Bourbon, straight. Leave the bottle.
As ever, Sunday is other football game day on PES Chronicles. Except… apart from a token few matches on next-gen FIFA08, I haven’t really played any other football games this week.
I’m currently going through a dark time with next-gen PES2008. It turns out that my draconian House Rules (well, I think they’re draconian) might not be tough enough. Once again I find myself more or less going through the motions in far too many games. This might be down to me being very busy with other stuff away from PES over the past week or so. I’ve got a few days off work next week so I’ll see how the leisure time affects my play.
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Dagenham & Redbridge are near the top of Coca Cola League 2 in my second next-gen FIFA08 manager mode career. Playing this game so infrequently nowadays means that I’m struggling to do anything except draw 0-0 or 1-1. My previous two games were both 0-0, then it looked like the last game of the session was going to end 1-1. Not good enough really, and it was all going to cost me in the end. If I slipped down to fourth place and missed out on promotion I’d probably quit the entire manager mode career and go back to my Coventry City galacticos.
Ah, but in the last minute of stoppage time, Huckerby popped up in the box:
A fine looping header over the keeper. I know that I keep saying it about FIFA08, but this goal was another rarity. Most of my headers fly past the post or over the bar for no apparent reason. Did the game want me to score that goal? Are football video gamers amongst the most paranoid people on earth?
Apart from these three games on FIFA08, I haven’t touched any other football game.
I’m still waiting to get a new PC on which to play Football Manager 2008. That’ll be sometime in the summer.
I’ve still to play LMA Manager 2007 on the Xbox360. Maybe I’ll give that a whirl sometime this week.
Sensible Soccer might as well not exist for me. It was the most pointless £7 (or whatever it was) that I’ve ever spent on a game. I’m sure Sensi is a lot of fun for its dedicated fans, but as I said a few weeks ago I missed out on the game the first time around—in the mid-90s—and it’s possibly too late for me to get into it now. I will definitely give it another try for at least a couple of continuous hours. (So far I’ve only managed short bursts of twenty minutes here, half an hour there.) That will be the last test. Sensible Soccer is drinking in the Last Chance Saloon. At least it won’t be short of company at the bar…
Maybe I’ll finally lose my patience with next-gen PES2008 and admit defeat and just get the vastly superior (it now seems clear) PS2 version. I know that at least one reader of this blog will be nodding and thinking I told him so…
what is that title all about???
whoosh!
I think you’ll enjoy the PS2 version, provided you can down-shift in terms of the graphics and animations. For me, it should really be called PES6.2.
Does it make any difference playing the PS2 version on the PS3? Some games look far better on it than on the old console..
bostongoals – the clue’s in the post! (Where might I be saying that?)
ck & paul – Getting the PS2 version is just a thought. I’ve got the PSP version on preorder and I am very keen to get that and occupy my spare moments going to and from work. The PS2 version as well would be overkill. But I might still do it. I really am down on next-gen PES2008 right now. Maybe things will pick up this week.
Just stumbled across your website mate, although a decent read, I think you should increase your gaming skills first before you bore us to death with your struggles on Master League. You have reached season 2010 yet you haven’t managed to get much of a team or squad together. Any half decent player can win the whole thing on top difficulty within 3 years and have a pretty unbeatable team by then. In the 4th season you can go the whole season undefeated. A good player should be able to get promotion within 1 season and have a pretty formidable squad for season 2 in the top division. And I am appalled at how many cards you pick up. Can you not defend? Do you just chase the ball like teams in the lower reaches of the English League. My tip to you would be to stop writing and start practising.
San Siro – if you have a look back through some of the posts you’ll see that I’m deliberately playing with an understrength squad in an effort to make the game harder. I have “reached season 2010 without much of a team or squad” *on purpose*. (If you’ve only read the last few posts it’s understandable that you missed that.)
I’ve had a quick look back through the relevant posts from my last season in my first ML career – this one shows my full squad listing back then: http://peschronicles.wordpress.com/2007/12/04/pre-season-negotiations-2012/
I really had a team of galacticos and was winning everything in my 5th season. I won the Treble with ridiculous ease and scored 135 league goals in the last season of my last career.
I restarted with the new team and a set of House Rules. I’m not allowed to have more than 25 players in my squad right now, and at least 5 of the squad have got to be original default players. I’m not allowed to have any wonder-dribblers (players like Elcherino, Melengue, etc). I’m not allowed to do anything, basically, that would make the game as easy as it was for me back then.
That, in a nutshell, is the history of the past few months.
Greg – Just came across your blog. I am a PES newb, just picked up PES2008 for the Xbox 360 this weekend in the US. I’ve been a fifa fan for a while now, but wanted to play something different. I’ve been getting frustrated with the limitations of FIFA lately.
Since you play both…what are some tips/tricks I should know about PES08? Major differences…strategy wise…especially defensively? Best areas to score from?
What’s up with the PES08 online play? I played a couple games yesterday and there was some serious lag. The ball was jumping all over the place…nearly impossible to play. What’s your experience with it?
So far I’ve enjoyed playing PES. Bigger field..more space…passes are made to space and players run to ball…pass angles actually make sense. PES is more flexible, less linear. Fifa at times feels like it’s straight up and down, not a lot of side to side with the player movement. My biggest complaint of FIFA is that it is work… So far PES has been fun. Gameplay wise. Menus wise/ease if use/navigation it sucks…but I’ll take gameplay any day. Plus I’m sure there’s a learning curve.
I just started a Master League…I’ll have to spend some time figuring out how to work everything. Should be fun…hope online play getters better or Konami releases a patch.
Rich. My gamertag is Rich0107 if you ever feel like playing either FIFA08 or PES08. Or anyone else for that matter.
Hi Rich – glad you like the blog – and welcome to the world of PES! If you’ve never played a PES game before (called Winning Eleven in the US, I believe) then you’ve really missed out on a lot. The current PS3/360/PC version isn’t quite up to the standards of its predecessors IMO, but having said that, I don’t want to prejudice you against the next-gen version, which has a lot going for it.
First of all, the online play on next-gen PES2008 is completely broken, at least on the PS3. I understand it’s slightly better on the 360 and more or less playable a lot of the time. So keep trying it. I’ve got a 360 but my PES2008 is on the PS3 (and on PS2 and PSP, but that’s another, developing story). I won;t be getting the game for my 360 I’m afraid. If you have a read through many of my posts, you’ll find that I became severely disenchanted with the game after several months’ play.
As for strategies… don’t be afraid to dribble. It’s almost impossible to dribble in FIFA08, but in PES2008 it’s almost impossible not to. Shooting and scoring is best from medium-range—you should create many, many chances with some good passing. One-twos are massively effective. Don’t forget that you don’t have to play the return ball straightaway or even at all. Aerial through-balls are great down the wings, over the top of the CPU defender(s). The list goes on. If you still have one of the last-gen consoles, I recommend getting hold of one of the old PES/WE games as well, just to see where the series has come from.