Happier than Larry
I’m rather late with today’s regular FIFA-oriented Sunday post owing to a few factors. Mainly because I was up late last night watching PES2009 videos and playing FIFA08, and the blog actually clean slipped my mind.
After spending most of the football game year posting here every day, I’m in the middle of enjoying a blogging summer holiday. I’m only posting a few times per week until the FIFA09 demo arrives (two weeks this Thursday!). After that, I’ll almost certainly return to daily posting, although I might give myself one day off per week. I’ll see.
It all really depends on the quality of the football games. If FIFA09 and PES2009 are good enough to sustain intense daily play, I’ll play them every day, and post accordingly.
Speaking of PES2009… I’ve spent the weekend watching some of the longer, hi-def videos doing the rounds. Perhaps it’s wishful thinking, but I believe I can see the more sedate pace, and the more ‘muscular’ gameplay style that has led some people to dub it a next-gen PES5. As I’ve said before I for one would actually welcome his. Give me classic PES gameplay on my PS3—and at a slower, more considered pace—and I’ll be happy as Larry. No, scratch that: I’ll be happier than Larry.
The short clip below from Gametrailers has me feeling quite hopeful. I love the speed the ball moves and the apparent heaviness of the players—unlike PES2008’s featherlight ballerinas…
(Be sure to choose SD playback in the clip below to view it normally in the browser here; for me the HD option opens a new window, and the playback is faulty—i.e., it only shows a corner of the screen.)
So I’m feeling a bit optimistic about PES2009 again. If the above clip is actually representative of the final game’s gameplay, I think I’d be happy with it. I’d have a classic PES to play and a stunning new iteration of the all-new FIFA franchise. 2009 would be a great football game year. HOPEFULLY…
But the PES forums are still buzzing like angry wasps’ nests. I know why everyone is feeling so raw and emotional about things. Superficially, the game does look like nothing more than PES2008 Reloaded.
The debate will rage on until we actually get our hands on the game. According to the Internet, which is never wrong, the PES2009 demo will be made available ‘in the week of release’. That’s really, really disappointing—and suspicious. After last year’s PS3 demo failed to appear until after PES2008’s release, it was obvious that Konami had something to hide (the phrase “unforgiveable slowdown” springs to mind).
Today I would normally have posted my latest progress on FIFA08. I’ll do that in detail in the coming week. For now, I will say that I have secured promotion to the Premier League with my Dagenham & Redbridge team. I’m liking FIFA08 more than ever—but I’m also seeing its faults larger than ever (some of which are really my faults as a long-term PES player).
As for my Master League career on the PSP version of PES2008, that has also progressed a lot further. I easily won the Treble in 2021and I’m well into season 2022 by now. I’ll post about both games on Wednesday or Thursday. At the moment with all the excitement of the build-up to FIFA09 and PES2009, it seems hard to focus on exisiting football games.
Watched some of the videos posted on PESFAN and I’m not sold.
One video showed a player running half of the pitch (from mid way his half to the other half) with ease. He could of carried on, they were making space for him but he choose to put a through ball to a player on the wing. Fine then, but then that player made space for himself on the wing by 3 cut backs in a row… and now we hear theres problems with crossing to the near post being easy goals vs. AI.
Not sold, the game hasn’t improved graphically, neither has the modelling or the animations of the players movements. They were arwkard and certainly not up to scratch. I accepted it on old PES but we’ve seen what EA can do with a football game, why the hell doesn’t Konami spend the money they’ve made from their sales on making a better game instead of cutting corners.
I’m sorry, I’ll play the PES demo and if its not up to scratch, I won’t buy it for sure. I may just go and download a copy for my pc but Konami won’t see any of my money, EA will.
Paww – as the graphic to the lower right says, “I want to believe”… And there is a sense in which I’m making myself believe.
I saw the exact same video you’re talking about, with the three cutbacks in a row out on the wing. If I remember the attached discussion right, apparently it was on a very low difficulty (either default or Amateur), which would also explain the easy dribble.
That’s what I’m hoping for, anyway. The reason the Gametrailers video on display in this post is the only one I’ve chosen to show and comment directly on to so far is because it’s the only one that’s really given me any hope.
I think it shows players being closed down, and dribbling only taking them so far. The overall pace is also more to my liking than any other video so far.
I’m still a long way from being totally enthusiastic about PES2009. All I am is not in despair anymore. I still do kind of fear that PES2009 will probably be another major disappointment, and that this will be the year the music finally dies for me. It hurts, and I hope to God I’m wrong.
The consensus at the moment among the long-term PES fans is that our beloved franchise has gone in completely the wrong direction (the arcadey, ‘yoof’ direction) and that it’s a disaster unparalleled in the history of gaming.
That might turn out to be the case, but for now I’m watching and rewatching the above video, and hoping.