Some interesting points made here.
Im not sure today's football games are designed to be played for long periods such as 45 min halves for example. The reason i say that is, i wonder if there are enough variables in the modern video games of today.
- The CPU AI attacks are repeatative
- Not enough player individuality in either game (fifa's is shit and pes's is overrated)
- Assisted passing = no skill required, every players can ping it like barca. Ive started playing manual on fifa (apart from using semi shooting) and i think assisted passing should be outlawed, which is why I was disappointed to see pes 2011 intergate the manual option by holding one of the shoulder buttons, rather than making the whole game manual.
- Do the ball physics need to be improved even further?? you never get the feeling in these game that the ball can go anywhere at anytime. When you watch serie A (proper football, not kick and rush premiership football where most teams cant even string a 3 pass move) and Wesley Sneijder (the king) steps up to take a set piece you sit there with anticipation because when he shoots, that ball could hit anyone and do anything, which could possibly lead to a goal.
I doubt there are enough variables in these games to make them that interesting for that long over the course of a season, but it depends on the individual playing also.
Now Im not a game developer, but this idea konami have 3 months to make major improvements in this game just doesnt wash with me. I'm no expert but im sure the game has to be sumbitted for QA and sales and marketing procedures before the game gets released, so this idea that konami have loads of time to keep developing isnt as strong as people think, which is probably why, when you look at the last few games konami have released, what you see before release, it usually what you get on release.
In some respects fifa is not outdated, full manual, set piece creator and 360 degree control have been lacking in past games (and before anyone starts, no perfect striker did not have the degree of control fifa offers you). However i would say both games are short of innvovation because the people making the games probably dont understand football the same way fans do.
FIFA is not outdated if you still enjoy 10 Minute Simulations...
However, this is the bottom line with the 10 Minute Concept: it is a concept that tells the user what to do, a concept where the COM dictates how the "script" unfolds throughout the game.
A lot of people are convinced that by making the game more "manual" then player individuality would be lost... I think that is not true, and I think "manual" passing is necessary if PES is ever going to Evolve the way it was meant to.
The problem is, that the 10 Minute Concept cannot handle both the "manual" concept and the "player individuality" concept,
Which is why you need to have one at the expense of the other; on the other hand, a 20 Minute Simulation would have enough space to merge both concepts without any downsides.
The Football Simulation that I have in mind, the way I see it; the COM should no longer tell the user what to do, instead, the COM should ASK the user what to do.
For that to be possible, Konami will need to change or alter the gameplay mechanics, in order to make the leap from 10 Minute Simulation to 20 Minute Simulation.
You mentioned 45 minute halves, in my opinion, we don't have enough fingers on our hands for such a complicated gameplay; however, a 20 Minute Game (10 minutes per halve) does sounds easily possible.
Below this line, you will see a concept that I talked about in the main page; it was originally directed at someone else, but I think it will give you a good idea of what could be possible if the game was not limited to a 10 minute time lapse.
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When I play PES 2010, I try to imitate the way Barcelona plays in real-life, with Xavi Hernandez coming down to deep positions in order to start attacks from the back.
And what I have done is, by using the Sliders and the L2 Strategies, I have used the “Formation B” where you get to change the formation on-the-fly, and what this does, whenever I hold the L2 button + tap the (x) button: the original formation stays the same but the playmaker of my team goes down into a deep position… and it works better than I expected.
Basically, I manipulate the movement of a selected player, in this case, the selected individual is the attacking midfielder of my team; so that everything stays the same (formation wise) but the attacking midfielder that usually plays in a more advanced role goes down into a deep position in order to start from the back.
And this is surprisingly effective as it creates new passing angles that would not be possible if I didn’t had this control over the attacking midfielder of my team.
And this makes me wonder…
What if Konami introduces a new feature for off-the-ball play, for example, if Carles Puyol has the ball at his feet and you pass the ball and subsequently you tap the L2 button instead of the R2 button…
We know that by passing the ball and subsequently tapping the R2 button: this would trigger a vertical run from the individual who just passed the ball, in this case Carles Puyol.
So what if, by passing the ball and subsequently tapping the L2 button instead of the R2 button: this would trigger an off-the-ball run from a selected individual, in this case, the selected individual would be the key playmaker of the team, Xavi Hernandez…
So this would mean, that if you pass the ball with Puyol and subsequently you tap (press and release) the L2 button: Xavi Hernandez would then start running into the exact space that Carles Puyol occupied when he passed the ball.
This means that if Carles Puyol has the ball at his feet, and you pass the ball to Dani Alvez (on the right flank) and subsequently you tap the L2 button (right after passing the ball); this would mean that before Dani Alvez has his 1st touch on the ball, Xavi Hernandez will already be running to that space that Puyol occupied when he passed the ball.
Can you imagine how much the game would change with such a feature? how much more control we would have over the off-the-ball movement of our team?
I have already tested how it works in PES 2010, and it works surprisingly well…
However, the L2 Concept that I just explained would give us total control over where and when we want that selected individual to move; and because we don’t need to manually control the off-the-ball movement of the selected individual, this would be very compatible with the manual-technical side of the game.
At the moment, with both PES 2010 and FIFA 2010, you do not need to THINK in order to create space… you can play the game by just passing the ball around without thinking about any of your actions, because you know that eventually the opportunity will present itself from out of the blue.
You can simply get hold of the ball and run vertically and this will create space, or you can just pass the ball and subsequently tap the R2 button without thinking about any of your actions.
I mean, would it be entertaining to play Chess without THINKING?
By that principle or concept, I think that either Konami or EA should offer a new take on how Football can be Simulated, and I think they should change how space is created, how opportunities are created; in a way that forces the user into THINKING so that THINKING becomes that “spark” needed for the game to function properly.
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The way I see it, you need to include the so-called “boring” parts of it so that the “fun” parts have an actual reason for being there.
And in order to properly implement the so-called “boring” parts, it will be necessary to move on from the outdated 10 Minute Concept… moving on would only re-establish or re-invent the PES feeling that has been somewhat lost due to the lack of innovation.
I have given one suggestion (the L2 Concept), so that the game can make the leap from 10 Minute Simulation to 20 Minute Simulation.
Like Johnny Minkley (Eurogamer) noticed:
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“further experimentation yields rewards and the flexibility becomes engagingly apparent the more I practice. Konami’s claim of total control over the direction and destination of passes holds up; the one potential downside is the need to rely on AI with no apparent way to send a free player into the space for which you’re aiming”
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It is very clear, that once we have “total control” over the technical side of the game, that is, in terms of passing, shooting, dribbling, and marking; once that happens, it’s not hard to imagine both PES and FIFA evolving in terms of off-the-ball control…
And once we have “total control” over both, the technical and tactical side of the game; would it be possible to play 10 Minute Games?