Interfering With Play 22/04/08
Posted by Dan Bolas in Interfering With Play on Tue 22 Apr 2008
Welcome to this week’s Interfering With Play. As there seems to be so many talking points regarding gaming within the media over the past few weeks, I will try to cover a few of the main ones in this weeks article. If there is anything that you would like to get your point across regarding, or wish to discuss within the PESGaming.com public domain, please send me an e-mail, the address is at the bottom of the page. Lets get going.
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
The Big Four
-For me the most defining title apart from Fifa International Soccer, is Super Sidekicks 1,2 & 3 which was on arcade and Neo Geo I think. For me Supersidekicks was the ultimate fun football arcade game, and I can fondly remember spending many a coin playing.
Hey Dan
I take it you haven’t had any form of response from the PES email sent to seabass & co?
Got to say, that was the main reason I used to tune into your weekly articles, and its not the same without having more of a pes-centric focus.
There is a massive void in topics for discussion because you seem to be covering all sorts of non-pes related topics…
It was fun whilst it lasted I guess.
The big four - Got to be Kick Off 2 on the Amiga… This game had bags of playability, control and speed.
I was never a big fan of sensible soccer, a title which came up after kick off 2.
It was true that the kick off series perhaps required a bit more time and skill to get into, where i felt sensible to be somewhat easier and thus perhaps appealed to a wider audience.
But that is how I view Pro Evo v Fifa debate, exactly the same as back then… Those who can, play Pro Evo, those who can’t play something else.
Hi Dan,
Great artical but i also have to agree with dougiedonut. I tune into the site to see views on PES. Its amazed me how silent its got since you sent the letter, almost to the degree that its being ignored. I know there is the great feature on the master league, but you seem to concentrate more on family values, your friends kids, and sadly slagging others off. If idiots are on this site, simply bar them dan. As i said before your articals are great and well done with the great work you do, but more PES…….. more.
The big four: -
1) This is Football(ps2) (the driving system worked very well)
2) Actua Soccer(ps1) (always fun yet annoying at the same time)
3) Sensible Soccer(amiga) (the hardest football game ever made)
4) fifa 95 (sega megadrive) (still gets played today)
Pes needs to pull it socks up when the new one is released (whenever that will be) cause EA (fifa) is getting better and no one can deny this. Uefa Euro 2008 plays very well but still missing the old pes factor. Fifa 09 will be very interesting to see what it plays like.
pro evo 2008 is the most crap game i have ever played o my god i bought the game the day it came out and i was dissapointed the game is not good at all game play is rubbish, same whole master league upgrade the game what is master league. there is no enough team no right name no right league no right jersey for god sake look at fifa there is a big different game play is brilliant right league name etc come pls make the game better i didnt spend 2 month playing the game and i payed €80 for it i just gave it away it horrible
Just goes to show that people really visited this site purely to have a moan at PES.
PES appears to be covered in every IWP, it’s just that people have got over the disapointment and are just enjoying the game. There was obviously going to be more to write about PES when it had just been released and it was a big let down.
Yes, believe it or not, people do have other things in their life apart from PES, but, PES is the one thing in common that everyone visiting this site has.
I suspect, as the year rolls on, PES2009 will become the main talking point as a release (or not) gets closer. If you want to here more views on PES why not start a thread yourself?
Hello pesgaming friends,
I hope all is well. I would like some advice from the PES community regarding PES 2008 on the PSP.
Is the PSP version worth purchasing? Does it posses that addictive PES experience we all know and love.
Any opinions or suggestions would be welcome. Thanks guys.
From Arnold
Have I gone mad or has an advertisement for Vasaline just appeared on the dashboard of the Master League?
I’ve heard the PSP version is excellent, but, still suffers due to the lack of shoulder buttons.
just download the pes08 on ur psp..just get it dwngraded by some1…so many games can be dnwloaded for free i have been doing tht 4 a long time…saving £20 is great
Hey assache
Yes people did visit this site to moan about pes, because this is the right place to do that.
Why go to a pes site and discuss non-pes topics? That just doesn’t add up.
We were given the impression by Dan that pesgaming has contacts at konami, and would be using them to give feedback on the game to them on our behalf.
I’d like Dan to come forward and confirm that pesgaming does have the ear of konami, and that they are making the most of this privileged position.
We should be discussing topics on how the feedback was received, what they agreed/disagreed with in terms of the content of the letter, and what they are doing to address our concerns.
Interfering with play has turned into a personal blog site for what Dan wants to talk about, and since the letter has been sent, there is less incentive to visit the site, and in particular these articles.
Dan - nothing personal, but I really do with you’d get someone to proof read your posts too - your grammar isn’t the best in them. To be fair, it could just be that you speed write the articles, and don’t get anyone to read them…
Sorry if I’m upsetting anyone (especially you Dan) with my posts, but this is a pes site, and i’d like to see pes content on it.
