Rosenborg Comments Off
I have just played the first game of my second ML season with WE United on the PSP. I played Rosenborg and lost 2-1. I was 2-0 down within 30 minutes of the start. Both their goals followed several good tackles by me where the ball instantly went straight to a CPU player. The ball ping-ponged around the edge of my area like this for a while, until the goal came.
It has to be said that I did not play well. I’m stubbornly sticking with my customary 4-3-3 formation, despite not having good enough players to make it work effectively. I barely have any presence in midfield, and my attackers need to get lucky for me to even get a shot away. The CPU defence just mops up every attack, almost every time.
My goal came unexpectedly from a corner. Usually with corners I play it short and try to draw the defence out, work an opening. I was so frustrated with the game and with myself that I just randomly lofted this corner into the area and pressed square repeatedly. One of my strikers connected with the corner and headed it into Rosenborg’s net.
It was the last goal of the game. I had some good chances but skyed them all. So I’ve lost the opening game. Dammit.
PES often winds up even its most devout fans, but the PSP version of PES6 just winds me up to the max. The controls seem fiddly and imprecise. I’ll often send a pass in completely the wrong direction at the worst possible times. I know that this happens on the game’s bigger console brothers too – it just seems to happen on the PSP even more. But I could cope with the controls. It’s the bleedin’ loading times on the PSP that get to me.
Every time there’s a break in play the game pauses to load up the next bit of itself. Substitutions are the worst. But even something as simple as a goalkick will see you staring at your reflection in a blank screen for several long seconds. Add on all the pre-game loading, and the halftime loading, and it feels as if you spend more time waiting for things to load than you do actually playing the game.
It’s no accident that I have never really bothered with the PSP versions of the game. I’m only indulging myself now because I’m impatient for PES2008 and I want to keep my eye in. I’m not sure I can stick it out for 16 days. I might dust off my PS2 and resume my Master League career on it for a while. Or if the PS3 demo of PES2008 hits the PSN store on Thursday, I might just abandon PES6 altogether.
That’s one big if, though.