PES Chronicles

Right, here we go—this is one BIG week. I’m excited. Very excited. I’ve just enjoyed two weeks of mostly brilliant football gaming on FIFA10. I expect more of the same from PES2010.

October 2009 is arguably the most important month in football gaming since the equivalent month two years ago. Next-gen FIFA08 and PES2008, in different ways, both set moods that have prevailed to this day. FIFA10 has built on the solid work of its ancestor from 2007. I want PES2010 to make me forget its ancestor from that year.

It’s a measure of the high quality of FIFA10’s gameplay that I’m so caught up in a Manager Mode experience that is on extremely shaky ground. The imminent FIFA10 patch may wipe it all away. I’ve built a pretty involving Coventry City career on the slopes of an active volcano. Nobody knows for sure if we’ll all have to start again, and EA aren’t saying. This suggests to me that the patch probably will render null and void all my Manager Mode progress so far.

I’ll worry about that if it happens. If it happens, I’ll start again. I just hope my Virtual Pro’s development doesn’t get wiped out. If it doesn’t happen, I’ll continue on with this Coventry career. Ah, but when? A big fat Master League career on PES2009 got in the way of FIFA09 last year. Will that happen again this year? I should stop anticipating what might happen with PES2010, and focus on the great game at hand. That’s what I’ve been telling myself for a few days now.

I’ve completed my second season, finishing 9th in the Championship table. I had a great run-in, winning 7 out of 10 of my last matches. Something just clicked for me and FIFA10. The gameplay annoyances that are carried over from last year and the year before seemed to melt away. It plays a beautiful game. I was almost writing poems out there on the pitch at times. Seriously. All the reviews weren’t completely overblown. It remains to be seen how I’ll feel about this game in January, of course, but for now there’s not much wrong with FIFA10 that a good solid offline mode or two wouldn’t solve. Speaking of which…

Does anybody else suspect that FIFA10’s confirmed future DLC, Ultimate Team 2010, could include an offline fantasy league and cup mode? I.e., a bizarro Master League-a-like ? It’d be a masterstroke, and a deeply cynical one on so many levels. Exactly the kind of despicable, evil, brilliant thing of which EA is capable.

It’d certainly provide food for talk about why Manager Mode remains so bewilderingly flat and sterile. The on-pitch gameplay carries Manager Mode to a certain extent, as it always has, but it shouldn’t have to be carried. Manager Mode should be FIFA’s whole raison d’etre, not some kind of half-hearted appendage.

I’ve built a nice little team with some decent players. I’m about as attached to them as it’s possible to be in Manager Mode. I’ll be disappointed if I have to start all over again, post-patch. But not gutted.

This has been a difficult post to write. If PES2010 is any good, this will be the last FIFA10-oriented post for a while. And yet FIFA10 really is a great game. Whats up with that? There’ll be ample opportunity to mull that one over in the weeks ahead.

I’ll wrap up with a short compilation video: 4 Glitches and a Goal. In FIFA10 a very peculiar thing often happens to your players when they’re close to a CPU keeper who is holding the ball. Your player will turn as if to run back, but get stuck, and turn again, and get stuck again, and not be released unless either you double-tap L1/LB quickly, or the keeper kicks the ball. There are three clips of this glitch in the video. There’s also a bonus one of my Virtual Pro having some kind of standing-up seizure just before a kick-off. And, to balance things out, one of my best moments from FIFA10 so far: a very satisfying run and finish, classic centre-forward style.

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So… Yes, there’s loads to love about FIFA10. But I’m waiting for PES2010 with interest. On Wednesday I might even have the game. My preorder should be sent out today or tomorrow. If I do have the game by Wednesday, I’ll do my best to get a 1st Impressions post up.

FIFA10 has its own unique ‘feel’, its very own way of doing things, its very own pluses and minuses, and so—undoubtedly—will PES2010. Many football game fans believe that one of them must be bad in order for the other to be good. I strongly disagree with that position. The signs are good for me liking both games, a lot, this year.

