, it must still be a damn good game. I am sure there are people out there who will be in exactly the same boat as me, and who thoroughly enjoy their PES experiences, yet it always seems to be the ones who don’t are the ones who are most vocal. I would love to have the PES addicts ‘show some love’ for PES in the form of comments at the end of this article.

Pretty Darn Amazing!

Quick side note here, especially seeing as it has nothing to do with either football or gaming, but I was wondering if anyone has any experiences, either good or bad of PDAs. I am currently in the market for one, for work, and require something I can use for calls, making notes and keeping track of appointments. I currently have the Nokia N95, which is for my personal number and require something a little more business like. Any advice on which way to go with this would be gladly taken on board.

Wear Them With Pride

Since the introduction of the achievement system on X Box Live, gamers now want to show off their gaming accomplishments more than ever. Personally, I think this is a great way to compete with your mates, and see who is doing better at certain games. It definitely adds an extra dimension to online gaming. The system is yet to be brought onto the PS3, arriving alongside the online community software, Home later in the year. (Check out Home on You tube for more information). My point to be raised here may be able to be answered simply, or may need some research, but it regards how your accomplishments are stored, or more importantly, where. Most PS3 owners will tell you that game installs are huge, in some cases upwards of 5GB, which is annoying if you need to keep the game information on your console in order to prove the fact you have completed the game. If it is a simple case of keeping the option files saved in a folder, then surely this will be the most space consuming way of showing off what you have accomplished. Furthermore, will it link to your username, and therefore maybe allow you to even delete all traces of that game from your console, but still keeping the accomplishments. I believe these are taking the form of trophies in Home; however, I am reluctant to delete any data of my previously completed titles until the program is launched and the information explained. Any help from X Box Live users, or anyone in the know would be greatly appreciated, and published with credit in next week’ column.

Back In The Day

A couple of weeks ago, 88champion made a reference to ISS 98 on N64, regarding the lack of black screens and the continuous game play flow many next gen PES fans are longing for. I went to get my N64 out last week, in order to sample the title for myself before featuring the topic, only to find a faulty aerial cable would spoil my experience. For people who are not familiar with the ISS series, I will try to fill you in. Konami always had two football gaming series running parallel to one another, usually on different console systems. This was most obvious during the N64 vs. Playstation wars, when ISS 64 appeared on the Nintendo 64, with ISS Pro being available on the Playstation. This carried on for a while until ISS was released on the PS2, followed by Pro Evolution Soccer on the same system, putting the two in direct competition. Pro Evolution Soccer was viewed by many (including myself) to be the better game, and as a result, ISS was put on the back burner. Apart from a brief spell on the Game cube and PC, the ISS series was discontinued and Konami focussed pretty much solely on the Pro Evolution Soccer series. Of course, many PES gamers are aware of this back-story, and will be familiar with the ISS games. The games had a much more arcade feel, with huge text flying up on the screen for every free kick, corner or goal scored. Player’s movement was also far from realistic, with both sliding and jumping really over exaggerated in an arcade like manor. Although this wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea, it did make for a good multiplayer experience, with beginners being able to score goals against there expert counterparts. A couple of interesting features that the game did include though, are yet to appear on the Pro Evolution Series, and some gamers would welcome these.

The first one, as mentioned by 88champion, was the free kicks. The game did not stop, with the players fouled picking themselves up, and getting into position, with the game continuing straight away. There were no over elaborate cut scenes, the action simply zoomed in to the referee if a caution was occurring, before zooming straight back out again. Should a player be injured, the medical staff came onto the pitch, either treating the injured player with spray, or a stretcher if the injury was more serious. By pressing a button, the view from the free kick changed, meaning you could see the location of all the players and were not limited to just looking over the takers shoulder, ideal for wide or deep set pieces. Bearing in mind this was achieved on a 64 cartridge, and not on a system involving DVDs, Blu Ray discs and hard drives, it is something Seabass and co. could definitely look at. Another interesting feature was the ability to play 7,8,9,10 or 11 a side games, and even have weaker players start with greater number of players than their better opponent. This really acted as a leveller, and was taken further with the scenario mode, a way of taking real life situations and applying them into the gaming world. Imagine the 2001 FA Cup Final as Liverpool, having to score two goals with Michael Owen in the last 10 minutes in order to win the cup, or bring Man United back from 3-0 at Tottenham in the second half to win 5-3. The third and final game feature I really enjoyed, albeit as a slight subplot, was the inclusion of the career mode in ISS 2000, the last ISS game on the N64. The game allowed you take the role of a 17-year-old trainee, who has just signed professional terms with a top club (which was of your choice). You were issued with a rival, a player who played in your position, and it was your job to outperform him in a number of mini games (such as follow your maker) and training matches in order to warrant a first team place. This was taken further into a ‘Sims’ like environment, where you could have a girlfriend, and had to make decisions about going out, drinking and your living accommodation. The player names weren’t real, and the mini games were sometimes completely irrelevant, however it’s a feature that would definitely add an extra dimension to any game, and with the modern day systems, could involve modes of online play, sponsorship deals and transfers. I picked up ISS2000 bout 3 years ago from a game shop for £10.00, and if you have an N64, I would highly recommend giving it a look, just for your own personal opinions. Anyone who has the game or more vibrant memories of it than I do, please feel free to add your points, as I will be more than happy to follow them up in next weeks article.

That’s it for this weeks column, if you would like to get in touch you can do so via comments at the bottom of the page (if you do, leave your name) or by e-mailing me direct, on danbolas@hotmail.com

Thanks for Reading

The Only Option

More so than ever over the last few weeks, I am being inundated by requests from gamers asking what to do regarding their PES Option file, in particular as to regards the next generation consoles. I have covered this in previous articles, but will send one more quick reminder. Due to the poor quality of the edit mode on PES2008, and coupled with the fact your Option File data links directly to your own personal progress record, it is my advice that you edit the game yourself, using a combination of your consoles camera, the forum on PESGaming.com and your own footballing knowledge. It is very frustrating there is a lack of pixel editor and emblem editor; therefore you are better off doing it yourself, and saving your progress record in the process. It took me just over 3 hours to do all the English Team kits and club names, adding players such as Kenwyne Jones where required, with creating my own team, Wolves, taking a few nights work. Of course, its open for debate, and I am sure if your search the web you will find Option Files out there that fit your own personal bill, but my recommendation, and that of many of my mates, is to do the work yourself. For the future, and for PES 2009, it remains to be seen how editing will progress. Should we find ourselves in a similar situation 12 months down the line, as some predict, it might be worthwhile looking towards setting up an ‘Idiots Guide To Editing PES’ website, but until then, your best bet is to work off your own back.

Tow The Line

Incredibly, PES is now entering its 6th month of release, and every week people message me asking how to ‘sort out’ the online problems they are experiencing with their console versions of next gen PES. I am yet to play the PC version, something that will be changing in a few days, but the online mode regarding consoles has always been plagued with lag issues, slowdown issues and basically is unplayable. I must apologise to all those contacts on my PS3 who see me online and offer me a game, as I will happily play you on Warhawk, Call Of Duty 4 or even Smackdown Vs. Raw 2008. However, I will not support PES 2008 online whilst the game does not share the same online experience as it does offline. If you find the game unplayable, the simple solution is to not play it, and hope that PES 2009 sorts this problem out like we all pray it will. There is not a quick fix, an easy download or even a temporary solution to it, so I apologise to all those who constantly ask, vent your anger towards Konami and Seabass, not myself and the PESGaming.com team!

Fit But You Don’t Know

Now into a full swing Master League, I will bring up a topic I raised many months ago, and something that has been a concern on PES for a while, the level of Player Fatigue, and how quickly it rises. Nowadays, I appreciate you need almost two squads to be a top four side in any division. Playing in three to four competitions, travelling across countries and multiple plane journeys, along with intense fitness based training sessions are going to take it out of any team, and as a result you arguably need two players available to play in each position, one acting as cover for the other, or in the for of a Rafa-style rotation policy. However, especially when playing in Division 2 of Master League, it is nearly impossible to field the same team twice due player stamina dropping below half each game, regulate condition sapping whatever is left in order to ensure your players have positive conditioning arrows. Due to a league and cup clash, I Played SC International 3 times over the course of 3 weeks on during my first season, and each time they fielded exactly the same side, with their players showing no ill effects. I had to change by team for each of the games, due to the fact that the stamina bars were so low. Realism tells us that players do need a rest, but only if they are playing twice in the same week, and unlike most domestic leagues, the Master League has many weeks where each team only plays one game. In fact, other than the top four sides, most teams tend to keep a settled team as to build momentum over a number of weeks, as opposed to bringing in 10 new players each game! Form could be taken into account perhaps, along with higher risk of injuries later in games, and this could be reflected in the condition arrows or even minor injuries making players unavailable for the following game. However, the fact that you can’t play your star player in the cup because he played in the league is truly mad, and something that far from reflects real football at most clubs!

Looking Animated

One huge positive, and something that has always impressed me about the Pro Evolution Soccer series, is the attention to unique animations. This was brought in during ISS Pro Evolution Soccer 2008, and saw Roberto Carlos have a different run up when striking a free kick. This has been taken to many new levels including Penalty run-ups, celebrations and corner kicks, and seems to be updated every year, which all in all is worth taking your hat off to Konami about. A few popular additions for next year, from my part anyway, would be the C. Ronaldo ‘poser’ free kick, Anelka’s ultra cool butterfly celebration and Yakubu’s very calm Penalty run up and strike. The whole penalty stance is another thing that could be address, with the option of placing, powering or chipping your spot kick. For example, a power penalty has more chance of missing the target, but less of the GK saving it, even if he went the right way. A placed penalty won’t go wide or over, but will almost certainly me stopped by the keeper if he gets the right way. A chipped penalty will always hit the target, but will be stopped even if the keeper dives late. With spot kicks such a lottery regarding accuracy, having this would give three times more options for the taker, and three times more decisions for the GK.

