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.

The most common scoreline in FIFA08 is 1-0. That also happens to be the most common scoreline in the real game of football. It’s day 4 of FIFA08 week on PES Chronicles, and I’m re-immersed in my Manager Mode career with Coventry City.

I started this career in the weeks leading up to the release of PES2008, then roughly abandoned it as PESday neared. Now here I am, back with my tail firmly between my legs…

Manager Mode on FIFA08: All the real teams, with the real kits, with the real players, playing in their real leagues. This much is well known. It’s never meant anything to me in the past and it means nothing to me now.

Gameplay is the most important element of a football game. The second most important element of a football game is gameplay. It’s also the third most important element.

After that point, yes, I’ll admit that presentation and licensing might count for something. However, there is evidence to show that some things might have been a little rushed…

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I started out in the Championship with Coventry City, with the real squad made up of the likes of Ward, Tabb, and Adebola et al. Stunning mediocrities all. (Sorry, lads, if you’re reading this, but you are.)

I started on Semi-Pro. After a few games, I went down to Amateur. I didn’t come back up to Semi-Pro for about ten, twenty games. Something like that. It took me that long to get comfortable with the core mechanics of FIFA08.

I was mid-table near the end of my first season, but then I put together a run of results that lifted me up to 5th place and a playoff spot. Er, in theory anyway. Imagine my extreme disgruntlement when no actual playoffs took place. Suddenly it was the next season. I was still in the Championship. The third-placed team had automatically been promoted to the Premier League.

Bad, EA. BAD. I trust that there have been red faces among the development team, and not a few smacked bottoms. The English league non-playoff fiasco is just one of a number of niggling annoyances in FIFA08. Thankfully, the majority of them are off the field of play. Read ‘em and weep, Seabass.

Here’s my current FIFA08 First XI:

Unlike my PES2008 First XI, this one is pretty constant. You can upgrade your club’s fitness coach stage by stage (at a progressively higher cost) to the point where your players are almost always fully fit before every game. Extreme fixture congestion only has a slight impact.

Until I started to get good players, I played a 3-5-2 in almost every game. FIFA08 is all about the build-up play. It’s a rare goal that isn’t preceded by a good deal of passing - thus, midfield dominance is a necessity.

I have a pretty solid bench as well. Among them are the likes of O’Shea, Pedro Mendes, Stevanovic, and Chamakh. I’ve never heard of some of them but they’re very good…

It’s pretty easy to accumulate enough cash to build a great team with Coventry City within a few seasons. I got automatic promotion in season 2008-09, and started battling it out in the Premier League. I have finished 8th, 5th, and 3rd in the past three seasons. Currently, in the middle of season 2012-13, I’m challenging for three trophies: League, Cup, and European Cup.

PES2008’s holy grail in Master League is the Treble. FIFA08 offers the crazily ambitious football gamer a mouth-watering prize, at least in the English League: the Quadruple.

Sadly, the Quadruple is over for me in this season. I have just been knocked out of the League Cup by Burnley. My team of quasi-galacticos was out-muscled and outplayed by the Championship upstarts in a grim encounter at Turfmoor.

That can happen in FIFA08 - a bit too often, actually, for my liking. You can play superbly against Chelsea one week and beat them 2-0 ( a great result in FIFA08), then take on Northampton Town in the Cup, struggle to keep the score at 0-0, and finally win 8-7 on penalties after extra time. I know because it happened to me on Saturday night.

Michael Owen is my top striker. I’ve had him for two full seasons now and he’s scored 20+ in both. Another roll-of-the-eyes FIFA08 moment: after signing him, Owen ‘held a press conference’ where he gushed about playing for Coventry City and said he had supported the club ever since he was a boy… Groan.

Anyway. Suspension of disbelief and all that. Here’s Owen executing a lovely scissors kick in the box:

Those close-range scissors-kick goals are among FIFA08’s most common goal types. Long punts over the keeper’s head and weak headers are among the others. It’s not a perfect game, not by any means. Sometimes you’ll score a common type of goal for a few games running. You’ll think you’ve got FIFA08 cracked and it ain’t so tough after all. Then you’ll find yourself locked at 0-0 and having to sweat to craft a proper goal, and know that you’re still learning the ropes.

