Welcome to this week’s Interfering With Play. I would like to start this week’s column by congratulating Spain for their victory in the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Irrelevant of personal preferences, nationalities or allegiances to certain countries, very few football fans will be able to deny that the quality of Spain’s football was of the highest standard, and as a result it was truly a case of the best team winning the competition this time round. In a final that saw the Dutch play very physically and on the borders of the rules of the game, it was pleasing to see ‘Pure Football’ prevail and is a fine example that if you stick to your principles and play to your strengths, you will always have a chance. The fact that the Spanish’s strength is superior to the majority of other teams is just a huge bonus! This week sees very little new PES news, and unsurprisingly gossip and rumours have started to surface; however the promise of new news on Friday (16th) will hopefully keep many people appeased. With this said, lets crack on with a slightly shorter Interfering With Play.
“Sound, Mate”
Thanks to all who got involved regarding the commentary points raised in last week’s IWP. The fact remains that in spite of featuring full game commentary for the past 14 years, Konami are yet to really make groundbreaking strides in terms of improvements with both scripting and delivery. Without dwelling on the issue too much, there is one further point I would like to raise, in relation to some issues raised by both posts and e-mail last week.
The fact is that players on PES are treated as individual sprites linked to one piece of text or fact. There is no follow up link between a player and that text, and therefore very little way of commentators linking information about that player’s season or career to the player who has just scored. For example, we may occasionally get a ‘he needs one more goal to become the league’s top scorer’ but this is pretty much it. There is no reference to him recently being left out of the team, no link to the fact he has only scored once with his head this season or that he has been out for two games due to suspension. Couple this further; there is no banter between commentators using generic facts about a specific player, for example Bellamy’s erratic temperament or Cristiano Ronaldo’s incredible tricks. This is masked by standard pieces of text for each player with certain ability, for example ‘This Player Is Hard To Shake Off The Ball’.
Compare this to a non-football specific game, such as NBA 2K10 (Yes I know I kiss it’s ass but it deserves it). Here with a game that takes the well known facts of the majority of its stars and then recycles them at relevant points throughout the game. A 30 second blurb about Kobe Bryant’s shooting ability or Shaq’s power in the paint makes for not only a more realistic broadcasting of events, but also breaks up from the monotony of simply calling the action on pitch. Of course, it would take more time, but it would require research into commentary styles and actually looking at the scripts as opposed to just writing what people ‘think’ sounds like football commentary.
Of course, I know it’s all a moot point, as I would be very surprised if Jon Champion even records any new commentary for PES 2011. Whatever happens, I believe, like many of you 90% of his comments from PES 2010 will be included in the game, with Jim Beglin having to just work around it. Feel free to carry on your issues with this, and hopefully we will hear a little bit more about what kind of commentary PES 2011 in the coming weeks.
“Here’s Johnny”
I like Jon Murphy, and I think he does genuinely care about the PES product. I think like many of you guys and I, he gets frustrated when things don’t occur as planned, and then ends up looking like he is contradicting himself at times. This is one of the main reasons I have personally avoided posting the interviews he has put up online over the past few days. The fact is, he is the man responsible for giving information to the English speaking markets, and without being legally allowed to give too much away, this results in the majority of his comments either being 1. Misconstrued/twisted into being something they are not, or 2. His comments sounding the same to different questions and as a result making everyone very angry!
Closer to the release of the game, I will post a few of these interviews with the Konami staff, and will keep all official press releases coming through, but at the moment there is far too much out there that is being speculated, and we have always tried to run PES Gaming as a place for official news not rumours. At the moment, there is no news, and therefore making stuff up, scrapping barrels and pushing rumours doesn’t benefit anyone.
“It’s A Matter Of Fact”
I find it pretty amazing that even now, 9 months after their release, the debate about FIFA 10 vs. PES 2010 still rages. We have done it to death on this site, and whilst I openly admit to owning FIFA 10, the football title that I choose to play is Pro Evolution Soccer 2010. I enjoy the experience much more than I do playing FIFA, and I know many people out there are the same. I do not begrudge people who play FIFA, they are welcome to do so, and it is a decent game. It is not perfect, it is flawed, but so is PES. The crux of the matter is that I choose with my free time to play PES.
The problem is that some people in this debate still choose to confuse fact with opinion. It is not a fact to say PES is better than FIFA or vice versa because it is simply a matter of taste. It is a fact to say that online on FIFA runs better, because that’s true, and it is a fact to say PES has a much more in depth edit mode, because that is currently true. However, I go back to my initial point, do not argue using a statement that is not a fact and pass it off as one. It belittles your arguments and ultimately makes them invalid. The majority of people on this site have always understood this, and hence we have some excellent comments scribed on a weekly basis, but to the few that are missing the point I ask you to reflect on your comments before posting, they are totally valid as long as your opinion is stressed as exactly that, your opinion!
At the same time, I very rarely defend myself on this site, but I will continue to mention FIFA if I feel it is appropriate to do so. Ignoring the presence of the only other major football game would be short sighted and an insult to the community’s intelligence. This site is PES based, but I try and make it honest too, blind support of a product is wrong and if I personally enjoyed EA Sports’ game more, you can be damn sure I would say so!
That’s your lot for this week. Some amazing comments left last week that I simply don’t have time to discuss. As always, I am more than willing to give one of columns or new ideas a try on this site, so if you have wrote a long comment or a piece you would like featured on the main page, please get in touch via e-mail on interferingwithplay@hotmail.co.uk and we can take it from there. I will post the new news regarding PES 2011 on Friday, all being well, and we will have Phil’s Do I Not Like That Column on Thursday too. I am off to put on my floral dress and play Buffy The Vampire Slayer, whilst listening to Ellie Goulding. Apparently!
Thanks for Reading
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