Hearts Of Irony
Posted by: not-Greg in Konami, PES2009, pes2008, tags: Konami, pes2008, PES2009And so the Big Reveal is almost upon us. Leipzig is less than 24 hours away. The various non-disclosure agreements regarding previews of PES2009 will expire. Around this time tomorrow, we’ll be awash in information about the game.
I predict that it’ll be mostly positive. Understandably, the likes of PESfan and WENB will not want to jeopardise their relationship with Konami. Not yet anyway. Any misgivings that they have about PES2009 will most likely be buried between the lines, inferable from the tone of voice.
Other websites may not be so restrained. Last year’s disaster generated a lot of bad karma. Konami told reviewers that the PS3 version’s atrocious slowdown and utterly disgusting online play would be fixed before release. Reviewers obediently kept schtum. WHOOPS.
What does it all mean for PES2009? It means that a lot of professionally embarrassed games journalists will be looking for a reason, any reason, to balance the scales of justice… Yes, Konami have got a lot of making-up to do.
Personally, I expect a solid Pro Evolution Soccer game from PES2009. Nothing more, nothing less. I’ll be stunned if PES2009 is anything more than a placeholder for the promised revolution of PES2010. If it’s anything less… If it’s just a revamped PES2008, as many fear it will be… Well… that really will be the end for me and PES. After all this time. I do not want to think about it.
As for tomorrow, I have a confession to make. PES2009 is not the only show in town for me. Perhaps it’s a sign of the strange football gaming times we live in, what with the very good FIFA08 and the abysmal PS3 PES2008 and all. But I’m looking forward to Leipzig for more than just Pro Evolution Soccer…
I’m a keen PC strategy gamer and always have been. One of my favourite strategy game publishers is Paradox Interactive. It publishes such immense titles as the Europa Universalis and Hearts of Iron series. To call these games deep and complex is, for once in the world of gaming, a genuine understatement. I thought Civilization games were complex until I bumped into Paradox Interactive games for the first time. They can make the Civilization franchise look like Tetris. I’ve been playing Hearts of Iron II in particular for several years and I still have to consult the manual to check up on certain things.
Anyway, the point here is that Paradox will be announcing an all-new strategy title at Leipzig tomorrow. And I find that I’m actually looking forward to hearing all about that as much as I am looking forward to PES2009. This makes me feel sad. PES has been my #1 game franchise for nigh on a decade. Time was that nothing else—and I mean nothing else—would have got a look-in. The times really are a-changin’, and I’m not sure I like them.
But I have a strange feeling in my water. I’ve had it for most of this year. The more brickbats that have been flung at PES2008, the more I have had that feeling… Call it absurd, misplaced optimism, but I think PES2009 will be great. Not just ‘good’ (which is what we’d all settle for, I’m sure). Great.
Time will tell. And that time is shrinking rapidly. I’ll post a special entry tomorrow evening on my initial reaction to the news, and then a more considered follow-up on Thursday or Friday. Exciting times indeed.
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Hi not-Greg.
After years of ISS/PES devotion, it is indeed sad to report that I too am less enthusiastic about the forthcoming Konami release, and am drooling with far more anticipation over the likes of the impending Games Workshop offereing: Blood Bowl.
Last year’s Konami attempt was pitiful in every respect (as you have clinically outlined), but thankfully, the PES6 PC servers were kept alive by a large number of French gamers. It is with this 2006 version that my friends and I continue to get our football fix.
Konami really do need to get their act in order with ‘2009′. Not only will a reviewer backlash hit them where it hurts, but another poor offering will surely test the patience of even their most hardcore followers, leaving PES2010 dead in the water, even if it is a work of genius.
Big Al - If you’ve heard some of the recent WENB podcasts, a couple of comments that they threw in almost off-handedly made me more worried than anything else I’ve heard so far this year. It’s this: Konami allegedly don’t feel under any pressure to deliver an authentic PES experience with PES2009. They’ve got the sales, their thinking goes, and that’s all they want and need. I’m sure Team Seabass feels differently (he’s got to, surely?), but when the suits aren’t exerting any pressure from above, all we can hope is for Seabass’ pride to deliver the goods.
Re. looking forward to other games more than PES, I keep asking myself if this is an effect of the next-gen PES2008 being abysmal and deflecting me towards other games. I usually just play PES for about 95% of a gaming year; this past year has seen that drop to about 60% Or is it just the law of diminishing returns in action? New console generation, lots of distracting sparkly new games?
I am eagerly looking forward to tomorrow and Leipzig and the end of Konami’s various NDAs. But, tellingly, I’m not looking forward to it as much as I was looking forward to the equivalent day last year.
not-Greg - I suppose we will have to wait and see. It sounds like WENB are reading between the lines with their comments, as I’m sure that Konami DO feel the need to deliver an authentic PES experience.
The sheer number of people still using the PES6 PC servers speaks volumes, as does PES365 abandoning their PES2008 league mid-season and switching to UEFA2008 (at which point I dropped out to concentrate on Pro-Evo-League).
Konami must notice the difference in user numbers playing their latest two versions. Even so, if the suits want the game released to vie for Christmas spending with FIFA, it could undo all of Seabass’ efforts over the last 11 (12?) years.
It seems that it all boils down to money, as usual, and the root of all evil slowly rots everything it touches. (insert Premier League/SKY/Rupert Murdoch rant here).
What odds that PES2010 is a work sheer beauty, but it only sells a fifth of the similar FIFA offering? It will be like rolling back the clock ten years.
Big Al - I’m not an online player at all, so it never occurred to me that, yes, Konami must have a very palpable indicator of what its customers think of PES2008. It still staggers me that they’ve brazenly got away with providing what must surely be the worst-ever online service of any game ever - for the PS3 version in particular.
My expectations for PES2009 are low. Paradoxically, this is a position of strength for the game, because it seems a good bet that PES2009 will indeed be ‘only’ a bog-standard PES game with shiny graphics and an acceptable online mode. I.e., it’ll be the game we were expecting a year ago.
Hi greg, I know its not on topic but I didn’t want to back track through months of posts to find the right post.
But, did you ever go back to FML? They opened a couple of new GW’s last week and I managed on the second time of asking to get in as a tester. The game is brilliant imo, even with its flaws in beta I’ve spent far too much time on it. Its what I hoped FM was like, its a slightly simplier version imo and for me its perfect.
Paww - Sadly I never went back to Football Manager Live, but it wasn’t because of the game.
Like you I found it a terrific online re-vision of the core FM game (which, again like you, I tend to find a bit over-complicated).
As (bad) luck would have it, the same day I received my Beta invitation I also undertook a few real-world commitments that meant I couldn’t spend a great deal of time on FML. As it was I played it for a week, an hour or two every day, and loved it.
They say that the secret of getting things done is actually eliminating lots of things from your daily schedule, and FML had to be one of the latter eliminees, unfortunately. They took me off the Beta after I hadn’t logged in for a few weeks, which was fair enough really.
When the full release of FML comes along, I doubt I’ll have time to play it. I’m having to force myself to stop taking up new games right across the board at the moment.