They burned Galileo for less
Getting to the end of my second season with Portsmouth in BaL in PES2009 and then discovering that there was no relegation was a disappointment. But I’ll get over it. I’m already over it, in fact.
The end of the season was a perfect chance to take a short rest from BaL. “I need some space,” I told it. “Some time to think…” It understood my needs, and we agreed to meet up in a few days (i.e. I’ll be back to BaL on Monday).
Not for the first time, a spell of PES-related enthusiasm has led to me neglecting FIFA. For the benefit of any time travellers from 2003 who’ve popped into the year 2009 and don’t know what’s going on, here’s the shocking news: FIFA is no longer a joke of a football game; it’s actually rather good; and it has surpassed Pro Evolution Soccer in the opinion of many.
Is that also my opinion? Yes. No. I don’t know. Maybe. Or possibly not. I couldn’t say for certain. Sometimes—a lot of the time—it is. At other times, no. But mostly, yes, objectively speaking, it is true that FIFA has indeed overtaken PES.
Two years have passed since the extraordinary next-gen FIFA08 famously butted heads with the decidedly ordinary next-gen PES2008, and I still haven’t accepted it. It still feels like heresy. It still feels wrong to say it, think it, feel it. FIFA better than PES? A sign of the end-times if ever there was one.
I had one of my most enjoyable and productive sessions on FIFA09. I even played several matches in the much-hated Manager Mode, and I didn’t quit in disgust. Quite the opposite. I played FIFA09 the way it’s meant to be played. Carefully, with consideration, with conservatism. And it’s all thanks to BaL.
I’ll get to that.
First stop was Ultimate Team, where I’m trying to get my side—’Allover Rovers’—out of its Bronze Age. I suspended play a few weeks ago when BaL blazed into life. When I started the mode up again, I was happy to find a few trades had come through. I had a tidy sum of 3500 coins to play with. Enough for my first Silver pack of playing cards. I believe that some people on the Internet say ‘woot’ at such times.
My Silver pack wasn’t any great shakes. It contained a couple of good players—I kept one, and sent the other off to trade—and some decent training cards. I played an offline game, a pretty dour 0-0. I was about to play another. But my Physio’s contract was about to expire, and I couldn’t have that. I had a quick look for a Buy It Now contract card on the trading screen, but they were all priced way out of range. I slapped in a few conventional auction bids, and decided to close the mode down for now while those auctions finished. Maybe I’d have a look in on Manager Mode…
I picked up my on-again, off-again Manager Mode career with Coventry City. I am in the team. I play in a right-sided midfield role out there on the pitch.
I played really well in most of this FIFA09 session. BaL trains you in not holding sprint all the time—you just tire out your player if you do that. I’ve been playing BaL for a few weeks now. Thus when I started this FIFA09 session, I was naturally laying off sprint.
Veterans of the new FIFA recommend that PES refugees don’t touch sprint at all for 10 consecutive matches—just to see what it’s like. I’ve tried out this tip before, and have indeed seen what they meant, but of course promptly forgot to do it. As a PES-schooled player, it’s ‘natural’ to play for most of every game with my forefinger clamped over R1. Over-sprinting is Kryptonite to good FIFA play. I see that now.
I put together some lovely moves. It really is all about the passing and the movement. The thing with FIFA is, you just don’t get any time on the ball. I play on World Class difficulty and I have to have eyes all over the place (not just in the back of my virtual head) to keep the ball for any length of time. Playing one-twos in PES, I’m accustomed to delaying the return pass to allow the first player time to get into prime position. In FIFA, that delay is most often deadly—the ball is either nicked off me, or the return pass smothered.
I picked up a few wins with Coventry and ended the session mid-table. Will I be back playing FIFA09 soon? I think so. But I’m not sure. I’ve got a lot of games to play, but only a few I want to play. PES2009’s BaL mode is one of them. There are a few others (see the postscript below).
FIFA09 is a game I admire very much—but do I want to play it? And if not, what does that say about FIFA09. Or about me? What’s the real heresy going on in this post?
POSTSCRIPT:
Oh – what’s this that’s landed on my doormat this morning? Is it… Could it be…?
It is! Thanks be to GAME.co.uk I finally found a cheap copy of NHL09, the game I’ve heard so much about. £24.99 (new) was a bargain considering the prices they’re still going for (new and preowned) in the shops (if you can even find a copy). Over the weekend I’ll be firing up this, er, ‘bad boy’, as they rather dubiously say on the Internet. Let’s see if it reels me in.
