GOTM contest winner - uncleXXXmas

Posted by Steve Smith in GOTM on Wed 14 May 2008

Congratulations to uncleXXXmas for his winning entry. He will win a game of his choice.

Check out some other stunning goals/videos at http://www.consolegoals.com

Interfering With Play 13/05/08

Posted by Dan Bolas in Interfering With Play on Tue 13 May 2008

Welcome to a shorter Interfering With Play. I am currently having very bad luck with technology, ranging from Power Cuts to Sat Nav’s to Mobile Phones, and therefore have a lot of sorting out to do in a short space of time. As a result of this, I will be leaving some of the key talking points until next week’s article, and concentrating on three points in this weeks offering.

Congratulations

First point, may I hand my congratulations to Manchester United for their successful defence of the FA Premier League title. Whilst cup competitions can sometimes be won on luck and fortunate fixtures, any league season requires genuine quality, and once again Sir Alex Ferguson has managed to forge a team of top players together. Whilst I would have been glad to see Arsenal win the title, I am pleased that United did, as it proves that playing attractive football gets you rewards, and playing games to shut up shop, as Chelsea did on a number of occasions, is not the way to win over fans. As for the FA Cup, I really hope Harry Redknapp and Portsmouth do the business over Cardiff. I have nothing against Dave Jones’ side, but Redknapp has done an incredible job and fully deserves the silverware to cap off an amazing season. Your views on the title race and the FA Cup are of course very much welcomed.

The Big Four: Week Two

Over the month of May, Interfering With Play will be looking at four of the biggest titles in Football Gaming history, focussing on why they were so important and giving you the opportunity to decide on whether or not you agree with their place in the ‘Big Four’ category.

Fifa International Soccer (1993) Megadrive- It may seem controversial to include a FIFA title on a PES website, but anyone who grew up in the mid-nineties would have to agree that football gaming truly progressed with introduction of the FIFA gaming series. At its time of release, EA Sports were a minor company who had just won the license to produce a number of replica video games using authentic competitions. Nowadays, they have their fingers in pretty much every sporting pot, and rip off gamers with tournament based updates and ‘street’ versions of popular sports. Back in 1993 though, they were mainly responsible for the further innovation of the gaming genre. Gone was the top down camera view, as an all-new Isometric camera angle was brought into play. The game was not in 3D, and players could still only move in one of 8 directions, yet it game the illusion of a more realistic experience. Pitch conditions began to really come into their own as well. The option to play on an artificial pitch provided a different game mode, with bounce and roll being much more intense than the grass based game. Whilst the game did not feature real player names, it featured all the International teams you could require to play a number of tournaments and for the first time on any football game, featured on pitch trophy ceremonies for winning the title, a feature that made playing for an entire night in a league all the more worthwhile. Fifa has always been criticised for its passing engine, and the way players react to balls crossed into the box, and this title was no exception, however the shooting engine and block tackle features were so far ahead of anything out at the time, the game was regarding as the best football simulation available.

Of course, truly great games have truly great features, and through a number of intended events, FIFA International soccer was blessed with great features. The first was the ability to block down the Goalies kick, resulting in the ball looping over his head into the empty net. Whilst when playing against mates, you could opt to roll the ball out, the computer AI would constantly kick the ball straight at you, giving you an easy way back into any ‘lost cause’ match. Another bug was the ability to hack the keeper down when he had the ball in his hands. This resulted in a straight red card and was normally the result of a frustrated opponent missing a simple opportunity, but every once in a while was an accidental push of a button which could act as a real match turning event. My personal favourite of all the glitches was the ability to run away from the official when he was looking to caution you. Long before the days of in game football cut scenes, you were still given control of the offending player as the camera pans to the on screen referee begins his ominous jog towards you. This meant you could actually run away from him and he would continue to follow your chase, resulting in very frustrated opponents during multiplayer games.

The final factor for me, which I feel is exceptionally important to touch upon, is that FIFA International football was the first football game to offer a 4 player experience. Most gamers did not own multi-taps for their respective consoles at this time, and the mode was rarely used, however it paved the way for the future, and in particular the 4 on 4 games from PS2 Pro Evolution Soccer 6.

Your views of Fifa International Soccer would be most welcome. The game is readily available on a number of Internet download sites, and if you still have your SNES or Megadrive, chances are you still have your Fifa cartridge somewhere. The title obviously went on to spawn many follow-ups, with FIFA 95 including a number of club teams. The game today is well known for its excellent graphics and use of its huge array of licenses, and younger gamers will be unfamiliar with were ‘it all began’. If you were one of the originals, please get in touch and let us know your views and experiences of Fifa International Soccer.

