Into the volley of death
Posted by: not-Greg in FIFA08, FIFA09, PES2009, goal replay, pes2008, tags: FIFA08, FIFA09, goal replay, pes2008, PES2009After some recent PES fatigue (it happens to the best of us) I’ve loaded up FIFA08, literally blowing dust from the case. At the turn of the year I conducted a brief and scandalous flirtation with FIFA08. The PS3 version of PES2008 had transformed in my eyes from being a decent, acceptable PES game into an arcadey monstrosity of regular 6-3 scorelines.
I floundered, unable to accept the truth. The truth was that PES2008 was not going to last me another nine months. It was all ending in tears and recriminations. Why did I have to pick this year of all years to start blogging about my daily PES habit? Everything was falling apart.
Ah, but there was FIFA. And that fact alone—the fact that there was FIFA—was enough to make me question the most fundamental assumptions of my gaming life. FIFA, the ugly duckling of the computer football game world, the game franchise that I had spent a decade automatically sneering at—FIFA had suddenly become, well, good.
It was, and is, hard to accept for many PES fans. I won’t rehearse yet again the many arguments for and against FIFA08. I’ll just re-re-re-iterate (because I have to) that next-gen FIFA is a whole new ball game. It has nothing in common with the joke FIFAs of years past. This game is the start of an all-new FIFA franchise. I’ve just checked in on a FIFA08 discussion thread on PESfan—on PESfan—that I have described in the past as unprecedented. That thread is still going strong, and it’ll still be going strong in September when FIFA09 comes out. If the startlingly high quality of UEFA2008 is any guide, FIFA09 should be pretty darn great…
Konami really buggered up PES2008 on the PS3 and the 360. They presented EA with an open goal that they could hardly fail to score. And so the bridgehead has been established. Can EA push further on? Time will tell. It’ll largely depend on how good PES2009 turns out to be. I just hope they’re putting in the hours at Team Seabass.
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I played two games on FIFA08. Just the two games, because I wanted to get back to GTA4 (I’d just opened up one of the other islands!).
My last FIFA08 save was dated 2nd April. That was when I last played my Dagenham & Redbridge career in Manager Mode. But I fancied having a play-around with my old Quadruple-winning Coventry City team, where I’d assembled a team of galacticos—something that’s far, far too easy to do in FIFA08.
I considered bumping the game difficulty down a notch from Professional. After so long away from the game, I feared being overrun, bewildered, thumped. But I decided to leave it alone, and I’m glad I did.
My first game was against Chelsea, an early Championship six-pointer in season 2015. After a couple of intense months on last-gen PES2008, it was a real pleasure once again to see genuinely next-gen graphics on a football game on my HDTV. As I kicked off and started knocking the ball around, I was focused on the quality of the gameplay, in particular its speed, and the passing, the shooting, the defending…
One of the many gripes that FIFA08-sceptics have is about the passing. It’s all too easy for a CPU player to intercept the most straightforward-seeming passes over relatively short distances. This is what I struggled with for a few minutes. PES-style passing just won’t work. You almost have to massage the ball forward. Quick breakaways are the rarest event, and have to be achieved with circle-passes or extravagant through-balls. It takes some getting used to, over a number of games, but in the meantime so, so many PES fans must have quit in disgust, not knowing what they’re missing out on.
I picked up the rhythms of the passing again after twenty game minutes. The way to avoid having passes intercepted is… not to play those passes. You soon get to know what passes will and won’t find their targets. This game feels sublime when it’s played correctly. When played as if it’s PES, it can be a nightmare. It’s no wonder so many PES players just don’t get on with FIFA08.
All in all, I loved my short time on FIFA08. If it wasn’t for GTA4, I’d have spent the whole night on it. I’ll definitely be going back for more, sooner rather than later. No game can be perfect and the pace of FIFA08 now seems positively funereal compared to the hurly-burly of PES. PES2008 is the Premier League; FIFA08 is Serie A. It’s no wonder that some people stick to their instinctive FIFA-loathing. The shooting will always feel a bit wonky to me. It’s perplexingly hard to score sometimes when it should be easy, and vice versa. Which brings me to the reason for the title of this post.
Regular readers will know that I do like a nice volley… Towards the end of the Chelsea game, I scored what is probably the best-ever volley I’ve scored on FIFA08, and one of the very best volleys I’ve ever scored in any computer football game, period. When this goal went in I let out an involuntary shout. The aerial through-ball is from Van Persie, and the volley is from Babel:
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What a volley Greg.
I tried the demo of Fifa08 and couldn’t get into it. I really haven’t played the series since 98.
Oh by the way, you owe me £15.93, I got PS2 version on Saturday, after your much publicised comments
when the FIFA08 demo came out last August I’d only just got my PS3, and that demo was the only next-gen footie action I had access to. I played the demo to death for a couple of weeks leading up to FIFA08’s release. It really does take time to get into FIFA08. It’s like a Flight Simulator. There’s no jumping into the plane and looping-the-loop straightaway. You have to take the time to learn how to control the, er, flaps and stuff… I’ll end that analogy there.
