Interfering With Play 24/6/08
Posted by Dan Bolas in Interfering With Play on Tue 24 Jun
Welcome to this week’s Interfering With Play. As expected, the information about the new PES is slowly starting to filter through, and with it, the masses are beginning to return to PESGaming.com. For those unfamiliar with Interfering With Play, this article is a weekly column written by me, Dan Bolas. I cover a wide range of subjects from the PES world, the computer gaming world and the footballing world, giving visitors of this site the opportunity to get involved, leave feedback and stress their own opinions in a very public forum. With that said, lets get started with this week’s article.
From Russia With Love
As Euro 2008 winds down, and having seen my fancied Croatia lose in a bitter blow for positive football, the cream of the crop has risen, with some surprising names still in contention for the trophy. Some of the fancied sides, such as Portugal and Holland, who started off playing delightful football, ended up succumbing to hard working and grafting teams, whilst the less said about Turkey’s constant last minute goals the better. Many expected the famous underachievers, Spain, to have a good tournament, and their game against Russia will be exceptionally interesting, especially after the 4-1 beating they handed out to Guus Hiddink’s side just a couple of weeks ago. But, as my topic heading suggests, I am deciding to focus upon the Russian’s, and am going to heap praise on one of the most impressive sides in Europe. Yes, they qualified from England’s group, yes they were very poor at Wembley stadium and even worse in Israel, but the bottom line is, when it has come to the crunch, when they have needed to pull out the big performances, they have done exactly that. No player’s ego is too big to fit on that pitch, a prime example being Yuri Zhirkov. Here is a player who makes a living playing in centre midfield for one of the topsides in Russian football, CSKA Moscow. His country has needed him to play left back for this competition, and instead of moaning about it, he has buckled down and given his all every game, making him a genuine contender for player of the tournament. In spite of the fact that a great deal of money is being invested into Russian football, there are no prima donnas in that squad, with everyone willing to give 100%, no matter if its for 5 minutes or the full 90. They out worked, out countered and out played the much fancied Dutch with relative ease, and in the form of Pavlyuchenko, Arshavin and Bilyaletdinov they have some genuinely talented players. I am not for one second claiming to have known this from the start of the tournament, yes I knew these players, but I did not realise the level which they could perform, and hands on heart, how many people out their honestly expected them to make the last four, especially after seeing David Villa destroy them in Game One. Fair play to Guus Hiddink, fair play to the Russians, and a little note to the F.A, this is a fine example of how to organise international football.
Screen If You Want To Go Faster
Anyone in the know when it comes to computer games would have expected to hear something about the latest PES in the next couple of weeks. Konami’s big game, Metal Gear Solid has proven to be a huge seller, a great hit and an excellent game. EA Sports will be waiting until Euro 2008 is completed, and their latest release, UEFA Euro 2008, is out of date, before announcing Fifa 2009, and around this time every year, with the summer weather fast approaching, its always nice to know that come the Autumn, we will have something to look forward to.
To quote Peter Willis, yes, we have seen this all before. The beautifully rendered screen shots, the excellent hi resolution stadiums and the intense facial expressions. But all Konami have really provided us with is news that PES 2009 will be released this year. The deliberately vague press conference has not confirmed or denied anything, only following up what Seabass ‘promised’ late 2007, that online will be improved for PES2009. Of course the graphics will be better, and more customisation features are a must, but at the end of the day, it was press talk for not saying anything. The naïve out there will have got exceptionally excited by these shots, but like many PES veterans I am waiting until mid August, and the screen shots and confirmed game features start coming thick and fast before getting two excited. Lets just hope they don’t mess up the game play!
I’ll Be Left Alone Forever With My Magazines
The next topic will be more relevant if you are a UK resident, and regards Computer Game magazines. Growing up, I always purchased computer game magazines with my pocket money. Without the Internet, this was really the only way to pick up reviews of games, and give you an idea of which games were to appear on your Christmas list. They also offered demo discs (or tapes!) featuring snippets of the latest games, making the £4.99 price tag seem justified. Nowadays, I see less and less point in these ‘official’ magazines, that charge over the top prices for bias opinions, out of date screen shots, cheats and demos that are available free of charge online! With this said, I still buy one gaming magazine a month, but it is one that features no demo disk, no cheats, and focuses its 180+ pages on news from the gaming industry. Anyone looking for a good read, interesting opinions and unbiased reviews could do a lot worse than check out Games tm , a monthly magazine that features some excellent articles, fair reviews and interesting news in the gaming industry. If you are a commuter, or regular have breaks at work, give it a try. Any readers let me know what you think of this publication.