D
Anonymous Says:
April 23rd, 2008 at 10:38 pm
just download the pes08 on ur psp
Whoever this guy is they’re a complete w*nker!!! I’m all for bending the rules and have played some emulated games in the past but for them to come out and openly tell people to download free PSP games is a complete joke. I’m surprised Peter hasn’t deleted this message yet as surely PESgaming can’t advocate this sort of behaviour. Can it??
Also I’m with dougiedonut in the sense that I would like to know if Seabass ever received the letter and what the latest is, however, I agree with Assache in the sense that IWP should include other topics, not least because the same old arguements are dull. Fifa v PES, Master league is crap etc Maybe its beacuse we’ve had 10yrs of it Assache that we can move on and leave others to winge!
dougiedonut
The letter has gone to Konami and obviously there has been no response.
What other PES topics would you like to discuss? You still do not appear to be coming forward with anything other than a whinge!
Given that Dan can actually be arsed to blog at all should be commended, little snipes at grammar etc just appears to be a tad anal on your part. If you want to start a blog site on the English language, go ahead!
Forget the arguments. dougiedonut have you (or anyone else) noticed the Vaseline advert now in PES2008? Has this always been there? Have I just not noticed it before? “Vaseline for Men” has never been a good phrase in my book!
Not sure about the Vaseline advert but I just beat a player ranked 152nd online 4-3.
Admittedly I chose England but he decided to choose Northern Ireland (maybe to make it harder for him!). Anyway having comeback from 3-2 down to score with less than a min to go he decided to disconnect! I can only presume so that the records show a 3-0 win for me thus taking a goal off his conceded record. Oh yeah and he only had the one move. We all know the one - run into the edge of the box and pass across.
What a loser!
Hey assache
Sorry - I don’t have pes 2008. As much as I am a hardcore pes fan, i’m making a stand against shite games.
Until konami deliver us a proper game, i’m not playing their shite. I’ve had to take similar stances on cod4 and vegas 2.
they delivered half a game, since the single player games on them are very short, so they should not charge full price for these games. That’s my stance anyway.
As for those vaseline ads - there’s a whole lot more male grooming products coming our way. Have you seen those nivea beauty product ads on tv for men??
10 years from now, you’ll see men casually wearing eye liner…
i am suprised dougiedonut and shocked by your last post. I thought your previous points, that the forum goes off track was good and totally agreed. But now i am shocked to read that you have not actually got PES 2008. You prick, what gives you the right to slag the likes of DAN off, who are you to pass comment when you have not played let alone own the game. Piss off the site dougiedonut, no one likes you and in fact you really are a total prick a sad selfish prick.
COD4 and Vegas 2 don’t cut the mustard either! What games do yo actually own? I need to know so I can get them if they are better than these!!
dougiedonut
Have you seen that Peter has started talking about GTAIV on A PES SITE! “BLASPHEMY” I hear you shout!
I too am interested to know what’s in your game collection! I do not own the games you mention, but, they are quality games, that cannot be questioned.
I played Vegas 1 and thought it was excellent, the fact that Vegas 2 appeared to be no more than an expansion pack (single player) also stopped me buying it. COD4 well, I’ve just never really been a fan of the series although I do understand why it’s as highly regarded as it is, it is a technically beautiful game.
Half finished? Shite? Well £40 for six hours quality entertainment (plus multiplayer) is a good deal in the real world!
You don’t own PES? You confuse me as much as you obviously confuse yourself!
You are sadly way off the mark!
@dougiedonut
“Sorry - I don’t have pes 2008. As much as I am a hardcore pes fan”
Now that just doesn’t add up!
Anyway! Someone give me a bloody answer regarding the in game adds. I just want to know if this is a new thing or not, obviously dougiedonut cannot help, even with his painfully glib attempt at humour, so, have the ads in game changed? Have I been playing PES for months just not noticing these ads? It’s driving me bloody mad!
Due to there being only one set of shoulder buttons on the psp, how is it possible to perform actions such as tight control (with r2) and supercancel (r1 + r2)?
Any info on this would be much appreciated as I was thinking of getting it for my psp.
@assache
as pes2008 gets new sponsors, xbox live (via the internet) updates the game with new in game ads. I guess one of these must be vaseline!
@betisfan
Thank you and thank god! I thought I was going mad!
Shame they can’t update it with a few fixes!
