Now this could get very confusing, with all the overlapping 1st impressions and 2nd impressions posts about both games. My first impressions of the PES2009 demo are in bullet point form near the bottom of the post. ‘Cautiously positive’ would be a good summary.

Yesterday I gushed at some length about the full FIFA09 game. Today I’m starting to see (and wince aloud) at some of the many flaws that FIFA09 undoubtedly has. For example, by now I’ve groaned aloud many times at the way players running onto floated through-balls will sometimes mysteriously spin around on the spot and mess the whole thing up. (Ah, but it doesn’t always happen: it seems to be related to erratic pressing of the sprint button and/or flicks of the right analogue stick. I’m still working on this, but it seems to be just an occasional, minor irritant.)

The bad aspects of FIFA09 will no doubt emerge over time. But I’m still pretty bloody impressed with the whole package. I will stand by my claim that it could be the greatest football game ever made. It’s definitely the best football game ever made for the next-generation consoles (which isn’t saying much, I know). The only football games to challenge it, in my opinion, would be some of the old-style PES games from waaaaay back in the early 2000s (which feels like a lifetime ago now). Perhaps PES2, PES3, and PES5 (my personal three favourites) might have something to offer in the ‘greatest football game ever’ stakes.

I just don’t know. It’s been a peculiar year on the football gaming front. Incidentally, I notice that my blog is exactly 1 year old today. That very first post from October 3rd 2007 was one of my typical long, rambling ones… Ahem. A year ago I never, in my wildest dreams/nightmares, believed I would have spent most of season 2007-2008 on this blog talking about PES as if it’s FIFA, and FIFA as if it’s PES. I still feel confused and conflicted about it all.

This morning I managed to complete my download of the PES2009 demo from the PlayStation Network. Yesterday, for some reason, my normally silky-smooth connection to the PSN was running at little more than dialup levels. I got to 40% after three tortuous hours, and then paused it. This morning, I’m happy to say, I resumed the download at my normal speed and completed it in about 15 minutes.

When I started the game I felt nervous. I didn’t know what to expect. I’d spent yesterday evening reading people’s reactions to it across several forums. I only had time this morning for three full games. Here’s what I thought:

• MENUS - Look like they rounded up a load of students from the local art college, fed them a gallon each of Red Bull, then turned them loose on the design. I was reminded of one of those daytime TV home makeover shows, for some reason. Still, it’s all a departure from last year’s menus. We do not need to be reminded of PES2008 by the menus, thank you very much.
• GRAPHICS - Crisp, detailed, smooth. Lovely! I was genuinely astonished by this. The PES2009 graphics are everything that last year’s graphics weren’t. By comparison, FIFA09’s rather chalky visuals (on the PS3) actually look rather crude. Strange.
• SOUND - I actually don’t mind the rather comical crump noise the ball makes when it’s kicked. It’s getting some fearful stick on the forums, though. I hope the PES2009 sound technician, whoever he is, doesn’t read them.
• GAMEPLAY - The most important thing. As important, or more important, than everything else put together and multiplied by a thousand. And you know what… At this stage, after three 5-minute games on the demo (yes, I know), I do actually quite like it. I didn’t score at all in my first game. I only scored one goal apiece in my other two games. One of them was a cracker, struck at an angle and in off the underside of the bar… It does remind me pleasantly of classic PES gameplay. I don’t quite see where the ‘PES5 in HD’ tag has come from, but it’s definitely slower, steadier, and tougher. You can’t go on ‘wonder dribbles’ any more, which is a massively good thing. I’ve spent most of the past year calling for what I regard as proper, authentic PES gameplay to be translated onto a next-gen console, instead of that farcical kids’ game we got last year. I might have got what I asked for. The big question will be: Is it enough now?
• SHOOTING - To me it feels a lot like the shooting in FIFA08! The ball is heavy, the shooting animations are ponderous. When you get hold of a shot you really know it and feel it. I think I like it.
• GOALKEEPERS - Seriously. WHAT?! This could be the downfall of PES2009. The keepers still play pat-a-cake with weak shots far too often. At least the deflections seem to be away to safety this year. But it’s still not right.
• CAMERAS - I was looking forward to testing the new vertical camera, but it’s not what I wanted it to be. Yes, it fulfils my criterion of allowing a view from behind my team in both halves of the game. But it has a gimmicky tilt and swing to it. It swings around to a view from the corner flags too often for my liking. I suppose it’s intended for use in Become A Legend mode, but I doubt I could ever use it for regular games. A disappointment for me, this.
• THE RUNNING - My God. The players still do that awful ‘chicken run’ thing. Sheesh. PES2010, with its alleged all-new game engine, actually cannot come soon enough…
• OVERALL - I am surprised to find that I quite like what this very short play of PES2009 has shown me. So much so that I have finally placed my pre-order with GAME (I hadn’t until now). Yes, after the rigours of FIFA08 and FIFA09, any PES will now seem hopelessly arcadey and possibly even simplistic. The passing game in particular seems very poor after the one I’m playing in FIFA09 at the moment. But I’ve said it all along when it comes to PES2009: if it really does go back to basics and offer me a classic version of PES on my PlayStation3, I’ll buy it and I’ll probably play it a lot.

There’s more to come. I’ll give the demo a proper good going-over in the next few days, and post on Monday or Tuesday about my further findings. (Will that pre-order find itself abruptly cancelled…?)

Tomorrow and Sunday, though, will be all about FIFA09.

