Interfering With Play 18/09/07
Posted by Dan Bolas in Interfering With Play on Tue 18 Sep
In a 7 day period that has seen International games, Premier League matches and the first stage of the Champion’s League begin, as well as the release of the Fifa 08 demo, I am going to kick off straight into my topics in this weeks Interfering with Play.
Big Games, New Names
I’d firstly like to start off by congratulating England on a job exceptionally well done over their past two qualifiers. Despite my previous comments about the boss and the way some of the bigger ‘stars’ play in recent columns, I am English and an England fan, and as a result like any patriotic individual, want my country to succeed and do well. However, with the above said, three of the biggest changes Mr. McClaren had to make over the past games were forced, the introduction of Heskey, Barry and Wright Phillips in place of England ‘regulars’ Beckham, Lampard and Rooney. I have very little doubt that should those three players have been healthy and available for selection, it would have been unlikely that the other three would have played more than 45 minutes in the two games, which leads me to my point. The decision will need to be made as to who plays and who doesn’t when England next play in a few weeks time, and should, if fit, the three players who were England’s overall best performers during the games against Russia and Israel start against Estonia. In my opinion, all three should, but I am going to leave a lingering thought. Heskey, Barry and Wright Phillips all know the importance of playing for their place. They have all been on the fringes of the national squad for several years, and have taken their opportunity to perform. Perhaps a few games on the bench for Lampard and Rooney, players who are undoubtedly top players, but fail to perform consistently for England, might make them realise that they have to produce the kind of form they show for their table topping sides in order to hold down their England shirt. In my opinion, if you don’t perform for two or three games at a club like Liverpool or Chelsea, you will find yourself on the bench, having to earn your place back, so the same should be said for the national team, especially when the players who are coming in are doing such a fine job!
Frogs Legs Or Scotch Eggs
Whilst on the subject of international football, I just want to take my hat off to the way the Scots performed in Paris last week. As I said, I am English, and as a result am conditioned to believe Scottish football is a more primitive form of the Premier League! However, there is no denying any side that can do the double over France in a qualifying campaign must be doing something right, and I honestly hope to see Scotland at Euro 2008!
The Kids Are Alright
Honestly, I did not expect to be seeing Arsenal at the top of the pile come mid September, or all season for that matter, but I will be the first to take my hat off to Arsene Wenger and his young group of players. Before I go any further in this section, may I stress two things, I do not support Arsenal football club (or any Premier League side) and therefore am reasonable neutral when it comes to my opinion of top-flight football. The second thing I would like to point out is that in my opinion, Thierry Henry is the greatest player I have ever seen play. This opinion is based over a number of seasons, watching him both live and on TV. As many Liverpool fans will tell you, he could carry Arsenal on his back and beat you almost single-handed. He scored both incredibly difficult goals, and wonderful individual efforts for Arsenal, and when he was in the mood, he was pretty much unmarkable. Also, if my statistics are correct, there was a season in which he scored over 20 goals and assisted another 30+, an amazing piece of information that other top players can only dream of.
With all that said, I believe Wenger may have done a great piece of business offloading him to Barcelona this summer, and picking up a reasonable amount of money in the process. It has meant that a lot of his young stars have had to step up to the plate, and it is probably the reason why they are top of the pile at the moment. Players like Fabregas and van Persie have always been top players for Arsenal, but the start of this season has seen them playing as well as anyone in the world. Couple this with players like Adebayor and Hleb, who almost seemed to be intimidated by Henry, starting to perform to stop standards, you have a very impressive looking side. There is no doubt they pass and move better than any side in the country, and when they are playing well, they are a true delight to watch, but now they have some of the squad players starting to stand up and be counted, and that is always the sign of a very good side. People questioned their ability to still be a top four side, but Saturday’s game against Tottenham was just proof that you cant write off a side that plays as a team, and in a day and age when its part of the summer to see how many big names you can bring into your club during the transfer window, Wenger proves there is still a lot to be said for team spirit. Personally, I would love to see the Gunners sit at the top of the table in May, and although it seems highly unlikely, if they play the kind of football they have done during the opening weeks of the season, who could begrudge them.