Play That Funky Music

In Peter Willis’ recent 10 predictions for PES 2009, he expressed an opinion that popular speed garage outfit Pendulum would make an excellent choice when selecting a theme song for the next instalment of the series. Regular readers of this column will be more than aware of my feelings towards the music on PES, and I would personally love Pendulum to provide a number of tracks, including their excellent new single, for the PES soundtrack. However, the pessimist in me thinks this will never happen, and chances are we will be stuck with the same old generic Japanese pop the last few years have provided. So I open it to you, the PESGaming.com public, which artist would you list to see provide the cover song for PES. Kaiser Chiefs did a decent job for PES2008, yet it didn’t really catch the imagination the same way Song 2 did for Fifa 98 all those years ago. Anyone who underestimates the importance of music in gaming only needs to spend 10 minutes listing to the scores from GTA IV and the Condemned 2 to realise it can make a gaming experience. This is just a way of expressing your opinions on what music you would like to hear on the menu screens of PES, because if you play the game a lot, it makes sense that you are hearing tunes you can actually stomach. All together now, “I Want To Go….”

That’s your lot for this week. I have had a decent experience writing, with minimal computer slow down and actually zero crashes. Hopefully my technical problems will be sorted for next weeks Interfering With Play. danbolas@hotmail.com is the place to direct your e-mails to, or leave a comment at the bottom of this article!

Thanks for Reading 

Interfering With Play 06/05/08

Posted by Dan Bolas in Interfering With Play on Tue 06 May 2008

Welcome to Interfering With Play. The last week has seen the release of arguably the biggest gaming title ever in the form of Grand Theft Auto IV on Playstation 3 and X Box 360. With so much press surrounding the game, and it spending a considerable amount of time in my PS3 this past week, it would be foolish to not touch upon it during this article. However, I have decided against dedicating an entire section to the game, at lease in this week’s column. Anyone who owns the game will be well aware of its qualities, the sheer size of it and the attention to detail is spot on. If you’re a fan of the title, but don’t own it yet, I can only assume its due to lack of a next generation console or funding, as all the reviews will point you towards picking up a copy. And finally, if you don’t like the game, which I am sure the genre will not appeal to everyone, then you will simply not be interested in anything that is said about it. With that said, I would like to begin with this week’s Interfering With Play.

The Big Four: Week One

Over the month of May, Interfering With Play will be looking at four of the biggest titles in Football Gaming history, focussing on why they were so important and giving you the opportunity to decide on whether or not you agree with their place in the ‘Big Four’ category.

Just to give you a brief introduction upon this feature, having played through a number of old school football titles over the past 12 months, it got me thinking which ones were true classics, and which ones were really nothing more than copies of original masterpieces. Of course, everyone is going to have had that one game, be it football or any genre, that will have eaten away hours and days of their childhood, and view it through rose coloured glasses when discussing it in a forum environment. I have tried my very best to put those glasses away when writing this article, and have left one or two of my all time favourites on the bench, opting for titles that are not only considered to be universally ground breaking, but also have offered enjoyable and lasting gaming experiences. Please note, these games may not be considered great games during a modern day market place, but at the time, they provided ideas and options that were ground breaking.

Sensible Soccer (1992) Amiga- I have started at the true beginning of football gaming. Up until Sensible Soccer, football games fell into two very distinctive categories. They were either top down experiences, almost indefinable from Rugby or Basketball games, and featured very little in the way of aerial based football, or side on games, which provided oversized players upon tiny pitches. This of course was mainly down to the power of the systems they were running upon, and many games actually only featured 7 or 8 players per team, due to graphical constraints. This is not saying these top down titles or small-pitched games didn’t catch the imagination. I personally loved both Kick Off and Emlyn Hughes International Soccer as much as anyone, but they lacked the realism of a proper football match. Sensible Soccer revolutionised football gaming in so many ways. In spite of being on the Amiga, it managed to feature hundreds of playable teams, all of which were completely editable. Some of the teams and players names may have been fake, but one night spend editing and you had a game that was as realistic as the episode of Match Of The Day you had just watched. This was taken further by the comedy teams, completely made up teams based on things you would find in your kitchen, or parts of a car. These would not have been to everyone’s taste, but the casual gamer could pick up a side and have a laugh seeing their star striker “Fridge” score past the opponents goalkeeper “Exhaust Pipe”. Again, these were easily editable, so you could end up making your entire school team, or in one of my mates cases, a team for each class at school, giving a real personal feel to one of the domestic leagues. For the first time on a football game, skin colour and hair colour were also customisable. Gone were the days when everyone playing for Italy must have dark hair, and everyone from Brazil must be dark skinned. This was something unheard of in 1992, and really paved the way for future titles to do the same thing. Up until this point, strips were also merely one of 16 different palette colours, meaning yes, you could wear your team colours, but realistic interpretations of your team’s shirt were not available. Sensible Soccer offered hoops and striped shirts among other designs; featured games in 2008 are still missing! The ability to save highlights is now something very much taken for granted, with memory cards and huge hard drives sitting in our home consoles, it’s a simple way of showing off our best goals or pieces of skill. Sensible Soccer allowed you to do this first, saving your best games to show to your mates. But the mode that really strode onto new ground was the game play. Whilst still being very close to top down, the camera was on a slight tilt, giving the illusion of height and power when kicking the ball. The fact that having two buttons, one for pass and one for shoot, worked so well is a testament to the pick up and play ability of the game. Still to this day, there is little more satisfying then a well-timed diving header flying in on ‘Sensi’, and that is a sign of a top game.

