Adriano - Of course, yes, it’s a totally scripted, un-defendable goal! I had a big long moan about it all ready to publish, but decided to just leave it as-is and see what people made of it.

I was really angry about the goal when it went in. I suppose I could have had a defender standing in front of the scissors-kicker, but what was I supposed to do—psychically foresee that the CPU was about to attempt this?

Scripting’s apologists (they exist) would contend that in this instance the game is only reproducing an element of real-life football—moments of individual inspiration and brilliance that really can’t be defended against. In that sense this solitary example of scripting is justified. But when it comes in the context of an Artificial Intelligence in full-on God Mode that’s blatantly massaging the gameplay to its own end, it doesn’t sit well with me.

PES6 suffered for me because I got my PS3 partway through the ‘PES6 year’ and I was aching for next-gen football, but only had PES6, so whenever I played it on my PS3 I did so in a bad mood. Still a great game, though. The conventional wisdom says that it was/is the best-ever PS2-era PES game. For me that award would go to PES5. PES6 would be second. Maybe PES2008 (PSP/PS2 of course) would be 3rd or 4th.

heraldo - Good point about Andy Cole’s early development, that hadn’t occurred to me. I still have Henrik in my squad and I’ll be watching to see if he starts being great in his late 20s, and if Cole starts to dip.

The PSP is a weird one. You look at the press it gets and it’s just about the most negative, derogatory press that any console gets. Every PSP games review absolutely has to contain a whinge about the PSP not having any good games. That’s rubbish, of course, but it’s become one of those things that everybody says and which is believed to be true because everybody says it. As soon as I see a games journo spouting off about it, I instantly take nothing else he/she says seriously.

Anyway… (strange rant there!) yes, my point about PES2008 on the PSP is that I’m a PSP-lover and maybe because I’ve spent so long playing on it (various games) I’ve grown adapted to the buttons, and the analogue nub, etc.? I’m also pretty motivated to play PES on it because - yes, here we go again - PES was one of the reasons I got a PSP in the first place. Little did I know I’d have to wait 3 years for a decent version on the handheld. I just hope the same doesn’t go for the PS3.

Andy Cole is way above Henrik in development, both are 20 in my game. Cole was a prolific scorer with Newcastle from a young age, and Henrik never really discovered his potential until he signed for Celtic at 25. I looked at his growth development chart and this is when his starts are going to catch up, and will prolong into his mid 30’s.

On player development which you spoke about the other day, all my players who I play regularly are above the projected growth. I wonder if this will continue, or they peak at a certain point. I will keep an eye on it.