When I moved back to Kansas and started supporting the Wizards (Kansas...
Thumbs up. Fantastic read the last couple of posts.
I’ve got to share something with you in a minute, or over the weekend (forgive my procrastinating nature.) See ya later
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I’ll be curious to know what you think of the game, reading reviews is one thing, a blog post on it is different!
I’ve grown to like FIFA MM alot, theres still things that are missing but overall its enjoyable.
I’m toying with moving up to World Class, I’m currently professional with three star Charlton in the prem its very enjoyable I can win games but also lose some, I fear turning up the difficulty might see my 3 star team struggle against the ‘big boys’.
I think your PES/FIFA angst is definitely tapping into a zeitgeist. Just game for game, FIFA has beaten PES by several steps. FIFA is really, really good this year.
My primary complaint about FIFA is enough to keep PES in the competition (and in my PS3), as far as I’m concerned: not enough diversity of goals. In PES, as poor as it is by comparison, I can score any number of ways, with any team on the game. FIFA shepherds play into a certain type of goal, typified by the mouth-breathers that play online: lump it forward to a fast striker and watch him score 1-on-1.
It’s not a game-killer, but after you’ve gone through a long spell of FIFA, playing 20-30 matches, you realize that there’s a certain monotony to the goals that dims the lustre of the game.
That said, I agree with you regarding the sprint button, and if you play FIFA on its own terms it is fantastic.
Like you, I play mostly offline (I’d love to play online if I knew I could avoid the annoying players), so it comes down to the “stickiness” of the game modes:
PES has the edge:
– Be A Legend is flat-out addictive. A fabulous mode.
– Master League is still better than Manager Mode, in part because of the ability to create and edit teams and players.
But FIFA has a crack-mode of its own:
– Ultimate Team.
Honestly, I can say that if FIFA did nothing but tweak the engine to enable a wider variety of goals (without making one type vastly better than the other — a game balance issue) I would put my PES away without a second thought.d
But they haven’t, so I picked up my Aylesbury Vale ML, and play BAL and have even put in an order for a Wii . . . apparently the Wii PES is a throwback to the good old days. I can hardly wait!
I think I want to try and get the Aylesbury Vale game to a conclusion (i.e. a logical ending place) and then start up a Wii ML Story, perhaps following the trials and travails of Castel di Sangro.
^If you haven’t read this book, don’t delay. It’s just fabulous, and really shines a light on the quirks of the Italian game.
steph_wheeler—I’ll look forward to it, whatever it is…
Paww—I had the chance for a quick game on NHL09 before I had to leave for work. I have to say, not totally blown away, but then it was just one game, I played on the easiest difficulty, and I barely knew the controls (is it me or is there no auto-switching of players when on defense?). It’ll take a good session, I think.
In FIFA09 I’m toying with moving down from WC to Pro difficulty. Today’s post was originally a 1500-word monster and I had to edit it down. One huge bit that was chopped out was all about my struggles with WC. I got thumped 5-0 in my first game back, for example.
ck—I’m really a terrible PES community member. I haven’t updated myself on your Aylesbury Vale story (on PESfan) for ages. I will rectify that now.
And ‘props’ to you for spelling lustre the UK way
What I hint at in this post is a big issue with me right now. I wouldn’t say I was ‘wrestling with my conscience’ over it. Believe me, time is at such a premium for me that I only play the games I want to play, and have little or no guilt about not playing the others. Glancing back over the past 6 months, it is unavoidable that I have wanted to play PES2009 more than FIFA09, and that is surprising to me given my genuine appraisal of FIFA09 as the better game—and not just by a little but by a lot.
I think you’ve hit the proverbial nail on the head: ultimately it’s all about the scoring. Another bit that I had to cut from today’s post was all about a few matches I had on the PSP PES2008, in particular about a couple of half-volleyed screamers I scored—goals that gave me sheer pleasure. It’s a rare FIFA09 goal that gives me that kind of pleasure, and even then the pleasure mainly comes from the passing move that preceded it, rather than the shot executions.
