LATEST PES 2009 UPDATES
Posted by francis in PES 2009 News on Fri 05 Sep
2008
Pro Evolution 2009
After the ‘news’ that the Pro Evolution 2009 demo will be released on Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 on September 11th, everyone has been pretty excited, including me. It was this news that prompted me to properly check out all of the game videos. It left me, if I’m honest, 50% hopeful and 50% disappointed. As PES fans, we seem to hype up the newest, out coming edition so much that when it does arrive, it has a tendency to disappoint, especially if you’ve been looking forward to it for half a year. Or as it seems after the release of PES ’08, over a year! Whilst I was slightly impressed with the new gameplay videos, a part of me was still expecting the ultimate PES edition, whereas it looks like a slightly improved version of Pro Evolution ’08; slowed down a bit, with some more weather effects and improved graphics. Of course I am not going to judge until I get to play the demo, and I would urge others not to either. This time next week eh…
EDIT; Please note – this demo date is the one generally accepted by the majority of people as true so far. I have to make the point that for all the people who come on this website and start slating us by saying things such as ‘‘This website is always about a day slower than WENB, do you just nick their articles’’ and such; WENB just posted a blog about the demo saying that the September 11th release date might not actually happen. Pesgaming.com is a site that – on the whole – aims to produce news on true fact, and not rumour, and this is the reason why.
Following on
Following on from last week’s article about whether games are fairly priced, I received some feedback from people in other countries which surprised me. There’s a lot of numbers in the following part of the article, but I’ve tried to set it out as simply as I can! The first comment from someone outside of the UK or US on the subject was from ‘dude’ who informed me that a game where he lived, Romania, would be around $55; the same as in America. But it is here that I realised how much of a difference the daily wage makes; in Romania, it’s around $10 (£5), whereas where I live in the UK, is around £40. So whereas ‘dude’ would be spending almost two week’s wages on a single game, I would be spending one day’s.
It’s the equivalent of me spending £320 on a new game. In my naivety, I didn’t really think games could be so expensive, let alone more.
Then ‘Jorge2112’ from Brazil also put his two cents in. Over there, a new game costs around $135 (£67). And their minimum wage is $280 (£140) a month. That’s $70 a week, or $14 (£7) a day assuming it’s a 5-day a week working culture. This means that for every 9 and a half days he works, he’s able to afford a new game. That’s the equivalent of me paying £380 for a new game.
Jorge then went on to say that piracy was obviously rife in Brazil, and that a pirate game would be around $6-12. It’s this which makes me completely understand piracy in other countries.
My opinion is that games in the UK and US are fairly priced, and although the companies make huge profits, especially from the big games, they could easily raise the prices and we’d still snap up their games. A day’s work for a computer game doesn’t really seem to me to be that unfair. However, with it not making business sense for the retailers to price their games at the same ratio for other countries, I can see how piracy and frustration grow in other countries.
If I’ve got any of that maths really wrong, please comment and I’ll edit it!
The Big Question
This week’s ‘Big Question’ is a simple one: Your predictions please! PES ’09 – Success, or flop?
As always you can email me at francis_newall@hotmail.co.uk and comments on your preferences to what I talk about, whether you liked it, or just general comments on the article, are all very welcome.
Thanks,
-Francis
Posted by Krishna in PES 2009 News on Thu 04 Sep
2008
Well, looks like there will be a fully licensed Champions League mode with the top 4 English Premier League sides. So, that means Arsenal and Chelsea will join Liverpool and Manchester United as the licensed Premier League teams in the game.
UPDATE: Champions League Mode will be a seperate mode and will not be intergrated in Master League.
Unfortunately, some clubs will be partially licensed, and La liga will have a few top teams fully licensed. However, there have been some rumours that La Liga will not be licensed but apparently La Liga’s teams will be licensed just not the league title. So, no La Liga logo or official name. It’s up to you to decide what is true.
But, a PES 2009 demo WILL be released and it’s coming soon! September 11th infact. That is the same date when the FIFA demo is released too.
UPDATE: Demo is likely to be released 3 weeks before the actual game is released. The Demo should feature various licensed clubs and international teams, which you will able to use in a 5 minute exhibition with 4 players on the Xbox 360/PC version and 7 players on the PS3 version.
Allow your thoughts to be known in the forums, or just comment this article.
More soon hopefully…
Posted by dougiedonut in PES 2009 News on Thu 04 Sep
2008
Thanks to FIFA we have a big shift on where attention is focussed on PES, (and I don’t mean it politely). Once upon a time, we couldn’t care less about the presentation of PES games, or care about the peripheral elements that make up the game. We had PES on one side which played the beautiful game, but was rough around the edges (some might even say very, very rough edges, if not razor sharp), and on the other side we had FIFA which looked the part but couldn’t deliver in the gameplay department.
The FIFA series focussed on style over substance, and was marketed strongly as a more rounder package to appeal to people who wanted to be sold the whole package, not just a bare-bone football game. FIFA traditionally played a poor game of actual football, but people felt that they were playing a game with a higher production quality. This made people enjoy the sport a little more on console format.
With presentation and licences being at the heart of FIFA games, the introduction of steady improvements to graphics, and radual borrowing of gameplay elements from PES, has slowly grown FIFA2009 into a real contender for the crown of top footy title.
This year’s FIFA is being marketed as being more realistic because player’s physicality is key to tussles for the ball, s well as now paying attention to body/ball position when taking shots at goal.
This is something we have always enjoyed on PES, and again shows how far FIFA has come along emulating PES.
Over the course of the past couple of months I’ve seen the sorts of issues people have with PES, and I have to say I can’t agree with some of the types of improvements people would like to see. Of course, I’m not trying to say only my suggested improvements are right, and all other suggestions are a waste of space, but I’d like to discuss the types of improvements which I think are detrimental to PES.
For example, I really dislike all the focus on the crowds the game is getting. I don’t see why people can’t see that by rying to create a more lively crowd, with them bopping away or whatever, with more realistic animations etc, we’re making Konami shift its focus away from the core game. Personally i couldn’t care less if the view of the action only showed the pitch in outerspace. I want to know Konami are focussing on improving how the pitches are used during the game - where weather conditions actually affect ball physics and therefore gameplay. I want more focus on player ovement ranges, with no more of these 90 degree turns players make. Time is taken away from these types of crucial areas for improvement to focus on making the game prettier to compete with FIFA. Let the competition worry about PES, not PES worry about the competition. Yes the PES package could do with tidying up a little, but not at the cost of functionality.
Do we really care if the same flat 2D bloke makes up the entire crowd??
If the next FIFA game bragged about blokes in the crowd now going off for a pie, or going off to have a shite, are we really bothered?? Where is the majority of our playing time focussed? The answer is on the pitch - and that’s where 90% of effort should go. The remaining 10% should be taken to improve game playing modes - i.e. Master League, Scenarios, training etc.
Commentary again is something that gets a lot of attention - again, if it means extra time spent away from the game engine - then I wish they’d stop paying it more attention. I swear the game is better with commentary you don’t understand. I normally have the commentary set to Spanish because the commentator sounds a bit more animated.
Plus there’s only so much of the inane, behind the play commentary you can take in English.
I hope I can generate some healthy debate with my points above, so can we please try to be civil with comments to one another?.
Incidentally - will people still be playing the Master league mode much? With the advent of online gaming, is the Master League still valid? I know I will probably play the mode, but PES online is now the heart of the game. I can’t imagine trying to play the game offline on my own much anymore. Anyone else share my view?
And finally, is it just me that stops playing PES around 6 to 8 weeks before a new release??
I like to starve myself of PES until the new one arrives for an extra special dosage of the beautiful game…
Thanks for reading.
Dougiedonut.
Posted by Dan Bolas in Interfering With Play on Tue 02 Sep
2008
Welcome to this week’s Interfering With Play. As it always is with this time of the year, the rumours that have been circulating all summer start to either become fact or fiction, and the official press releases start to get people excited about the latest offerings in the football gaming world. This week has also seen one of the most dramatic climaxes to a transfer window in footballing history, as Manchester City have become an overnight super power, and United proved that the bully boy tactics they ridiculed Madrid for are alright when it is beneficial to them. With this said, lets move on to this week’s article.
“Hate Is A Strong Word, But I Really, Really, Really Don’t Like You”
There are some people in football that the general public just don’t like. Obviously, United fans are going to dislike Liverpool players and vice versa, similar to most local rivals throughout the country, but there are some people who just seem to rub everyone the wrong way. I am talking about people such as Craig Bellamy, who seems to have annoyed every club he has left, played against or been involved in some way with! I am talking about Joey Barton, the player who has had more chances than a game of Monopoly. I am talking about El Hadj Diouf, who seems to always be involved in a diving or spitting controversy somewhere in the world. But there is one person who really gets on my nerves, and by saying this I think I speak for most of the football world, and that man is Peter Kenyon. Yes, it would be very easy to take the low road and compare his head to that of a cartoon moon, but instead I am simply going to point out some facts about the Chelsea director.
When Roman Abramovich took over at Chelsea, he did what any good businessman would do, who looked for the most successful rival company, and tried to steal some of their most influential figures. He got Juan Sebastian Veron, which turned out to be a flop, but he also took the man ‘responsible’ for United’s marketing dominance, Peter Kenyon. All this was occurring at the time when United had had a huge money bid accepted by Paris St. German for Ronaldinho, and the Brazilian seemed to be on his way to Old Trafford. By some incredible coincidence, the bid was then withdrawn, Ronaldinho went to Spain, and Kenyon was in London tying the loose ends up with Chelsea days later. To me, this is enough to send alarm bells ringing about a man who, whilst having a smart marketing brain, knows very little about the tactical or footballing aspects of the ‘beautiful game’.
But we move on, and over the successful Chelsea years, Mr. Kenyon’s ego began to swell beyond epic proportion. Chelsea are yet to come close to being the global super power that United are, mainly because their lack of a poster boy player (Beckham or Ronaldo) who appeals to the ladies as well as the blokes! Yet Kenyon believes Chelsea will be profitable soon, even though recording huge losses on players such as Shevchenko and Wright Phillips that would have caused heads to roll at 90% of other top clubs. Logic seems to be lost upon him, which again, is no reason to worry too much, as long as he stays talking to Chelsea TV, out of the public eye.
Until May 2008, when following an epic Champions League final, which saw a Terry miss a crucial penalty. What must have been more humiliating for the Chelsea and England skipper would have been to go up second to collect his medal, behind, who else Peter Kenyon. Why on earth should Peter Kenyon go up and collect a Champion’s League finalist’s medal? Did he play? Did he do anything to aid Chelsea getting there? It was Abramovich’s money, and I am pretty sure most people could negotiate a good deal for players if they had unlimited funds! That night in Moscow was a huge kick in the teeth for both footballers and fans everywhere, as a businessman led a team up to collect medals.
And we come to this week, where once again, Kenyon has been raving about how Chelsea is a huge club because they can attract to players like Robinho to them. Enter Manchester City, who, right under Chelsea’s nose, stole the Brazilian’s signature, and with it proved that Chelsea lack genuine pulling power! I don’t hate Roman Abramovich, or Chelsea football club for the impact they have had on the Premier League over the past 5 years at all, but am frustrated and annoyed by the actions of their Director, Peter Kenyon. Any views would be most welcomed on this, especially from Chelsea and United fans.
“Here It Is Again, Though It Feels Like The First Time”
As I have said for the past few weeks, this time of year throws up the same situations on an annual basis. The German game convention, Leipzig, provides us with in game footage of PES, and at the same time EA Sports released a glam, high resolution video of their FIFA series, and the casual gaming public are immediately drawn to the better looking product. Everyone who has played the EA Sports title over the past 5 years or so will know that the actual in game footage plays no where near as natural or as smoothly as the promotional video, and this is coming from someone who owns every FIFA since it was released as FIFA International Soccer back in 1993.
Of course, there will be people each year who think that FIFA is making progress, catching up ground on Pro Evolution Soccer, and that soon they will be on a par with game play, and FIFA’s graphics will win over the masses, but again this is just not true. FIFA relies heavily on cut scenes, with goal celebrations being actual videos as opposed to being part of the action, and anyone who has watched the half time highlights packages will vouch for the graphics, whilst still being crisp, not being as sweet as those featured on the videos. PES is consistent, so whilst the starting videos and goal celebrations are not as polished as those from EA Sports, they are exactly the same as the match engine graphics. This means no black screen pauses in-between, and no cut in the action, which is important for many gamers.
When push comes to shove, FIFA 09 will still win over those casual gamers, especially those who want a quick football fix, and don’t care much for tactical knowledge or varying game play. And that is fine; as I am exactly the same if I were playing a game of a sport I wasn’t a huge fan of. For me, EA Sports provide a decent Ice Hockey and Basketball series that I will play. But speaking to fans of the sport, they prefer 2K Sports’ offerings, citing realism as the main difference between the two companies. Many Pro Evolution Soccer fans are true football fans. They are the ones that spend hours editing kits, playing tournaments and changing appearances. In fact, most PES fans over the next two or three days will be in Edit mode updating their transfers, because they love football and they love the game. PES is the football fans choice, and personally, I wouldn’t have it any other way!
Just just a quick note follows this to this FIFA fans that continue to visit this site and slate all things Pro Evolution Soccer. In my experience, there aren’t too many PES fans that go to FIFA sites, mainly because they know which is the superior game, and the fact that FIFA fans are on this site, means they must be slightly worried about the competition!
“Three Lions On Our Shirt”
Some great points made regarding last week’s point about England. Unfortunately, I don’t have time to speak to everyone about their individual topics, but I think the overall feeling, from both foreigners and the English, is the same. There are four or five big name players who just don’t seem to do it for England, and therefore it is time for Capello to be strong, kick them out and make changes for the good of the national team. We didn’t qualify for the last major tournament, with all these players in the team, so what makes us think using the same players will have a different result. It might even be a case of bringing in players who are technically not as good as the Gerrard, Lampard and Rooney club, but who will bring better positional awareness and work well as a unit. The next 9 days sees the first round of World Cup qualifiers, and a battle against the highly rated Croatia. This will give a good indication of how England have progressed, if at all, under Mr. Capello, and will no doubt give more talking points for Interfering With Play in the weeks to come.
“Lets Try This One More Time With Feeling”
In defence of my points regarding Pro Evolution Soccer copying FIFA, with the Be A Pro, Be A Legend mode, I would like to make my reference slightly more clear. I know a few people did not like the implication that I feel Pro Evolution Soccer has copied FIFA, based on the fact that Winning Eleven (the Japanese version of PES) had the game mode before FIFA released it over here. By point about them copying was based on two premises. Firstly, why did Konami not release this feature in PES2008 last year, even if it was only on the PS2 and PSP versions? They had developed a game months before with this mode on, yet failed to include it for Western release. They must have lacked confidence in the game mode, and therefore could have used FIFA’s ‘Be A Pro’ mode to see how it was received in Europe. I have actually experienced Konami’s Fantasy Star Mode on Winning Eleven 2007, and in theory, it works a lot better than FIFA’s variant. Not including it in PES2008 was a huge kop out in my opinion.
Secondly, and again turning upon my knowledge from previous business courses, is regarding branding. In business, a weaker company may latch onto a stronger one in order to try and confuse customers into choosing their product. A prime example being the Penguin chocolate biscuit taking a company to court over using the name ‘Puffin’ and featuring the image of a bird in an identical pose! I am not saying for one second that Konami are the weaker company, but calling the game mode Be A Legend, oozes the feeling they are trying to get FIFA fans to look over and see that PES has a similar game mode. Perhaps Konami will change the title before its actual release, maybe to something like Career Mode or even use the translated Fantasy Star Mode, but the name ‘Be A Legend’ mode does make neutrals see copying from mile off. Yes, the idea was Konami’s first, but now, to the unknowing consumer, it seems they are the ones doing the imitating. At least I hope that clears my point up.
“Where Do You Go, My Lovely?”
This week’s poll is a pretty basic one, and asks the question which console or system you will be purchasing PES 2009 for. The last couple of years, I personally have brought the game on PS3, PSP and PC, but have mainly played the game on PS3. In cases like this, please select the console you will be playing the game on for the majority of the time. By doing this, it will give me and PESGaming.com a good idea of numbers of players, especially regarding online tournaments and option files.
Poll Currently Down: Am Sorting It Over Next 48 Hours!
That’s your lot for this week. As always Interfering With Play is longer than the other columns on the site, but I tend to find I am always struggling to fit all the points in, and don’t wish to shorten the article, at risk of missing something out. I know this may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but at the same time, know that some people enjoy spending their working day reading the site, and the longer the article, the better! Also, a quick note to Steve From Stoke regarding the poll two weeks ago. I personally enjoyed your column, and believe that in spite of the large numbers against it, there are still a lot of people that would enjoy reading it. I stressed my support on it during its first week, (check back if your not sure) and really hope you do continue to write it, as its completely different to anything else on this site! intereferingwithplay@hotmail.co.uk is the place you can e-mail me personally, or add me to msn, and thanks as always to Dave Ostrander for the IWP logo!
Thanks for Reading
Posted by francis in PES 2009 News on Fri 29 Aug
2008
Pro Evolution Soccer 2009
With the release of gameplay videos, screenshots, and all of those new details of how PES ’09 has developed since ’08, excitement is reaching fever pitch. Whilst the optimists speculate on how it’s going to be ‘like PES 05 but next gen,’ and the pessimists speculate on how it’s going to be ‘a slightly graphically improved PES ’08,’ all we can really do is wait. The demo will tell all, and whilst I’m not ‘in the know’ of when it will be released, my guess is around mid-late September, if the actual game is released in October. Then we’ll have some real, crazy activity on this website! You heard it here first! (Even though it was obvious…)
The Real Deal
I don’t own that many games for my Xbox360; Pro Evo ‘08, Battlefield: Bad Company, Halo 3, Rainbow 6 Las Vegas 2, and Splinter Cell: Double Agent, the latter which I got for £4 :)
For each of these games (with the exception of Splinter Cell) I paid around £35 for when they came out, and to me that’s a fair price. I played Halo 3 and BFBC online for a good four or five months after their respective releases; and Pro Evo is the game I constantly go back to, the one which I never bore of. Rainbow 6 was a great game in its own right, and a lengthy one at that. However, I can imagine that if you’re someone who likes a lot of variety, then you’re going to be spending a large amount of money on new games, and might have a solid view that videogames are too expensive. I apologise to those from other countries, but I assume that if you’re in America, then your brand new games are going to be $70-80?