Pacing Issues
Simple question, ‘Is PES2008 too fast?’ The game can be played slow, with build up play, working the ball through midfield and tidy one twos, but as a general rule, do you personally think it moves too quickly, with fast players having too much of an advantage. This will be further addressed in next week’s column.
Look’s Damn Fine
After an hour on Metal Sold 4 a couple of nights ago, I did the usual pre sleep ritual of a game of PES before bed. Looking at the images on the screen, it makes you realise that although being an improvement, the graphical quality of PES, FIFA, and all sports games are far behind that of the top end games. Of course, these games are years in development, but they are graphically beautiful, and set a very difficult bar to reach.
That’s all for this week’s article. There is a lot more to get through, and will be addressed over the upcoming weeks. One thing I would like to say is that all new visitors get involved, be it leaving a brief comment on this article or anything else you have seen on this fine site. PESGaming.com is, in my opinion, the best PES related website online, and we are always looking for new contributors, columnists and feature writers. If you wish to e-mail me, you can do so at danbolas@hotmail.com. Finally, can I give a quick shout out to Dynamo Dragons, who won the Monday Night League this week, the first team to ever win back-to-back titles, and have done it with games to spare.
Thanks for Reading
Games tm I have read for many years. It has always been the most rounded high quality magazine for gaming (if not the only one).
Russia have been a complete breath of fresh air and I can’t wait for the semi final against Spain, it could be an amazing game.
I like the speed of PES2009, if played well, you can control the speed of any game purely by your tactics and playing style. It is fast, but, it can be controlled.
How far behind are England right now?
After what has been a fantastic Euro 2008 so far, my lasting and lingering thought. After watching some of the best international football I have seen for years (Italy, shame on you), I can’t help but wonder how far England are behind most of the teams in this tournament?
I personally think that we are miles behind as a footballing nation, but, many do not agree due to the fact that so many of our England players play at such a high standard both domestically & in European club competitions.
So what is it? I look at other nations and see something that we just do not have, but, I just can’t put my finger on what exactly that is.
You don’t have heart.
The speed of PES2008 is not a sticking point for me; as Assache says you can play at your own tempo, as in real football you can control the pace of the game, surely if the game is faster then you just have to think faster and react faster, something I’m sure was the thinking behind Konami tweaking the speed of PES2008 to create a more open flowing attacking game. HOWEVER the perception that the game is “easy” for me comes from the fact that due to the increased pace experienced PES players can easily beat COM controlled teams by playing direct counter attacking football - like the Dutch in the Euro - as the AI in PES2008 struggles to position COM defenders effectively to counter pacey players, whilst player controlled defenses are always more effective. Add in that once you have anymore than 7-8 players in the screen you get this really irritating slowdown that makes timing through balls or precision crosses a chance endeavor.
Whats irritating about PES2008 is that is slightly worse than PES6, where’s the progression to next gen? and if they knew it was flawed / unfinished why did they not just release it at a reduced price as a prologue to a more finished game released later maybe even in the run up to the Euro?? there is precedent of this just look at GT5 Prologue…
i knew arshavin from champ manager, i bought him on the 1005 game (football manager i mean) and he was a forwad/RAM, he was great so i had a little idea that he would be good as i told me mates. still FM makes mistakes so he could have been horrible but they seemed to have got him right back then.
anyways on the point of graphics, the NBA and NHL games are certainly an exception.
i think the difficult thing for sports games is the demand means they have to release a game every year, so the development time for features and graphics is much less in comparison to say MGS4 which has been in the wind for 5yrs+ i think!and is finally out, and i read that you constantly have to install stuff throughout lenghty load screens?
