Things have been a bit quiet for me on the blog recently. For most of this past year I’ve updated here every single day without fail. Recently that became several times a week. I will be getting back to daily updates in due course—probably after the release of FIFA09. For now, though, things just feel odd.

We’re firmly in the middle of the ‘phoney war’ phase leading up to this year’s big game releases. I’ve also been distracted by a few things in real life that I won’t go into here. All in all, my game-playing habits have taken a massive hit. This past week is probably the first week in around eight years that I haven’t played a single game of Pro Evolution Soccer.

My attitude to PES2008 on the PS3 is well-documented on this blog. But I had—and still have—a lot of time for the PS2/PSP version of the game. By rights, I should have been playing that. Ah, but times have changed. Things have moved on in the football gaming world. I’ve had the FIFA09 demo to distract me.

Below is a replay of probably the best goal I’ve scored on the demo. The quality is poor, but you can just make out what goes on. In case it’s not clear, the goal is a finessed lob-shot from the outer corner of the box that flies over the keeper into the far corner of the net.

Granted, it was on Amateur difficulty. I don’t expect to be curling them in for fun in the full game. But I am getting the hang of FIFA09’s much-maligned new shooting system. I’ve been amazed by the negative reaction to it in some quarters. To me it feels wonderfully intuitive and satisfying to let rip with ‘Bobby Charlton’-style shots. It reminds me of PES5’s shooting system, when you just had to feather the shoot button at the right moment to fire a rocket. We’ll see how this FIFA09 shooting plays in the full game.

As for PES2009, I await its demo with impatience. Part of me suspects that we won’t see it until days before the full game’s release, after sentimentalists like me have finally cracked and put in our pre-orders.

I’m still cautiously optimistic about PES2009. Despite the arcade handling (and it took FIFA08 to show us that, yes, PES is arcadey and always has been), that famous core gameplay—the classic PES gameplay—is something I very much want to see executed properly on the next-gen consoles.

Browsing the forums, it’s noticeable that the PES/FIFA arguments this year are fiercer than they’ve ever been. I’m amused to see legions of PES fans confidently declare that nothing has changed in FIFA for ten years, when in fact everything has changed, and massively so. It’s also amusing to see the same arguments that PES players always used against FIFA turned by FIFA fans against PES. Too arcadey. Too fast. Too many goals. A football game for kids…

I’m not a FIFA fan—not yet. But, crucially, it’d be a stretch, after 2008, to still call myself a PES fan. I’m a pre-PES2008 PES fan. Yes, that’s probably about right.

Like I said, I await PES2009. With great interest.

Aside from all the sound and fury over FIFA09, and the relative mutedness of PES2009 right now (come on, Konami, pull your corporate finger out), it’s worth mentioning that I’m still playing the PS2/PSP version of PES2008 with great enjoyment. In truth, I mainly play it on my PSP nowadays—there are just too many other great games competing for time in my PS3. But I am still playing it.

I will go on playing my PES2008 Master League career at least until the FIFA09 demo appears in September. Even then I’ll probably still play my ML career, off and on, until PES2009 emerges from hiding in late October. Despite this being a proper annus horribilis for PES fans, I’m strangely just as immersed as ever in my Master League. What can I say. I’ve been used to playing Master League all year for several years now, and old habits die hard.

In season 2021, it’s pretty much business as usual. I’m coming up to the mid-season negotiations. I’m top of the league by 8 points (Valencia, as usual, are chasing me in second place). I’m top of my group in Europe. I’m in the quarter-finals of the Division 1 Cup. Things are looking rosy for another Treble.

Regular readers will know how much I love scoring long-range goals. Blasting one in from 30 yards out just feels so good. For me they’re the best possible kind of goals to score. PES has always done long-range shooting very well, particularly from PES5 onwards. The sheer visceral joy of smacking the ball into the back of the net is one of the greatest pleasures that PES gaming has to offer. (FIFA08’s relative lack of oomph in its long-range shooting is one of my minor quibbles with that game.)

I’ve already scored a contender for ‘most favourite PES long-ranger ever’. That one came from Prieto. No, you really can’t beat having a strong DMF with Middle Shooting in your team. In a recent league game I scored a goal with my regular DMF, Bradley, that was slightly different from the norm. Instead of flying straight and true, with power and swerve, it sort of looped up high and then dipped outrageously behind the stranded keeper and into the net. Here’s the default view:

The strike comes from deep inside the centre circle, a yard or two inside the opposition half. I haven’t got out the tape measure to make it official, but I think that makes it a longer-distance strike than the Prieto effort.

The Big Dipper, as I call this goal, truly lives up to its name when seen from pitch-level. The reverse angle shows the crazy path of the ball very clearly. Initially, it rises like a field-goal attempt in American Football.

I scored this goal while sitting at my desk at work. if you’ve got your speaker volume up, you can hear a ringing telephone in the background. I was ignoring it. I was concentrating on filming the goal replay with my mobile phone. Have people no consideration?

In the few months of PES2008 left to me I will, of course, be trying to better this latest long-ranger. I think it’ll be tough, though. To score from even closer to the halfway line I’d probably have to start pressing shoot whilst still in my half—which the game would interpret as a defensive clearance.

“Ohhhh, Pro Evo…” This, supposedly, is what Seabass was in the habit of saying, with his head rightly in his hands, whenever anybody reminded him of the fairly dismal first iteration of the game on the PSP. I wonder what he does when people mention the PS3 version of PES2008? I just wonder.

But it wasn’t completely terrible. As much as it’s tempting now to condemn it as an unmitigated disaster, I have to remember that for a month or so I thought PES2008 on the PlayStation3 was a pretty good game.