Are there gamers amongst you that think games today are overpriced? £40 is a little under a days work at minimum wage in England, so I can definitely see how people could think games are overpriced, especially if you enjoy a lot of variety in your collection!
Kicking a hornets nest
It seems the majority of people aren’t fans of PES ’08, and even though I am, I know it could have been better; more like PES 6 maybe, but why not spread some love and write a few things we liked about it? I liked the fact that footballers with more powerful shots were more accurately represented with regard to this ability – hit a shot with Gerrard, Rooney, even Lampard to a degree, and you know that it’s been HIT! Having written that, I realise it’s a lot easier to write what I don’t like about it…
Visitors
I never really noticed how many people from different countries visit, and indeed comment on this site. It does make me slightly proud to be a Pesgaming.com blogger, and I like the fact that people are able to come on this website and share their ideas, views and opinions freely and easily.
Apologies about the slightly brief post this week, but with all the new information coming out I didn’t want to clog up the news page. As always you can email me at francis_newall@hotmail.co.uk and comments on your preferences to what I talk about, whether you liked it, or just general comments on the article, are all very welcome.
Thanks,
-Francis
Posted by Krishna in PES 2009 News on Fri 29 Aug
2008
Thanks to “2-Face” and “Miggy” in the forums for posting these scans from PSM3 Magazine. I’ve outlined a few points that you might find interesting.
The Magazine states:
“PES 2009 is the official game of Team England, allowing official kits and, better, a realistically rendered new Wembley.”
“Everything that was ‘broken’ in last years game is largely, if not entirely, fixed. Slowdown? Good as gone - in over ten games in multiple stadiums, we barely noticed it.”
“The weather’s dynamic too, so showers mutate into downpours as play progresses - with weather dependent on the country and stadium.”
“It’ll be possible to share Option Files online.”
“It’s still possible to streak pass multipls defenders.”
This is new:
You can now put the radar anywhere on the screen.
You can draw emblems from scratch.
There’s a range of licensed footwear.
You can now preview hairstyles from a menu.
If I failed to mentioned something I should of, please comment this post or comment in the forums and let your opinions be known. And if you haven’t seen Cristiano Ronaldo’s trademark free kick in action click here to watch it.
Enjoy!
Posted by dougiedonut in PES 2009 News on Thu 28 Aug
2008
FIFA 2009. Apparently there’s a lot of buzz around the game this year.
Yes, I know, there normally is around this time of the year, but if you’ve seen any footage of the game at all,
I think you would agree that we have a serious contender this time round.
After years of mediocre, superficial titles, they may finally have caught up with PES in the gameplay department.
We know that FIFA has always had presentation and style at the forefront, but we always dismissed that side of the game, because we prefer the solid gameplay that PES delivers.
My question to you all is quite simply, what if?
What if this year, they have a better game than PES? I know I’m entering the terrain of blashphemy right now, especially on a PES site, but please hear me out. I would like to encourage serious debate about this question. I’m not advocating FIFA above PES, or trying to start a fight, but just asking the question.
We all knew that this was a possibility, albeit a remote one. But could FIFA finally have the upper hand?
Personally speaking, I’m looking forward to the demo of FIFA arriving soon, to test it out myself.
I would like to know how much it has come along, and will be looking to compare it to PES.
For the record I haven’t bought a FIFA game since buying FIFA ‘95 on my megadrive years ago.
I have played the odd FIFA title over the years, but only to laugh at it, and ridicule the owners of the game. But this year, we may have a very hard decision to make.
I would like to refer you all to the warnings that Dan has been giving in this week’s IWP, and like him,
ask us all to take a step back from the building euphoria surrounding PES.
PES may finally deliver a title worth purchasing, but then again, we thought that last year.
I think this year, PES will rectify most of the complaints we had about PES2008, but not really give us the total overhaul that Seabass talked about last year. I think they have slipped back into old habits, and just tried to patch up the game, rather than think about a proper current-gen version.
As some people have commented, it could be PES2010 that does that. But right now, it seems that FIFA may be onto a winner.
So the natural question to follow the “what if” question is - how many of you would seriously consider purchasing FIFA over PES? Or both?
I think it would be more prudent to take in the demo of FIFA, then once PES is released, to contrast and compare, should FIFA have a proper game on their hands.
Something else I would like to ask is - does anyone else feel they can easily pick up and play past versions of PES, and relive just how good they were? I do this on occasion, and feel each version had its merits and still are playable.
Now that’s something FIFA fans can’t really claim to be able to do. Whilst each version for them has improved,
I think its safe to say that the previous versions do compare unfavourably. Again, this could be interpreted as FIFA making steady progress, or as showing how poor the “current” version was, when revisited after a better version is released.
To help this debate, view the following:
www.gamersyde.com/news_7031_en.html
OK that’s me done, now over to you guys - and please remember to respect each other’s views, no matter how much you disagree with them. We’re not all the same, and it would be a boring world if we were.