I am going to now open the floor to the PESGaming.com public. I am aware that Sensible World Of Soccer, the games follow up title is available on X Box Live, and the original is available for download off a number of different sites. Please feel free to share your experiences of Sensible Soccer, love it or hate it. Do you feel it is worthy of its place in the Big Four, or are there any other key points I have missed when describing it. At the end of May, there will be a poll on PESGaming.com allowing you to cast your vote for which of the Big Four is the overall champion.

Still Got It

As I said I wasn’t going to dwell on GTA IV this week, over the past 7 days, a certain game has spent hours in my PS3. Its an exceptionally strong game that will take weeks for me to finish, and is a thoroughly enjoyable experience. However, I go back to one of my original points, and that is following a heavy gaming session, I always seem to sneak PES2008 back into the console for a cheeky game. This is the pure beauty of Pro Evolution Soccer, and always has been, its ability to entice you back. This is not aimed at the people who don’t own PES, or those who traded the game in after two weeks, as they don’t understand it. This is not aimed at the casual player who pops round his mates and plays the game with a beer in hand, as they won’t have experienced it. This is aimed at the gamers, or PES players who have put the hours in, who have got to know the game, and love it for all its faults, and still want to play it. In my 3rd year of Master League, I have gone undefeated, and sit one game away from the Champions League final, having won the Division One cup and League on Top Player. I am not saying this to boast, I am saying it to show that once I win that Champions League, I will have to all intents and purposes completed the game. Yes there are further achievements to unlock, but the main game mode, in the same way that Assassin’s Creed or Rainbow Six Vegas have mission modes, will be done and dusted. But of course, with PES, the game never truly ends. You can carry on that season, and keep it going, potentially for as long as you wish. With the European Championship’s just around the corner, I know I will be dipping once again into an International League to be playing with one of those very sides. The fact that after 7 months, I am still playing PES as much is a testament to the lifespan of an ‘unfinished’ game. It’s not perfect, but its still very good fun!

One Two

Having played Sensible Soccer this week, prior to writing the Big Four, has anyone wondered why it hasn’t been made available for PSP or DS? It makes me smile that people have been complaining about the lack of two shoulder buttons for the PSP version of Pro Evo, yet Sensi used to keep so many gamers captivated using just two buttons!

A Life Sentence

A point that has been mentioned a few times upon the forums here, and indeed everywhere else on the net is the lifespan of computer games. I mentioned earlier how I am still playing PES 7 months on, and GTA IV has been dubbed with over 40 hours of Single player game play. Some gamers seem ‘ripped off’ that certain titles, for example Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, feature such short single player modes, and therefore can not be considered as ‘full games’. The dilemma is something that has raged on for many years due to the fact of Eastern gamers. Japanese gamers like to fly through games quickly, they like to get quick achievements and like to feel good about themselves. Western gamers tend to prefer a sterner challenge, and would rather graft away at a title for many hours in order to get a ‘hard earned’ reward. This is how the gaming industry stereotypes the different cultures, and for many years, this would strictly set to. Games like Tomb Raider were frowned upon in Japan because of their long complex levels, whereas many Japanese games never made it to Europe due to them being ‘too easy’.

Nowadays, the lines are less clear, and titles tend to be released more universally, allowing the audience to pick up whichever suits them. Some gamers will have loved the Call Of Duty 4 single player experience, as it allowed them to follow a very strict line and end up jumping through the hoops to complete the game. Others will have found the game too short, and may feel that the game could have been drawn out. No denying though, whilst playing COD4, you were never bored, as it was 6-8 hours of action sequences. Compare this with a game like Oblivion, a game that features in excess of 50 hours (or so I am informed) worth of game play. Some people will see this as great fun, and riding a horse from village to village in order to pick up items will be exactly what they are looking for. Others will find this exceptionally tedious, and therefore will stay miles away from the game. These games are completely different to each other and should be judged as such. A game should only be as long as it needs to be, and whilst COD may have been short, it was great fun while it lasted and definitely the finished product. People who claim these kind of games to be poor because they are short are missing the entire point of them, and that is for quick action fixes. To put it into media context, a new DVD may cost £13.00, and give you 1 ½ hour’s entertainment. Whilst a game may cost almost three times that, it will give you at least three times the lifespan. If you wish to complain about companies cashing in on titles, I ask you to look no further than EA Sports, who are charging £40.00 for Euro 2008, a game which is little more than a watered down Fifa 2008.

That’s it for this week. As always your comments are more than welcome at the bottom of the article. danbolas@hotmail.com is the address you can reach me on if you have anything you wish to say personally! Please include your views on Sensible Soccer if you do comment.

Thanks for Reading

Vote now for the Consolegoals.com Mar/Apr GOTM comp!

Posted by Steve Smith in GOTM on Fri 02 May 2008

Voting has begun for the Consolegoals.com Mar/Apr GOTM competition. Please go here to vote for your favourite

WINNER WILL WIN A GAME OF THEIR CHOICE ON ANY CONSOLE FORMAT OR PC

Good luck to the winner.