FIFA09 is a technical marvel, the apogee of football game devleopment, the uber-game that things were heading towards all these years ever since the days of Pong-like soccer games in the 1970s (which I remember playing at the time!). But I can’t help noticing that I’m merely admiring FIFA09, whilst playing PES2009…
‘Firing up this bad boy’ is a total American-ism. I’ve heard things (usually boy’s toys like motorcycles and grills) referred to as ‘bad boys’ on multiple occasions.
As Shakespeare said, the play’s the thing. Right now PES has two addictive modes to FIFA’s one, and somehow PES’ horrible, horrible flaws just become part of the PES Experience, whereas FIFA’s handful of drawbacks tend to push me away from the game. Although if FIFA had it’s goal issue sorted, this would be moot because I’d have never put PES back in the PS3 after growing fed up with the rubbish AI.
I actually hope that both PES and FIFA get stuck in on development this year and give us more fooder (foddre?) for the internet mill next season!
Each game has it’s flaws and I believe that 2010 is the year when one can really make or break the battle of the football games if they get it right. FIFA made a massive leap forward with 08 and has made slight improvements for 09 andnow really has the chance to truly take over. As has been said the biggest improvements needed for FIFAare in creating a fantastic single player mode to rival ML and getting the shooting/goalscoring just right. Of course we don’t want to be slamming 35 yarders in with every attempt but they should be possible occasionally.
PES really needs to not only work on getting back to the glory days but also to bring something new to the table. I’m not sure I’d be conviced simply by bring back the ‘old school’ PES gameplay and nothing else. For me even the ML has become a little bit stale and needs something new to liven it up and give us something different.
ck—’bad boy’ has seeped into pan-English usage. I’ve got a long-planned but probably never-to-be-done post up my sleeve that I’m just itching to call “Knowing Meme, Knowing You”, all about such things. I’ve seen ‘bad boy’ dozens of times over the past year or two on countless message boards and the like right across the Anglosphere. It always strikes me as a bit camp in an ‘oooh missus’ kind of way, but then I roll my eyes and shake my head whenever I hear about this ‘rock and roll’ music that seems to be so popular nowadays.
Fully agree on PES’s faults seeming more forgivable than FIFA’s. PES2008’s faults were ultimately unforgivable, but PES2009’s less so. And weirdly, oppositely, I was far more forgiving of FIFA08’s faults than I am of FIFA09’s. That’s another thing I’ll have to do one of these quiet summer days between now and October: fire up FIFA08 (the original bad boy; the unexpected but welcome guest from last year), and see how it plays now.
stinger—Only a few weeks to wait and the embargoed press preview of FIFA2010 that took place in London a few weeks ago will be all over the Internet. As ever it’ll all be about what the core gameplay feels like, and we’ll have to shout very loud to be heard when we ask about Manager Mode. I remember last year it wasn’t until the week of release, when people started receiving early copies n the post and reported in forums, that we discovered MM was indeed the same as in 08. Previewers and reviewers just don’t ever seem to bother checking out the game modes in any great depth.
As for PES, yes, as I’ve said before, this year it’s got to happen or it’ll never happen. Another incremental update, and that’ll be it for me and PES in this generation. Just as I’ve stuck with PES2008 on the PSP (and ignored its version of PES2009), I can easily do the same with the bigger console versions. There has to come a point when enough is enough.
It’s probably a mark of how close FIFA 09 has come that it’s faults are all the more glaring. It’s like a cross-eyed supermodel, you know? Almost . . . but not quite perfect.
Not-Greg, 11:10 PM (GMT -5). We’re still on the weekend in the US! Check out, this new video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8V-x2IhC1RY
Just some nice goals I scored recently and wanted to share with you. Anyone else, please feel free to take a look. Cheers!
steph_wheeler—nice vid, thanks for the mention, and as somebody with a weakness for diving headers I have to vote that my favourite one of the bunch. I liked the chip-the-keeer one as well. That’s somethig I’ve not been able to do consistently since PES3 or PES4, where I used to chip the keeper for fun. Ever since, for some reason, I just can’t seem to do it right.
Great to see the snow in the opening clip as well. Also it’s great to see an old-school PES looking and playing so well. As you know I believe that PES2008 (PS2/PSP of course) was arguably the best of the old-gen PESes, and therefore arguably the best PES full stop. I’d actually go for PES5 (naturally!) if put on the spot to choose, but the fact is that PES2008 is right up there in contention—sadly, for various reasons it’s probably one of the most overlooked PES games ever. It’s all the accursed next-gen PES2008’s faut, really. Everything is that game’s fault…