Ding Ding, Gloves Off, Round One 

Over the past few weeks and months, there have been a number of talking points in Interfering With Play that have spewed out into mini arguments in the form of comments. Many of these involve two users, mn9ajas and assache. The whole purpose of Interfering With Play is to get debate up and running, and I just want to give both you guys a shout out and to keep up the good work. It’s the whole purpose of a community to have people who share each other views, and have those who want to argue each other’s points. Better to do it in this kind of environment that with weapons in a war zone, well that’s my opinion anyway! The most recent talking point, is regarding the back chat referees have to put up with on a weakly basis, and the lack of respect these multi-millionaire footballers have for those trying to keep the game played in a good spirit. The cry from some mediums is that the game becomes more like rugby, with only captains being allowed to talk to referees and any backchat being instantly punishable with a caution. Unfortunately, there is very little chance a yellow card is going to influence this factor; I mean players still jump into the crowd or remove their shirts, gladly taking the caution if it means a more passionate celebration. The other end of the stick is Mascherano, who should have been punished for raising his hands against Middlesbrough, then was punished for saying “What’s Happening?” to an official against Man United. Players need to understand that whilst the referee is there to inflict the laws of the game, they also are there to protect players from serious injury, and listening to their brief conversation could help stop someone being badly hurt. I am lucky enough to know an ex-Premier League official, who says in spite of all the ‘abuse’ he received, he was never once directly swore at my a footballer. When you look at these pictures on the TV, they might not be telling the whole story.

So what is the solution? Maybe give each referee a microphone to record everything they say over the course of a game, and hear the response the player gives. By doing this, any incident could be cross-referenced to the relevant point on the recording when being used as evidence. Perhaps have a code of conduct for players when speaking to the ref. The player must stand approximately 1 metre away, straight with their hands behind their backs if called over by an official, reluctance to do so is seen as disrespecting an official and an immediate caution, one game ban or fine. Any player who approaches the official without being requested should be asked to leave and failure to do so is an automatic sending off. It would make Chelsea’s crowd the official tactic a very costly one! But above all else, above all these arguments it is down to the F.A and the Premier League to get a grip. The Championship and Lower Leagues in the UK have foreign players in them, and are home to as many red cards as any leagues, yet there is far less players answering back, and these refs tend to be a lot worse than the ones at the top level. If the Premier League spent more time dealing with the core factors of their division, disciple, player attitudes and sportsman ship, and less time worrying about corporate deals with chewing gum and ‘exclusive’ gaming licenses, many of these troubles could be nipped in the bud. You don’t see Andrew Strauss blasting an umpire because he feels he was given the wrong decision, and its very rare players like Lebron James speak back to officials in Basketball. It is the governing body’s responsibility, and whilst talking points are good, these things will eventually damage the sport, and the children that are growing up playing it.

With that rant over, that is the end of this week’s column. Great point raised by 88Champion at the bottom of last week’s column, regarding ISS on the N64. I will be addressing that next week, following a few hours of Nintendo gaming on ISS98 to remind myself of the games redeeming qualities! Any comments can be left at the bottom of the page, or you can hit me direct on danbolas@hotmail.com. This site is there for you to express your opinion, so don’t just read, but your point across

Thanks for Reading

• PES 2009 WILL BE RELEASED IN OCTOBER
  Forget all the rumours you may have heard about there being no Pro Evolution Soccer until next year, PES 2009 will be released October 2008.
• PREMIER LEAGUE TEAMS WILL NOT BE EDITABLE
  I think this is something that has been coming for a while. For the past few years the Premier League has been getting on Konami’s back more and more about the Option Files that end up floating around the web and, more importantly, eBay. I dare say EA are not too happy about it either given there ‘exclusive’ deal. So I think it’s quite likely that PES 2009 the kits, at least, will be locked down for the Premier League teams.
• THERE WILL BE ONLY TWO LICENSED PREMIER LEAGUE TEAMS
  At most! Konami have to buy these licenses individually from the clubs, and I believe they are allowed a maximum of 2… until the ‘exclusive’ deal EA has with the Premier League expires in 2010 when the rights will be up for grabs again. Don’t be surprised if the licensed teams are Everton and Aston Villa.
• PENDULUM WILL PERFORM THE INTRO MUSIC
  PES 2008’s choice of music was questionable to say the least. I don’t have a problem with choosing the Kaiser Chiefs, but the song just didn’t work. Something with a bit more kick to it will be introduced for PES 2009. Pendulum, best known for their hits ‘Granite‘ and ‘Slam‘, have already had their music appear in Motorstorm on the PS3 and Dance Dance Revolution Universe on XBox 360.
• ONLINE MODES WILL BE IMPROVED
  This goes without saying. Konami know that unless online is ten-times better than it was for PES 2008 that they are in BIG trouble. I expect there will be online leagues, or at least knock-out cup contests, and the lobby system will be modified to be similar to that of PES6.
• UNLIMITED AMOUNT OF SAVED REPLAYS
  No idea why you can’t do this alread.
• MASTER LEAGUE TO FEATURE MORE INTERACTION
  They took a step in the right direction with PES 2008 by introducing things like ‘Player speaks about recent form’, but this can, and needs, to be taken a lot further. Around 5 years ago Konami made a joint announcement with SI Games that PES and CM would be joining forces - what the hell happened to that? I don’t see any Football Manager features currently in PES, do you? But for PES 2009 I forsee the ability to interact with players such as praising them for recent performances, resulting in their moral going up. Too much of this though and other players will become disheartend. Newspaper reports linking you to certain players will require a response from you - this will make negotiations with the player in question easier, or harder, depending on how you handle the report.
• YOU WILL BE ABLE TO STAND CLOSER FOR THROW-INS
  Why can’t you go within 10 yards of a person taking a throw-in at the moment? I think Konami will finally see sense in the new game and allow players to go as close as they like (well, closer than 10 yards anyway!).
• REFEREE’S WILL BE MORE INTELLIGENT
  I think one of the most disapointing aspects of the PES 2008 gameplay was the fact the referees often spoilt the game. You would see red for a perfectly good tackle, while a last man lunge would be punishable with only yellow. Advantages will be re-introduced properly. They seemed far less realistic in PES 2008 than they did in PES6. Unless I’ve somehow missed it, referee’s won’t go back and book a player after allowing play to continue following a rough challenge. This will be addressed for PES 2009.
• FERNANDO TORRES TO BE ON THE COVER
  Don’t think I need to elaborate on this one.