The First Demo
For those of you who are unaware, a demo of Fifa 2008 is available on the Playstation Store. The Playstation Store is an area on PS3 that allows you to download the latest game and movie trailers for viewing on your PS3, as well as game demos. You can also buy full games, or extras for existing games on the store, but of course these must be purchased using a Credit Card. The Fifa demo was a free download, and was made available towards the end of last week. It features several sides, and allows you to play a 4-minute half of football, with complete access to substitutions and tactics.
I strongly encourage anyone with a PS3 to download the demo and post your opinions of the game in the responses section of this article, as I would be very interested to here your views and comments on how the latest EA Sports offering rates in the eyes of the PESgaming.com community. I have played several games on it since I downloaded it over the weekend, and have opinions about the game myself. However, I am going to hold these back another week, to see what the visitors of this fine site think. This is mainly because I have spent a great deal of time talking about Fifa in my column the last few weeks, and wish to have a break from the topic!
I Can’t Handle The Truth!
As it was pointed out in one the responses to my last column, there will be a 5 on 5 players online option on Fifa 2008, not the 10 on 10 options I had reported. I hold my hands up, as this was an error on my part. Preliminary reports suggested that the EA Sports game would have this feature, but it has since been confirmed it will be shaved down to a 5 on 5 option. As I have said before, I am always open to both positive and negative comments, and take all on board when writing Interfering With Play each week.
6 Weeks Until It Arrives!
My final point of this week’s column regards the build up to the new Pro Evolution Soccer game, and how Konami have seemed to really work on the marketing this year. It has been a great criticism of Konami in the past the that they have not tried to compete with Fifa when it comes to adverts, and creating awareness about the product, however, I feel this year the advertising is more in your face that ever. Whilst in previous years, there way have a been a solitary advertising board announcing the release of the new Pro Evo, this year is seems to be popping up at every Premier League ground in the country. When Adebayor scored his header against Tottenham on Saturday, the electronic board behind the goal all said PES2008 in flashing text! I have seen adverts in national newspapers promoting the game using Michael Owen as the poster boy after his goal scoring performances for England. On the net, sites like Play are creating a huge buzz about Pro Evo, with the £50,000 competition being one of the sites major promotions! All of this is six weeks before the game is available in the shops. With Fifa 2008 due out in just under two weeks, the marketing push has hardly been the same. Normally you can’t turn on a TV channel without catching some part of a Fifa advert, however this year, I have not seen one yet. There is no doubt the hype about the two biggest football games is starting to reach the national media, so if you have any unique sightings of adverting either game, add your responses to the article in the usual manor.
Again, I take this opportunity to say, if you have any comments or points about anything you have read in this article, feel free to respond, or mail me on danbolas@hotmail.com. If you have a PS3 and are connected to the net, my PS3 Gamer Name is thebolder, so feel free to add me and send me a message on there. I would especially like to hear the views of people regarding the Fifa 2008 demo, as I will be giving my opinions in next weeks Interfering With Play.
Thanks For Reading
If it wasnt for the trick stick, i wouldnt buy fifa. The graphics as expected of EA is great. I found the gameplay to be a bit disappointing though. The golie’s make childish mistakes, although im sure they wouldnt if the difficulty setting was higher, but even so theres a difference between the golie being bad and being stupid, in the demo they were stupid. The passes are way too weak which reduces the speed of the match. It is far too easy to score from crosses, which is probably the way many people will end up scoring. There are some positives also besides the trick stick and the graphics. I found it to be very clever of EA to give the players the ability to use the offside trap in an instant by pressing on the D-pad on xbox 360. It gave the game a nice feeling on the defensive end. I also liked how the trainer came out when a player got injured. All these little improvements will end up creating good dramatic changes to the game in the future, but tat time doesnt seem to be in october when the game comes out, maybe next year.
i admit….there is something addictive about the Fifa 08 demo….i reckon its probably because its hard to score….and the loading screen is fun. However for me (and i admit it….i am biased) the biggest problem i have with this demo is that i never have 100% control over what i want the player i am controling to do. Now i accept that there are variables for example his ability but in pro i can cofortably make a pass from A to B with the desired ammount of pace even without a power meter. in this demo i struggle to pick out a pass that even reaches a team member let alone give it some ‘Umph’. the player animations are exceptional and the atmosphere of the stadiums are immersive…but this is nothing new for Fifa….everything that the old Fifa’s Traditionaly do well is done well in this demo…..but the gameplay still sucks and thats the key for me
I played the FIFA 08 demo over the weekend and i found it awful and pathetic to say the least. A big disappointment for a next gen game.