Okay, so today was supposed to be all about the PES2009 demo. And it would be if I could get hold of the damn thing. For some reason the demo download from the PlayStation Network is a whopping 1.45GB, and it’s chugging along at a decidedly sub-optimal speed. I started it nearly 2 hours ago and it’s only now hit 30%.

I don’t ever remember PSN downloads being so slow for me. Ordinarily it’d take about 30 minutes to grab a file that size—perhaps 45 minutes on a bad day. This looks like being a FIVE HOUR download. At first I thought maybe there was something wrong at my end, my ISP doing some sneaky traffic shaping, or whatever. But no. Looking at the forums, it seems everybody’s trying to get the demo at once.

And in a little while, I’ll have to pause the download while I do other things. For various reasons I won’t be able to resume it until very late tonight or early tomorrow. So, no PES2009 demo 1st impressions for me today. It’s disappointing but it can’t be helped. I’ll do it tomorrow now—hopefully.

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Today what I have got is the full FIFA09 game. My pre-order arrived through the post late this morning, thanks be to GAME—the best pre-order service in the UK, in my opinion. And no, I don’t get anything for saying that.

I had strong admiration for the gameplay on show in the FIFA09 demo. My equally strong dismay at the lack of any work on the single-player side of FIFA09, especially Manager Mode, is also on record. So will the full game make up for that?

I won’t beat about the bush. My trademark waffling style will have to be set aside, for today at least. Having spent a couple of hours playing FIFA09 just now, I’ve got no time for waffle.

FIFA09 could well be the greatest football computer game ever made. I played several exhibition games, 10 minute halves, England vs Scotland. I always play this fixture (as England) at the start of every new football game, and have done ever since the PS1 ISS games. For the record, it’s because it was always THE classic international fixture when I was growing up. A South American might play Brazil vs Argentina in their first few games. I play England vs Scotland.

I was almost literally open-mouthed. The handling of this game (football games have a handling in the same way that racing games do) is astonishingly great. And it’s faster than its predecessor. A good deal faster, not just in terms of player movement but in their response times. One-touch passing moves. First-time shots. All the elements that we still know and love from PES games of old are here in full, married to an apparent new FIFA philosophy of simulating the game of football whilst still retaining intuitive arcade elements that enhance the overall experience.

I played on Professional level difficulty, expecting an easy time. I didn’t get it. I went behind early, but then scored a neat goal with Rooney. It was from the edge of the box, a sort of quick snapshot of a goal that was rarely possible on FIFA08, where the players nearly always wanted an extra touch before shooting. Scotland won a penalty after I dived in rashly—I love the new ‘tumbling’ tackle animation, by the by—and they scored it and I lost.

I didn’t care. I had a big dumb grin on my face. I played another few games, drew some and won some. This is football.

There may be some down-sides. I’m not sure how effective the new tactical system really is, but I barely touched it so I’m definitely being unfair. The PS3 graphics are disappointingly chalky, especially in cutscenes—but, after spending all my PES years in asserting that gameplay is what really matters, I have to reaffirm that stance. Gampeplay certainly is what matters, and the gameplay of FIFA09 seems stupendously good to me right now.

I know, I know. The true measurement of how good this game is will be decided by how good I think it is in January, not now. But these are my first impressions, and I am pretty damn impressed.

I need to stop now. I’ll come back to FIFA09 on Saturday with a more in-depth look.

Ahhh, you just can’t beat the start of the week in which a big game will be released. Especially when you have a preorder for the game and its status has switched to PENDING…

Last year and this year I’ve pre-ordered my football games with GAME.co.uk. They haven’t let me down yet. Last year I received both FIFA08 and PES2008 on the Wednesday of release week. However, earlier this year they slightly blotted their copybook by not getting MGS4 to me until the actual day of release. Still great service, but I was slightly disappointed with them on that occasion.

As the little picture below shows, my order is moving. I’ve checked my credit card balance and the money is in the process of being taken. However, I’m not getting my hopes up. In the week of MGS4’s release everything also looked as if it was in motion on the Monday. And things stayed that way until the Thursday. If GAME treats its FIFA preorders as it did last year, they’ll dispatch tomorrow, Tuesday, and I’ll have FIFA09 on Wednesday. Here’s hoping.

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Today’s other big news is the confirmation that the PES2009 demo will be released this Thursday, October 2nd. Brilliant! At long last, the waiting—to see just what it’s like, for myself—is nearly over.

Listening to the latest WENB podcast is encouraging and slightly worrying at the same time. The two participants’ enthusiasm for PES2009 comes across well, although it’s worrying to hear them musing that the game is still too fast. This is a major worry for me right now. I’m worried that it’ll be another PES where you might as well just glue down the sprint button for the whole game. In my opinion, Pro Evolution Soccer as a franchise and a gameplay style has got to slow down. Its makers have got to be brave enough to just leave the more arcade-style football fans behind. The past few PES years have all tended towards speed and incessant goalmouth thrills. PES2008 was its ne plus ultra. It isn’t what I want.

Anyway. Roll on Thursday. And roll on FIFA09 while I’m waiting. As I’ve said before, I absolutely love this period before the games land. I suppose it’s a sad adult male’s equivalent of a child’s fevered excitement in the build-up to Christmas. I’ll be watching my pre-order and updating the blog all week. I won’t be frightened to call the posts things like ‘Terrific Tuesday’, ‘Wonderful Wednesday’, and so on…