Vote here

Interfering With Play 29/04/08

Posted by Dan Bolas in Interfering With Play on Tue 29 Apr 2008

I sit writing this week’s Interfering With Play slightly earlier than usual. Due to Man United vs. Barcelona and the release of GTA IV on Tuesday, I have decided that there would just not be time to fit in this column, and therefore have brought it slightly forward. Having read the comments from the previous week’s article, I believe there are a few major talking points that need addressing and as usual, I will try to fit as many in as is possible. So without any more delay, lets get going.

Kiss My Seabass

It has taken a great deal of patience to stick to the original plan, especially with so many people asking me, regarding the result of the Seabass Letter. For those who have only recently come across PESGaming.com, I compiled a letter to Seabass, expressing some of the views and concerns shown by the PESGaming.com public about PES2008, along with suggestions for the 2009 edition of Pro Evolution Soccer. This letter was finalised on February 29th 2008, and sent the following week. Having waited two calendar months, and sending the letter to numerous people at Konami, including Seabass’ “Official” e-mail address, I have heard no word back from anyone, other than the standard auto-reply messages on certain e-mails. Of course, this is highly disappointing, if slightly expected that a large game developer would spend time speaking to a dedicated fan site in some form that was other than an official interview. However, in my opinion, it was worth a shot that some of the views expressed by this gaming public would fall upon influential ears, and this remains to be seen. Of course we all expect issues such as the lag and the online play to be fixed, but if new game modes appear, or old options return, I for one certainly won’t be complaining come mid-October. I would like to set straight that not once did I claim to know anyone from Konami personally, nor did I state that I was ‘in the loop’ regards the games developments. Due to many hours of dedicated research, I try and keep on top of all the latest rumblings in the world of gaming, and when these rumblings involve PES, my ears do tend to be slightly more sensitive. Like many of you, I am a huge PES fan, having just clocked up over 250 hours of playtime on the game, and simply want the best possible gaming experience.

Heads, Shoulder Buttons, Knees and Toes

One of the biggest criticisms of Sony’s PSP since its introduction was the fact that it only had one shoulder button on each side, as opposed to the usual two buttons found on both PS3 and 360 controllers. Of course, on a portable system, every cm counts but this has made playing a lot of console orientated games slightly off-putting. Pro Evolution Soccer requires all four-shoulder buttons as much as any title, and it has been a huge debating point as to whether the game would be worthwhile playing on the handheld console. In my experience, and in the experiences of my mates, I highly recommend PES on the PSP, but warn that it is a lot more difficult alternate between playing the console and handheld version. The idea of sitting on the train or playing wirelessly against mates is a huge draw, and coupling this with a slightly watered down Master League you have a game that provides as much of a lifespan as any other title on the system. If you are contemplating buying the title, I believe most games shops have it on sale for under £20, or you can support Konami sponsors, Play.com and get it for a very reasonable £19.99

Age Rage

As many regular readers are aware, the whole age ratings on games feature which has spent so much time in the news in recent months has been a personal choice topic. Speaking to a lot of people, ranging from teachers and parents to avid gamers, there are many different views and outlooks on the subject and I thank all those that have expressed their views as a part of this site. Of course, its an issue that will rage on for many months and even years until computer games begin to receive a similar level of recognition as music and movies when it comes to adult content, with some believing this may never occur. This week though, I am bringing it closer to home, and asking the question why do these age ratings apply to Pro Evolution Soccer. Surely with football being on TV pretty much every hour, and being a popular sport amongst children as young as 3, there will never be any desire to make games like PES and Fifa anything other than a 3+ PEGI rating. Common sense tells us all this fact, but once again, as realism develops, so too will the over cautious censors. WWE Smackdown Vs. Raw 2008 has received a 16+ rating, even though WWE is shown all hours of the day on Sky Sports, and Tony Hawks Project 8 received a 12 sticker from the BBFC, even though children as young as six can be seen skateboarding in their local parks. The subjects themselves are not particularly offensive, but some of the issues in the game are, including violence and bleeding which occurs in both titles. Only a few weeks ago in Interfering With Play, a great deal of interest was shown as to regards more realistic injuries on PES, and if these became represented in graphical form, the people responsible for the age ratings would definitely step in. What are your views on this as football gaming fans? If you have played either WWE or Tony Hawks, do you feel the graphical content is worthy of the age rating it has received? Taking this one stage further, and I am playing devil’s advocate slightly here, should PES have received a higher age rating due to the diving aspect on the game? The big concern is that we do not want children emulating the games they are playing if it is a negative influence, and diving is a problem that children as young as five are starting to get in on. Ridiculous it may be, but its there to be debated, and your views are the ones that count.

