PES Chronicles

I’m still disappointed by PES5’s PS2 graphics. It’s extraordinary how quickly you can become used to a new console generation’s graphics – how quickly they become the norm.

I experienced the same problem back in 2002. After moving from the PS1 to the PS2, a few weeks later I put on one of my favourite PS1 games – Syphon Filter 2 – and I couldn’t play it for more than a few minutes. The PS1 graphics looked horrible. I couldn’t stand them. Things are not so bad for PES5. The PS3’s upscaling capability helps a lot.

I’m being a bit of a football game whore at the moment. I’m spreading myself around between two console games. Add PES6 and FM2007 on the PSP and I’ve got 4 ‘mistresses’ on the go at once.

I’ve been thinking a lot about PES2008 over the past few days. I’ve been thinking that PES2008 was a nearer miss than I gave it credit for. But for its terrible, unrealistic, perennially butter-fingered goalkeepers, and its overpowered dribbling, PES2008 could and should have been what we all anticipated it would be: the best football game ever. I am absolutely certain.

Which only makes it all the more personally disappointing (even crushing) that we were served up with the game we got. Could Konami issue a gameplay patch for the goalkeepers? Probably yes, if they wanted to. Do they want to? Probably not. They’ve probably drawn a line under PES2008 and already started to plan their marketing strategy for PES2009.

They got the passing right in PES2008. I also now think they got the pace of the gameplay about right – maybe 10% slower would have been slightly more comfortable, but it’s still a long way short of the insane speed of PES5 and PES6. The shooting, while less than entirely satisfactory, is a bit more difficult than the regular 6-2 scorelines might suggest. PES2008’s shortcomings – its lack of the sheer daily satisfaction that its predecessors had in bucketloads – can largely be traced to the atrocious goalkeeper AI. In my opinion.

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I’m plugging away at PES5, and yes, I finally won a tournament (on 4*).

Here’s the winning goal in the final, scored by Owen against Belgium (of all teams):

I hate to be always sounding so picky about PES. Believe me. But I have another picky point to make: Owen clearly shins that ball into the goal. From 30 yards out.

Sadly, winning this tournament doesn’t mean that I am now going to start a PES5 Master League. I was only playing on 4* and I have to win a tournament on at least 5* before I can consider myself ready and able. Ah, but am I willing?

That is the question. Behind all the bluster and grandstanding of the last week, I am experiencing doubts about continuing with PES5 as my main game for the rest of the year.

I don’t think I want to go back to PES2008. Although I have dreamed up a set of House Rules that would make things very interesting – you know, if I wanted to go back (not saying I would; just speculating here, is all).

I might turn my attention to PES6. Or I might – and this is going to sound like the ultimate heresy – turn to next-gen FIFA08.

After 400+ games on FIFA08, I’ve found that the reasons why some people hate it are the reasons why I like it. No, I don’t want to be able to zoom through entire defences with one player, thank you very much. Yes, I like to take my time. Yes, I enjoy dour 0-0 draws. Yes, I enjoy the challenge of a fantastically difficult and unforgiving shooting system. And so on…. I believe FIFA08 is a game that could easily occupy me until October. Now that would be a turn-up for the books. It would also be a considerable amount of egg on my face. Of all the years I picked to start a PES blog, it had to be this one…

I have a couple of days off work. I’m going to spread myself around a bit, see what feels right.

For most of my time on PES5 until now, I was barely stringing two passes together.

The problem stemmed from trying to do too much too quickly. PES2008-itis: it was still happening, days after the changeover.

It’s strange how PES2008 has affected me. Over the past few months I’ve played a lot of FIFA08 (PS3) and I’m comfortable with slipping into the mode when I have to. This means adopting a pattern of play that many PES players have found strangely disagreeable about FIFA08: a slow, patient, methodical buildup, taking into account the game’s sedate, sim-like pace.

Does that sound familiar? Yes, it’s how PES used to be seen by most PES players, including me. PES2008 has changed all that. Whether next-gen FIFA08 is a good game or not, there is no denying that it is more sim-like than next-gen PES2008.

So I became used to playing PES in a new way. I.e. the arcadey way. Thus, when I picked up PES5 again I tried to bomb forward, incessantly passed the ball long, tried to beat defenders with insane dribbles, and failed. That didn’t prevent me trying again, and again, and again. And again.

When would I stop trying to play PES5 as if it’s PES2008?

Today. Back to basics. Pass and move.

Deliberately controlling the pace of a game, so it’s played your way and not the opponent’s way, is one of the hallmarks of PES that has made it so revered through the years.

Happily, PES5 allows the careful, pass-and-move-oriented player (namely me, in this case) ample opportunity to put my virtual foot on the ball and dictate how fast or slow I want events to unfold. When I was zapping the ball forwards as fast as I could and trying to sprint past every defender in sight, I wasn’t playing PES5. I wasn’t playing it how I used to play it, anyway.

I played a lot better in a new tournament on 4* difficulty. I took my time. I was content only to win by one goal if that’s what I had to do. Perhaps I paid the price for this caution. I was beaten on penalties in the semi-final again, this time at the hands of Italy. As ever, I am not allowed to reload the save game to replay the fixture. I have to go right back to the start of a new tournament. I might bump up the difficulty again, to 5*. I’ll see how I feel tomorrow.