So there you have it, PESGaming’s 10 predictions for Pro Evolution Soccer 2009. Discuss.

War Is Over

So, Blu Ray discs have finally won the much talked about HD war, meaning that for the next number of years, all big movies will be released on standard DVD and Blu Ray Disc. Personally, owning a PS3, this means I am already in place for the ‘big change’ and I am sure it will cause many people to follow suit, and maybe prod the neutral in the direction of Sony’s console. Microsoft, a company who offered a HD-DVD drive as an add on to the X Box 360, have come out saying that this is totally irrelevant, because in two years time, everything will be done via Digital Download. Whether this is sour grapes, or they have strong market research supporting these facts, only time will tell. But with Sony’s victory in this war, does it mean they are now going to focus on creating a top quality gaming system, in the same way they have done with PS one and PS2? As a gamer, a huge selling point of the PS3 was the fact that Blu Ray discs could store so much information, which when coupled with the power of the machine, meant for a top of the range gaming experience. On this front, I have not been disappointed. Many PS3 gamers, for all their grumblings and complaints, must appreciate that for the first 12-18 months of a consoles initiation, PS3 has provided a wide range and variety of games, with one or two real top included in that number, The hefty price tag is starting to lower and there is going to be a new war very soon, which will see a more direct head to head of Sony vs. Microsoft, a war which is good news for every gaming fan worldwide. But back to my original point, the war was Blu Ray vs. HD DVD, and now that is over, what difference will it truly make? I own one Blu Ray Movie, and despite the high quality and extra features, I could not justify paying four to five times more for a film on Blu Ray as opposed to getting it on DVD. Yes, I am sure some people, big movie fans, might want a huge collection of HD quality movies, and if this is the case, Blu Ray is the way forward, but as a gamer, and addressing the PESGaming.com public, how many of you will be shelling out the amounts to get your favourite films on Blu Ray?Your views, as always are very welcome.

Games In Hand

A point that has been raised by many people in various forms over the last few weeks, and a feature that has only featured briefly on PES is handballs. When brought in on PES3, the handball option was more luck than judgement, with seemingly endless scrappy handballs given in the centre of midfield, and then blatant goal stopping opportunities going unpunished. As a result of this, it drove many gamers to frustration, with most asking that it be removed from the next version. The handball feature was greatly reduced over the next few releases, and seems to have gone all together on PES2008, especially in the next gen versions. Like everything with PES, I feel the handball mode was the right idea, but needed consistency in order to be successful. There is nothing more annoying than having a stonewall penalty claim turned down, only for exactly the same thing to happen against you two minutes later, and the spot kick given. A number of ideas have been banded about on how the game could use handballs whilst still maintaining its realism. One suggestion was when chesting, the ball, one of the shoulder buttons had to be pressed in order for it to be done successfully. Mistiming this would result in your player sticking out an arm in order to bring the ball down. Another suggestion would be that handballs could only be given during or following a slide tackle. This is a seemingly simple one to implement, as when players slide or go to ground, they are committing themselves to that particular challenge or block. If a shot is going in, only to be deflected by an outstretched are, the player responsible for the slide must appreciate it was there choice to try the block, and a free kick or penalty could be awarded as appropriate. Taken further, shots that were going on goal but blocked with a hand could receive a yellow or red card, totally depending on whether it would be blocked by the keeper or not. Again, this may not be everybody’s choice, but as a avid football fan, I want realism, and if following a 20 pass move, my deft lob is blocked by a players arm, I want the full Monty as regards to punishment. It would also means blocks and tackles have to be timed better, and as long as its consistent, there would be no room for moaning from any gamers. Your views greatly appreciated.

Call The Red Cross

Great to hear from so many of you regarding injuries on the game and the frustration the lack of animation causes. I will address this again in a few weeks time, but just wanted to let comment leavers and e-mailers know I have read the opinions. It does make me smile when a player who has just been crunched goes off hobbling and holding their hamstring. Anyone who knows about the human body, or has ever injured their hamstring knows the most common cause is not an impact injury, but instead over stretching or in some cases not warming up properly. Things like this are not difficult to implement, but would help bring a level of authenticity to injuries, be they muscle pulls, blood injuries or even head wounds.

Video Killed The Radio Star

Finally tonight, I was surprised as many of you to see a first on PESGaming.com, a video compilation package entitled “What Football Means to me”. Whilst some people have given it some criticism, I highly welcome things like this, as it can show the quality of PES in a format that is being used more and more on TV and the Internet. I personally thoroughly enjoy making video montages like this, but am currently unable to capture images of PES onto my PC. If anyone has the ability to do so, and wishes to pair up to make a video package like this, please be in touch via my e-mail address and we can try and sort something out. All credit will be given where appropriate. With that said, I would like to point you all in the direction of something I found on the Console Goals website about 8 months ago. I am not sure as to whether as it has been posted on the forums of PESGaming.com, or how many of you will have seen it, I personally believe it to be the best piece of PES Video editing around. The footage is taken from PES6 on the PC, and features fully edited kits. It is a compilation piece showing the different playing styles of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. I have included it on the column, but more videos like this are available at ConsoleGoals.com. I would once again like to point out I did not create this video, and all credit goes to FCB_87. Enjoy!

That’s your lot for this week’s Interfering With Play. You can get in contact via danbolas@hotmail.com, or simply leave a comment at the bottom of the article. As I said, a slightly shorter column this week due to a very busy few days previously, and over the next few weeks, I will hopefully be able to cover all features raised by the PESGaming.com community.

Thanks for Reading

Last week, I sat down to one of my many Master League gaming sessions, and struggled to grind out difficult victories against AIK and Celtic, using the default Master League ‘stars’. Following a run of decent results which saw my rise to third in the table, and with still a number of games to go until the Negotiation Period, I found myself with a the difficult task of going against a well organised FC Basel side. Around 20 minutes into the game, Minanda, the aging playmaker picked the ball up on the left side of the pitch, only to be crunched to the ground my no nonsense Basel centre back, Daniel Majstorovic. Immediately, I pressed pause and wished to view the replay straight away, and following Minanda’s tricky side step, what I witnessed was a horrific, studs showing and making contact challenge, landing directly on the joint of my number 10’s ankle. Again, I feared the worse, figuring I would have lost Minanda to an injury, figuring he would at least need some time off the pitch to recover from the challenge, and that Majstorovic would be appropriately punished. When I resumed the game, I was relieved to see Minanda get to his feet, but then when no card was shown to the offending player, it made me question the whole level of decisions given by PES referees. More often than not, my players are booked for mistimed block tackles, whereas straight out lunges or pulling of shirts rarely receive a free kick. This is something which I feel has caused a lot of frustration among gamers all over the world, and whilst I can perfectly understand why a conservative tackle is rewarded with a yellow card, if used to break up an attack or from behind, I can not understand why blatant moments of dangerous play are not further punished. This could be advanced further with a more comprehensive injury system. Anyone who has played a recent WWE Smackdown Vs. Raw game is well aware that the game splits your characters body into four areas, and different moves cause specific damage to different areas. So an arm bar would cause your arm to get injured, with a power bomb putting more damage on your back. This feature has been in place for around five years now, and has provided a more realistic gaming experience. Surely, the impact of tackles on different parts of a player’s leg or body could also benefit from this system. A ankle snapping challenge like that I experienced could have seen Minanda been out for a longer period than say a mistimed trip, and the consequences could be far worse for the offending player. Many gamers have been critical of the fact ever time a player goes off, he does so hobbling and holding his hamstring, well this would be a beneficial way of solving the problem. Your views, as I said before are most welcome.

One True Voice

As I have said over the past weeks and months, I find the commentary on the latest PES to be the best the series has ever experienced. Pack in the days of ISS Pro Evolution Soccer, the way the commentators said the word Nigeria bordered on the racist, and since then well recognised commentators has been brought in, only to be both underused, and given poor quality scripts. Jon Champion, whilst far from being the best commentator as regards to TV football matches, took the work seriously, and it shows in the end product. Mark Lawrenson is not the right man for the job, and whether he is analysing on Match Of The Day or co commentating, on the FA Cup, he lacks the kind of passion and enthusiasm that transfers into the gaming environment. In my opinion, bringing in someone like Alan Smith from Sky, or even Gerry Armstrong from the La Liga commentary would add a bit more atmosphere, and boost the high levels set by Mr. Champion. Compare this with the scripts given to the best commentary team Tyler and Gray, in the latest FIFA title. Normally, EA Sports provides its commentators with a top of the range set of appropriate comments that add both colour and depth to enhance the gaming experience. In this year’s title, they spent pretty much half the game talking about St. James Park and Newcastle United, when the two teams playing were both from League One! My one request for PES2009 commentary, and indeed all-future games involving commentary, other than more scripts, is to have more names available when creating players. Looking through the PES name list, I could not create a player with the commentary name Jones or Smith, annoying as I have mates with both names. I am not expecting them to have wild names, or even foreign ones, but a collection of a couple of thousand from a local phone book would make a lot of people very happy!

