All the world’s a stage
Posted by: not-Greg in PES2009, league table, scripting, tags: league table, PES2009, scriptingAfter winning the European Cup I had to make sure I took the title. The Treble might have gone, but this Double was not to be sniffed at.
I felt that the Championship title was rightfully mine after spending most of the season at the top of the table. Since approximately week 4, apart from isolated weeks here and there, I’ve been in the #1 spot. Heading into the last two games of the season I was four points clear of Real Madrid in second. Just one win would guarantee me the Championship, regardless of what they did.
My penultimate opponents were Villarreal, the Spanish equivalent of Blackburn Rovers—neither a bad team nor a good team, but occasionally very annoying. I smelled a sizeable rat from the start of this game. Villarreal played like Brazil 1970 crossed with Liverpool of the late 1970s crossed with Italy 1982 crossed with AC Milan of the late 1980s/early 1990s crossed with Argentina 2006 (easily the best team at the last World Cup, IMO)…
I was 2-0 down at half-time, and believe me, I was lucky to still have nil. I can’t remember the last time I saw a CPU team play with so much turbo-charged aggression from the start of a match. I don’t remember ever taking such a pounding from a CPU team. I include all the difficult first seasons with all the Default squads down the years. At half-time I think I’d had just 2 shots on goal, neither of them on target. Villarreal had had around 10 shots, 8 on target. At least the possession was more or less equal.
In the second half I improved, but Villarreal didn’t get any worse. Playing against 11 CPU supermen who have apparently infinite stamina and strength is pretty hard. They went 3-0 up and I knew that the league was going to go to the last game of the season. Real Madrid won their game and closed to 1 point behind me.
I had to win my last fixture against Real Mallorca, the division’s minnows this season. Things were dodgy for a while, especially when Mallorca took an early lead. Squeaky bum time indeed. But I exerted myself—thankfully the game allowed me to: thanks, game!—and won 3-1, taking the title by four points in the end. Real Madrid lost their last game. So all’s well that ends well.
I’ve won my first Division 1 Championship, and yes I do feel a sense of achievement. A Master League season is a marathon, not a sprint, and there were many hours of time invested in this outcome. I’ve got to consider myself more or less happy with the League and European Cup double, and I’m looking forward to season 2016 (where does all the time go?!), and hopefully a successful attempt at the Treble.
But. There’s a but.
There’s something I can’t stop thinking about. There’s an unpleasant aftertaste in my mouth. I don’t know what was going on in the Villarreal game. They certainly didn’t have anything to play for—after the game, I checked their position in the league. Villarreal were mid-table mediocrities. They were in no danger of going down. They were in no position to finish in the top six. There was no reason within the context of the league competition for them to play like the mother and father of all superteams.
I hadn’t felt any different, myself, whilst playing the game. I wasn’t lacking in concentration or taking anything for granted. Quite the opposite. I’d recently paid the price for taking games lightly. I knew that this match, or the one after it, could win or lose me the title. The problem, I think, was that the game—PES2008 itself, deep down in its innards—knew that too. It was fully aware of how the league situation was poised, and had decided to get a little creative on my ass. There was a macro-script in operation, and there was nothing I could do about it. Which, when I come to think about it, totally sucks.
Scripting has been a noticeable element of the PES franchise for about three years now, arguably more, arguably less. I’ve almost come to accept it and not mind it—as long as it’s more or less subtle, most of the time. What I don’t like is having my nose rubbed in it. I don’t like it when the script becomes so overt, so bleedin’ obvious, that there might as well be a message up on screen saying: Hello idiot! How do you feel about your daily participation in an interactive script, idiot?
Scripting is the reason why PES—if truth be told—has been in decline for several instalments. Its fans’ appreciation for, enjoyment of, and devotion to the franchise has hardly diminished (dodgy next-gen versions notwithstanding), but the honesty of the game has deteriorated exponentially as the years have gone by. Yes, there are still people who claim either not to perceive scripting, or that it doesn’t matter to them. But it’s definitely there and it definitely does matter, in my opinion. Surely what a computer football game should offer us is total control? With a competent AI that doesn’t need assistance from pre-programmed scenarios and outcomes? Maybe it’ll come one day. Maybe it’ll come this year, in PES2009, who knows?
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The double is yours! Congrats!
The Villareal deal is strange… scripting all the way. However, it was totally illogical. Had PES wanted you not to win the league, Real would’ve atleast won their last game - and most likely you would’ve drawed or lost in the last match. Hope they take this away from PES2009.
heyendo30 - thanks, and despite the sulky tone of my post above, I really am happy with the League+European Cup double. I still have the Treble to aim for as well. It’s all good.
I don’t think the kind of macro-scripting that I moan about here is intended to stop the human player winning things as such. I think it’s just intended to create ‘exciting’ scenarios like the last-day title decider. I think PES does brazenly manufacture these scenarios.
I doubt that PES2009 will be much of a departure for the series. I think it’s still too soon in the console generation. PES2010, on the other hand… If they haven’t addressed the scripting issues by then (micro and macro), it really will be time to storm the gates of Konami HQ.
Maybe Real Madrid offer Villareal a hefty prize for beating you. Let’s give Seabass a little more credit, maybe it was not scripting, but a very realistic simulation.;)
hey greg
ive noticed the scripting for sure. have you ever noticed how even if you are going through a season pretty much undefeated there will always be at least one tip nipping at your heels and keeping pace? ive noticed that starting with the default squad on the highest difficulty level its always two seasons in that my team begins to win consistently. i have never in many years of playing pes won promotion in my first division 2 season. it could be that im just not a good enough player but i dont think thats the case. after that 2 seasons mark its always more or less a straight shot up to the top of the division one table.
i dont know that things are set in stone but it certainly appears that the game heavily favors particular outcomes. as youve said many times you can just feel when the computer opponent is on some higher level action. personally i think its lame and if i have a great team i see no reason why i shouldnt be far and away the league champion you know? it happens sometimes for real so why shouldnt it happen in the game? and its just annoying to work hard for that go ahead goal only to have the computer take charge and equalize right away.
i gather seabass and his team are planning something of an overhaul for 2009 so im excited for sure. i would expect theyre feeling the heat from the much much much improved fifa series.
i really enjoy the blog and thanks for it.
noses
noses - Everything you say is true, if I have a squad of galacticos and I’m winning every game, I should be ten points clear of the chasing pack, surely? It seems Konami and Seabass don’t want things to work that way, and I’ll acknowledge that there’s a good argument that says it HAS to be like this, otherwise we’d just lose interest after a few seasons.
IMO scripting (if it MUST exist) has got to be subtle and behind the scenes. Like you I have hopes for PES2009, but I remember Seabass saying specifically that it’s too soon for the big overhaul he has in mind, and it’ll be PES2010 before we see that. In the meantime, EA have an opportunity to expand the bridgehead they achieved with FIFA08. The question is, will PES2009 be good enough to hold its ground this Autumn? I’ve said before and will say again that I’d be happy if PES2009 was a ‘classic’ PES style game with next-gen graphics. Less of the scripting, though…
[...] were two of the weirdest, most peculiar games I’ve ever played—they were kind of like last season’s penultimate Villarreal game in that I couldn’t seem to gain any traction at all against a rampant CPU; and they were also [...]