Russia are playing beautiful football. Same level offensively of that of the Netherlands. Which is a high praise considering where russian football was just few months ago.
Well done to Guus. The croats did not deserve to be in the last 4. If they could not beat a depleted turkish squad then my opinion is they dont deserve to go through. They had a easy group and scrapped a lucky winner against germany. Top 4 resembles the top 4 performing teams so far. Russia having a strong attacking game in there last 3 games proves they deserve it. Spain has been very strong. Italy definitely did not deserve to be in the top 4 let alone the top 8. Germany have been getting stronger each game that passes ballack is playing like kaka/ronaldinho times 5. He really performs alot better for his country then clubs. Turkey has deserved there spot in the last 4 with impressive come back wins taking in consideration they have so many of their best players missing. All in all the tournament has been better than the last world cup in terms of entertainment.
Offcourse the game is too fast. It’s like a speedtrain.
It’s not realistic anymore. they just have to keep the pace like they did in PES 6.
The pace of Pes 2008 is fine. The main areas for improvement are in the rhythm and feel of the game.
Players don’t seem to able to move in the same way as Pes6, and as a result seem more lethargic and disjointed than the last gen version.I think this may be down to not enough player animations.
Wireless controller to on screen action synchronization seems to be slightly out, especially when trying to control long ball’s, shooting, freekicks, and corners.
When taking corners players seem to act like headless chickens, both in attack and defence, play seems to spread out and unrealistic.
Mainly a lot of tweaking needs to be done for Pes2009.
Lets hope a year was long enough to do this!
It’s true that a lot of other games like MGS4 get a longer production time. I think what we get with pro evo every year is a work in progress. Look at the difference between Pes 2 and Pes6, if we had waited four years and had no Pes 3,4,5 then the difference in graphics and game play is massive.
But just imagine waiting 3-4 years for the next Pes, how bad would that be.
When you put it in that perspective, sports sims like Pes do make the same leap in graphics as other games. The main difference is,we get to see them making progress year by year,instead of having a big gap and then seeing the improved article.
The Euro’s have been great this year despite there being no England.
Our main problem is we have some very gifted players, but not enough of them.
The talented players we do have don’t seem to be able to play as team.
As Sir Alf Ramsey said “its not about picking the best players, its about picking the best players for the team”.
Take Frank Lampard for example,watch the way he plays the central midfield position in comparison to Gareth Barry.
Lampard looks like a headless chicken who doesn’t Know how to play the role being asked of him.
He doesn’t hold his position and as a result he upsets the balance of the team.
This is a problem Spain had not so long ago,but now they’ve got a group of players who are not only talented,but can also play as a team.
Holland were the team I wanted to win it as they played fast exciting counter attacking football, they reminded me of the treble winning United side of 99.
I don’t want the Germans to win for obvious reasons.
Russia have played out of their skin since loosing 4-1 to Spain, but I think the Spanish will be too good for them again. So I guess I hope the Spanish do it this time and end their Perennial underachievement s of yesteryear, lets hope England can follow suit in two years time, if were there that is.
how long did it take ppl to complete mgs4?
Besides the fact that PES2008 is too fast I think another big problem is in the strength of the players. some players like Ballack and Drogba are just too strong. It’s way too difficult to win the ball from them. BTW this is the second best PES site. Evo-web is the best hands down.
a question about england and how far we have fallen in world football, if england played a full season in the premier league were would they finish top 4? i think not!
Yeh good for the Russians and Turks both teams that have an average standard of players but perform on the big stage, when it matters through heart and pride.
England need to stop thinking their this huge footballing nation and have pride in wearing the shirt and stop treating games against smaller as certain wins even if they don’t play well.
They need to start thinking they’re not guaranteed places in world cups, euro championships even if they don’t play well.
Hats off to Simon Mcdermott. Your comments on the development stucture and time difference in development compared to MGS is spot on and will hopefully quieten a few Evo 2008 pessimists.
What happened to the Russians? Where the hell did Andrei Ashavin go? Talk about missing in action. Spain played Russia off the park in the second half. I do not think I have ever seen a team reach such hights and then fall so low so quickly. Let’s hope the Spanish win it! Football as it should be!