Wanted: patience. Last seen in September 2007.
I drew 0-0 in the opening game of season 2010. It was a respectable enough start. I was pleased with the clean sheet and the point. I had a man sent off in the game and felt I’d got away with it slightly.
But then I lost my second game to RC Strasbourg (yet another bogey team candidate). The score? 1-5. Oh dear…
The pattern for me and PES2008 on PSP/PS2 is becoming clear.
Either I concentrate and defend properly—standing off attackers, bringing across a second defender, executing perfect sliding challenges, shepherding the CPU away from danger areas—and thus keep a clean sheet, or I cave in after I concede just one goal, and go on to concede a hatful of goals.
It’s all to do with my current lack of patience that I mentioned a few days ago.
When I go 1-0 down in this last-gen version of the game, my next-gen version instincts kick in and I start to play as if this PSP/PS2 version is the same quasi-arcadey mess that the PS3/360 game was and is. (Sorry to all fans of next-gen PES2008. This is just my opinion, of course.)
I tear forward recklessly, losing the ball often and inviting the pressure that leads to the hatfuls of CPU goals.
I need to wake up and accept that I’m not playing the PS3 version any more. The PSP/PS2 version is a ‘proper’ PES game, i.e. there has to be some semblance of realistic football gameplay involved.
In the end it does all come down to that one word: patience. Before this year I had it in abundance for nigh on 7 years of continuous PES gaming. And then the so-called next generation came along and I unlearned all of my patience—the core of my PES nous, if you will. I need to relearn it again, in full, and fast.
I am back playing the 360 version for the time being. Again i am using Athetic Bilbao in league mode so no wonder dribbling there! I had 2 online games which quickly reminded me why I stopped. In both I was Bilbao. One guy picks Deportivo, fair enough I go 3-0 up in the 2nd half, he disconnects. Then I go against “alan-hussein” he uses Barcelona, goes 4-0 up in the 2nd half. The game was pointless as every time I got the ball super human players would shrug me off with ease. Every goal was a wonder dribble with Ronaldinho, who shoots through my keeper at times. Not to mention it was a lag fest. I quit eventually but only because he was standing still with the ball and generally acting like a twat. I am quite happy to play on during a beating but not that.
So no online for 360, but the league with Bilbao is proving challenging and fun. Lost the first game 1-0, won the 2nd 3-0. If I can get 3rd place above Barca and Real I would be happy.
I’ve done some seasons with Bilbao its good fun.
All they’re names escape me now but they have a forward tall and short on pace he ended up being my top scorer (not many headers either) seem to have a magnet for the ball.
If – and it’s a big if – I ever do darken the doors of PES2008 on the PS3 again, it’ll be to play in the League mode. I’m currently having such a great time on the PSP/PS2 version though that I think I’ll be playing this all year. I’m a Master League player first and foremost and any time spent on any other game mode—including online—is time wasted for me.
Speaking of online, if they ever fix the PS3 online game I’d love to try that out once in a while. In my few acceptable games online I came across more than a few players who liked to do the wonder dribble thing with Ronaldinho & co. all over the pitch, to take the piss. I too will always play on to the end during a beating—it’s kind of an honour thing to do so—but players like that would sorely test me. Sadly I never had more than about 3 games online that were anything other than horrific lag-fests, with teleportation and dropped connections galore.
Are they EVER going to fix the online PS3 game? Or is it inherently unfixable? It’s looking more and more like the latter, isn’t it? Absolutely shocking.
Hmmm. This reminds me that I haven’t yet had a look at the PS2 version online. I’m a long way from feeling comfortable enough with the game to play it online. And I don’t even know if it works online on the PS3. PES6 never did. One for the future, after a Treble or two, I think.