I played the demo, i can see theres only two things that pes2008 could learn from it. first the loading screen, its fun. and second graphics. otherwise this game is a disappointment. i tried to take all positives into consideration like changing the camera to pro, as that is how it will look in be a pro mode, but that was even worse. the game does not have enough depthwhen i was running with gary neville or ronaldo is didnt seem like there was a lot of difference. they just give a score like 88 for a player but no detail. to me football games are about gameplay and i dont think fifa08 is very close to getting the right yet.
FIFA 08 demo I thought was on the whole generally poor. Gameplay was too slow, and as has already been noted passing is too slow likewise. Graphics were decent but nothing spectacular.
However the key (for me) in a football game has got to be gameplay and the gameplay on display in the demo is of a poor standard, not even near PES6 on PS2.
Admittedly it is a demo. I think the general graphics are pretty lame - I don’t see how so many get so excited? Presentation, Menus suck and that business of screwing around with Ronaldinho while the game loads? Stick your noobish players EA or at least give us a choice!
Gameplay - not improved since I last played the game a few years back: feels very controlled and scripted.
If you guys think that FIFA is catching PES up then you had better lay off the pot for a while…
EA, I give your game 1/10 for effort and 1/10 for the licences, that is an overall mighty score of 2/10
Needless to say I have deleted the demo.
I begrudgingly downloaded the demo - well you have to check out your enemy don’t you!
Verdict… I was not a fan, I found the passing sluggish, time after time I wanted to slip the ball through but found the game too slow for a quick interchange.
This is usually where PES dicks on FIFA, long may it continue.
Ok heres my thought on the fifa demo.
Gameplay is still well off..i cant stand the gameplay on fifa games as its rather annoying, maybe it may have decent graphics but what matters is the gameplay and pro evo has great gameplay.
one thing i couldnt understand was this new camera on the demo it looked rather weird and hard to control players, if they think this is a good addition then i disagree.
Fifa hasnt really improved in my opinion thats due to the lack of control with your players..but when you play pro evo theres alot more freedom to move and control your players.
Well i played about 5 games on the demo then deleted it…enough said
2 words on fifa demo : VERY POOR…
the only thing that decent is the graphics and the loading screen oh yeah and the physio come in on when a player is injured. arpart from that the game play sucks can’t control your player properly and the passing is to slow.
lol i have not played the demo yet i will not do as i dont like fifa but i wil get the game just to see if its got any better since that last `1 i payed which was 5
I gave the game a massive go last night with an open mind. There is something that just doesn’t sit right and I’ve never been able to put my finger on it, but last night it dawned on me… The pitch is WAY too small! It’s like there is no space and you are playing on a plastic 5-a-side pitch!
Sorry -
Argh, Sorry! there s something wrong with my keyboard - it keeps randomly posting - sorry about my tripple post!
Anyway to continue what I was saying…
Another thing I have never understood about FIFA is the way that everyone praises the graphics/animation? The first thing you see i the game is the loading screen and this is pretty impressive, but it is only processing 2 players and has a first person style view, fun to play - arguably more fun than the actual match gameplay and it looks nice. But then when I entered a game, the graphics made me laugh! The same old disproportional deformed generic FIFA body modelling?! Something that has always been there…. They look like comical charactures of the players! I also assume that the slowdown in frame rate is down to the fact that the game is a demo and an early build. The shirts although licenced look laughable, unrealistic looking numbers and names on the shirt. When you go onto the high contrast areas on the pitch, (caused by lighting) you get an annoying silouette of the player and it is difficult to distinguish which player has the ball and whether or not they are one of your players. Also, you just don’t know whih player has the ball in general, they have no trates or different animations, they all move in the same way look to have the same build. Something that PES has always had the upperhand on. Infact, it’s never been close.
GAMEPLAY:
Better than ever, as I have found it difficut to actually score, something that has always been pretty easy on FIFA. You can play quite a neat passing game with practise, but it falls flat in terms of attacking play and player response. They don’t always seem to want to do what you press. And they truely must “want” to with EA boasting over 1000 decisions per second… I can’t see evidence of this. The game is also very slow. Sprinting is hardly different to normal dribbling speed which is very slow. There are also no dynamics in terms of gameplay. It’s a very constant and steady speed. You want to speed up the gameplay at times for an attack and slow it down to break down the oppoition, and you simply can’t. It becomes very boring and frustrating. However I do want to give it another go to see if it gets better through time.
In a way this has restored my confidence in PES2008. Even PES 6 has better gameplay with it’s scripted feel so they would have to go seriously wrong for it to be worse than this years FIFA, which I would give a 7/10. Bearing in mind I would give FIFA 98-99 8.5 and FIFA 2000 2/10, that aint bad.
I tried not to compare the game to PES too much here as it is unfair and biased, but obvously I just can’t help it. The kids wont like this game because it’s too hard to score, the PES fans will not be converted because the gameplay is average, but people will buy it because it’s FIFA. Simple as.
I think many ppl are putting fifa down a little too much. I honestly think that EA is doing heck of a lot better with there improvements than ever before. Playing the game it was obvious that they knew what it was they wanted to do, it just needs time to get it right thats all. And the demo is way too short, we dont even get to enjoy a nice lengthy match. I’m sure it cant be all tat bad. I love PES but if it wasnt of winning eleven’s gameplay, i bet most of you would play fifa cause of its great presentation. once fifa gets the gameplay right, i’m sure more ppl will end up picking up a copy of fifa over pes. gameplay is like the hardest things to get right, nba live is a great example of this when compared to nba 2k’s. considering how the fifa series usually end up being, fifa 08 is a wonderful improvement. pes is just fortunate enough not to have to improve on the gameplay, or else fifa is doing a good job.
played the demo and deleted it now cos it sucks its slow,passing,shooting all shit..what a bad game and what is with the tele cam you can barely see the ball….three words of advice…DONT BUY IT
yea well all you guys are kinda right about the regular mode of fifa but i think it wont be as bad once u get use to it… and Im gona buy it because of the BE A PRO MODE it lets u try it out with ronaldinho in practice mode and i have to say it looks impresssivvvez
the last FIFA i played was FIFA05, so when i downloaded fifa08, i didn’t know what to expect. i honestly think it is a fun game. i find it very user friendly in terms of changing tactics and whatnot (something PES lacks in some respect). one thing that i’ve always loved out of FIFA05 as well as this demo is the sound. maybe i’m just too used to how PES sounds. i’m not just talking about FIFA’s commentary, but mainly the overall “feel” of being on the pitch is superior to PES, most notable IMO is the sound of the ball being kicked. FIFA has a better “thump” effect while the balls in PES have too much treble… lacks the thicker sound that you normally hear when you watch football on TV.
however, the gameplay falls well short of PES. i dont understand why all the players on FIFA seem to be equal in abilities–not much difference in dribbling and pace… very unrealistic IMO. gameplay is much too important for football fans.
overall, i think FIFA looks better on the surface. however, if you actually play the game, it’s definitely lacking the quality that PES has. try turning off the sound for both games, and the difference in quality is much more obvious.
I downloaded the FIFA 08 demo from the website last night - before, I was pondering whether or not I will get FIFA or PES this season. Now, it has to be said that PES2008 cannot be as bad as that demo (of a soon to be realeased product).
The players looked fat and slow… the passing of the football was like playing with a cannonball… which changed as soon as you started to shoot to be like playing with an old pastic “airflow” football that you used to get down the cornershops. (you know the ones… with the valve that made it wobble about).
How did EA make the physics of the ball so different, Einstein would be proud!
Its only saving grace is the loading screen where you play one on one with the goalie in some South Asian conurbation. Its a clever touch though could get boring with it just being Ronny all the time. (any shouts on who the goalie is?)
I agree with Simon in that it plays far worse than PES on the PS2 but I would have to say that it is as bad as PES4 not PES6.