All this week I’ve had a new morning routine: a long session of FIFA10, followed by a game or two on the PES2010 demo. I’m really blown away by both games so far this year. It’s a (possible) win-win scenario. The full game of PES2010 has yet to arrive, of course, so I’ll keep the party hats and streamers in the cupboard for now.

I’ve seen the PES2010 reviews. They’re a mixed bunch. I had to smile at the hissing fanboy fights that subsequently broke out across the web. It was carnage in some places. Predictably, FIFA10 was the focus for a lot of the catfighting. It seems that FIFA10 is a pick-up-and-play game for children who like to look at licensed kits. Oh dear. In some places, it’s always 2004.

Sevens and eights out of ten for PES2010 are good scores, actually, but they’re a touch below what I was expecting. I’m only going by my estimation of the demo, which is a high one. I have an optimistic theory. Remember two years ago and those bizarrely great reviews for next-gen PES2008? The after-effects of that scandalous non-performance by the reviewers are being felt to this day. PES has had a rough critical ride ever since.

This was supposed to be the console generation where PES would amaze like the most amazing thing since amazement was born… In other words, PES reviews, weighted down by two years of anti-climax, tend to flatten out and occupy the troughs; FIFA reviews, buoyed by two years of progress and positivity, tend towards the peaks.

That’s my fanwank of the review situation. It’s got the whiff of PES fanboyism about it, but I’m hopeful. I’ve really enjoyed the PES2010 demo. I really believe the PES2010 reviews have got PES2008 at the back of their collective minds.

Meanwhile, back on FIFA10, I am seeing dimensions in the gameplay I never dreamed could exist. I took on Arsenal in a pre-season friendly just this morning. I’m still amost dizzy from the high quality of the gameplay. It ended 1-1 with Arsenal playing a dreamy, total football style. The overall quality of the gameplay I’m seeing in FIFA10 at the moment is of a very, very high quality indeed.

I am still forging ahead with that Manager Mode career. I haven’t gone into detail yet because there’s a patch in the offing that might reset everything to zero. And there’s a PES2010 in the offing as well. Nobody can predict the future. So far—touch wood—I haven’t had a truly show-stopping bug in Manager Mode, and I’m ignoring its other shortcomings for now. I’m pretty much addicted to the FIFA10 gameplay at the moment. It’s great. I can’t get over how great it is.

You know, there are times when FIFA10 utterly amazes me with how heavenly it is. At other times, granted, it’s a button-mashing hell. At the moment for me the split is about 85/15 between heaven/hell. And much like the real heaven and hell, it’s up to me which one I inhabit. Loss of attention leads to button-mashing. Concentration, focus, and patience lead to heaven. This is exactly like the dualistic moral Universe, when you think about it. God must be very happy with FIFA10.

If I had to pick on something to carp at in FIFA10 (and my PES genes insist that I do so, right NOW), I’m very annoyed with the slide tackling. You can make a perfect slide-tackle, but it won’t win you the ball. Oh no. You might think it should, but you would be wrong. Your player will get up and run away from the ball. You only get the loose ball if you’ve got another player close enough to come and collect it before the other team’s player (who, remember, you’ve successfully tackled) gets up and gets to it first. Utterly stupid and wrong and I hate it I hate I hate it.

That and many more on-pitch annoyances will have their equivalents in PES2010. But will they be deemed valid reasons to dismiss PES2010 as a serious football game? Of course not—because PES is all warm and fluffy, and it’s allowed to have stupid moments on the pitch. FIFA is all grey and evil and it isn’t allowed to put a single foot wrong, ever.

The great things in FIFA10 easily outweigh the small things. (For now. Let’s see how I’m liking that slide-tackle thing in January, hmmm…?)