That seems incredible to me now. I thought it was good for so long due to my averageness at PES. It took me an age to discover for myself what many people were saying on Day 1. In PES2008, on the hardest difficulty setting, you really could dribble past entire teams using almost any player. After I finally discovered the universal ‘wonder dribble’ for myself, I could no longer take the game seriously. It was no good trying to stop myself doing it. Knowing it was possible was enough.

And in many ways the ‘wonder dribble’ was among the least of the game’s problems. When you factored in the shoddy graphics, the slowdown, and the frankly disgusting quality of online play (how Konami have got away with that one in particular is beyond belief), it was easily the worst-ever showing for our beloved franchise. Ohhhh, Pro Evo….

It’s been almost a year now and the wounds still haven’t healed. I still feel raw and emotional. I still haven’t got over the shock. One of the many kicks in the balls that PES2008 represented for me was that I was one of many who had bought a PlayStation3 specifically with PES2008 in mind. Yes, it’s safe to say that with PES2008 I got burned badly on almost every front.

Is it any wonder that my spirits refuse to rise (much) at the prospect of PES2009? By this stage there have been plenty of rumours and leaks, enough to pique even the most jaded interest. Call me an old cynic, but everything we’ve discovered so far about PES2009 is just too evocative of last year’s false hopes and ruined expectations. I remember last summer very well. I remember frequently thinking that within just a few short months I’d be playing Pro Evolution Soccer on a next-gen console.

I think my expectations were in proportion. I expected a good, rewarding PES game. I was never one of those who believed it would be the most staggeringly great football game ever created.

A favourite hidey-hole for PES2008 apologists is that the fans’ expectations were too high. Well, my expectations for PES2008 were for a Pro Evolution Soccer game. Nothing more, nothing less.

And that’s what I’m expecting for PES2009. All I want is for it to be a worthwhile game of Pro Evolution Soccer. Not an arcadey, tween-oriented mess.

We’ll see in good time whether this summer’s hopes for PES2009 all turn out to be misplaced. For now, I’m going to set aside my cynicism and examine the most significant leak of information yet. Last week a wealth of information appeared online, courtesy of a supposed games-tester, fresh from testing PES2009.

I’ll glance over this alleged Deep Throat’s main points about PES2009, one by one:

• “Gameplay is PES2008, the way it should have been.” I may be the only man alive who can get worried about a comma, but the comma in that direct quotation does worry me. For me it places undue emphasis on PES2008, as if PES2009 will indeed just be an updated PES2008 (the Doomsday Scenario…).
• “You can no longer run straight through anyone with Eto’o or Ronaldinho.” Setting aside the fact that in PES2008 you could run straight through anyone with the likes of Gary Neville, this is good news if true. But are we really going to start being grateful to Seabass & co. for taking things out of the game that should never have been in it in the first place? I’m not. I’m grumpy and I’m staying that way until further notice.
• Refereeing and diving have been improved. PES2008’s referees gave instant red cards for tackles in non-critical areas of the pitch. They were too fussy, too card-happy. Hopefully they’ll be back to normal for PES2009. And diving was a pretty good idea IMO, if a little misapplied. After trying it a few times in PES2008, I never used it again.
• Attacking and defensive play are more balanced. Goalkeepers in particular had to be improved and hopefully will be. Fully 50% of all goals scored came from the keepers’ useless pat-a-cake saves.
• Licensed teams and players. Don’t care, never have cared, never will care. It’s all about the gameplay. Licenses are a luxury item in PES and always have been (and that’s what Edit mode is for).
• “Become a Legend” mode. This sounds like a cheerful rip-off of FIFA’s Be A Pro mode. That’s okay, really (good games borrow; great games steal). I doubt I’ll bother much with it myself but I hope it works.
• Online vastly improved. As it damn well should be. I’m not much of an online gamer. But I’d love to actually have the choice.
• Crossing is a bit ‘floaty’ and shooting is more difficult. The Seabass giveth, and the Seabass taketh away.
• Graphics are similar. This is quite disappointing, but still borderline acceptable. The graphics for PES2008, although relatively poor compared to other ‘next-gen’ graphics (notably FIFA08), were still acceptable—just. The initial slowdown, though, was almost unforgivable. Shipping a game that works out of the box should be a games developer’s (and publisher’s) #1 priority. It clearly wasn’t in the case of PES2008. What does that tell us about how they see their customers? That’s right—as idiots. Any hint of slowdown in PES2009, and they might as well start including copies of FIFA09 in the same box.

Considered all together, this leak would seem to bode well for PES2009. The big question is: is it all true? Until I see a full hands-on preview from several separate sources that all tell me we’ve got a proper PES game on our hands for 2009, I’ll keep my expectations down low. It’s the best thing all round. But my hopes are slightly rising, I have to say. If this leak is pre-release propaganda from Konami, it’s slightly working on me.

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In my Master League career on PES2008, meanwhile, I’m well into season 2021 now. I should reiterate here, for any new readers’ sakes, that I am playing my customary year-long ML career on the PS2 and PSP version of PES2008. The PS3 version might as well not exist for me now.

In 2021 I’ve won 6 of my opening league games, drawn 2, and lost 1. Yes, the unbeaten record attempt has gone early this season.

In Europe I’m in a group with AC Milan again. They were tough in our opening game and it looked like 0-0 all the way. Then I brought on Prieto as an emergency left-back, and went on a late run with him down the wing.

What resulted was probably my single most favourite long-range goal so far. I literally SHOUTED out loud when this one flew in. It’s the angle that the shot comes from, and the placement into the corner of the net, and the keeper’s despairing flap, that all combine to make it for me: