Welcome to this week’s Interfering With Play. Slightly quieter week on PESGaming this week. Whilst grainy and unclear videos are being made available on various websites and forums, at the moment I am personally waiting to see what Konami offer next. For the past 3 years, we have tried to second guess how PES will look, feel and play and ultimately, been lead down garden paths. I am hoping that as the development stage progresses, more information will be released officially, and hopefully coupled with more HQ videos too. We don’t generate lies in our blogs, instead we discuss the facts and hopefully provoke debate on both Footballing and Video gaming issues when PES news is running dry. With this said, there is still plenty to talk about on PESGaming as we address the issue of goal line technology, speak about the quality of PES commentary and then finally the angle of PES 2011 With this said, lets get on with this week’s Interfering With Play.
“Talk Is Cheap”
It’s now pretty well documented that Mark Lawrenson has left the PES franchise, and has been replaced by ITV (UK) colour commentator, Jim Beglin. After hearing this, I spent some time going back over old copies of PES, and having a listen to arguably some of the most woeful examples of play by play commentary I could ever wish to hear, and I have been watching the World Cup on the BBC! With EA Sports providing the kind of audio coverage at home on Sky Sports, the age old question remains, do Konami really have the foggiest idea about football commentary?
The main issue facing any video game audio is the script. If you play any game that features repetitive actions, you are ultimately going to get repetitive audio triggers. There are few better examples than Buffy The Vampire Slayer on X Box. Here is a game that featured the vocal talent of many of the TV show’s stars, and had a witty and well planned script. However, after you have heard all the one liners a couple of times when killing an enemy or struggling to solve a puzzle, the quips became tedious. This is only magnified during football games, whereby the same actions may appear 10 or 12 times in a single game, and that repetition is ultimately inevitable. This is a development issue, and not strictly the fault of the commentators.
Following on from this, it is the placement of the sound bytes and what exactly triggers each action is a huge let down for Konami. “The Keeper’s Failed To Hold It & His Defence Has Had To Help Him Out” is one of the more common sayings, when the actual in game action has seen the stopper make an excellent point blank save. “Both Teams Haven’t Made Any Changes” is another belter, following half time, yet I had made one change due to injury in the first 10 minutes! Having a decent script is one thing, yet using the right pieces of audio data at the right time is equally important! Another gripe is pointless information! Yes, commentators are renowned for talking rubbish from time to time; about the stadium, the city, the fans or a player’s taste in boots, but at least all these things are the truth! “The Wind Has Gotten Considerably Stronger During Half Time” is a complete waste of time. There is no wind on PES, it doesn’t affect the game, and Jon Champion may as well have said, there is a 26 foot alien standing just outside the stadium eating fish and chips, because that is just as accurate and unfortunately, just as likely to be included in a Konami game as interactive weather!
Of course, this may be deliberate. Having listened to Mark Lawrenson a fair amount on both Radio and TV over the World Cup, there is no denying the terrible one liners, dodgy calls and awful pieces of word play are part of his every day routine. Compare this with Andy & Martin on FIFA & Sky Sports, and you have a decent baseline for what we are talking about. I am genuinely not nit picking here, as the commentary script for Konami has always been terrible, and yet each year is seems to get a tiny bit better without really improving! Whether it is simply a case of bringing in more commentators, writing better scripts for the existing commentators, ensuring the link between the in game action and the audio is more appropriate or simply a combination of all three, the truth is something really needs to be done.
I open the community to pick up their favourite one liners from the current PES, and also reflect back on previous versions of the title, leaving comments and e-mails via the usual channels.
“Don’t Forget”
I am not ignoring or forgetting the iPhone version of PES 2010. My phone has been playing up over the past few weeks and therefore I have been unable to test the game out. I expect it to be up and running in the next couple of days, and intend to post and honest review when available. If you have the game, and I know some of you do, please feel free to leave your own thoughts in the comments section. Alternatively, if you would like to write an honest and fair review of the game, please get in touch via e-mail and I will have a chat to you.
