Pro Evolution Soccer 2008

hmm...still not sure.

Ditto.

Online play is lag central for me at the moment too.

Also I can't get onto ranked match at all which is fairly useless as victory or defeat really matter palpably less without a little number counter wizzing up or down subsequent to the match.

It seems goodish but the sense I get is working my ass off to get a goal by clever moves etc then the computer fucks up royally and I score an easy tap in.

Or I beat everyone with Nando Torres and hammer the ball into the net.

I had a shot from the edge of the area against Sweden and it hit the inside of Olof Mellberg's leg and squirmed just past the keeper's reach, and I just realised that everything was going to be OK.

If it's mad easy on Top Player that may be something of a blow though.

I could never get along with playing against the computer at Pro Ev anyway but yeah, the vaunted improvements to the AI seem rather paltry if not a regression.

that's true too. it's too early to say, is my real answer. but that's a lot better than a definitive "no this is crap".

I thought the last one was shit when I first played it and I've spent at least a couple of hundred hours with it. So more of the same I expect.

Of course real proof is in the pudding: i.e. playing it while drinking with mates.

proof is in the pudding? Time to go to bed I think.

What are you all playing on? I've played PES on the PS2 until now but there is no way I'm getting the new one, which I hear is pretty much PES6 in disguise, and I won't be getting a new console for a long time since I don't play enough games to justify. Tempted to go for the PC version though. How would that be?

I'm playing on the 360 and have no idea what it's like on PC and PS2. If it's anything like the last one it will be identical on the PC and PS2 and different on the 360 (and superior on the former too, I think). But I don't know if that's the case.

proof is in the pudding? Time to go to bed I think.

before you get football pie all over your shirt

had a coupla hours with this over at a mates today (on ps2)

impressed with the commentary, champo gets convincingly excited! and lawro's drolly camp delivery can be v funny when he has to read out some of the more ridiculously convoluted lines

for me lawro is a bit disappointing...he sounds too sincere! where's his depressed whining!?

Mandatory lol commentary line of the year: "a lot of managers tell the players to treat the ball like a friend"

Mandatory annoyingly prevalent animation: woefully spooned sidefoot volley, taking over from last year's pointless spooned falling-over overhead kick

I like "the manager is a real workaholic".

Yes, a workaholic with alcohol.

i thought this version is great

really fun. more difficult for defenders

ken's quick tip on how to score goals.

keep bashing the throughball button. seriously, that button how turns john o'shea into gerrard.

ken's quick tip on how to win 2

play as barcelona.

holy shit

ken's quick tip on how to win 3

when trying to score.. round the keeper and get a penalty (way more realistic, in a way)

Hmm, not quite sure now. Feels finicky and I'm irritated at the lack of a shop/proper training mode/noticeable crowd reaction to anything at all. Player likenesses veer from dead-on to "what?", with no apparent pattern (Gareth Barry, Tottenham's Properly Licensed Jermaine Defoe and Micah Richards look like random jobs while Nigel Reo-Coker's Actual Face stares at you unexpectedly and somewhat unnervingly from West Midlands Village's squad list).

I was playing on two player for the first time with Argentina vs England the other day, and my friend hit a ridiculously deep cross from left midfield which somehow looped in, but was then given offside because there was a player standing 30 yards away on the opposite wing doing nothing. A subsequent overhit backpass to Robbo resulted in him chesting the ball up in the air awkwardly and then attempting to head it clear but knocking it backwards into his own net while under no pressure. I thought that was fair enough.

Also, that song that goes "football (soccer) football (soccer)" is one of the worst things I have ever heard.

Still excited at the possibilities for jammy deflections and second yellows for simulation though.

A subsequent overhit backpass to Robbo resulted in him chesting the ball up in the air awkwardly and then attempting to head it clear but knocking it backwards into his own net while under no pressure.

hehe

A subsequent overhit backpass to Robbo resulted in him chesting the ball up in the air awkwardly and then attempting to head it clear but knocking it backwards into his own net while under no pressure.

:D YSI?

He skipped past the replay in a fit of pique, alas.

This game is fucking my eyes up, with its turf patterns

is this available for PS2 or what? with the prev versh i really needed a difficulty between amateur and regular, which doesn't exist. on regular, the computer cuts out every through ball and does moves i don't even know about, much less am able to execute. but on amateur i just sprint down the wings, cross it in, and, you know, once every 10 times i manage to head it in. zzzzzz

this looks pretty interesting

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntIz_hA4STM

with most wii games, suppose it could go either way depending on responsiveness

en masse pro evo 8 session tonight, shall report back.

dude does ANYONE have the most pecent PE for PS2 and is wired for netplay?? i would love to play someone!

not wired for netplay.

but why not come round?

eh

pop over for a cup of tea and a game of pro evo.. it's not far........

ok! however i am real bad at it

Yeah I dunno this is still pretty great, I think

Arbitrary selection of away kits is an annoying one, don't be letting West Ham wear claret and blue in my ground you fucks

you can change the strips before each game?

i think it's shaping up pretty well so far, but free kicks seem impossible. as ever, the master league will tell the full story.

I heard fifa 08 is better than pes 08

: O

and if you go back far enough in the argument, i bet you could get israel and palestine to get on quite well with each other.

we all burned our bridges a long time ago.

i have been thru the training a lot and i cannot BELIEVE that there are people who can actually hold even a fraction of the moves in their head, much less execute them - direction + R1, immediately pressing triangle + direction.. maybe i am old. would love some tips on things that seem to just "work." held out great hopes for "super cancel" (R1 + R2 during a thru pass) but it hasn't been working out.

OTM

In the leagues there's no kit selection option.

I've not had that many free kicks. I had a Beckham one given despite it appearing to hit the post, but the replay showed the keeper had palmed it out from behind the line onto the angle, so yeah. I've become a bit obsessed with trying to hoof it into the goalkeeper's side of the goal with the second man, a la Craig Gardner vs Poor Robbo.

xpost

i'm with you, except for the super cancel. it's great, but more for just breaking the automatic run in the wrong direction your players always seem to do, not just for thru pass.

using a burst of pace to beat defenders is much easier than previously, this week i has mostly been using that.

xpost re bridge burning

I dunno, generally hold R2 when you receive the ball in midfield to trap it, turn into space and look for someone who's free, throughballs you've just gotta keep an eye out for runners. Use the wings on counterattacks, they tend to be poorly defended.

If I make a supreme effort to just patiently keep possession at the start of a match I always seem to have worked my way to a shot on goal by about 6 (pretend) minutes in, without having lost possession once

the thing where you are running with R1 and then hit R2 as you change direction diagonally to a do a big burst of pace is good, but this may not do much to alleviate complaints of bewildering control descriptions

i normally play on the same team with one of my brothers, so different tactics probably apply, but a lofted thru ball from a side back up the wing is a nice handy way to get a quick break.

yeah it might help if i had even a nominal grasp of basic playmaking

yeah, I agree on the bridges, ntrly

my point, not well made, was that the magazines seem to have voltefaced away from their usual hard-line PES is god agenda and are claiming this one is, well, a bit of a dog... "the money-men have got their hands in" = (c)gamesTM. must admit I was a bit surprised to see TV spots for this one

oh well, it's academic really; "we're all converts now" etc etc

I only played the demo on the 360, seemed OK but guess it's hard to judge from that

still, ignore me, only football game I'm looking forward to is SWOS on XBLA

i find it really hard to enjoy fifa, cos i'm so unused to it, really. but i've heard very good things about it alright.

I a lot of the middling reviews/angry message board dorks are really underplaying how important the subtle tinkering has been this year when they say it's the same old same old, though. It might be that I place too much importance on the ball being able to hit the net in a variety of slightly unpredictable ways.

Also, the music's not all bad and I don't get people criticising the commentary, particularly after what has gone before. I mean like, Champion saying "what was the keeper thinking, his clearance went straight back out to the opposition striker" when this is exactly what has happened = progress

i haven't had a good long session on it yet (not sober anyway) so i'll have a better idea in another week or two i hope.

but yeah, the initial signs look very good, it's tweaked most of the problems from before.

that thing about a strong tackle being "PRACTICALLY ASSAULT" A++++++

ok stop i'm at work this isn't fair.

i had a job thru college where i did nightshifts in a call centre. my boss used to bring in a ps2 and we'd just play pro evo 2 for eight hours straight. i never had it so good.

is there a "sin bin" in pro evo-world?

? not understanding the question

ah.

I agree it's good. Very very subtle changes though. You can do amazing one touch passing moves all the way up the pitch, and keeping the ball is quite effective as a strategy.

Still sinking in but it's a good fine tuning of the last one. Possibly less changes than ever before from edition to edition, certainly more subtle ones anyhow.