Interfering With Play – Tuesday 30th June 2009
Posted by Dan Bolas in Interfering With Play on Tue 30 Jun
IWP League Champion: Ivan Kostic (Internacional)
Welcome to this week’s Interfering With Play. This week is a hectic week for me personally regarding PESGaming. Along with the screenshot mini site and the PRO-ve Your Skills challenge, I am also at looking to introduce a brand new graphical look to the site, with a few people who know slightly more about design than I do! As regards new columnists are writers, we are still holding an open forum for one or two individuals to potentially join the team. If you feel you could bring something different to the site, please do not hesitate to make contact, using the usual IWP e-mail address. Finally within this little introduction, I would like to open a Facebook site for PESGaming.com, but simply don’t have the time to run it and upkeep it. If you are interested in taking charge of a Facebook site for PESGaming.com, please e-mail me and I get back to you within a couple of days. With that said, lets move on with this week’s Interfering With Play.
“And Everything’s Gonna Be, Alright”
Extra marks for anyone who get the topic of this week’s first point based upon the song lyric above. Guessing games aside, the first port of call this week is something that is very close to my personal opinions, and an issue that has been raised on the forums and comments section of this site over the last week or so. Thanks to a great deal of hard work by Double D, PESGaming.com is now ‘in the loop’ when it comes to Konami. This does not make us an official Konami website, but instead means we will have ongoing contact and communications with Konami, both at an ideas level and more importantly, at a play testing and developmental level. As a result of this, there are some people out there who feel PESGaming may become another fan boy site, simply sucking up to Konami at every opportunity and not allowing the Japanese company’s title to be criticized in any way. I would like to assure each and every one of you that whilst Interfering With Play is being penned by me on this site, the only thing you will read is my hand on heart opinion, couple with fact. I will never praise something that I personally believe is poor, and I will never talk badly about something I personally think is good. Hopefully, after 94 weeks of doing this column, the community can understand that, and whether or not you agree with my views, the fact that they are genuine and honest can not be questioned.
The truth is, the way video games are being made is ever changing. I have said many times, and people have been discussing this on the boards, that football titles, as with most sports titles, get less development time than any other title. They follow a different pattern, as they have a year to try and fit in what other developers get double the time to do. Of course, this is no excuse for a sub standard or even average gaming experience. In this current climate of economic depression, every pound, euro or dollar counts and spending a number of these of a computer game must be justifiable. Furthermore, gaming is becoming more about communities than it is the company that is making the game. Titles such as Halo and Call Of Duty 4 are still thriving because of their online communities, and now gaming companies are starting to realise that by asking the fans what they want, they can tailor their gaming experience as appropriate.
For the last few years PES has missed out on even scratching the surface of an online gaming experience, and therefore Konami have had to look to the message boards, the forums and sites like PESGaming.com to find out what their gamers want. This year, they have actually got us involved, and hopefully, the end product will be what we are all looking for. This is the progression within the way video games are being developed, and if we as a community are being invited to take part, it would be naïve to do anything other than get involved. This will not in any way change my personal integrity, nor will be it edit the credibility of PESGaming.com. It is instead a way of getting our views heard, and doing so in a manner where we, as a community, can change the face of football gaming. For me, that is something I want to be part of.
“PRO-ve Your Skills Challenge”
A rare change coming with the lack of a song lyric for the paragraph title can only mean its todays PRO-ve Your Skills challenge. A lightening quick response from Craig Grant was enough to give him the title of champion on Monday, and his challenge is probably the most tricky one set so far. As the screenshot shows, he managed to defeat France using the England U21 team, and it also proves that a phone camera is a perfect way of showing off your work! Craig has set the following challenge
Win The Eredivise (Netherlands) With Any Team That Finished In The Bottom Half Of The 2008/09 Season, Losing Your Last Game Of The Season In The Process
Tricky, yes, but also a challenge that will really set apart the men from the boys. As always, difficulty, match duration and console choice are totally at the choice of the participant. This would also work well as a good way of gaining an achievement on the X Box 360, and get you one step closer to the Ultimate Player achievement. interferingwithplay@hotmail.co.uk is the place to get your entry to, and this challenge stays active until someone beats it. A progress report will be released on Thursday, unless someone beats it before then. The screenshots (two of them) must feature the completed league table, with your side at the top, and the final week’s fixtures, showing a defeat in your last match! Good Luck.
“We’re The Stars Of CCTV”
A little topic that I am hoping to put to bed now in the next couple of weeks, regarding the compilation video of goals by the PESGaming.com community. I have been playing around with the 20 or so clips I have received in one form or another for a while now, and am yet to be satisfied with the length of the overall result. Therefore, I am looking for a few more goal clips to save for this compilation, which I plan to release this summer. Basically, the idea is to put together a collection of special goals scored by the community and throw some trendy titles and music over the top to form short video package. I feel this will look good as the PES 2009 era draws to a close and PES 2010 starts to reach a release date.
To take part, simply save your goal to your systems hard drive, and then e-mail me for further instructions. All goals, no matter how weak or seemingly unimportant will be considered for inclusion, however the goal must be scored by a player representing their real life club, and the goal must be scored on the EU PS3 version of the game. International goals or those scored in the Champions League will be welcomed. I will be closing this for good in a few weeks time, so if you want to get one of your wonder goals shown on the world stage, do get in touch.
“Nobody Does It Better”
One thing that I think many people have trouble grasping is the way that licensing is implemented within Pro Evolution Soccer. It was spoken by a community member that although PES 2009 has the Champion’s League license, teams like Arsenal and Chelsea are not licensed, which seemingly makes no sense! I am not a lawyer, and make grasping of some legal terminology may be slightly confused, but I will try and explain this is a simplistic manner, without sounding condescending.
When acquiring a license to represent anything within a video game, you are basically paying to show that product. In some games, this can be in the form of advertising, something shown in Dreamcast classic Crazy Taxi as well as the ad boards in many sports games. When you wish to represent a real life team or organisation, it is up to that organisation what actually gets used. For example, the licenses included in PES 2009 include the England license. This deal was struck with the FA to include an exact replica of the new England shirt when it was released. However, this license is completely separate from one such as a license to include all English club sides, a deal which would have to be arranged by the FA Premier League.
FIFA Football has a huge advantage. EA Sports affiliating their title with the world governing body means issues such as acquiring national club licenses and use of the World Cup, a FIFA run competition, is a doddle. Konami have recently struck up a decent understanding with UEFA, but this has only been to include the Champions League, and doesn’t actually reflect the teams involved in the competition. That license allows PES to include the Champions League, trophy, logos and music, along with the TV style presentation many gamers have enjoyed over the past 8 months. Teams such as Liverpool and Manchester United would have their own terms to be included within the game, and require a separate license as a result.
Of course, there is a much more in depth way of looking into this; something which if you wish to investigate further could probably turn into something of an obsession. However, from a personal point of view, the best way to look at it is Konami has started gaining more licenses, and includes the best edit mode featured in any sporting title. Therefore, whatever isn’t licensed can look pretty close within a couple of days, and issues such as game play, online and game modes are a far more productive use of time.
“I’ve Had The Same Jeans On”
Finally this week, just a little food for thought, something which may be worth looking at in the future? I am personally very happy with the controls for PES, and the way players are controlled by the gamer. 360 vs. 8 directional movements aside, the use of the shoulder buttons and face buttons work well for me. However, if we look back, this has been the same since football gaming began. On one hand these controls are well known, comfortable and a safe option for developers, but on the other they are always going to bring out the same kind of constraints and limitations.
The Nintendo Wii has, for the past two years, tried something very different, with a certain level of success. For the middle aged gamers amongst us, it may seem a case of unnecessary change, but for younger gamers who only own a Wii, this way of playing football games may be the only way they know, and therefore become the accepted way. In a similar way, Call Of Duty: World At War is unplayable of Nintendo Wii for most gamers, but those who haven’t played it on any other format find it more responsive and oddly, easier to play!
So, just as a little idea, imagine a football game that you’re left and write feet were controlled by the left and write analogue stick. Direction changes could be made using the shoulder buttons, and the speed in which you moved would be determined by both speed and co-ordination within your movements. Kicking the ball would be a case of swinging the stick in a similar manner to the movement your foot would make on screen, something which would allow for more skills and tricks to be implemented. This would leave the face buttons free for tactical controls, and would open up a whole new gaming experience. Of course, it would only work when playing a Become A Legend style game mode, using that sort of camera angle, but with online teams and individual human player control becoming the normality; it is something that may just be on the horizon. Any views on this alternative control method would be appreciated.
That’s your lot for this week. As always, the e-mail address is interferingwithplay@hotmail.co.uk. Comments are also very welcome. Remember the PRO-ve Your Skills challenge is open all week this week, meaning whoever comes up with the completed challenge first becomes the new champion, and has to set a new challenge for the following day. PES 2010 news is coming soon, so sit tight and hold on, because things on PESGaming.com are about to heat up. If you’re interested in running the PESGaming.com Facebook, please feel free to get in touch.
Thanks for Reading
Interview with Satoshi Suziki highlighting the key improvements for Pes2010. I especially like the part where he says that in Masterleague they have introduced more managerial options; does this mean finally we are going to get managerial job offers in Masterleague?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abzNy0N_bbE
can soem1 tell me a team which i can use in the prove your skills competition?
I like the idea of the alternate control, but it might be for a totally different version of the game.
Reminds me of the time me and some friends played PES on a 100 ft projector, controlling all player movements with the dance dance revolution floor pads. Quite a challenge to say the least, but actually playable believe it or not.
When it comes down to it, VR would be the real game changer, if we ever see it, but that would get so close to reality that you might as well head down to the pitch to play…
Apologies for pointing this out, on an otherwise perfect article, but you really do need to learn your left from your “write”
Good article Dan. Keep up the good work! @ post 4: Get a life mate and talk about PES, thats what this forum is for!
New Game Details Announced
Konami’s development team has revealed more details for PES2010. The next version will focus on realism, which will be reflected in the pace of the game. Build up play will be key. Players will need to make the most of passing and movement to break down opposition and work scoring opportunities. Soft goals will be eliminated.
Individual player skills are being reworked and a new system will allow users to incorporate them into team strategies. Mixing up these abilities, switching some on and other off will generate new ways to play PES.
Further details of the tactical slider system have also been unveiled. The sliders allow for real time fine tuning of defensive and attacking play, pressing, width, support and a range of other settings. Each team in PES will have a unique tactical setting, but players are free to alter every area to suit their own style of play.
The Master League now incorporates both the Champions League and Europa Leagues, offering a complete season for players to enjoy. Success in the Master League will see players streamed into these competitions. The lure of European football can also be used to attract stronger players to your side, with transfer dealings and contracts now significantly more realistic in their use and including real currency dealings.
More details on exciting new features will be announced shortly.
dont kno if any one knows about this got this from the pes site!!
yeah @ Super Pes… they said PES 2010 will be focused on defense as last year was based on attack .. I think were all in for something special
Ive heard from a source that i cannot name that pes2010 plays like pes6 but with ultra realistc player animation and modelling and that that new stratergy system and running takes pes2010 into a different dimension……..no wonder konami seem so confident and not worried about fifa10.
Physical control systems are to gimmicky and tireing,i do enough exercise what with running and looking after my daughter.When i sit down to play pes i dont want to do anything else but move my thumbs and fingers and be relaxed.When you get to 34 after playing games for more then 25 years your wrists start to ache from playing games long gaming sessions on the wii plus im old school im not happy unless i have 8 buttons to play with.
@ Dopecoil: I really hope thats true as i love PES 6 IMO far and away the best PES to date and by Konami going down the similar route to that they wont be far away! They just need to then improve on the player stats so they make a real difference to the game. I have a feeling we are going to be pretty spoiled this year by both FIFA and PES!
Literally cant wait! I’m like an excited 5 year old waiting for christmas to come, thats how important this game is to me and how passionate i am about it.
http://www.gamersyde.com/stream_11870_lq_en.html
@snake-12
Not bad my moneys still on pes10 this year as i just prefer the way konami do it,still playing and loving pes09 so any kind of improvement is good in my book.
@steve67-10
I always liked the quick gameplay of pes06 feeling that apart from j-league winning eleven club championship 2008 pes06 was probably the best pes on the ps2,if they can marry the better elements of pes09 with pes06 slick fast gameplay what a game pes10 will be.
always liked the quick gameplay of pes06 feeling that apart from j-league winning eleven club championship 2008 pes06 was probably the best pes on the pc