Fast Forward The Ads

Assache has been going on for most of the week about the adverts in PES, and how they seem to be constantly updating and changing. Rumours have spread that Konami adapts the ads and having a broadband Internet connection sees the game ‘self-update’ to the latest sponsors. Whilst I have seen no proof of this, I believe Konami is onto something regarding advertising in computer games, and they have done so by taking it further than the simple advertising boards, which surround the field of play. Certain games have relied heavily on one sponsor, the awful Adidas Power Soccer springs heavily to mind, but in the digital information age, it shocks me that very few other genres of games have taken up this money spinning idea. I am obviously thinking outside the sporting genre, and into the worlds of RPG’s and FPS. Loading screens could be cluttered with the latest products instead of ‘overused’ in game imagery, and with no option to skip these, people will have to pay attention to what is being displayed on the screen. Companies would also be able to focus certain advertising campaigns to certain demographics, meaning 18 rated games could have more matured based adverts for products that would never be allowed on prime time TV slots. Whether it is a case of contracts and legalities, or whether its just as case of gaming developers wanting to keep out of that mainstream marketplace for as long as possible is totally up for debate, but with Internet sites like Myspace and Play realising the importance of in-game advertising, its only a matter of time before some of the big guns follow suit. May I also bring up, I notice that IGN.com features heavily within PES2008, popping up at the end of every game and throughout the Master League menu screens. IGN.com is a highly reputable site that provides quality information and details about pretty much every game ever made for a home console, yet on re-reading its review of PES, it seems to be written from a more Fanboy perspective than many of the others out there. This could be mere coincidence, as I am not for one second implying IGN would trade review scores for advertising, but it is worth taking a look at. As you know, personally I would agree with the rating given, but in comparison to the other reviews of games, some of the text does seem slightly generous.

Four Is The Magic Number

I have received some interesting nominations for the Big Four article that will feature throughout the month of May. Basically, it is a look at the four most influential footballing games in History, with a different one being highlighted each week. Needless to say, Adidas Power Soccer is not in the top four. I am pretty much set with the four titles that will be featured, but am still more than open for any suggestions. They need to reach me by this time next week in order to be considered for this feature, and must be available on a home console (so no PC or Arcade Games). Please e-mail suggestions to me at the usual address with the subject, Big Four in order to ensure a prompt reading and response.

You Do Not Have To Say Anything…

Finally this week, I would like to make a few comments regarding the whole purpose of this article, and indeed exactly why I write Interfering With Play. I write Interfering With Play on a weekly basis, and it is designed to discuss topics of a football gaming nature. As a result of this, some topics will be about football, some about gaming, with the majority of topics being in some way related to the two. I love PES, but like to consider myself objective and do not wish to appear as a Fanboy, not open to other games, even the dreaded F Word (Fifa), and blind to everything other that PES. Peter Willis does an excellent job keeping PESGaming.com up and running, and ensuring that all the latest news about PES in right here for you to digest as and when you see fit. Interfering With Play centres on PES, but will go off on other angles, tangents and provoke different discussion topics. If these topics appeal to you, please read them and respond, if they do not appeal, ignore these and read the ones that do. Each week, I write four to seven sections, with at least 2 focussed on PES, and will continue to do so, in spite of seemingly ‘no new topics’ available. I fully appreciate peoples input, be it either positive, as so much is, or negative, which obviously provokes more talking points. To cut a long story short, I play a lot of PES, but I appreciate there are other things in life, and like to bring up related comment with the belief that the majority of readers will find it either interesting, thought provoking or slightly amusing. An example being Soccer AM, which in spire of being a football show, features bands and actors along with many moments of pure comedy genius. It still centres on football, but drifts off on all angles, something that I like to think Interfering With Play also does. The main thing though, is that moaners, fanboys and everyone in between get their views across, because that’s the whole point of PESGaming.com
That’s all of have time for this week. As I said, I wrote this on Monday night (although it will be posted on Tuesday) so I am, like many gamers, looking forward to sitting down with a copy of GTA IV. If you have any comments about anything you have read here, either add them at the bottom of the page, or send them to danbolas@hotmail.com

Thanks for Reading

GTA IV - new forum section

Posted by Peter Willis in Site Updates on Thu 24 Apr 2008

Something tells me there is a certain game you’re all going to be playing this time next week…

Yes, Grand Theft Auto IV is almost here (or here if you’re in the know). I have made the executive decision of adding a new GTA IV section to our forum for all of your discussion and questions. And, judging by the size of the ‘GTA IV’ thread on the forum already, something tells me it’ll be popular! You can check it out and join in the chat here.

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

Just TWO WEEKS left for March/April GOTM

Posted by Peter Willis in GOTM on Tue 15 Apr 2008

In association with ConsoleGoals , PESGaming welcomes your entries for the March/April Goal of the Month Competition. There are now just TWO WEEKS to get your entries in. The closing date is April 31st.

- All goals must be from PES 2008

- Score the best goal you can on the hardest difficulty (we have final say as to who the 6 finalists are)

- Record your goal as a movie file on your PC

- Upload your goal to www.consolegoals.com and check the box next to ‘PESGaming GOTM Comp- Mar/Apr 08‘ when you are on the upload page.

- Post your goal in the GOTM forum as a new thread with a description of the goal in the subject line (starting with GOTM Mar/Apr), which can be found here.

To post your ConsoleGoals video’s directly into the forum, copy the Forum BB code that can be found on your ConsoleGoals video page under ‘SHARE DETAILS’ and then place it in your post/thread - It should end with [/cgvideo]

All goals MUST be submitted in the correct format and on ConsoleGoals to be considered.

WINNER WILL WIN A GAME OF THEIR CHOICE ON ANY CONSOLE FORMAT OR PC

In the event of a tie, the deciding vote will be left with ConsoleGoals/PES Gaming staff.

Good luck!

Interfering With Play 15/04/08

Posted by Dan Bolas in Interfering With Play on Tue 15 Apr 2008

Welcome to this weeks Interfering With Play. For the first time, I am writing this article on my PDA, and therefore apologies for any blatant spelling mistakes. I am delighted to have had such a positive response to my comments regarding ISS and PES 2008. It was also nice to see some new names in my inbox and on the comments page. The whole purpose of this site is to get your views across, so keep up the feedback.

We’ve All Had A Drink

The Internet, as it is, is an excellent place to find out new forms of media and entertainment, a way of meeting new people and a way of finding out information. Sites like this allow people to express their views in an open and public forum, with now barriers or boundaries, and whether you feel this is a good or a bad thing is irrelevant to the fact of that is the way it will stay. One thing I have always appreciated about the comments and humor of this site is that they are taken in good faith, and no one really takes anything too personally. A comment made last week from abbafather claiming that he ranks PES2008 over his wife and kids is a prime example of this! People who actually believe a human being would rank a computer game over living people need to get out more, and realize that having a sense of humor is exceptionally important when doing anything involving the Internet. The other person, who undoubtedly is lacked humor, is Steven Gerard (Liverpool). Not the actual player, who is still proving himself to be one of the best centre midfielders in world football, but the person posting comments, and pretending to be him. As said before, I am pretty sure that Gerrard knows how to spell his own name (two r’s not one) and would not write in such a random way. The post was not only written in broken English, but made absolutely no sense to an English speaking public. The comment can be found at the bottom of the 10 predictions for PES 2009 post, written by Peter Willis a couple of weeks ago. People, keep up with posting, as I said above, but bear in mind to have a sense of humour whilst doing so!

PS3, The Debate

I own a Playstation 3. I purchased it the very same night that it came out, and queued up a good hour and a half on a cold March night to get my hands on the true next generation gaming experience. Personally, I have been very pleased with my decision. Being mere hours away from purchasing an X Box 360, I stuck by the Sony brand that has treated me so well over the past 12 years and spent the extra cash. I highly recommend the PS3 to any gamer, with many of my mates trading in their 360’s for PS3’s. I feel the library of games, excluding those backwards compatible, is ever growing and there are enough titles in the pipeline to keep me going well after 2010! These are of course my opinions, and like every one of you out there, I am entitled to them. What cannot be argued, however are the facts. At this moment in time, in the battle between 360 and PS3, the Microsoft machine is the market leader. It has a wider variety of titles available, a premium online service and a wider choice of consoles to suit different sized budgets. It is currently in the third circular of games; meaning the initial teething problems when developing for the console has been ironed out and now, the majority of games are bug and lag free. This is why, for PES2008, the 360 is probably the console of choice to play the title. The PS3 was still in its first calendar year, and on its first circular of titles, meaning the best titles available were ports of 360 games, and developers were yet to truly get the most out of the console. PES2009 will be a very interesting title when it comes to the next generation war. As PS3 is certainly finding its top titles, it will require a lag free online experience to compete with the market share that 360 is currently enjoying. I would love to hear the views of neutrals, people who have owned both consoles, as to which they prefer, and what makes them swing that particular way. If you are waiting for a next gen console, my personal advice would be a PS3. With titles like Gran Tursimo, LittleBigPlanet and Metal Gear Solid 4 all on the way, I feel that PS3 is the future of next generation gaming. I would not consider myself a Fanboy, and have played 360 a fair bit. I have been with Sony since Playstation began, and the overall quality is far superior to anything else. Again, my opinion, feel free to leave your own.

Master League Madness

I am well into my Master League on PES2008, and love it, as I stated last week. Yes, the mode does need some new features, the inclusion of real world currency and interactive cut scenes would make for a much more realistic experience. The menus may be slightly outdated, and more stats should be made available, for example shots per game or tackles per game, when scouting another team. (Again see NBA 2K7 for how it should be done). With these criticisms though, comes one of the biggest praises in any game anywhere, and that is the sheer passion and replayablilty of the mode. The option has been available since ISS Pro Evolution Soccer on the Playstation One, and yet every year, I spend day’s worth of gaming time mastering my team, wheeling and dealing, and eventually winning back-to-back ‘Champions League’ trophies. I rarely buy big names, limiting myself to one or two per season, and try to find out new talent, viewed either on the Internet or via the Football Manager 2008 database. It may be taken for granted now by many players, but in a day and age where every focus is on Internet Gaming and Online options, Konami got the Master League mode right along time ago! Anyone interested in sharing their Master League Team for PES2008 with me, feel free to do so in comment form. Please note: I would much rather only see teams that have been started from scratch, in other words using Jaric, Ordaz and co. as opposed to taking over an existing squad. My team, which this time was Napoli is: Papadopoulos, Sidnei, Federico Fazio, Micah Richards, Diaby(c), Dudu, Ashley Young, C. Ronaldo, Modric, Benzema and of course Klass-Jan Huntelaar. (3-5-2)

Strike Up The Ban

My last point tonight is one regarding the age ratings computer games and why certain games are banned from being released. With GTA IV only two weeks away, the game that really started up this whole controversy, Grand Theft Auto, springs to mind. For anyone who ahs been under a rock, or is just too young to remember, Grand Theft Auto was a top down action game where, like the modern day equivalent, you had to do a number of illegal tasks, with the ability to free roam and basically do as you please. Picking up prostitutes, gun fights with cops and stealing motor vehicles were all seen as positive things and as a result, censors were determined to stop its release. Since then, a number of games have been lost, or severely edited due to adult content. We are yet to see sex in a mainstream game, and blood and gore games constantly receive bad press. It has gotten to the stage where Bully, a highly impressive game in which you play a school kid and have to complete a number of tasks, is receiving front-page media attention for promoting violence in schools. This is a product of belief that gamers are all aged 10-18, and sit in front of their parent-purchased consoles playing games, then being exactly influenced by the scenes in them. Censor groups would have you believe these games are the reason behind the yob culture in England, the gang culture in the U.S.A and in some cases, the glorification of war. Of course this is not true. All the aforementioned problems were going on long before the days of Pong or Space Invaders, and the same 10 year old children that grew up playing Mario and Sonic are now the 9-5 working generation that keep countries ticking over. For years, movies such as Saw and Hostel have pushed the boundaries of gore further than any computer games, and whilst I would not want to see a young child watching these movies, adults should be able to make their own mind up and see the films if they wish. Exactly the same with computer games. I am currently playing Condemned 2, a game that is exceptionally brutal and features some genuinely scary scenes. Under no circumstances would I ever try to recreate anything I have seen on the game, and I am sure many gamers would be in the same boat. The problem should not be banning games, it should be that age ratings are enforced much stricter, and international laws should be based so that, just like an 18 movie, young children are unable to get their hands on games that are potentially too graphic for them.

That’s your lot this week. I feel there is a fair bit to comment on, so feel free to do s. The e-mail address is danbolas@hotmail.com if you have any long comments or personal questions.

Thanks for Reading

Interfering With Play 08/04/08

Posted by Dan Bolas in Interfering With Play on Tue 08 Apr 2008

Hello, and welcome to this week’s Interfering With Play. For anyone not familiar with the column, it is weekly topics from the world of football and gaming, covering a wide range of issues and talking points. It is also interactive, with topics that are raised by you being covered in the following week’s article. PESGaming.com is an exceptionally popular Pro Evolution Soccer based website, run by Peter Willis, and receives thousands of hits each and every day from both regulars and first time visitors. With PES2008 having been in the stores for nearly 6 months now, speculation will began to turn into physical evidence regarding the nest PES offering from Konami and Seabass, and PESGaming.com will be the place you can find the facts, as we don’t report on rumours! As always, if you have anything to discuss, talk about or disagree with, please feel free to either send me e-mail or add a comment at the bottom of this article.

I’m So Excited

My first point this week is one that will no doubt divide the community. I own over 20 games for my PS3, ranging from sports titles to FPS to driving games to a little bit of everything in-between. I play games online, on my PSP and on my PC, and have completed the majority of those games, which I own. I thoroughly enjoy gaming, and having recently whizzed through Devil May Cry 4, have just purchased Condemned 2 for my next gaming challenge. However, in spite of the entire Chimera, in spite of all the 13th Century assassinating and in spite of all the online headshots on COD4, the one game that still gets the most game time, and still is most enjoyable for me to play is PES2008. Many titles grab my attention on the first play through, and some will find their way back into the machine for a second go, but overall, it always results back to a quick game on Pro before work/bed/picking up the girlfriend. Yes, some games do have a limited lifespan, and therefore its difficult to compare a game like Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune or The Darkness to the multiple game modes that feature on PES, but I have a collection of games that includes Fifa, NBA, Guitar Hero and Smackdown vs. Raw, all games which can be easily picked up and played. Pro Evolution Soccer came in for a lot of criticism from both its fans and established reviewers, however when six months down the line it is still spending so much time in people’s consoles, it must still be a damn good game. I am sure there are people out there who will be in exactly the same boat as me, and who thoroughly enjoy their PES experiences, yet it always seems to be the ones who don’t are the ones who are most vocal. I would love to have the PES addicts ‘show some love’ for PES in the form of comments at the end of this article.

Pretty Darn Amazing!

Quick side note here, especially seeing as it has nothing to do with either football or gaming, but I was wondering if anyone has any experiences, either good or bad of PDAs. I am currently in the market for one, for work, and require something I can use for calls, making notes and keeping track of appointments. I currently have the Nokia N95, which is for my personal number and require something a little more business like. Any advice on which way to go with this would be gladly taken on board.