Cheers
Dougiedonut
Posted by Dan Bolas in Interfering With Play on Tue 26 Aug
2008
Welcome to this week’s Interfering With Play. The news from the PES world is starting to steam roller, to coincide with the pace picking up in the domestic football season. There is no denying that in this respect, Konami and EA Sports have their release timing spot on. Unlike other gaming franchises, which tend to release slightly closer to major holidays, the October releases show that both PES and Fifa have a decent marketing concept, something that has definitely improved over the years. Yes excitement levels are beginning to rise, but in some cases, so to is naivety, especially among a large section of the PES public. Lets get rolling with this week’s Interfering With Play.
“Have I Told You How Good, It Feels To Be Me”
For those of you unfamiliar with my gaming situation, I would consider myself a borderline addict. I own a lot of games, some that are still yet to be played, and am a stickler for completing games before moving on to the next one. Some people would call it an addiction, which is of course totally your opinion. I have a very physically based job, am outside a lot of the time, and have a great deal of social commitments, so when I have free time, I do like to sit in front of the PS3, or PC and play some top quality entertainment. I also like reading and finding out about the industry, and am starting to understand developer talk. For example, a developer saying, ‘We don’t feel it is the right time to release the game into the market’ usually means ‘a similar title is coming out that is better than ours, and we won’t be able to compete!’
Unfortunately, Konami has dropped the ball with its press release the other day. ‘We’ve stopped worrying about what FIFA’s doing and started concentrating on what PES does best’ was a comment made by the Konami press officer a few weeks ago, and for me alarm bells immediately went off. When ISS and PES began, they could not care less what Fifa was doing, and as a result the game started to build up in its own right. Features such as unique player appearances, different free kick styles and even more control over which foot your player struck the ball with, were all huge, unique selling points of ISS Pro Evolution Soccer in the late 90’s, and they were things that it took FIFA along time to catch up on. Indeed, features such as an in-game shop, featuring unlockable items were first brought in on the Konami franchise, only for EA Sports to follow suit. The main factor that stopped PES being purchased by the ‘casual’ footballer gamer was the lack of official kits and names, something that in the last 5 years, Konami have done very little to rectify.
This year’s offering gives us more similarities than ever with FIFA, and makes me begin to wonder. Features such as Be A Legend, whilst I am sure will be enjoyable, are virtually a copy of FIFA’s Be A Pro mode, and the fact Konami have snapped up a couple of strange licenses implies that more than ever, they are trying to play catch up. Those who visit at regular intervals will know that not only have Konami lost the Spanish La Liga license (and with it the rights for official team strips and badges) but they have gained the license for Wembley, which featured on last years FIFA, and for Liverpool football club, which means that in spite of having the official license, they will be unable to display an actual sponsor due to it being alcohol!
I am as big a PES fan as you will come across, but I am also a realist. There are some very exciting new features in PES 2009, but in true Konami style, they have already dropped the ball on a number of occasions. Instead of trying to play catch up with the EA Sports, they should just keep their mouths shut, and let their game, which is still the best footballing franchise in the world, do the talking.
“I Don’t Belong Here”
Resorting back to PES 2008 now, and as with many of you, I am still playing it as much as the first week I brought it. It spends as much, if not more time in the PS3 as Metal Gear Solid 4 and Grand Theft Auto IV, which give you an idea of how highly it is regarded amongst my mates and myself. However, I have another exceptional grumble about penalty kicks, something that I am sure many of you will have experienced. In a recent Konami cup game against Torino, the game went to a penalty shoot out, which is part and parcel of a cup competition. As Middlesbrough, I chose 5 players with decent shooting and accuracy, Downing, Mido, Arca, Alves and Tuncay. Downing has scored each penalty he has taken during normal time, and Mido was top scorer with 6 goals in 3 games. I saved the first Torino penalty, guessing the right way, and then scored my first, again with Downing. The second Torino penalty hit the post, and I felt I was well on my way to a victory. How very wrong I was! My next four Penalties all went wide, no matter where in the goal I aimed the shot. Torino scored their last three, one with me even going the right way! I appreciate that a Penalty shoot out is a lottery in real life, but once again, must stress that when you have no control over event, it is hardly a level playing field. I stress again, that different types of penalties, such as chip, power and placement should be included as options, which each having their own strengths and weaknesses as appropriate. I open this up to the PESGaming.com community, and ask for your experiences on the subject.
“I Saw The Sign”
I do take time to read other peoples columns on PESGaming.com, as like myself, they do produce some very valid points. The results of last week’s poll showed that people did not really like the ‘different’ style offered by Steve From Stoke, and that Interfering With Play proved the least likely to fold, albeit because of a history of week in, week out postings. However, with these comments comes proof that PESGaming.com has received a great deal of ‘new’ visitors, and people who may not know the full story, especially regarding the subject on a Konami petition.