Konami… don’t let us down!!!!
Hi, I played the FIFA 08 demo and I just don’t “feel it”. As soon as I passed my first pass it just felt sluggish and slow. The players didn’t seem to sprint, they don’t turn or run realisticaly and I don’t realy think the graphics are that great. I have played a bit of fifa 07 at a mates (he’s a fifa boy) so I know that once you play a few games it can be engrossing and fun….but it all boils down to the fact that as soon as you kick off with pro evo it feels like real football, you don’t need to wait 3 or 4 games to get into it. Obviously havent played the new pro, but I dont think I’ll be defecting to EA this year.
I posted this comment some days ago on consolemonster.com - so I’ll just copy-paste it in here:
The demo got up late last night - so fortunately i got to download it (in Denmark - Xbox360) and try it out for an hour. It’s not just because I’m a PES fan - ’cause I really would like to be playing both PES and FIFA.
But although the game has undergone some improvements the controls are still lacking sooooo much!!! Why does it have to be so jerky, stiff, slow and just so frustrating?!?!?!!!? It’s near impossible to string together 3-4 passes when you’ve crossed the middelline, cause you teammates doesn’t seem to be running away from their direct opponents??!?! Suddenly you have to rely on singleplayer performances - so you play it to either Ronaldinho, Messi, C. Ronaldo or Ibrahimovic so you might be able to get past your defender, get to the backline make at cross and be lucky a striker is in the box to score!!!?!?!
I know it’s just a demo and you’re only able to play a 4 min half without doing all the tactic-ish things you just might be able to do in the final game.
But as for the demo goes. At least I’m not able to string together 4+ passes while attacking, cause teamplayers don’t do anything. The controls feel too stiff, jerky and slow. If you want to use the skill stick (which is great fun with Ronaldinho and C. Ronaldo) you have to do it 10 meters before you reach the defender or else the trick won’t come off cause the controls are to slow to react…
The game has become better - no doubt, but why settle for this, when even the controls on PES6 (which isn’t really know as the best game in the series) are just soooo much smother, quicker and spot on???!?!
It’s a shame really - cause with all the features, licenses and real leagues I would so much like to play this game - but the controls (and thus the gameplay) just stinks! WHY!!?!?!? :os
“Afraid” that it’s going to be PES again this year - so I guess I’m having a few days work ahead of me, with some editing to do, to have all the teams as lifelike as possible… :o(
For all you FIFA fans: I’m not giving up on FIFA 08 just yet though - I’m going at it for some hours yet, to see if I can get to gribs with these stiff controls and bad AI movements…
By the way - the sound in FIFA 08 is great!!! In the 360 demo (europe) you play in the Allianz Arena (Bayern Munichs incredible home turf) - and when the players enter the pitch a german announcer call out the players names!! Nice little feature. OOHHHHhh damn those controls and headless A.I.!!!!
By the way.
Someone earlier in this thread said something about the camera in “be-a-pro” not working very well. Well the camera choise you get in the demo doesn’t work in the same way as it would in the “Be-a-Pro” mode. I saw a video on the net somewhere (either consolemonster.com, ign.com or gamespot.com) with a demo of the “Be-a-Pro” gameplay. The camera will zoom out when you don’t have the ball - so you’ll get a good overview of what’s going on. At the moment your player will recieve the ball - the camera will zoom smoothly in right behind you - and follow you like in Gears of War. It looks cool, nice and great and very different than what we get in this demo…
Found the link to the “Be-a-Pro” video:
http://uk.gamespot.com/video/938657/6179389/fifa-soccer-08-official-movie
He pulls off some cool moves and scores a great goal at the end…
Like the way you get points for doing different things on the pitch though.
By the way:
The animation of the goalies in FIFA are just so much better than in PES - unfortunately. The way they stretch and flip their hands in the very last effort to clear the shot - nice…
Sorry guys for all the posts - I’m done “spamming” this thread! ;o)
Ello fellas, Look im an expat here in Austrlaia and for all my effort cant find the download on my playstation store… is that deliberate or is it delayed ala the actual game or what!??!!!
Please help cheers…
pie