Interfering With Play 22/07/08
Posted by Dan Bolas in Interfering With Play on Tue 22 Jul
Welcome to this week’s Interfering With Play. For the first time in a while, Interfering With Play provided a huge debate following last week’s column, with dougiedonut and nikicampos leading their respective arguments. One thing I would like to point out at this stage is that, just like pretty much every blog, pod cast and forum post, Interfering With Play and the resulting comments that occur from it are totally that of opinion, and should be treated as such. If we all had exactly the same opinion, there would be no need for this article and personally I am glad there are clashes. Whilst everyone is perfectly entitled to their opinion, please try and respect those of others, even if you are arguing against them. With that said, lets get moving.
Told You So
Two weeks ago, I started a section of Interfering With Play “I refuse to get drawn onto a PS3 vs. 360 debate at this stage”. That resulted in a select few commenting back, which lead to a greater topic on the subject in last week’s column. I do not want to put the topic totally to bed, as I am sure it will constantly pop up throughout the year, but would like a line drawn under this chapter of the argument. Following the views read by a number of posters, both regular and first time, the overall view is at the moment, most gamers will be sticking to their next generation console of choice. If you have just spent a great deal of money on an X Box 360 with X Bow Live Membership and a HD DVD Drive, the last thing you are going to want to do is lose a chunk of that money in order to buy another console, or vice versa regarding the PS3. The selection of quality games, at this stage, is pretty evenly split, with 360 maybe having the slight market share on top quality titles, although some of these games are scheduled for release on PS3 in the next 6 months. The argument really stems to gamers who are yet to purchase next gen. Do you go for the vast amount of titles and purchase the 360 now, or do you purchase a PS3, and rely on both Sony’s reputation and upcoming releases. Personal taste, coupled with the same system as your game playing mates will also play apart, and although on paper the PS3 is more expensive, in hindsight, including a couple of years worth of X Box Live, it works out pretty even. Its great to see so many people feeling so passionate about their console, and like I said last week, it’s like defending your football team, no matter what they do wrong, you will always stick by them.
Speeding Cheat
A few weeks ago I mentioned the variable speed of PES, and whether or not the game was too quick. Unsurprisingly, most PES fans feel the game moves at a much quicker speed, backing the theory that Konami used the extra power of the next gen consoles to add the speed element, and not the graphics or features of the game. This was followed last week by me bringing up the ‘cheating’ AI featured in PES. Certain games, most notably Mario Kart on the SNES, gained a reputation for giving the AI super powers when it was losing, making a great performance seem less great. In particular on PES2008, the AI has started to turn the screw a bit more, utilising LAG and Slowdown, Player control and even unrealistic positioning to give itself the upper hand in games. The huge advantage of online gaming is not having to deal with these problems, as you will be playing against another human being, but the bread and butter of any game is still the single player mode. Many gamers last week backed up my theory about the AI having unbelievable advantages at certain stages, with a couple of gamers even praising it as a feature. In real football, conceding a goal sometimes gives the opposition a lift, and therefore maybe this should be applied into the gaming world. Perhaps teams should have determination ratings, where a side is more likely to come back from a goal down, or, like Arsenal, are very susceptible to a quick equaliser after scoring. This stat could be coupled with a discipline stat for players losing their cool after conceding, or even time wasting when ahead.
The reason I have mentioned the speed of the game alongside the AI is that those to features have become more noticeably entwined. When losing, AI players seem to become much quicker, be able to change direction at will, and turn on a sixpence in ridiculously tight spaces. Set pieces seem to become more devastating due to the game speed, giving you less time to react as a defender, and strikers seem to move at unbelievable pace. Couple this with you own situations, and Lag starts to play apart when your up, Power bars charge at variably pace, and your players seem slower, irrelevant of their stamina or condition arrows. People have moaned that PES is too quick, but I ask you to play a number of games on the higher difficulties, and see if the game speed in any way relates to the score line. You findings would be appreciated.
Interfering With Play: The League
Anyone who has e-mailed me regarding the IWP league should have received an e-mail in the last 24 hours. If you are still interested in taking part please could I receive a response as soon as possible, to begin to get an idea of numbers? By the same token, if you are a PS3 PES player who is wishing to take part in the league, I reckon there will be one or two places available, and therefore ask you to e-mail me with your name, age and location as soon as possible, in order for me to send you some more information. Unfortunately, PES2008, like many other games, can only played online on the same consoles and therefore I decided to chose the PS3 due to receiving greater interest from those gamers than 360 or PC gamers.