As long as EA don’t wimp out and take FIFA back to its arcadey roots, FIFA09 should be a tremendous effort. As for Seabass, well, after next-gen PES2008 the only way is up. I know the game has its fans but for me the shocking thing was the extra-low difficulty after only a couple of seasons on Master League. The heart and soul of PES is Master League, for me, and that was seriously nerfed (unless I wanted to play just four seasons and then start again, and do this all the time, which I don’t!).
How do I owe you money? I thought you liked the PS2 version?!
Yeah that was some volley! I think you have convinced me to try FIFA, I can’t play PES the way I used too anymore. I am just tired of the pinball football, even in the better ps2 version. Also the AI scripting their last minute equalizer/winner EVERY match, and the fact that on top player every team plays like Brazil. I have heard in Euro 2008 the smaller countries play very defensive football, and are hard to beat. That’s what I want, as that is realistic! In PES, if you play against a small country in top player they just play exactly as Brazil and Holland are coded to play. Stupid.
Interesting, my Chelsea ML has decided to make it’s own ‘Grand Slam Sunday’. Two massive derby games too, as I play Arsenal, and Manchester United face Liverpool. So far Liverpool are top of the table (destroying Chelseas home record 2-4 in the process) I will need to win this game to stop them clawing further ahead.
It seems PES likes big days in the EPL too..
Greg
I wouldn’t have bought it, if you hadn’t praised it so much. I was happy with the PS3 version, with it’s faults. But I got curious.
After playing the PS2 version, can I go back to the PES 3 version?
I think not. Unless when my buddy comes round on a Thursday night (Bhoy’s night).
Cheers mate, still can’t believe that volley, stomper.
Season over. You say your an average PES player? I must be terrible. Chelsea 1-4 Arsenal. They had 3 shots on target and I had 10, I scored 2 own goals.
Terrible.
Thanks for the volley-love, all, and it’s just a shame that EA’s save feature - whereby you upload an .flv replay to their servers for storage and viewing - has NEVER worked for me (true). So that grainy mobile phone footage is the only record I’ll ever have of the goal. Shame, as I think it would have looked great at the high quality that all of these lucky people are able to save their FIFA goals in.
Not Given - I am indeed average, I swear it. Were any of your own-goals glanced in by your players from a CPU corner? I’m conceding a few of those lately at crucial times and it’s driving me mad.
If you do try FIFA08 (and I recommend you try the UEFA2008 demo first), then you’ll be pleased to note an absence of such moments (generally speaking). But FIFA does have its own version of scripting. In particular the AI’s keep-ball script (when the damn thing just wants to keep the damn ball!) is much more annoying than PES’s.
heraldo - As soon as I put that UMD into the PSP back in March and started playing, I felt that I was home. I got the Ps2 version a few days later and haven’t looked back. As I’ve said to you on your blog (I’ve fixed the link from here btw), I did play the PS3 version for over 130 hours when I abandoned it, so I’ve no complaints about not getting value for money. But its Master League just didn’t lead anywhere.
Downloaded the demo. It is some game! Does FIFA 08 control like that? If so I may have to go out and buy it. It is a slower more realistic game, with players not charging you down the whole game until the end. Awesome stuff.
The atmosphere is done a lot better than PES too! During the end when I was trailing, there was a sense of urgency getting back into the game! The jeering at the end mixed with the cheers was brilliant too.
I may go for FIFA 08 simply so I have the leagues as well, unless there is considerable gameplay improvements in Euro. Can you tell me if there is 45 minute each way matches in 08 or Euro 08? I remember having so much fun with World Cup 98 playing full matches.
Not Given - I’m not sure about the 45 minute halves, I’ve only ever played 10 minute matches and never even looked at the other options. I’ll try to have a look later tonight or tomorrow morning and I’ll post back.
re. FIFA08, it’s the same kind of gameplay as UEFA2008, but remember it came out 6 months before so it’s a little less refined. For one thing it’s slower than UEFA - only 6% slower (that’s an exact figure from EA) but it’s noticeable. And the various little gameplay tweaks might make FIFA08 seem like a step backward to you (there are plenty of PES fans who disliked FIFA08 but like, or love, UEFA2008. Download the FIFA08 demo from PSN and see what you think. The demo’s a bit different from the full game but similar enough to let you know what you’d be getting. Personally I like FIFA08’s gameplay very much, even having played UEFA and seen the many little improvements they’ve made to the engine. Much as I like UEFA2008 gameplay and think it an improvement on its predecessor, I’m not going to spend £40 on a football game with no club teams or leagues. Not with FIFA09 just over 4 months away, and FIFA08 still on my shelf with tons of gameplay left in it. Oh, and not forgetting PES2008 of course….