PES Chronicles

Oh dear. I am not happy with PES2008 at the moment. I am not happy at all. Seabass, what were you thinking?

The picture is clear enough to tell the tale of the tape. I suppose I should be thankful that I ‘only’ managed to get 57% possession. Kaiser scored a hat trick in this game. When the eighth goal went in I was not thinking ‘wow!‘. I was thinking ‘ow…‘

This game was one of a cluster of similar games in the League. I was totally dominant, had chances galore, and could have scored 10 in each of them. I beat Blackburn 3-1 and it was easy. I beat West Ham 5-1 and it was easy. Then this 8-0 came along.

The sad truth about PES2008 is that goals are much too easy to come by. This means that, over a period of time spent with the game, there is a proportionate decrease in satisfaction at scoring them. I could draw up some kind of graph to illustrate this point, but I’m not very motivated right now.

If it wasn’t for Europe – where it seems a little tougher to score hatfuls of goals (as it should be) – and the occasional League game that’s also a bit of a struggle, I do believe I might have abandoned PES2008 a few days ago. That was when the novelty of being able to score almost at will started to wear off.

If the high-scoring matches were isolated instances of me playing particularly well, then there might be some hope. There might be some prospect of PES2008 having a year-long lifespan, like all its predecessors. But scoring four, five or six goals per game is the norm this year. And I am an average PES player.

PES2008 might not last until Christmas at this rate.

Fortunately, if/when I restart Master League, I can always go with my own House Rules to make the core gameplay challenging again. I could operate under any number of self-imposed restrictions.

I could avoid having some – or most, or all - of the players I’ve had this time round. I could limit myself to a squad of only 26 players. Or I could maintain an under-21 squad (i.e. only a handful of players allowed over the age of 21). Or I could do all of these things and a few more. Exactly how far the House Rules will go remains to be seen.

The idea is to force myself to play with a less talented team against teams with considerably more ability. I have done it before, in PES4 – another ‘easy’ year, but nowhere near as easy as this one. It worked very well back then, and I played that game for the whole year.

I’ve already tested how this could work on PES2008. On the back of my 100-goals-per-game run in Master League, I played several Exhibition games as Ireland against the likes of Brazil, Argentina, and Italy. The games were exciting again, as I defended for my life and had to make the most of the few good chances that came the way of my relatively less skilful players.

If it works in Master League, there might be life in the old dog yet. Of course, I’d have to review my House Rules on a season-by-season basis, to ensure I never again assembled a team of runaway superstars. But I’m getting way ahead of myself, talking like this.

I’ve won nothing yet. The way I’ve been talking recently is a textbook example of how to make a rod for your own back. Ah well. If I miss out on the Treble this season and end up with egg on my face I’ll just come back and edit out the last few paragraphs. Bwahahaha, as they say on the internet.

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Below is the current league table after 16 games. Manchester United have finally dropped some points. I’m a point behind them. Look at my goals scored: 62. After 16 games. My goal difference of +47 is stupid. Just stupid.

In Europe, I drew 0-0 with Le Mans – my only 0-0 all season in all competitions. In the D1 Cup, I easily overcame Galatasaray 3-0 in the second leg.

The Treble is still on. But I’m not as excited about going for it as I should be.

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Coventry City have reached the fabled ‘A’ rating for Team Popularity. It finally happened – at least three seasons later than it should have done, but I like to take the roundabout route to success.

The only thing to ponder now is: what happens next? I notice that the progress bar is still… progressing. Is there an A+ rank or something? Nobody tell me. I’ll find out for myself.

What a long season this is turning out to be. Once you start playing in Europe and doing well in the domestic Cup, it’s always been a long season in any Master League on any PES. Here I am in week 16 – still two weeks short of reaching the mid-season negotiations – and already I have played a total of 32 matches in all competitions.

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Next time on peschronicles: I film myself ceremonially melting the game disc in a vat of molten lead. No, not really. But almost…

Next time it’ll be the mid-season negotiations. A certain Monsieur Mathieu will be getting yet another call from me. You know, for old time’s sake.