Firstly, any kind of petition to influence PES 2009 would have to have been sent around 6 months ago, when the game first went into development. At this stage, PES 2009 is around 75% complete, which means the majority of the coding is done and dusted. What will be happening now is Konami’s play testing department will be checking for bugs and errors in the code, which will be ‘hopefully’ removed before the game hits our shops. Features such as game modes, teams and graphics are done and dusted, and any petition now would have to look into PES 2010, and would be unrealistic, seeing as the 2009 version is not available yet!
Secondly, and probably the reason for the first point, is the fact that how I know so many new visitors have joined this site. In January and February, Interfering With Play led a campaign entitled ‘Seabass Letter’. Over the two months, I wrote a paragraph about each of the six key areas of the game, Presentation, Game Play, Graphics, Edit & Sound, Features And Game Modes and Online. Each week, the community either added to the points, or said some were not as important. Of course, as Francis said, this resulted in a conflict of opinions, but over the course of seven weeks, it left us with a letter outlining the views of the PESGaming.com community.
The letter was made public on this site, before being sent to various departments within Konami and to Seabass himself. It was sent on the 29th February 2009, and to this day, neither myself, nor PESGaming.com have received any response or acknowledgement for our efforts or contributions. No matter how you stack the numbers, and believe me, hundreds of thousands of unique visitors come through the PESGaming.com doors every month, Konami simply was not interested in hearing the views of one of the largest PES online communities. Who knows, they may have taken some of the points into account, only time will tell. I do intend, upon PES’ release to look back at the points made in the letter, and see exactly how many cross-references to the end product. But as far as a petition goes, I am afraid, like myself, anyone who spends the time producing it is just going to have their work falling on deaf ears.
‘Its Coming Home’
Just a quick point regarding the English national team, a subject that could have an entire column dedicated to it. Am I missing something, or has Capello actually made this side good backwards. An established, successful club manager is something that, bar Sven, England hasn’t had since Bobby Robson, and now we have one, we seem to be doing worse. I know we get many foreign visitors on this site, and even if your from other parts of the UK, I would love you input on how the English national side is reflected worldwide. I am sure most teams would love to have a Gerrard or a Rooney in them, but is it a case of too many big egos? Or is it because they have so used to playing with foreigners in their club teams that have a better understanding of the game technically? Your views, as always are greatly appreciated.
‘If We Catch A Criminal’
Another quick point, and it is something I will stress again before PES 2009 comes out. PES brings a great community together. In the past this included sharing option files or edit codes, hopefully something that will occur again in this version. However, there is on scam that is currently being worked that some of you may not be aware. When playing PES online, unlike many other games, you are required to log into Konami’s server and not just use X Box Live or the PSN, as I am sure many of you are aware. There are some people out there who will claim to have ‘lost’ their activation code and are unable to access the online section, requesting they ‘borrow’ yours. Of course, this is a huge scam. Normally these individuals have pirate versions of the game, and because of this, are unable to play online. This damages both genuine gamers and the companies that develop the game, and I would like to warn you about this problem. Do not give your online PES details to anyone, as it will 99% be a scam, and you will end up in hot water if Konami investigate the situation!
‘And I Wonder If You Know’
Finally this week’s poll. Konami have a reputation for removing aspects of PES games that in the past have been successful. This includes things such as the PES shop, the ability to mix and match home and away shirts and shorts and the simple ability to play a penalty shoot out with mates. Couple this with features such as poor edit mode in previous next generation offerings, and you can be pretty sure something will be missing from PES 2009 that was a key feature in PES2008. This poll is your opportunity to guess what it will be. Obviously, preannounced features such as Diving, which is in, or La Liga, which is out, are not included in the poll! Anything you think I have missed can be added in the comments section below.
That’s your lot for this week’s column. interferingwithplay@hotmail.co.uk is the new address you can reach me on, with your comments, queries or questions. I get about 20-50 mails a week, and therefore cannot reply to everyone, I will do my best to answer your question either personally, or if not in next week’s column. Dave Ostrander is the man responsible for the logo at the top of this article, many thanks to him for his excellent design work. And finally, the IWP League is drawing to its final stages next week, more news in next week’s article.
Thanks for Reading
Posted by francis in PES 2009 News on Mon 25 Aug
2008
This is what was unfortunately not posted last Friday for me, although now I’m a little more knowledgeable about the blog-writing software, it shouldn’t happen again!
Introduction
Hey guys. I’m currently at Reading Festival so I’ve only had until Wednesday night to write this column. This is the second edition of my ‘In The Red’ column, and I’d like to thank you for all of the [almost all positive!] responses from last week’s.