Agreed the ML needs “minor” changes, never wanted it to go FM direction, but the career mode from EA should be a focus point. I’ve tried it again, but it bothers me that I’m halfway through the season, in 5th place with 10 points difference between the number 4 & 6 but I’ll certainly be getting this annoying CL-format. Numbers 5 & 6 should go to the UEFA-cup, it’s insane the top 6 plays CL, it takes all the excitement away, I have NOTHING left to play for now. It’s just a minor change, but it would be a major change in realism feel & excitement and than I hadn’t even mentioned the impossibility of making your own CL WITH home & away fixtures (another minor change that would add heaps of extra excitement & realism). A shame….If I may generelize: Why can’t they make a game where 1) Japanese do the technical stuff, 2) Americans do the glitters & the glamour off the pitch and 3) English add realism and the feeling of passion to the game….. Still, it’s not a perfect world, is it ;-)?
To the people unable to hold a mature conversation, and indeed having to resort to swearing at me:
I have played the game, in fact I recommended it be bought for our chill out zone at work for the 360.
I am very well versed in what the game is, how to play it, and am very aware of its many shortcomings.
Now as for my comments regarding COD4:
a) the single player game is around 8 hours. compare that to more conventional games where the accepted norm is around 20+ hours.
b) cod4 is not much of an improvement over cod2/3. its a very on-rails game, where you are not actually doing much beyond what you’ve done in previous cod games.
the only innovative levels are where you’re on the sniper mission - that was very well done, and the bombing mission.
other than that the game is very much the same.
it was a poor release for that reason.
yes agreed the multiplayer game is superb, but to be charging full price for what i call half a game is criminal - hence i’ll pick it up cheaply eventually. i won’t go losing sleep over it.
vegas 2 - more like vegas 1.1. enough said.
the first game was pretty decent, but take it out and put on gears or graw2, and you see how we’re shortchanged with how the game looks. they took 18 months to put this exceptionally poor version of the vegas game out. what were they doing for 18 months??? even on the multiplayer side - there are a couple of remixed maps from previous vegas games! where’s the innovation or indeed work on the title??
as for my game collection - i have the likes of halo 3, pes 6 (a very substandard package - as in no saving of goals, editors, stadiums, teams etc) - but it is still a better game that pes2008, crackdown, splinter cell.
assache - a gta forum has been set up on the site, as an extra forum item. every forum site has extraneous content.
clearly asking for the main pes forum to talk about pes is asking for too much.
assache - to further clarify why i don’t have pes2008, i am putting up a stand to poor games. i love pes games.
i have the last pes game, but refuse to fork out for pes2008 because it is a massive let down. the online side is a joke.
konami put a shoddy game together, and if more people refused to purchase it as a form of protest, and made their frustrations apparent, with help from the likes of Dan, then we increase the possibility of konami raising their game.
cue the swearing at me again for trying to make my point of view.
dougiedonut, you obviously think you are intelligent and you also seem to believe we are all wrong.
Lets put facts in this: You have no clue, no point and no worth while opinion. You slag off COD4 without any reason, you slag off PES again without any backup to your pathetic comments. You say you recommended PES to your idiotic circle, however how can you recommend when you don’t have the game yourself, clearly two faced. “CUE THE SWEARING” well im sorry but your even more of a bigger wanker than i first thought. I agree we should have answers to the LETTER that was sent to HQ, however don’t put this great site down, even better, why not F**k off for good and let us have our pleasant chats.
Dougiedonut Is A PRICK
Although I do not agree with dougiedonut on almost all of his points, I do think the abuse levels are way off!
Remember, most of us are tossers and very proud! And satisfied!
maybe thats what the vaseine ad was for…………………
To the anonymous brave man intent on dishing out abuse:
1) cod4 - ask around - the game is very linear.
its no bioshock in terms of giving you freedom in how to play the game. in fact - you need your sargeant to come and open doors for you to carry on fighting. in fact, i don’t know why i’m justifying why i don’t think cod4 single player is all it is made out to be to the likes of you.
i have already said that the multiplayer game is damn good, but for me it the whole package doesn’t warrant paying £45 for.
2) check back to my many posts in the last couple of months to see why i think pes2008 is poor.
i recommended the purchase of pes2008 at work on launch.
as soon as i had extensive experience of the game, i formed my opinions on just how poor the game is.
the online state of affairs was unforgiveable given just how big the game is online. how can konami get away with doing that? the more people buy their games blindly, the more ignorant they remain to want we really want.
I haven’t said anyone is wrong. i have stated with reasons why i don’t like certain games. if you can’t handle a debate ( i hardly call this comments section an intelligent debate, given the demeanour of certain people who are pretty brave with a keyboard in front of them, safe in the knowledge they can’t be reached)
pes2008 was a very poor package. for many reasons the series has been in decline, and it’s about time konami sorted their act out.
kudos to them for trying something innovative with the wii, but for mainstream gamers, we’ve been shafted.
Im missing the champions league semi finals for
G T bloody A. Im considering getting the telly from the other room so I can do both. :-)
Nothin to do with Evo but I just thought id share.
@Betisfan
If only I’d known!