Interfering With Play 12/02/08
Posted by Dan Bolas in Interfering With Play on Tue 12 Feb 2008
Welcome to this week’s Interfering With Play. In a week which has seen a number of major sporting talking points arise, I am going to crack straight on with the Seabass letter, before moving on to a number of other issues I would like you, the PESGaming.com visitors to have your say on. Remember, you can express your views publicly, via the comments at the bottom of this article, or privately to my own personal e-mail address, which is featured at the end of the Interfering With Play. Lets get going.
Seabass Letter: Audio
This week’s topic for the Seabass letter is regards the audio elements of PES2008, and possible ways it could be improved for 2009. Here, feel free to read the ideas, and comment on their importance to you as a PES gamer, along with developing any that may sound like a good idea. These are the collective views of many gamers, along with my own personal views and those of my PES playing mates.
When you go to see a great movie, the music will not make your opinion of that movie change to much should it be rubbish, but if the music or ‘soundtrack’ is fitting with the target audience, the songs will stay in your memory and will enhance your viewing experience. A number of top movies have albums dedicated to their soundtracks, and be it the mellow classical sounds of a movie like Atonement, the punk rock style of an American Pie movie, or the more metal based tunes found in Transformers, there is no denying that, more than ever, the audio related to the media is a crucial part of the end package. The same is to be said about computer games, with games like Silent Hill and Metal Gear Solid backed by excellent tense musical scores, Crazy Taxi and GTA supported with appropriate driving music and most American sports games receiving music from some of the most popular Hip Hop and Rap artists, all of which makes for a more enjoyable gaming experience.
When it comes to the music featured on PES, there is no denying that it stands out as below par. Each year, one licensed tune is used to front the game and the starting video, (this year was the Kaiser Chiefs) followed by a number of exceptionally mediocre pieces of music that bring nothing to the table. I know I am not alone in saying I have found myself singing along to Go For The Goal or staying on the formation screen a couple of seconds longer to hear a rousing chorus of ‘I Want To Be A Superstar!’ but in a day and age where music plays such a big part in TV shows, Movies and other video games, this should be taken into account by Konami. EA Sports release Fifa as a worldwide title, but support it with artists and genres well known in various areas and continents, meaning there is a chance you will find a handful of songs you have heard before. Konami need to follow suit, either by allowing you to feature your own Hard Drive stored tracks, or provide a 30+-track list of bearable, real music.
One thing that had come into criticism in many PES instalments, but seems to be less berated in 2008 is the commentary. Jon Champion has done an excellent job of working with the script provided to produce a realistic take on the ongoing matches, and sounds as enthusiastic as anyone has before him. The fact that Mark Lawrenson brings as much to proceedings as he does in a regular England match (minus the awful one liners) is defiantly one up for the realism effort. FIFA has always been praised for its commentary, and having the best team in the business, Andy Gray and Martin Tyler, that would be expected. However, this year sees over elaborate scripts, talking more about the local history of stadiums and ignoring great goalmouth action. It is exceptionally difficult to get the commentary spot on, as football is such a spontaneous sport, and with so many different topical situations, anything other than the game itself would seem out of date. The scripts of PES are definitely improving, and including more text, along with a more believable co commentator (suggestions include Alan Smith from Sky Sports or even Graham Taylor from 5 Live) will only help to make this more realistic.
The final point regarding audio is the actual fans themselves, and they’re general chanting and cheering. Every year, and with every licence, more and more real life chants occur on PES, and once again this is only a good thing. I don’t think anyone would complain if you couldn’t quite make out every word, and the general tune was all that could be clearly identified, but the more that are featured, the better the match experience would become. The same could be said for moments of showboating skills, crunching tackles or even referring decisions. These little things would help to give a bit more of the feeling that you’re in the stadium, and is a realism aspect often foolishly overlooked. The reoccurring point from most people is the way fans celebrate a goal, with the same tone should it be a last minute winner or a consolation goal after being hammered 5-0. Anyone who has attended live football matches, especially at the top levels, will know how the place erupts following a late strike to win your team the game, and this should, and could quite easily be reflected in the fans reaction to the goal. Most gamers will make enough noise sitting in front of their TV screen at home, so it would be nice to have the virtual fans backing up your emotions!
That is the main points I have received on the audio front in the e-mails and comments. Any build up on this or possible ideas related to these can be sent to me via e-mail or left as comments at the bottom of this article.
“I’m Moving To New York”
My next point will be one that will 100% raise an opinion in the English fans of Premier League clubs, and this is about the relocation of one English Premier League game a season to a foreign country, starting in 2010/011. I personally feel this is the epitome of greed, with clubs sacrificing the support of their loyal fans in order to make slightly more shirt sales and improve ‘global domination’. We do not see La Liga sides or Seria A sides offering to play their domestic league games in the U.S.A or Asia, and whilst it would give an opportunity for non English fans to see the top English sides, the fact that sides like Bolton, Blackburn and Wigan struggle to fill their own home stadiums with local folk implies that Koreans or Australians aren’t going to be over the moon to watch these sides. Clubs are involved in countless pre season mini tournaments and tours of all these aforementioned places, and whilst they do lack the cutthroat style of the Premier League, they provide the spectacle required to feed the foreign fans hunger. Beckham has taken a great deal of stick due to the extensive travel schedule he will be under in the MLS, and how it will end up affecting his England performances. So surely flying every English Premier League player half way across the globe, to different environments, cultures, climates and time zones is going to have just as negative as an affect. I could rant about this for a long time, but instead am opening it up to the PESGaming.com public. Your views will be greatly appreciated, and if supported, this topic will continue next week.
The Race Card
Interesting to see the first instance of comments shying away from both gaming and football, and fact about Lewis Hamilton being racial abused in Spain occurring on this very site. It is an exceptionally sad fact of sport, as is life that the colour of your skin is a point for discrimination, hatred or abuse. I work and play football with people from multiple ethnic backgrounds and religious beliefs, and from my personally view, it makes no difference what your skin colour is as to the kind of person you are. Its unfortunate that not everyone shares this view, and that athletes who are placed out in the spotlight to entertain come under a great deal of abuse from rival fans for the exact reason that there skin colours or upbringing differs to their own. Spain, and in particular Spanish football has come under a lot of attention for this, with the national coach Aragones singling out both Henry and Reyes in a public forum. The irony being, most fans that abuse players over skin colour will then be cheering for someone of the same complexion in their own shirt, making the fact that the true racism is against shirt colour, not skin. It is of course a hot potato of a subject, and one that will no doubt be addressed time and time again both on Interfering With Play and throughout the worldwide media. In direct response to the Lewis Hamilton racism claims, and the fact the F1 did not want him to win the race (due to the fact they didn’t want a “black F1 world champion”), I find these claims both ill founded and without any form of evidence to support them. There has never been a black or Asian F1 World Champion, but this is down to the fact that only 3-4 teams have any real chance of providing a World Champion, and each time so far, they have chosen white drivers. Golf was seen as very much a traditional sport, yet arguably the greatest ever player of the game, and one of the most recognisable faces in the world, Tiger Woods, has broken through all racial and discriminative boundaries, a path I truly hope Lewis Hamilton follows in F1, and proves the critics that is not about the colour of your skin, its about the talent you posses.
You Can Leave Your Cap On
Following Fabio Capello’s first England game, I would like to take the opportunity to say how pleased I was with the fact he picked a side, and made his substitutions based upon current form, and not on reputation. Michael Owen is a top striker, and will no doubt bounce back and get ever closer to Lineker and Charlton in the all time goal-scoring charts; however, his current club form was not deserving of a place in the England game, and as a result, didn’t merit one. Players like Wes Brown and Matthew Upson, neither of who would be in my personal first eleven; both have been regular, solid performers for their club sides, made a reasonable step up to the International stage, and have proven that a good run in a domestic side will increase your chance of International honours, something that under Sven and McClaren seemed to be overlooked, especially regarding Shaun Wright Phillips. The best piece of it all though, was the fact that Fabio has installed some discipline into the ranks. Gone are the cliques and the Wags, and hopefully a team bond will eventually form. Unlike club football, where your with your team mates 6 days a week, an international squad needs more focus on bonding, and you spend most of the season trying to beat your team mates in the domestic leagues. If Capello can turn England into a team as opposed to a group of individuals, who knows where we may find ourselves come July 2010.
And with that I will leave you to it. Please feel free to make comments about anything you have read here. The Seabass letter is well on the way to being complete, with only one week left before it is being finalised. If you wish to get in contact, you can mail me on danbolas@hotmail.com or alternatively, drop a comment on the bottom of this article for all to see.
Thanks for Reading
another great article dan
im as avid a pro evo fan as anyone else who visits this site, but by much persuasion from my mates i finally gave in and bought a copy of fifa 08
the gameplay of pro evo wipes the floor with fifa, almost putting it to shame, however, being the point of this weeks article, the music on it has me singing along all the time!
pro evo need to get some REAL music, not these radio jingle like tracks they currently have playing. most of the time i find myself turning off the sound altogether (provoked further by Mark Lawrenson) and putting on my ipod.
the fact of the matter is, pro evo need to sort out the music, because its not going to stop me playing the game, but it will make it a damn sight more enjoyable.
