I’ll get straight to it. In times of yore, the Vertical Long camera provided a zoomed-out viewpoint from behind your goal for the whole of a match. But we haven’t seen what I regard as a ‘proper’ Vertical Long camera in PES for over a decade now. In every version since ISS98, the Vertical Long camera has forced you to play ‘downscreen’ for one half of a match. And I hate playing downscreen in a Vertical view. So I’ve stuck entirely with the default horizontal Wide view for a decade—and now I want my old Vertical Long camera back.

I want PES2009 to have a Vertical Long camera that allows me to play ‘upscreen’ in both halves. I think I remember reading a month or so ago that the game will permit this feature for the first time in a decade. I keep wondering if it’s true, and hoping.

The 2009 batch of football games are so close that I really don’t think I can function properly until I get my hands on them. The FIFA09 demo will be available a week tomorrow; the full game is only a month away. PES2009 (and its demo) is now only 6 weeks away. Or 7 weeks—it all depends what release date you believe.

I don’t know whether I am coming or going. It’s all producing some strange symptoms…

The other day I spent an hour in town walking between various shops, hunting for a PS1 copy of ISS98. I didn’t find it. I could easily get it from eBay, but I think I’ll just leave it now. I’ll hang on for FIFA09. And I suspect that it’s only a matter of time before ISS98 (or any one of those early ISS titles) pops up as a PSP download on the PlayStation Network. In which case I would be at the front of the queue.

I’ve mentioned on several occasions that ISS98 is one of my favourite versions of ISS/PES. ISS98 was the one with Fabrizio Ravanelli and Paul Ince eyeballing one another on the cover. Back in 1998 I played it almost into the ground on my old PlayStation—whilst wearing short trousers… (Not really. I was twenty-something in 1998, but it was so long ago now that it feels as if I should have been wearing short trousers.)

No doubt the mists of memory are being kinder to ISS98 than it deserves. No doubt I’ll reel in horror, if/when I ever get to play it again.

Ah, but it had that 100%, ‘proper’ Vertical Long camera… If it is indeed back for PES2009 then I can see me and Pro Evo getting very cosy together again. There’s something about playing vertically, directly attacking a goal ‘upscreen’ that makes an already immersive game even more so. Shooting in particular when using a Vertical camera is extremely satisfying. Aiming is so much more intuitive.

If anyone has any concrete information about the Vertical camera in PES2009, I’d love to hear about it. Remember that it has to point towards the opponent’s goal in both halves. Otherwise, I’m not interested.

I doubt that any of the early playtesters—at Leipzig and elsewhere—took the trouble to test all the camera modes. Even if they did, I bet none of them played with the Vertical Long camera. And even if they did, I bet they never used it for the whole match. When the big PES websites—PESfan, WENB, that lot—start getting their promo copies of the game, I’ll post a question for them. But will I get my question answered? Those Q&A threads are nightmarishly fast and furious. I think I’ll end up finding this one out for myself.

———————–

In my next post I’ll be bringing down the curtain on the game that has occupied most of my football game year. I’m talking about the PS2/PSP version of PES2008. Old faithful.

FIFA08 ran it close. I have played loads of FIFA08, more now than ever. But that shabby, classico version of PES2008 just edges it in terms of hours played. And I owe it a special post to discuss my current state of play, what I think of it overall as a PES game, and whether or not I will continue my ML career on the PSP version over the coming year.

On my next FIFA Sunday I’ll also be doing a similar summing-it-all-up post about FIFA08. That game has been another faithful servant in this grim year for PES fans.

I might have found the answer to the riddle of PES2008. Assuming that the riddle is: How can I play PES2008 with enjoyment for longer than I have already played it?

I fired up PES2008 on my PS3 this morning with a considerable lack of enthusiasm. The game’s faults are well-documented across a hundred different websites. (The print magazines are strangely quiet. A token one-page, semi-humorous feature on the problems with PES2008 is all we have got out of Official PlayStation Magazine since their disgraceful 9/10 review that failed to mention the horrific technical problems that marred the game until two months after its release.)

I didn’t feel like playing England vs Scotland, or resuming either of my two Master League careers (the Coventry City one and the Singers FC one). I fancied something different. I decided to try out PES2008’s League mode.

I’d never really bothered with League mode in PES. Ever since Master League came along, Master League is pretty much all I’ve ever played.

Before Master League - back in the days of ISS - I don’t remember there being a League mode. There was one of sorts, but it was composed entirely of International teams. It didn’t feel right. I used to play tournaments all year round on the old ISS games. It was great fun going through the alphabet and trying to win the World Cup with every team in the game. Teams like Nigeria and Ukraine were pretty easy, but it took me about 20 separate attempts to win it with Wales.

League mode on PES2008 is unknown territory. I’m sick of the English league and English teams - I’m hip-deep in an English FIFA08 right now - so I leaned toward the Italian league. I chose to play with Juventus.

I set up my beloved 4-3-3, with Del Piero slightly out of position as a left-sided CF. I don’t really know some of the Juventus players, so it took me a while to sort through them. I arranged the subs’ bench to how I wanted it.

Then I played my first couple of games. I played four in total. I won 2, and I lost 2. I found PES2008 to be a pretty good game again, to be honest. It was challenging. I had to defend well and be careful not to attack too much. I had to take the chances I created or be punished. At times, it was frustrating. And, best of all, I was unable to go on any mazy, dribbling runs with the players at my disposal.

I tried to - of course I did. I’m human. I tried with Camoranesi, with Nedved, even with Del Piero (too slow). I tried and failed to score ‘Elcherino goals’ with any of my team. This was good.

After the four games I felt something of the old fire. The urge to get on and see what happens next, see how far I can take this thing. In League mode, of course, there is no player development and no transfer market. The players you start with are the only players you’re going to get. This, too, is a great plus-point.

Here’s a random kind of goal I scored during one of the games. A corner comes over, is partially cleared by the CPU defence, then Juve’s rangy CF, Iaquinta, gets his head to it (let’s ignore the CPU goalkeeper’s Paul Robinson-style flap at the ball as it crawls past him into the net, eh?):

League mode could be the future for me and PES2008. I’ll say that right now. Could I play nothing but League mode all year? Yes. In conjunction with the very involving Manager Mode on the very good next-gen FIFA08, I might yet salvage something out of this terrible year. Trying to win every PES2008 League with every team could be a lot of fun, and genuinely fulfilling. I could even go down the road of setting up custom Leagues - Superleagues! - and trying to win them with the likes of Reading.

Ah, but first I have to give Master League one more chance. I owe it to PES after all these years to go that extra mile. Before I can think about jumping ship to another game mode, I will resume my Singers FC career for at least a few days, using some devious House Rules. One of the rules involves keeping some of the Default players, permanently.