Wear Them With Pride

Since the introduction of the achievement system on X Box Live, gamers now want to show off their gaming accomplishments more than ever. Personally, I think this is a great way to compete with your mates, and see who is doing better at certain games. It definitely adds an extra dimension to online gaming. The system is yet to be brought onto the PS3, arriving alongside the online community software, Home later in the year. (Check out Home on You tube for more information). My point to be raised here may be able to be answered simply, or may need some research, but it regards how your accomplishments are stored, or more importantly, where. Most PS3 owners will tell you that game installs are huge, in some cases upwards of 5GB, which is annoying if you need to keep the game information on your console in order to prove the fact you have completed the game. If it is a simple case of keeping the option files saved in a folder, then surely this will be the most space consuming way of showing off what you have accomplished. Furthermore, will it link to your username, and therefore maybe allow you to even delete all traces of that game from your console, but still keeping the accomplishments. I believe these are taking the form of trophies in Home; however, I am reluctant to delete any data of my previously completed titles until the program is launched and the information explained. Any help from X Box Live users, or anyone in the know would be greatly appreciated, and published with credit in next week’ column.

Back In The Day

A couple of weeks ago, 88champion made a reference to ISS 98 on N64, regarding the lack of black screens and the continuous game play flow many next gen PES fans are longing for. I went to get my N64 out last week, in order to sample the title for myself before featuring the topic, only to find a faulty aerial cable would spoil my experience. For people who are not familiar with the ISS series, I will try to fill you in. Konami always had two football gaming series running parallel to one another, usually on different console systems. This was most obvious during the N64 vs. Playstation wars, when ISS 64 appeared on the Nintendo 64, with ISS Pro being available on the Playstation. This carried on for a while until ISS was released on the PS2, followed by Pro Evolution Soccer on the same system, putting the two in direct competition. Pro Evolution Soccer was viewed by many (including myself) to be the better game, and as a result, ISS was put on the back burner. Apart from a brief spell on the Game cube and PC, the ISS series was discontinued and Konami focussed pretty much solely on the Pro Evolution Soccer series. Of course, many PES gamers are aware of this back-story, and will be familiar with the ISS games. The games had a much more arcade feel, with huge text flying up on the screen for every free kick, corner or goal scored. Player’s movement was also far from realistic, with both sliding and jumping really over exaggerated in an arcade like manor. Although this wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea, it did make for a good multiplayer experience, with beginners being able to score goals against there expert counterparts. A couple of interesting features that the game did include though, are yet to appear on the Pro Evolution Series, and some gamers would welcome these.

The first one, as mentioned by 88champion, was the free kicks. The game did not stop, with the players fouled picking themselves up, and getting into position, with the game continuing straight away. There were no over elaborate cut scenes, the action simply zoomed in to the referee if a caution was occurring, before zooming straight back out again. Should a player be injured, the medical staff came onto the pitch, either treating the injured player with spray, or a stretcher if the injury was more serious. By pressing a button, the view from the free kick changed, meaning you could see the location of all the players and were not limited to just looking over the takers shoulder, ideal for wide or deep set pieces. Bearing in mind this was achieved on a 64 cartridge, and not on a system involving DVDs, Blu Ray discs and hard drives, it is something Seabass and co. could definitely look at. Another interesting feature was the ability to play 7,8,9,10 or 11 a side games, and even have weaker players start with greater number of players than their better opponent. This really acted as a leveller, and was taken further with the scenario mode, a way of taking real life situations and applying them into the gaming world. Imagine the 2001 FA Cup Final as Liverpool, having to score two goals with Michael Owen in the last 10 minutes in order to win the cup, or bring Man United back from 3-0 at Tottenham in the second half to win 5-3. The third and final game feature I really enjoyed, albeit as a slight subplot, was the inclusion of the career mode in ISS 2000, the last ISS game on the N64. The game allowed you take the role of a 17-year-old trainee, who has just signed professional terms with a top club (which was of your choice). You were issued with a rival, a player who played in your position, and it was your job to outperform him in a number of mini games (such as follow your maker) and training matches in order to warrant a first team place. This was taken further into a ‘Sims’ like environment, where you could have a girlfriend, and had to make decisions about going out, drinking and your living accommodation. The player names weren’t real, and the mini games were sometimes completely irrelevant, however it’s a feature that would definitely add an extra dimension to any game, and with the modern day systems, could involve modes of online play, sponsorship deals and transfers. I picked up ISS2000 bout 3 years ago from a game shop for £10.00, and if you have an N64, I would highly recommend giving it a look, just for your own personal opinions. Anyone who has the game or more vibrant memories of it than I do, please feel free to add your points, as I will be more than happy to follow them up in next weeks article.

That’s it for this weeks column, if you would like to get in touch you can do so via comments at the bottom of the page (if you do, leave your name) or by e-mailing me direct, on danbolas@hotmail.com

Thanks for Reading