I signed Mathieu just to see what he would be like in FIFA08 after trying and failing to get him for so long in my PES2008 ML career. He’s been great. Here’s a goal from Mathieu in FIFA08:

Yes, that’s a pretty ordinary goal by PES standards. By FIFA08 standards it’s a rarity, and one to treasure. The shooting is that difficult.

After playing these first five games of season 2011, I had to visit the General Settings section of the main Master League menu to check that the difficulty level is still on Top Player. It is.

The struggles of last season are (mostly) at bay - at least temporarily. Every now and then, it seems, PES2008 plays like a dream and seems easy. I’m having such a period now. They’ve come along before, and gone away before, so I won’t be getting complacent and declaring PES2008 to have finally been cracked.

Fenerbahce 1 - 3 Coventry City

The season opener was against a team who I never had much trouble with last year as far as I can remember. It’s their neighbours, Galatasaray, who are one of my big two bogey teams (Sunderland are the other).

Schwarz scored two quick-fire headed goals from crosses to make it 0-2 to me with barely 20 minutes gone. Fenerbahce showed nothing. Naturally, they scored with their one attack of the second half, making it 1-2. It was the usual scripted rubbish. Curse you Seabass!

However, almost from my kick-off I swept up to their end, and Chiesa found the back of the net with a clipped finish. Lovely.

The league table after 1 game made for some morale-boosting viewing. I was joint-second with Spurs. I was behind Aston Villa only on goal difference.

Newcastle 1 - 0 Coventry City

For the love of… Normal service, it seemed, was resumed in this game. Newcastle scored early. Owen chested the ball down with his back to my goal, turned, and scored - all in the same fluid movement. I’ll bet now that none of my players will ever be able to execute the same move, not even if I play PES2008 from now until the end of time.

I absolutely pounded the Newcastle goal for the rest of the game. But every shot went wide. The ones that didn’t were saved, deflected, hit the bar, hit the post…

Tottenham 1 - 1 Coventry City

This game was almost a carbon copy of the Newcastle game. I got my equaliser five minutes from time. It was a penalty. I got a penalty. My first penalty in five seasons. Schwarz thumped it down the middle as the keeper kindly leapt to one side. A penalty! I had to go and lie down after that. I was in shock.

Galatasaray 0 - 1 Coventry City

Now this was more like it. Tight game, solid defending - Guimaraes running rampant down the right wing - and a deeply satisfying win against one of my two bogey teams. Bring on the Sunderland. I cannot wait.

This was the game when Marcos - my new signing from pre-season - really arrived. He started to dominate the left side of midfield, then all of midfield, then the entire game… He scored the only goal of the game - a goal that was pretty ordinary but vastly significant for me. It came at the end of a spell of pressure where I was starting to think that I had this game exactly where I wanted it and was going to win it. I’ve never really had that feeling in Master League so far. It was very pleasant.

River Plate 0 - 2 Coventry City

After securing this relatively easy this win to round off the opening 5 games, I could hardly bring myself to put down the joypad. But I had to. There was real world stuff to attend to.

Overall, despite the Newcastle defeat, I’d say this was my most satisfying session on the game during the month or so that I’ve had it.

The way my new players have knitted into the team is particularly welcome. Marcos and Braafheid on the left side of my team have been superb. Defensively I’m starting to really, really see that clamping X+Square is the deadliest handicap you can give yourself in PES2008. I know not to do it but I often find myself doing it automatically. I’m trying to stop. Pressing Square on its own, while you control the other player, and block off passing lanes and so forth, is the way to go.

I’m riding high in 5th place after five games. And no red cards yet. I averaged almost one per game last season. So far I’ve had just two yellow cards. All in all, it’s not too shabby. It’s not too shabby at all.