New season
So, the new season has started, and with a 4-0 thrashing of Pompey, Chelsea are looking good. It’s obviously early days, but with Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool winning their first matches, and United not playing as well as they would have liked against Newcastle, I can’t help but think it’s quite obvious that there’s going to be the ‘Big 4’ divide again this year.
I am going to talk about the England League season as it goes on and on, and for those of you who didn’t like me focusing on Liverpool in the last edition, I apologise. I was only trying to raise a little discussion about the influence of boardrooms on the football pitch, and talking about Liverpool every week is something I am not going to do.
New ideas for PES
The thing I’ve come to realise whilst getting older and watching England League football on Match of the Day (no season ticket for me…), is how defences can’t afford to let strikers have even two seconds of room outside of the box, otherwise they might find themselves in a lot of trouble. I’m not even referring to the big name players such as Rooney or Lampard, but any club striker really, such as Dean Ashton or Heskey; obviously, still big names in their own right.
I was thinking whether this should - or even could - be incorporated into Pro Evo? Maybe if a forward manages to turn past a midfielder, setting the ball up for a long range effort, the shot could be a little more accurate?
New ideas for PES are always welcome, and I hope you don’t mind me sharing mine occasionally.
I can’t remember who responded somewhere saying that a ‘PES petition’ should be created and passed onto Konami. I thought this was a good idea, but surely this petition wouldn’t work? Everyone has different ideas about what should be incorporated in Pro Evo ’09, just as everyone has different music tastes, so maybe in this petition the best we could hope for would be a list of general ideas and opinions?
The Contract Debate
With the Cristiano Ronaldo debacle this summer, it’s made me think about the loyalty of players, and the ability of big name players to almost force their managers to sell them. They don’t seem to realise that a contract is exactly that, a CONTRACT. Maybe CR should have thought of his wish to play in Spain before he signed for United. I don’t think there is going to be a way around this really, apart from managers standing up to players who try to do this, so I wholeheartedly applaud Alex Ferguson… however much it pains me to do so!
This week’s ‘column’ is a little shorter than I would have liked, though having had to finish it before Thursday, I was a little pressed for time! As always you can email me at francis_newall@hotmail.co.uk and comments on your preferences to what I talk about, whether you liked it, or just general comments on the article, are all very welcome.
Thanks,
-Francis
Posted by Krishna in PES 2009 News on Fri 22 Aug
2008
Well, so far so good for all you PESGamers. All sorts have been coming in thick and fast, I have been finding it hard to keep up. This information has been gathered from various playtests. Playtesters played a 70% completed game therefore certain flaws might be fixed when the finished game is released. Here is another gameplay video, click here and credit to “muzza798″ for posting this gameplay video in the PESGaming forums.
Here are some of the improvements, facts and flaws in this years game:
- Some new features enhance game’s realism, like players calling for the ball and a sense of genuine intelligence
- Animations have now been smoothed out, more of a natural flow to the game now
- A Major European Competition will be Licensed in this years game
- No La Liga License this year
- 4 Players able to play in a game online (2 vs 2)
- ‘Become a Legend’ mode can be played online
- Cannot play as a Goalkeeper or Defender in ‘Become a Legend’ mode
- Better edit mode, very intricate
- Master League points have change to currency (Apparently)
- New Manual Pass system
- Goalkeepers have improved
- Improved tackling, now harder to beat players
- Shooting is also harder, Striker’s stats and body positioning play a bigger part in how accurate a shot will be
- Player models have improved, players look more realistic (Beckham even has his neck tattoos)
- Lighting effects have been improved
- Long balls and crosses seem a bit ”floaty”
- The ”Invisible wall” around throw in taker still exists
- New “clearer” menu system
- Wembley confirmed to feature in this years game
- French Ligue 1, Italian Serie A and Dutch Eredivisie will be licensed in this years game
- Argentina, Brazil, England, France, Greece, Holland, Italy, Ivory Coast, Japan, Portugal, Spain and Turkey are the confirmed national teams at this point
- Manchester United and Liverpool FC are the only 2 English teams licensed in this years game
- Jon Champion and Mark Lawrenson return in this years game, with a few new lines and comments
- Custom MP3 files can be imported into the game to be played on the menus
- Still no mainstream music, but there are over 60 rock songs to choose from
- The Lobby returns in this years game making it easier to find your opponents online
- Boots will be fully customizable in this years game too
- New ability to import sound files, so players can create their own chants
- The look of the grass has been improved
- The ball does not seem to roll for an enternity along the grass
- LED advertising boards have been added (Only on the next gen versions)
- Goal nets have been improved
You may well know some of this information already. It’s just a quick heads up. There are many more videos and updates in the PESGaming forums, check them out. Leave your comments on how this will improve the game plus what would you like to change?