I’ve mentioned the eternal quest for the killer pass in FIFA10. You can pass the ball around for 10, 20, 30 passes, and not spot an opening, or lose the ball and have to defend. Sometimes, though, you do spot the run. It’s a huge element of FIFA10’s core gameplay, this possession, passing, and eagle-eyed spotting thing. Here’s a killer pass in action, which came at the end of a typical FIFA10 extra-long bout of possession:

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Yes, the finish was a FIFA09-style ‘hook shot’ into the opposite side of the goal, with the shooter executing the telltale falling-backwards animation. The great thing here for me was the killer pass. Loved this goal, one of my favourites on FIFA10 so far.

I know: in PES, that’d be a fairly typical moment. Just another through-ball leading to just another typical chance. Nothing special. But that’s precisely what is so special about FIFA10. The mundane has been made marvellous again. PES2010 will have to be a great game to tear me away from FIFA10 at the moment.

I finished my first Manager Mode season in 12th place. The big bugs left me alone. I didn’t lose any players (if that does happen to me, I’ll just stop playing FIFA10). It was the little bugs that attacked me. Whenever I sold a player, my entire first team would be rearranged, requiring several minutes to put it all right again. I got heartily sick and tired of playing three-quarters of my matches at night and in the rain. And when I finished the season my goalkeeper was placed second in the assists table. Way to go, Keiren!

The gameplay is still great, but doesn’t feel as wonderful as it did last week. That was inevitable. Over time every football game has to settle and become part of the furniture. What sustains it in the long run—for a year or more—is its ability constantly to challenge and surprise and engross you. It’s too early to say if FIFA10 will have that ability. I think it could always challenge and surprise, but engross? I await that patch for Manager Mode. I think it’ll have to be a good ‘un.

I’m following the various forum discussions with interest. I’ve detected a raised level of disgruntlement with FIFA10’s gameplay, but generally it’s still admired and liked. That’s pretty much my position. It’s also interesting to note the PES forums settling on the same formula to dismiss FIFA10 that was used last year and the year before. Essentially the argument boils down to: it’s the same old FIFA, just a game for kids, et cetera. In too many cases, they literally don’t know what they’re talking about.

I’m really getting a buzz out of playing with my Virtual Pro in FIFA10. He’s still my team’s best player, but only just. I picked up another great young midfielder called Tormeda.

They play together in the centre of midfield and I always feel unbeatable with them in the team. Sometimes I have to play without one or the other, and sometimes I have to play without both of them. I’ve got my fitness coach up to level 9, but Manager Mode’s fitness modelling is (thankfully) different this year. It’s now more akin to Master League’s. Sometimes you just have to rest players. It’s required. When my VP and Tormeda are absent, I tend to feel overwhelmed in midfield. They both make things happen,and I struggle to make things happen with my lesser players. Again, time will tell, but for now it seems player and team individuality is improved in FIFA10.

I got this nice little 25-yarder with my VP the other day:

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Tormeda gets his fair share of goals too. I’ve started the second season, and started it quite well. I’m hovering in mid-table after several matches, just a few wins outside the top 6. Unfortunately I’m the very model of inconsistency. Solid wins are followed by puzzling defeats and indifferent draws. I concede an awful lot of 90th minute equalisers when I’m 1-0 up. I’m starting to get paranoid, but FIFA10 is a deep game (it really is). I think all I need is more practice.

Sensational week. Wednesday’s fairly negative post was out of date before it even appeared, as its comments thread shows. By midday on Wednesday I was back in love with FIFA10, and I still am.

FIFA10’s arrival 7 days ago totally wowed me. It’s been a peculiar week since, with a few sharp downs to go with the ups. My major problem was always with Manager Mode. It’s in a terrible state, completely riddled with bugs. I had very few quibbles with FIFA10’s gameplay. But I kept plugging away, and—here’s the thing—the gameplay of FIFA10 is so moreish that even Manager Mode eventually came to seem okay. (At least my game doesn’t mysteriously lose transferred-in players, as many others report happening to them.)

The state of Manager Mode in FIFA10 is a massive scandal. I fail to see how EA could be unaware of its issues before release. In fact, it is inconceivable that they were unaware. Their feigned surprise now is a little hard to stomach, I have to say.

