So. The word is out: PES2009 is PES5 with HD graphics.

That’s the consensus opinion so far, at 6pm on 20th August 2008. Today was—and still is—a very big day for Pro Evolution Soccer 2009.

A next-gen version of PES5 is what many PES fans called for. I called for it too. Now that it seems I’ll get what I wished for, how do I feel about it?

I don’t know yet. I’m still taking it all in.

I’ve been taking in all the news since midnight last night. Early indications were not good. WENB was down even at 1 am last night, which doesn’t really bode well for the next few months. Thankfully I was able to follow the latest developments on the various PES forums. (Or should that be fora? I’m never sure.)

A couple of websites leapt straight in after 12.00. One said that holding X+Square (clamping, as I call it) far too easily wins the ball back from the CPU. I really, really hope that doesn’t turn out to be true. Talk about a game-breaker.

This morning brought better news. I got up fully expecting that WENB would be down and would remain down all day. As it turned out, they’ve been up all day (disabling their forum temporarily eased the load on their server). It’s been a great source of information.

The WENB previews are positive, as I expected them to be. There’s more than a bit of discussion in the PES community about just how trusting we should be of the WENB coverage of PES2009. Their infamous preview of the PlayStation3 version of PES2008—”Three times better on Blu-Ray”—will indeed haunt them for some time to come. (How much wronger could they have been?!)

Last year they were just starting out, just finding their feet. Their connections within Konami were tenuous at best. But the WENB boys’ enthusiasm for PES cannot be denied, and they see the game through fans’ eyes. Casting my mind back a year, it was literally inconceivable that PES2008 could be anything but magnificent. That fixed pre-conception clouded lots of people’s judgements.

I’m disposed to view WENB’s output this year as being more or less trustworthy. No more or less trustworthy, anyway, than elsewhere on the Internet.

They somehow chose the noisiest cafeteria in London in which to record their ‘videocast‘. Knowing how dismayed Suffwan was by his first hands-on with PES2008 last year, it was interesting to watch his facial expressions as he gave his (qualified) endorsement of PES2009. What do the little glances aside, away from the camera lens, signify? Reservations? Or simple camera-shyness?

Later in the day came the first gameplay videos. At the time of writing (just after 18.00) there are only two gameplay videos that I know of. Now I find this damned strange. Why aren’t we up to our necks in shaky-cam footage from the Leipzig hall by now?

Anyway. I clipped the below segment from the best video so far. The clip is around 20 seconds long, and shows two things. One, it is disturbingly similar-looking to PES2008. Two, the new heavier-looking physics (of players and of the football itself), and the slower speed, are very welcome.

It still looks too fast for my taste. It still looks pretty arcadey. But it’s early days yet. Best not to rush to judgements. This post is only my first impressions for now. I think it’s fair to say that I’m still suspicious of PES2009—what I’ve seen and heard of it. I wished for a new version of PES5 a couple of times, but never actually thought I’d get it. I’m confused.

I think a comment made by Adam in his article on WENB sums it up well. By reverting to an older, tried-and-tested set of gameplay mechanics, Konami has played a ‘get out of jail’ card. It was easy for them to do this. For that reason alone there are some PES players who will never forgive them. FIFA09 sure is looking mighty good.

The next few days will doubtless bring more revelations, videos, and hands-on impressions. (In particular I can’t wait to hear what Riot, a regular guest on the WENB podcast, has to say about PES2009.) I’ll hold off saying any more for now while everything sinks in. I’ll post again on Friday with a more considered reaction.

And so the Big Reveal is almost upon us. Leipzig is less than 24 hours away. The various non-disclosure agreements regarding previews of PES2009 will expire. Around this time tomorrow, we’ll be awash in information about the game.

I predict that it’ll be mostly positive. Understandably, the likes of PESfan and WENB will not want to jeopardise their relationship with Konami. Not yet anyway. Any misgivings that they have about PES2009 will most likely be buried between the lines, inferable from the tone of voice.

Other websites may not be so restrained. Last year’s disaster generated a lot of bad karma. Konami told reviewers that the PS3 version’s atrocious slowdown and utterly disgusting online play would be fixed before release. Reviewers obediently kept schtum. WHOOPS.

What does it all mean for PES2009? It means that a lot of professionally embarrassed games journalists will be looking for a reason, any reason, to balance the scales of justice… Yes, Konami have got a lot of making-up to do.

Personally, I expect a solid Pro Evolution Soccer game from PES2009. Nothing more, nothing less. I’ll be stunned if PES2009 is anything more than a placeholder for the promised revolution of PES2010. If it’s anything less… If it’s just a revamped PES2008, as many fear it will be… Well… that really will be the end for me and PES. After all this time. I do not want to think about it.

As for tomorrow, I have a confession to make. PES2009 is not the only show in town for me. Perhaps it’s a sign of the strange football gaming times we live in, what with the very good FIFA08 and the abysmal PS3 PES2008 and all. But I’m looking forward to Leipzig for more than just Pro Evolution Soccer…

I’m a keen PC strategy gamer and always have been. One of my favourite strategy game publishers is Paradox Interactive. It publishes such immense titles as the Europa Universalis and Hearts of Iron series. To call these games deep and complex is, for once in the world of gaming, a genuine understatement. I thought Civilization games were complex until I bumped into Paradox Interactive games for the first time. They can make the Civilization franchise look like Tetris. I’ve been playing Hearts of Iron II in particular for several years and I still have to consult the manual to check up on certain things.

Anyway, the point here is that Paradox will be announcing an all-new strategy title at Leipzig tomorrow. And I find that I’m actually looking forward to hearing all about that as much as I am looking forward to PES2009. This makes me feel sad. PES has been my #1 game franchise for nigh on a decade. Time was that nothing else—and I mean nothing else—would have got a look-in. The times really are a-changin’, and I’m not sure I like them.

But I have a strange feeling in my water. I’ve had it for most of this year. The more brickbats that have been flung at PES2008, the more I have had that feeling… Call it absurd, misplaced optimism, but I think PES2009 will be great. Not just ‘good’ (which is what we’d all settle for, I’m sure). Great.

Time will tell. And that time is shrinking rapidly. I’ll post a special entry tomorrow evening on my initial reaction to the news, and then a more considered follow-up on Thursday or Friday. Exciting times indeed.

“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.

——–

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: