Yesterday’s press release from Konami was a bit of an anti-climax. Announcing that they are going to release PES2009 this Autumn is a little like announcing that the sun will rise tomorrow morning. What was the point of it? I suppose the point was to provide official confirmation of the fact—we’ve always just assumed there’ll be another PES this year. Now we know for certain that it will definitely happen. Great.

But what I want to see over the next few months are details—not just screenshots (although I’m sure we’ll get plenty more of them). I want to know about the gameplay. I want to know that the goalkeepers aren’t as uniformly, laughably terrible as they were last time. I want to know that the PS3 version won’t require two mega-patches to make it run sort-of-okayish. I want to know that a five-year-old playing on the hardest difficulty setting won’t be able to dribble with Gary Neville past the entire opposition team and then (virtually) stoop to head the ball over the line. I want to know that 6-5 scorelines will again be what they always used to be on PES—a true rarity.

I appreciate that I’m wanting a lot here. Given the nature of games development and the marketplace, I’m not likely to get any definitive answers until I actually have PES2009 in my hands. I certainly won’t be trusting previews and reviews again after last year. Yes, I think the gaming press will be warier of PES this time around, but no, I still don’t trust them. Speaking personally about the PlayStation3 version for a moment, I think one of the telltale signs of quality (or lack of it) this year will be the appearance (or not) of a demo on PSN before the release.

I’m sure there are still people playing PES2008 on PC/PS3/360 and enjoying it. Good luck to them, but for me that version of the game might as well no longer exist.

I still have my PS3 copy on the shelf behind me here. As a PES completist I cannot get rid of it, no matter how poorly I rate it (easily the worst PES game by a very long way). I might stick it back in the disc tray later on this summer, for curiosity’s sake and for a laugh. But otherwise? God willing, PES2009 will be a triumphant return to form for the franchise. If so, 2008 will become the PES year that we don’t like to talk about, and which we pretend simply never happened.

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It’s season 2018 of my career on PES2008—the PSP/PS2 version, naturally... I’ve reached game 24 unbeaten in the league, and was on course to complete my first unbeaten Master League season since PES5. Almost incidentally, I was a long way out in front at the top of the league. Valencia, my perennial league rivals, were 11 points behind me.

Earlier this season I was knocked out of the Division 1 Cup by the bottom team, RC Strasbourg. As often happens in PES, the minnows seemed to raise their game to epic proportions. When I met them again in the league in game 25, my spider sense started tingling. I sensed the trap. I felt that the game would go all-out to stop me in this fixture. The question was: could I avoid the trap?

No, is the short answer. Damn it all to hell, but Strasbourg beat me. They played with supernatural excellence, tackling hard, running for 95 minutes, defending in depth, attacking with verve and panache… I lost 3-2.

I’ve been trumpeting my unbeaten run since almost the start of the season. I just haven’t been able to stop talking about how great I’d feel if I managed to pull it off. Me and my big mouth…

The game was a pretty good one, with the lead changing hands a few times, near-misses, and miraculous saves from both keepers. I was disappointed about the result—and, as ever, deeply sceptical about the pre-destined feel of the game, but I’ve had worse. At least I felt largely in control of this game, and could only really blame myself for all three Strasbourg goals. Play enough PES Master League and you end up paranoid that the programming code is out to get you; but you also know when you’ve just defended recklessly, and could have secured a different result with a bit more careful, disciplined play at the back. It was the latter failing on my part that caused this result. And I just had to take it.

So that was the unbeaten season gone—again. Oh well. At least I still have the League and European Cup double to go for. That’ll still make it a great season by any standards.

The defeat by Strasbourg was matched with a win by Valencia (of course). They were now ‘only’ 8 points behind me, with four games to go. It was impossible for me to lose the title now. Wasn’t it?

A break came for the European Cup semi-final. I met a rather lacklustre AC Milan, and thumped them 3-0 at home. I don’t think I’m tempting fate too much by saying that the second leg should be a formality.

Heracles Almelo held me 1-1 in the next League match. Again I could only really blame myself. Heracles played at 100mph with a suspicious amount of skill and strength for such a lowly-placed team. But I still had chances, and again I was at fault defensively for their goal.

And Valencia won again. Now the difference is 6 points. Hmmm.

Getting back to business in PES2008 after a few days away is always a pleasure. Familiarity breeds contempt, and absence makes the heart grow fonder. I’ve said it before and I will say it again: computer games and the game of football fit together like a hand in a glove. My gaming habits have altered over the years. The days when I could routinely play games for 12 hours a day are now long gone. I miss those days.

Most kinds of computer games require a specific time commitment. You have to sit down regularly and give them the same kind of organised attention that you would give to a film—Metal Gear Solid 4 being a singular case in point. Now, like most people I love Metal Gear as I love life itself, and I love MGS4 as the sine qua non of Metal Gear, but when it comes to the best use of my time I vastly prefer the on-the-go, day-by-day, long-term commitment that a game like PES demands of me.

The same goes for any sport-based game, really. I have a career going on my PSP copy of Tiger Woods 06 that I still dip into occasionally. Ditto Madden 07 on the DS. One thing I love about playing PES is the episodic, bite-sized experience that it allows me to have of it. I’ve now been playing ISS/PES almost continuously for nine years; I’ve been playing this one career in PES2008 since early March 2008, a period of roughly 14 weeks. As great as a Metal Gear game can be, it just doesn’t lend itself to the same kind of long-term play. Even when I replay MGS4 (and I’m planning to replay all the MGS games, including the four PSP games, in chronological order at some point over the rest of the summer) the process will still have a definite beginning, middle, and end. Once I’ve finished them all I won’t play them again for a while, if at all.

But PES is open-ended, endless. PES, for me, is the ultimate sandbox game. Grand Theft Auto and its ilk can take a running jump.

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After 24 games in season 2018 of my ongoing Master League career, I’m riding high at the top of the league. I’m still unbeaten and would very much like to stay unbeaten until the end of the season. I have only ever had one unbeaten season in all my years of Master League, and that was way back in PES5. I’ve gone through loads of seasons where I’ve lost just one or two games, but I’ve only ever had that one unbeaten season. Fingers crossed.

A couple more steady wins in the league have left me 11 points ahead of Valencia. There are just six games left. The league is surely in the bag, but I won’t be making any assumptions and relaxing any time soon.

Earlier this season I went out of the Division 1 Cup, dashing my hopes for a Treble. The only trophies I have left to go for is a League and European Cup double.

In the first leg of the European Cup quarter final against Galatasaray I did a good job of nearly blowing it. Somehow I allowed them to score 3 goals against me at home. Happily, I came back to level it up at 3-3 before the final whistle blew, which made the second leg a lot more viable than it might have been.

The second leg was potentially treacherous in so many ways. Galatasaray had the away goals advantage, and they’ve been one of my traditional bogey teams in PES over the last couple of years. I needed to win the match, obviously. I needed to score early and hang onto my lead, and then build on it if I could. I did score early, and scored two more to make it 0-3 to me on the day, 3-6 on aggregate. I went through to the semi-final with ease. What was I ever worried about?

It’s FIFA Sunday again, but since last Sunday I’ve done nothing on my PlayStation3 except play Metal Gear Solid 4. Luckily I’d already planned to do a blog-standard ‘Top 10′ list this week about FIFA09. Whew…

I’ll get back to actually playing FIFA08, and reporting about it, next week. I’m planning to make the leap up a difficulty level, to World Class, in my Dagenham & Redbridge career. The last time I tried playing on World Class I got my backside well and truly handed to me on a plate, and I fled back to Professional level like a scared little girl. Should be interesting…

So here goes with the list. This is just a personal list and will necessarily be influenced by my liking for career modes on football games.

TOP 10 THINGS I’D LIKE TO SEE IN FIFA09

1) An improved transfer market in Manager Mode.

The realism of FIFA07’s transfer market puzzlingly gave way to the disappointing unrealism of FIFA08. Michael Owen and Cristiano Ronaldo shouldn’t be coming to Coventry City in the first place. Having them declare it to be a lifelong dream and that they’ve supported the club ever since they were boys is just wrong in every conceivable way. Talk about an immersion-killer.

It’s peculiar that FIFA08 is like this, because FIFA07 got it exactly right. I played a couple of seasons in Manager Mode back then and Coventry City had no money, couldn’t attract any good players, and struggled to get out of the lower division (just like real life).

2) The little niggles should be resolved.

Night matches in Manager Mode—there are none in FIFA08. Playoffs in the English leagues—there are none in FIFA08. Cup finals played at Wembley—there are none in FIFA08. All of these should be fixed, along with the doubtless many other little niggles that I haven’t seen yet.

3) Players shouldn’t trap the ball in the box.

When I press shoot, let the player shoot. Please, just let them shoot. Not trap the ball and tickle it for a few moments, and then shoot.

4) More and better camera angles.

Come on, EA, display customisation was what FIFA used to be famous for. It certainly was never famous for its gameplay. Well, now that you’ve finally got the gameplay, let’s have all those lovely cameras back again. It might be too much to ask for all the pan, height, and zoom options to come back again, so I’d settle for a proper TV-style broadcast camera, just like the one in UEFA2008 but a bit closer.

5) Slightly faster gameplay.

The 6% increase of speed in UEFA2008 seemed just about perfect to me (although I have to stress that I’ve only played the demo). Various rumours say that FIFA09 actually sticks with the same pace as FIFA08. This’d be a good thing, I suppose, and I won’t complain if it turns out to be true.

6) A more flexible Edit mode.

This is rich coming from me. I don’t much care for Editing in PES, but I would like the option in next-gen FIFA to at least create my own club and take them from the lower reaches of the league to the pinnacle of Europe.

7) More leagues and competitions in Manager Mode.

It’d be fantastic to have the Conference-level league in England - and the League Cup in Scotland, and I’m sure the many other leagues and cups that were skipped last time for whatever reason.

8: A proper Formation and Tactics editor.

This is something else that has more or less been confirmed by the Rumour Mill. I badly want PES-style, in-depth editing of formations and tactics. FIFA08’s existing custom formations were a good start, but they still felt clunky. In PES it’s much more supple and responsive—you can palpably see the effect on the pitch, unmistakeably. Not so much in FIFA08. Hopefully FIFA09 will change all of that.

9) Replays saved on the hard drive.

This is a big one for me. I have never, ever been able to get the FIFA08 replay upload thing to work. I’m happy that so many people have, really I am. (Don’t those Flash videos look just great? I’m so jealous.)

The online upload is a great idea, in principle. But I’ve got a hard drive for a reason, methinks—to put stuff on it. That’s what it’s for. I want to see it filling up with FIFA09 goal replays from September.

10) Finally—more of the same.

Above all else, what I want to see in FIFA09 is a continuation of the solid foundation created by FIFA08. I want to see the next stage in the evolution of the new FIFA gameplay. Part of me has an awful fear that EA will have decided to turn back the clock, and we’ll get some god-awful version of FIFA2000 with HD graphics… *shudder*. I’m certain this won’t happen, though.

And that’s my list. It’s all a bit jumbled up and wistful in parts. I’m sure I’ve forgotten to include some really, really obvious things. But it doesn’t matter. FIFA09, like PES2009, is almost certainly substantially complete by now.