Camera Shy
I finally got my hands on a PS3 eye, meaning I could use the Scan feature on PES2008 to bring my own badges into the game. Whilst using this feature, two things dawned upon me. The first was how poor the edit mode of PES 2008 on the next gen consoles truly is. The selection of pre-designed shirts is very poor, and the lack of flag/logo editor is borderline embarrassing. The second thing that shocked me, maybe even more than I realised was how unnecessary it is to include a scan feature on a football game. For faces, yes, I agree it should be a feature available in many games, but for logos and badges, your better off providing gamers with a pixel editor and saving yourself the implementation time and costs. The idea is still quite revolutionary, with very few games including a feature to include your own face via cam, but when it comes to logos, Konami are much better off going back to the tried and trusted method.
Self-Supporting
My final comment this week is something that I feel very strongly about, and although I have mentioned it before, I believe it will never get old as a point. Certain people constantly speak ill of PESGaming.com, stating it doesn’t feature enough news about PES. Interfering With Play is my own personal column, and therefore is of total opinion, but I am speaking mainly of the number of posts the site delivers as a whole. There are a number of other Pro Evolution Soccer sites out there, that post daily articles about the latest rumours regarding Konami and Pro Evolution Soccer, but unfortunately, these are exactly that, rumours. PESGaming.com has always prided itself on reporting as accurate information as is available, and not fanned the flames of any rumours regarding PES or Konami. There are plenty of sites out there that will put information about release dates, features and images just to get a few extra hits. Our regulars know that when it comes to PES, we only report official news, and have no intention of selling out in order to become more ‘successful’. I personally would not wish to write Interfering With Play for any other PES site, and am exceptionally proud to be part of this site. Like anyone, I hear rumours and gossip, but try to include these things in my column, as it looks silly when they are then proven to be false. Bottom line, we have a solid base of visitors that is constantly growing, and anyone who visits this site on a regular basis knows what we are all about. If you want lies, hype and rumours, feel free to go elsewhere but for the truth about the Konami franchise, this is the place to be.
That’s it for this week. Once again, I will like to thank you for your continued support with Interfering With Play, as I am sure Peter would like to thank you for the constant support this great site receives. Please feel free to leave a comment about anything you have read on here below, or e-mail me on danbolas@hotmail.com. That is also the address you need if you are interested in joining the IWP league, although entries need to arrive as soon as possible.
Thanks for Reading
Woooo 1st! Good on you Dan keep up your weekly articles love them!
I’m with you regarding the edit mode in PES 2008, i remember doing the Arsenal and Manchester logo way back in a wining eleven for PS2, and now that option is gone, i wonder if it has to do with Konami legal stuff, let me explain, as if the teams or leagues had sue konami before for implementing an edit mode that lets people create any team they want and konami just didn’t wanted to deal with that in PES 2008.
If that’s not the reason, they I just don’t know what konami is thinking, because peolple who like PES don’t care about licenses as long as it has a good edit mode, at the end all that matters it’s a good game play, but i’ve seen videos of a PES 2008 for PC patched and it looks amazing, it would be nice to have a great edit mode for 2009.
Good Intefering with Play, and i have to say i think the speed in PES2008 is perfect, and i’d hate it if they slowed it down for PES2009.
I know some people would rather play slower more tactically drawn out games and the fact that some players are impossible to tackle because of their pace on the ball (c.ronaldo), but i prefer my PES2008 to be lightning quick football, making goalbound opportunities every minute or so.
But I do think Konami could implement a stamina bar which really affects the players like that of a real game as the stamina bar at the moment makes seemingly no different. This would make the game more realistic and please fans who like lightning quick football to begin with or tactically drawn out games.
Also, i think the pace of PES2008 is partly made by the player as they can choose to play a slow passing game or a lightning quick game it’s up to them.
So i think the pacing of the PES series is near-perfect.
i’d like to ask a question. why do the unlicenced clubs in pes 2008 have really bad kits?
go back to pes 3 or 4 and the likes of north london or west midlands village had good fake rigouts - very close to the real thing.
take a look at north london’s kit in pes 2008 - shocking! why couldn’t they just give them a red shirt with white sleeves. is it that hard!
thanks lads
gutted. i go on my holiday on the 2nd of august. was so lookin forward to this league. ah well maybe next time.
Hey Dan, next year, if the lag it’s not so bad on PES 2009, can someone from US play in your league, i’m planning on buying the euro version of the game.
Niki, Re: No 2 post, I thought that the poor edit mode might be something to do with the legal stuff too but then why would they have a full editing mode in the PS2 version??? I think Konami have just tried to be too smart with it this year with the scanning feature but its backfired as you can only have 8 kit pictures!
I agree with Bruno about the fake kits. They truely are poor. Looking at the kit options it looks as if someone who has worked on Japanese only games came up with them. I mean what is the ‘Love heart’ option all about!!!
Great IWP and what happens? Exciting breaking news!
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