“Next Year Will Be… The Perfect Year”

This sections title, before we go any further, relates to a song by 90’s songbird Dina Carroll, and in no way reflects my views or anticipations of the next Konami offering. With that said, the big debate from last weeks column was whether or not gamers would be willing to wait another 18 months for a new PES, or would it make them turn to a rival title. I think the genuine view was that they would be willing to wait, but feel it shouldn’t be a case of having to. Yes, there is a rumour to only be a handful of people involved with creating Pro Evolution Soccer, but there are far many more names if anyone takes the time to watch the games credits. I, like many, want the best football gaming experience and at the moment, for all its flaws, I still find that to be PES2008. What cannot happen is Konami cannot rest on their plurals and churn out an update 12 months down the line, changes need to be made, bugs need to be fixed and problems need to be sorted, and if that takes 18 months then so be it, if it takes 9 then that’s great too. I appreciate all e-mails and comments on the subject from the past week, and hope for all gamers sake the game released is the best one yet, whenever that may be.

Whatever The Weather

My final point tonight now is something that, because of Internet gaming, may not be too far off. Anyone who owns a PS3 and users the default menu skin, will know that throughout the day, the background starts to change shade and colour, until finally at night you end up with a black and white ensemble, very trendy and very modern. The idea way first used on the PSP, whereby each calendar month, the background would automatically change to a different colour. These real life events, albeit linked to the systems internal clock, meant that the console was representing its interpretations of real life, and is a feature that I would love to see in computer games, especially football games. The option of being able to set conditions to real time, would mean that if you were playing the game at 3:00pm the ground would be basked in sunlight, or playing at night would mean the floodlights were on. This could be taken further by the use of weather conditions. It would be difficult, but not impossible, to have the weather of the cities in which the stadium was located, to be reflected in the console counterpart. For example, if you were playing against Barcelona at the Nou Camp, be it in an Exhibition match or even a League game, the game could look up the actual weather conditions in Barcelona via the Internet, and transfer them into the game for you. Therefore, if you play against Sparta Moscow in Russia, you are more likely to be playing on a cold, hard pitch than say if you were up against River Plate, where it would be a hotter game with more draining conditions. These conditions could then effect the players, in other words, Stamina, proneness to injury or likeliness of slipping over and the game itself be it the ball swirling in the wind, the way it bounces or holds up in the puddles. With there only being 15 stadiums currently available on the next generation version of PES, this would be a good time to try and implement something, and although it may act as a novelty, it would make games more realistic, and would require you to think more tactically when picking your team, i.e. playing long ball on a windy day or using pace players when the heat will tire them quicker. Any views on real life conditions in gaming would be greatly appreciated.

Again, that’s all for this week. It was drawn to my attention that the link I offered for the PC games was incorrect, so the correct link is http://www.classic-pc-games.com, if any of you get round to using it, please let me know your experiences of the website, and the games you play. The e-mail address, as always is danbolas@hotmail.com, and if your going to add me to msn, please let me know who you are first via e-mail, as I have hundreds of adds each week and then never speak to any of them!

Thanks for Reading

Transfers are completely out of date, Sunderland’s star striker Kenwyn Jones is not even in the game. Meanwhile no January transfers were complete. Even the transfers made near to the end of the August deadline have been inexplicably neglected.

So, to our readers in North America - how are you enjoying your PES 2008 experience?

——

Don’t forget, gamers from around the world can enter our GOTM March/April contest.

“Hi Kids, Do You Like Violence”

I want to take this opportunity to once again clarify a few points regarding both PESGaming.com and myself. I appreciate that for regular members/readers, or those who have been involved with the site for some time, this will act as repetition, however there are many people unaware with the formula of how this site works. Peter Willis is the owner and responsible for the overall content of this site. He is the editor if you will. Whilst at the moment, he may seem to post less frequently than me, as more news becomes available regarding PES2009, or whatever the next Konami football title is called, he will become the leading contributor to PESGaming.com, providing links to other sites, articles and images involving the next game. He is also responsible for informing the PESGaming.com community of the Goal Of The Month competition. He does not run the competition, nor have any overall casting vote over who wins the final prize. I am Dan Bolas, and have been contributing to PESGaming.com as a site for around four years. I started to write Interfering With Play on the PESGaming.com forum, and have since moved on to writing it on the main page. My views and opinions are totally my own, and do not reflect those of Peter Willis or the entire PESGaming.com community. The column itself features news and discussion topics from both the football and football gaming world, and can be used as a starting point for debates, which in recent months has included the football vs. rugby refereeing argument, the PC vs. Console argument and has touched on major issues such as money and racism in football. Like many people out there, my views are pretty strong, and are founded on hours of research and a large footballing and football gaming knowledge. However, they are not to be considered the law. They are totally open for debate, and whilst I tend not to write comments on my own articles, any topics rose via e-mail or comments will be addressed in the following weeks article. PES has a huge fan base of loyal, football fans and most gamers who spend time playing the game are the ones who either play the sport themselves or follow their local team religiously, with a combination of the two being most likely. The belief that this site should singly only address PES and Konami not only limits a vast community’s discussion topics, but also is narrow-minded as to regards what will one day constitute the ‘perfect’ football game.