keep up the good work, i’ll be reading the same time next week
Good article Dan but I disagree with your point about the EPL going global. Unless you live under a rock, the game isn’t about you or me “the fans” its about MONEY. Everything is about money. Have the 2.7 billion the premiership makes in revenue comes from outside the UK (merchandize etc.) You are no longer a fan, you are a customer. Loyalty to the English fans..when you see some stadiums half filled…wheres the loyalty of there fans? La Liga and Serie A haven’t attempted this move yet but they too are discussing this BECAUSE….MONEY. Half the premier league is under foreign ownership, half the revenue comes from outside the UK and 65% of the players in the EPL are foreigners…wheres this tradition people on talk shows in teh UK have been talking about? The EPL IS the #1 league becuse of everything foreign whether you like it or not. Man United just went on a trip to South Africa (and dropped 5 points afterwards haha) so these little trips arent uncommon. The bottom line is money, and globalization means money…its that simple. When foreign influence in the league is so strong why not do this? EPL saw that the NFL coming to England was a money-maker and they want in. Loyalties and tradition…come on this BS…MONEY FELLAS
half the 2.7 bill**
Am I the only one who liked that “Football soccer football” soccer song?? B-)
1) why can’t we have jap commentary? its the best option, but only available to the japan market. kabira rocks!
2) a little gripe - but pes never allows you to change the default commentary language and keep the setting beyond your session. i always have to load up the game, and then change the commentary to another language - this is piss poor.
3) not really bothered about having intelligent commentary - hence why the jap commentary is brilliant.
4) having players that are on yellow cards booed everytime they touch the ball by opposing fans would be good.
5) general hated players should be booed always - robbie savage/lampard etc
6) individual player chants?? everyone likes the one about john terrys mum… B-)
7) when coasting in a game, it would be good if the crowd cheered every pass that your team makes when you’ve strung more than 5 passes together.
8) have the default sound at a generally lower level, and accentuate the volume when the crowd cheers/shouts at goals, fouls etc.
9) to have the home crowd on the home team’s back if they’re drawing or losing would be good
10) in game music - having a selection of tracks to choose from for menu music, or how about allowing you to put your own tracks into the selection? either mp3 files, or record them from cds and have them as part of the music library
Cheers
I hear you about the music, but I still love to sing along to the cheese masters, I especially like the line which sounds like “I’m sweating like a teenage girl…”
with the crowd chants i think tht if a team is to go on the trot wiv many losess or draws then they should be booed by home fans…jus like newcastle lol…weather conditions should play a big part in the way the ball flows around the pitch…keepers should do a much better job parrying the ball away as many times the ball goes str8 infront of goal where a stricker will end up putting it bac in the net which is unrealistic as keepers do a better job than that..also as u can choose hu u wnt in the box for a header u should also be able to choose hu is to be in the wall as many times i ave small players to be put in the wall where the ball many times always goes over their head…n freekicks need to be seiously considered as wen u want to cross the ball in for a header theere is never ny1 in a scoring/or good positon always wonderin around the box…but there are still many of issuus about th game play which need to be considered
I am a huge fan of the premier league, and i live in united states. Quite honestly, if fulham were to play wigan i wouldnt mind paying to see them play because at least i would have gotten to see a premier league match. However, i do find it to be a bad idea for the teams to play in another continent. I read that they were thinking about making each team play 39 matches instead of 38, in which tat one extra match would be the overseas match. i believe that would be bad for the league due to the addition of more points and also the lack of home and away fans support. I also the jet lags would become a huge problem. Especially for the top 4 who have to play league matches, CL matches, carling cup matches, and fa cup matches, for those teams to play a match over seas would be too unfair for the players i think.
and also, can konami please stop acting like they dont give a crap about the pes fans anymore becaues it is ridiculous that fifa is better this year. i honestly never liked fifa, but i think this year for the first time it is better. I think last years pes for the ps2 is the greatest soccer game ever made. i think konami should go back to that setup and just improve on it.
Would anyone here know where the best place to download the latest option file for pes08 on ps3.
I know this website isn’t allowed to post them up anymore so
i haven’t really got a clue where you find them.
I’m looking for the latest file which would have the january transfer’s updated.
Cheers!
there is one..but google it pes2008editing i tired it once but didnt knw how to put it on my ps3 as i did xtract it using winrar but there was no instructions on how to put it on ur ps3!
This heres a good link for pes08 option file on ps3. It gives u liverpool man utd arsenal and chelsea’s home & away kits. It wont have the latest january transfers upddated as it was released a few months ago but it seems to be the best out there by the looks of it. The kits do look great i must say and its easy to to.
http://www.winningelevenblog.com/news/the-moment-you-have-all-been-waiting-for/
I’m suprised you haven’t mentioned anything about the master league. I feel that with the next generation there will be more room for more leagues in master league. Being able to have all of the english, french, and others would help. It would make the master league a little bit more beleivable, and a better gaming experience.
dada3345 you’re a legend. Hey everyone, is it only me and this guy who still play the master league. No-ones brought this up. Great website tho Dan. You keep me sane at work with PESgaming.