“It’s A Goal”
The World Cup has thrown up a the debate once again of technology within football, or in its current state the lack of it. Incidents such as the Lampard Goal, the Kaka dismissal and Tevez goal against Mexico have all drawn attention to the fact that referees cannot humanly see all the action that goes on during a game, and that a certain amount of doubt and guess work plays a huge part in each and every decision. Some may say that these decisions even themselves out, and that ‘justice’ will be done, but surely with the money in the game at the moment, the in game ‘evening out’ may not result in financial par. Personally, I am split very much down the middle of the debate, and would like to offer both sides too the argument. I genuinely am not sitting on the fence here, but instead am looking objectively and not being able to find a point to hitch my horse to.
In my argument for, I believe that sport is evolving. We look at the majority of the world’ major sports, Tennis, Rugby, Athletics, Cricket and Horse Racing. All of these use technology to iron out contentious decisions. The money that a glaring error may cost a team, or the opportunity it may deny the side should surely not be left to a wrong decision, and there is not better example than the Ireland in Paris last November. As many people rightly pointed out, the Henry goal put France through, and had it been disallowed or simply not happened, Ireland still had to score or win on spot kicks. However, they were denied this by an incident of cheating/instinct/madness, and a goal line camera could have detected this within a matter of seconds. There was no doubt when seeing the incident on replay, even on one showing! It’s not like it is even open to interpretation, did he dive? Was he interfering with play? The incident was a blatant foul and the goal should have been chalked off. Placing two cameras either side of each goal, with a view of the goal line and six yard box, and you have cover for any contentious incidents near the goal. We all love a debate about football, but the game provides plenty of talking points without these moments of madness, and FIFA, UEFA and the international governing bodies for each nation need to come together and make a common sense decision. On the other side of the coin, football is a game played in parks all over the world. To many it is still seen as a game that can be played by anyone with a ball and some jumpers for goalposts. As footballers become more out of touch with reality, it is important the sport doesn’t become less accessible. We don’t want non-league or amateur clubs shutting down because they can not afford the appropriate technology to keep their club in line the FIFA rules, and furthermore, we don’t want semi pro clubs fitting hand held camera on the goal lines and showing images to amateur refs, demanding they take a look at the footage! Whilst the English, Spanish and Italian Leagues all have good funding, other European and World Leagues are less fortunate, and some countries may also have trouble implanting the system due to finances. Going away to Sweden or Finland in the Europa League, to a ground which is unable to have goal line technology and then have a good goal disallowed will further raise issues, and in turn alienate the smaller leagues in Europe. On top of this, referring is a difficult job at the best of times. Your usually making a decision that will cause disagreement, and then to have the power of your convictions questioned by technology, which again still may not be conclusive will cause even more problems. If you refer an incident to the cameras and you make a decision after inconclusive video footage, the unfortunate team the decision goes against will have grounds for appeal, something players do not need in this day and age!
Please feel free to comment on the continuing issue, and keep topics clean, structured and respectful!
“What The Future Holds”
The PES Play tests will be creeping up on us soon, and in the world of embargos and cloak and dagger, PESGaming will be ensuring you receive the official news first when it is legal to do so. The question I ask now, is after seeing what you guys have done online, what are your impressions towards PES 2011 so far? Ideally, if you could sum the game up so far in a sentence (15 words or less), what would it be? I appreciate this comes from not having played the game, seeing videos and reading hearsay, but it is always interesting to gauge a reaction prior to play testing, and it will help Double D and myself structure our reviews and findings on the game.
That’s your lot for this week. A little bit to chew over there. I apologise for the lack of Do I Not Like That last week. Phil’s column will return again this Thursday. interferingwithplay@hotmail.co.uk is the place to direct your e-mail to, and as always feel free to comment or visit www.soccergaming.com for more football gaming news.
Thanks for Reading
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