Overall, though, I’m a lot happier with the gameplay and my performances. It still hasn’t fully ‘clicked’ for me. Whenever the CPU has the ball everything on the screen seems to whizz around at a bewildering pace. I’m being a very naughty PES fan and continuing to play FIFA08 (PS3) regularly. Whatever else can be said about EA’s surprising all-new style of football game, they’ve got the pace right in my opinion. I hope PES2009 plays at a similar pace.

My main game is PES5 right now. It’ll continue to be my main game. I think.

I’m steadily accumulating PES points. I want to purchase everything of importance – alternate matchballs, 6* difficulty, the cream of the Classic Players – in the PES shop before Master League gets underway.

It’s day 3 of PES5 week on PES Chronicles…

Ah… I’m only joking about it being a PES5 week instead of a permanent switch. Or am I?

The peculiar thing about the past few days is that I have not immediately (re)taken to PES5 in the way that I thought I would.

I thought that by now I’d be re-immersed fully in what I still believe is the greatest version of the game ever.

Have next-gen PES2008 and next-gen FIF08 spoiled me for all other football games? Despite both games’ numerous faults?

I’m playing International Tournaments on PES5 at the moment. It’s all designed to re-acclimatise me.

I’ve played a full tournament as England on the default difficulty (3 stars). It’s interesting to look at the scorelines and remember how things used to be on Top Player on PES2008:

Group games:
England 0 – Russia 0
England 0 – Romania 1
England 1- Paraguay 0

I was amazed to qualify from the group in second place with just 4 points.

Quarter final: England 2- Ireland 0
Semi-final: England 0 – 0 France (France won 4-5 on penalties a.e.t.)

Here’s a nice goal I scored with Joe Cole along the way:

I love the grace and style of that diving header. PES has always had that: grace and style. Who says video games can’t be art? Or if not art, then at least convey the flavour of art? Another discussion for another time.

So I was eliminated from my first tournament in the Semi-final. That’s about par for the course for me and a new PES. I really am approaching PES5 as if it is a brand-new PES game that has just been released. I’m trying to ignore the rather dull, chalky graphics, and the crazy speed of the gameplay. Again, I have to say how shocked I am by PES5’s speed.

I’m still (re)learning the ropes on PES5, so you’d expect goals to be at a premium right now. But it’s starting to come back to me. I’m starting to remember some of its little quirks and oddities.

PES2008 had more of an effect on me than I ever would have thought possible. The legacy of those last few weeks of constant attacking, attacking, attacking, and effortlessly dribbling through entire teams, and finishing matches with an average total of 7 goal between the teams – all of this has infected my PES forebrain. I’ve forgotten how to defend. I’ve forgotten that I have to defend sometimes.

Whenever I get the ball I want to charge forward and get a goal or create a good chance to get a goal. That was PES2008, where it was possible to do that. This is PES5, where it isn’t possible. Not for me.

Ahhh, that’s better. Slipping the PES6 disc into the console and picking up the familiar joypad feels like coming home. I still feel bad about abandoning the PSP version – but, hey, the fact that I’d had it for nearly a year before only recently trying to get into it is a telling sign.

Straight into an International Cup tournament, playing as England on the Top Player difficulty level. My personal default 4-3-3 formation looks like this:

Yes, I know: it’s a typical ‘computer-gamey’ football formation. A real-life manager of a real-life team would faint to see it. The midfielders are spaced too widely apart. There’s too much space between midfield and attack. That lone DMF won’t afford much protection against CPU counter-attacks. I know all of its faults as well as I know my own name. But this formation, and 4-3-3 formations like it, have served me incredibly well for many years now. The possession you concede in midfield is more than made up for by the attacking threats you pose, especially down the wings. I vary the formation according to which team and players I’m playing with. The 4-3-3 seen above is not the 4-3-3 I’ll usually start with at the outset of a Master League career, for example. Castolo and Huylens et al would hardly get a kick of the ball.

Why do I have Steven Gerrard on the left side of midfield? Rather than on the right, or even in his other great position as a DMF? (With his thunderous long-range shooting, Gerrard is almost the ideal DMF for an attacking 4-3-3) It’s because I want to accommodate Hargreaves as my DMF, and Gerrard is just as good on the left side of midfield (in PES6 anyway) as on the right; he also manages to work his way into just as many long-range shooting opportunities as he would from the DMF position. Maybe more.

Joe Cole as a right-sided CF? Another questionable choice, but he is so effective in the position – and has been for a couple of PESes now – that like any good player playing well, he virtually picks himself. At times I almost prefer him to Owen.

After an awkward first half of the opening match against Spain, which I ended up drawing 1-1 (struggling to re-re-readjust to proper PES, after my adventures with the PSP version of the game, and also with FIFA08), I sailed through the remaining group matches, thumping Nigeria 4-0 on the way with a brace each from Rooney and Owen. Rooney in PES6 is a little overpowered for my liking.

Next up in the first knockout game is… Brazil.