Fortunately for them, the time and resources that were evidently put into refining the core gameplay has paid off. FIFA10 is a new departure point for football games. (Yes, I know: let’s see if I still think that in January, or even next week…)

Putting my finger squarely on it, the 360-movement makes a massive difference. I don’t feel it so much in dribbling. I dribble very little compared to other football gamers. I’m a pass-and-move, give-and-go kind of player. For me, the 360-movement is a revelation in terms of passing. You can move the ball around in a way that’s unprecedented in any FIFA (or PES). You can thread the eye of a needle with a pass now, splitting defences, opening up space that you had no right to open up. It’s crazily addictive. Just testing it all out with 11 players on the empty practice pitch is crazily addictive.

I still haven’t scored a proper ‘Hollywood’ goal. This is mainly due to playing with the Coventry City players. They’re all rated in the 60s. My Virtual Pro is the highest-rated at 70. During my 4-hour session on Wednesday morning I scored this decent close-range volley from a typical FIFA10 swirling cross:

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I have to say that Manager Mode, for me, is ticking over. But I am heartily sick of playing at night in the rain. That’s one of the bugs: 90% of matches are at night, in the rain. A rainy match alters all the parameters for passing, so when you do get a rare dry match you have to adapt to what should be normal conditions. Crazy, and I’ve stuck another pin in my David Rutter doll for that one.

All week I’ve been awarding FIFA10 a daily mark out of 10, and calculating its running average score. On Wednesday this average slipped to 7.9/10 thanks to my Manager Mode-related unhappiness. Things are different now…

Wednesday: 9.5/10—Is it Friday again? Extraordinary session this morning. I sat down at 9.15 intending to get thrugh a few Manager Mode matches and then toddle off to see if I could maybe get into a Cup or League. 4 hours later, at 13.25, I got up, exhausted and drained after an amazing session of football gaming. I played Manager Mode for 3 of those hours. I spent the other hour on the practice pitch, seeing if I could take to manual passing. FIFA10 demands manual passing, it seems to me.

Thursday: 9/10—This could have been another 9.5/10 day, but I’ve got to settle on a 9. The game seemed a little fast at times today. What I want is more time on the ball, but that’s the challenge. I need to get into the game some more, learn its little ways. I also hate something I now see many times every match: my player makes a perfect slide tackle and then gets up and runs away from the ball. The CPU collects and continues. But these instances are, what, 1% of the total gameplay experience? Probably less. They don’t define FIFA10, no matter how much a PES zealot would like them to. The past two days have been amazing, and easily the best times I’ve spent with next-gen FIFA, period.

Running average over 7 days: 8.42/10

So my overall average score for the week is ‘only’ 8.42. That’s a fair reflection of the game as it is out of the box. The Manager Mode issues are unforgivable in my opinion. Every review of FIFA10 should have had at least 1 point (or 10%) deducted from the final score. But how many reviews did more than even mention Manager Mode in passing? Print and online games reviewers need to take a good hard look at themselves and start asking some serious questions.

Here’s a scientific graph that illustrates the week’s progress in, er, graph form:

Can it last? What will PES2010 do when it arrives? I’ve been playing the PES2010 demo and I still love it.

I’ve even played PES2009(PS3). I found myself drawn into a Champions League tournament by the pleasantly heavy feeling of the players. FIFA’s players (and the ball) often feel as if they’re made of air by comparison. The next few weeks are going to be interesting.

Monday’s post will be all about those snatched PES sessions I’ve been having this week. The fact that they happened (and are still happening) is very significant for me. I said a few weeks ago that I think I’m heading back to PES. I still think that. It’s against all rationality, especially with FIFA10 snuggled up beside me. But I still think I’m heading back to PES—perhaps not to play exclusively for a whole year as I used to do in the past, but certainly more than over the past two years. I don’t know why either. Perhaps I’ve seen something in PES2010 that has triggered a long-dormant instinct…