Please Release Me

This was a topic that has both been fuelled by immense rumours, and was previously lost in a recent article due to the dominance of the Seabass letter. The subject, the fact that PES2009 may not be released until October 2009, gives Seabass 18+months to work on the game, and 2 years between releases of PES titles. In my opinion, and from my early PES memories, ISS Pro Evolution Soccer was released every two years during its time on PS One, and only became an annual release to coincide with its launch on PS2. The advancements between games were large, but in today’s modern market, shouldn’t a game producer be able to churn out one title a year, especially when it is arguably that companies number one selling title. On the other hand, waiting for a title that could end up to be the pinnacle of Next Generation football, is surely worth chalking off another 12 months on your calendar, even if it does mean slumming it with previous versions until then. Your views would be greatly appreciated. Are you willing to wait 18 months for the next PES? Would you resort to playing Fifa? Or do you feel Konami and Seabass have to release a game in the 2008 calendar year in order to keep up with EA Sports? Comments can be added at the bottom of the page.

Shock Therapy

Just a huge congratulation to Barnsley and Cardiff for shaving Premier League scalps in the FA Cup this past weekend. The talk of the ‘magic of the FA Cup’ is always up for debate, with foreign managers seeming to prefer to rest their big stars for the tournament. However, both Manchester United and Chelsea fielded very strong sides in the quarterfinals and were beaten by sides sticking to a game plan and working exceptionally hard. I only hope, like so many other neutrals, that the two sides which make it to the final put on a show, a la Liverpool vs. West Ham, and don’t try and bore the opponent into submission, a tactic employed by Chelsea, Man United and Arsenal in previous finals.

One For The Old School

My final point in this weeks article acts as a siren to all those fans of retro gaming. If, like myself you grew up played games on tapes and floppy disks, and have fond memories of games such as Daley Thompson’s Decathlon or Emlyn Hughes International Soccer, you will be pleased to know there is sites available where these games are available for free download. Getting your old Amiga or C64 out the loft to find it broken or water has leaked into your collection of games is gutting. I personally sold my Spectrum ZX at a Car Boot sale for £30 with over 300 games, and am now painfully aware of the collectors value some of those titles had. There is a lot of contention about what is legal regarding Roms and Emulators, a topic I will touch on in a future article, however, I recently signed up to a site called Classic PC Games. I say this as a gaming fan, and am in no way working with the site or trying to give the place free advertising. I feel as many old school gaming fans contact me on PESGaming.com, I would take the opportuntiy to point you in the direction of a place where these games are available. The site works in a unique way whereby to obtain 25 free downloads, you must write a review of one of the games featured on the site. With 1,000’s available, its not difficult to find one that you will have played, and with games like Sensible World of Soccer and Metal Gear Solid just one review a way, it is definatly a productive procedure. Type in Classic PC Games on your search engine, or hit the link www.classicpcgames.com to find out what its all about. If you do spend the time doing so, could you let me know of your experiences here on PESGaming.com, as it would be nice to see who is downloading what games!

That’s your lot for this week. Very appreciative of all your feedback, in particular from all the Newcastle fans! I am waiting for a few weeks before I follow up my comments in last weeks Interfering With Play, but will be more than happy to reply to any mails personally. danbolas@hotmail.com is the place you can send private comments to, or click the red comment button below this article to express your views in public.

Thanks for Reading

In association with ConsoleGoals , PESGaming welcomes your entries for the March/April Goal of the Month Competition.

- All goals must be from PES 2008

- Score the best goal you can on the hardest difficulty (we have final say as to who the 6 finalists are)

- Record your goal as a movie file on your PC

- Upload your goal to www.consolegoals.com and check the box next to ‘PESGaming GOTM Comp- Mar/Apr 08‘ when you are on the upload page.

- Post your goal in the GOTM forum as a new thread with a decription of the goal in the subject line (starting with GOTM Mar/Apr), which can be found here

To post your ConsoleGoals video’s directly into the forum, copy the Forum BB code that can be found on your ConsoleGoals video page under ‘SHARE DETAILS’ and then place it in your post/thread - It should end with [/cgvideo]

All goals MUST be submitted in the correct format and on ConsoleGoals to be considered.

WINNER WILL WIN A GAME OF THEIR CHOICE ON ANY CONSOLE FORMAT OR PC

In the event of a tie, the deciding vote will be left with ConsoleGoals/PES Gaming staff.

Good luck!

Last winner of the PESGaming GOTM competition:

The Seabass Letter

As was expected following the posting of this letter on PESGaming.com, many people seemed to air their views about the style of writing, and in some cases the points that have been featured. I am well aware that some people are very annoyed with this years Pro Evolution Soccer offering, especially it being the first multi format next generation release, and would have preferred a much more aggressively written letter. I have tried to get the general opinions of the game, coupled with an overall overlook from the PESGaming.com community. Seabass himself knows issues such as lag and online play are far from acceptable, and doesn’t need another rant or even over critical e-mail landing in his inbox, fresh for deleting. For all those who are infuriated and downright hate the new PES, there are many who are still playing the game, and many who feel it needs tweaks more than complete overhauls. At any given time, my friend’s list will feature at least 2 people playing Pro Evolution Soccer, be it 9 am or 11pm, and I personally have had a number of multiplayer evenings and spent a good couple of hundred hours playing the game. Yes, it is frustrating it’s not a better game, but Seabass has come out saying PES2009 will be a complete overhaul, and knows what is wrong with the fundamentals. I have tried to write it from a point of view, which reflects conversations, comments and e-mails I have received, and hopefully have constructed a letter than will give Konami and Seabass food for thought.

“I Can See Us Holding Hands…”

For mother’s day, I bought my mother a Nintendo DS with Brain Training, thinking it would be a nice change from the regular perfume and chocolates that have been given pretty much every year! Since then, I have played Brain Training regularly and find it an excellent novelty idea, even though it doesn’t really class as a computer game in my eyes. It is aimed entirely at the casual gaming market, an area which Nintendo have pretty much sewn up over the past 18 months, and a market that will either get tired of the trend and disappear altogether, or will begin to find the majority of the hardware’s titles unfulfilling and move on to the more intense Sony or Microsoft gaming experiences. But since looking at the DS as an overall product, I am shocked it has received so much acclaim and success ahead of the Sony PSP, a product that I have owned for the past 3 years. The DS has a touch screen, which can be very appealing to none gamers or for certain game types and a limited Wi-Fi chat ability. Compare this with the PSP, a system that allows MP3 and Video play back, full Internet Browsing and Internet Radio via Wi-Fi, the ability to connect a Camera and Microphone for video chat, and a much clearer screen, with familiar Sony controls. Couple the above with the ability to download classic PS One games onto the handheld from the PS3, and a gaming catalogue featuring a wide variety of established classic titles, such as Worms, Grand Theft Auto, Crazy Taxi, Pro Evolution Soccer, Metal Gear Solid, Football Manager and Tomb Raider and you have what is seemingly a winning formula. Even the price of the PSP is very reasonable, retailing in similar fields to the DS. Have I missed something amongst gamers that the PSP is a poor piece of hardware? Is it due to its slightly bulky size, a problem that is more apparent with so many modern day gadgets ‘slimming down’? Or has is just been completely missed by the gaming community? As I said, I am a proud owner of the system, and would highly recommend it to anyone. The ability of playing Football Manager on your lunch break or Pro Evolution Soccer on the way home from work is too good to miss, and it works well as an MP3 Hi-Fi or watching downloaded videos! Any comments about the system, as always are very much welcomed.

Handbags And Glad Rags

Just a quick point regarding Frank Lampard’s sending off at West Ham on Saturday. Throughout this season, there have been a number of horrendous, dangerous and downright dirty challenges performed by Premier League stars that have gone unpunished, or in some cases received cautions. Both Lampard and West Ham’s Luis Boa Morte were up for the contest, the former due to his early days with the hammers whilst the latter had been involved in skirmishes at Stamford Bridge earlier in the season. Lampard did rake his studs over the back of Boa Morte, and the Portuguese kicked out at the Chelsea man, which probably should have seen both receive the same punishment. A yellow card for that incident would have clamed down what was turning into a fiery encounter, and kept meant that Chelsea kept there full contingent on the pitch. The referee could have applied some common sense, as opposed to wanting to make a name for himself as ‘The Man who sent Lampard off at Upton Park”. In the context of the challenge, with Dirk Kuyt’s kung fu kick vs. Everton, Joe Coles horrible Achilles lunge against Man United or even Makelele going over the top on Faubert later in the same match, the skirmish was a non event, and wasn’t even worthy of being a talking point. Neither Boa Morte or Lampard were in danger of being out due to serious injury as a result of the incident, and the FA need to concentrate more on cutting out the tackles that are going to, sooner or later end someone’s career.

The King Is Dead

I have refrained from making too many comments regarding Newcastle United over the past few weeks, as I don’t want to be seen as picking on a club I grew up loving to watch. However, there is no denying they are in a lot of trouble. Yes, they have had some difficult games, and the next few weeks will see them up against fellow strugglers, but for another season, the Geordies are going to have a trophy less season, and will definitely not being playing in the UEFA cup next term. The honeymoon period, if you can call it that was cut short, and Keegan has proven himself inept tactically once again, being unable to close off games or in a lot of cases play the kind of attacking football his side used to be renowned for. He was unable to convince Jonathon Woodgate to return to St. James Park, and will be relying on his reputation, not potential in order to make a go of it in the Summer Transfer window. He has a squad, which is not his fault that is full of players who were not good enough to play in the Top Four teams and has struggled to motivate them in the same way other managers could have done. But unfortunately, the problems stem much deeper than that. Take the example of Everton. David Moyes was brought in as a manager with a great deal of potential, and wasn’t given a great deal of money to start with. He took over an aging squad with few real stars, and a handful of youngsters waiting in the wings. As a result, he struggled to get a start in the league, and found his side struggling in relegation. Instead of panicking, the board backed him, stuck by him and supported him. He has worked things his way, bringing in young players from lower leagues that are hungry for success, and coupled them with hard working seasoned professionals that have the experience to get them through the more scrappy games. This has meant he has been able to attract genuinely top players, such as Yakubu and Arteta, without breaking the bank or gambling too much. When a player has stepped out of line, for example former Inter Milan star Andy Van der Meyde, he has thrown the book at them as if they were a 17 year old on their first day of training, and not allowed himself to be pushed around by wantaway stars. At the start of this season, Sam Allardyce told Newcastle he had a three to five year plan to make the club a top force, and got until December. It would be just desserts if Newcastle were to end up relegated this year, as a ben