PES Chronicles

Today is the last day of FIFA08 week on PES Chronicles. That’s two days sooner than I’d planned, but I have my reasons, as I will explain.

First and foremost, I finished my PES2008 Master League a few days before my last post about it on this blog. Thus, I’ve been playing FIFA08 for more than a week now. It’s time for me to go back to PES.

It’s long enough for me to have satisfied my curiosity about FIFA08 and come to terms with the PES2008 debacle. Yes, PES2008 is a broken game. Yes, it’s a betrayal of the fanbase and of the series’ illustrious past. Yes, Seabass and Konami acted unwisely and unprofessionally in releasing it when they did in such an horrific condition. No, we will never forgive or forget. Yes, portions of the gaming press – online and offline – acted disgracefully in failing to report the game’s faults. No, we will never forgive or forget.

I am extremely impressed by FIFA08. The more I play it, the more I like it. The more I like it, the more I am in danger of starting to love it.

If I ever get to that point, I’d start to feel really scared. “Mum, Dad. Sit down. There’s something I’ve got to tell you. I… I think I might love FIFA…”

I doubt that will ever happen, though. I like FIFA08 a lot and I wholeheartedly applaud the franchise’s new direction. But I doubt that I will ever come to love FIFA08.

There is something missing. I can be playing this tough, tough game, scrapping for the ball in midfield, sending a long, looping aerial through-ball up to my strikers, trying my best to get in a shot from a tight angle, and I’ll be enjoying it… But then suddenly, unaccountably, I’ll find myself feeling slightly bored and uninvolved.

When I was chasing the Quadruple and got knocked out of the League Cup by Burnley, I was only slightly disappointed. The immersion-factor just isn’t there for me in FIFA08.

Yes, formally speaking, FIFA08 is better than PES2008 on the field of play. It’s harder, the gameplay is more like the real-world game of football, and I can see that it would take me at least a year to master. If I was in the business of awarding review scores (I’m not), I’d give FIFA08 an 8/10 and say that FIFA09 will be a 9 or 10/10 game if this is anything to go by. PES2008 would only be a 7/10 game for me.

But practically speaking, PES2008 just edges FIFA08 as an overall experience, in my opinion. Not by much, but it does.

It’s obvious what is happening here. PES2008 is a PES game (obviously), and I am a PES man (naturally), and thus I am biased toward the PES game (obviously and naturally). Sure, I can take off my PES hat and acknowledge that FIFA08 is better than PES2008 in enough areas to make it the superior football game this year.

That still doesn’t mean I have to like it more.

Objectively speaking, there is a tallest mountain in the world and a longest river in the world. There is no such thing as the best mountain in the world or the best river in the world. Likewise, there is no such thing as the best game in the world.

All of this aimless waffling (I do like to waffle, don’t I?) leads me to this conclusion: as of right now, I’m playing PES again as my primary football game for the next 10 months. I’ll still pick up FIFA08 from time to time, but it’s PES all the way.

I’ll start a Superleague in Master League on PES2008, ‘complete’ that (i.e. win a Treble or two) – and then probably move back to PES5 or PES6.

Why should I stick with two above-average games – PES2008 and/or FIFA08 – just because they’re new and presented in High Definition? Why, when I have a couple of stonking 10/10 football games just sitting on my shelf gathering dust? There is no reason why.

I just hope PES2009 is worth the wait. I really do.