ESPN MLS ExtraTime 2002 X-Box Hands-on Impressions

[Neutral LFC]

Not from me - but from a fellow forum member, "Blublub" who posted these impressions at the SR forums and gracious enough to allow me to post his in-depth and very useful impressions here.

Btw, I will be dropping off the face of the Earth for the next few weeks - maybe a month, I have interviews (wish me luck) and finals coming up (much like many of you do too) - if you need to reach me (I dunno, to send me love letters, or flowers) - [email protected].

If Liverpool reach the champions league semi finals or finals, and/or win the EPL (unlikely) I will be forced to return for a few celebratory posts

Here's Lance's impressions (cut and pasted from several of his posts):

It was worth the wait. It's a lot like last year's, only with refined gameplay and a ton more options.

Graphics are a touch better overall, although the players are still a bit polygonish. The stadiums are the best I've seen in any title - the MLS grounds are replicated down to the tiniest of details - very nicely done.

Cut scenes are not quite as ridiculous as they were in the first version, but still annoying at times.

Gameplay definitely shows its ISS roots and is comperable to ISS2. The pace is just a touch faster than I would have liked, though not nearly as bad as last year. Unfortunately there's still no way to adjust the speed.

There are many, many more sides to choose from this time around. All the WC finalists are there except for Senegal. The extra club sides are all from Latin America - but a nice mix of Brazilian, Argentinian and Mexican sides. Side names are bogus as are the players.

But this year you have an edit mode. Player names and numbers on existing sides can be changed, but the fake names are still a long ways off from the real world counterparts. It's going to take some time to edit these to get them correct, but will be well worth the effort.

A few not-so-good things: kits for national sides are totally screwed, and everyone wears a Konami logo on the uniform front. The kit editor looks to be pretty deep, so it should be possible to make them look reasonably accurate, but I'm not sure if that Konami can be removed.

Speaking of kits, the MLS ones are very nice and it's great to see names on the back finally.

There are a ton of other nice little touches - the sounds in practice mode (a lot like the street mode in NBA2k2). There's a yellow line to show offsides in replays. The auto replays at the half and at end of the match show not only goals but shots and other key plays.

The one biggest area of improvement is in the commentary and sound - it is much improved over the last version. The annoying Bob Ley is gone and the commentary follows the action very well. There is now a PA announcer and

So far I'm really liking what I see. Back to the game, more later...

Few more thoughts in-between games...

Forgot to mention I'm running the XBox version. No idea of what the GC status is, although it's still listed as "in stores" on the KCEA site.

It's definitely a big improvement over the already pretty good version last year. Definitely the best soccer title available in the US on any platform, IMHO.

I love the differentiation of players. You know immediately who is who just based on their style of play. Big guys are big and small guys are small. Slow guys are slow, etc. Attributes show up well in the game - Pope fires off some spectacular headers, etc. Of course this was the case last year too, but more so this year.

The MLS season mode is very deep. There's trades, players retire and there's a draft after each season. Stats are tracked nicely for the league. If you're an MLS fan don't hesitate to pick this up - it's the best you could hope for.

I suppose if you're a PES/WE5 elitist snob there will no doubt be much to find fault with here, but for the rest of us the gameplay is very solid - in an entirely different league from the other available US titles on the PS2.

The more I play the more I am impressed by the graphics and animations. I'm not sure how much is due to the title and the XBox vs. PS2 - as I am new to both.

A few other niceties - the "far" view autozooms ever so slightly on occasion to take in more of the pitch. It's so subtle I didn't even notice at first, but it's a great touch.

This was a system seller (reluctantly) for me and no regrets so far.

Disappointments - still no way to select more than 16 sides for a cup.

More later...

Wait, stop the presses....big problem.

There's no way to modify attributes or appearance of existing team rosters. You can change the names and numbers, though.

But here's the big problem - if you want to create a player they will have ZERO attribute levels until you earn these stupid "Skill points" in season mode or scenarios.

This sucks - there doesn't appear to be a way to add a new addition to a roster without having played an obscene amount of time. I'll look for a workaround, but no luck yet...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
No fatal gameplay flaws, pretty sure of that. It plays very much like last year with some minor improvements. There are a lot of goals off of rebounds, more than I remember last year, but not so many to be a problem (at least yet).

The MLS is the only "real" league option. You can create a custom league, however, but there doesn't seem to much control over scheduling, etc. This might work in a pinch - for example you could set up the Premiership but you'd have to live with the player appearances and attributes as they now stand SINCE YOU CAN'T EDIT THEM - ARGGHHHH!. And since the club sides now in the game are all from Latin America it might look more than a little strange.

All non-MLS kits are totally whacked this year with that stupd Konami banner on the front. There is no way to remove that I have found as of yet. The national kits looked much better in the PS2 version.

Well, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the more I play the more I'm convinced there really isn't much difference from last year in the gameplay department. That means it's better than anything out there on the shelf in the US but still not up to ISS2 standards.

I'm really peeved about the edit mode. There is no way whatsoever to adjust MLS rosters. Stupid, really stupid. If this were included it would be a solid title for MLS play. The international and non-MLS club sides are mostly worthless since most of the players don't resemble their real-life counterparts in appearance or attributes, and these are not modifiable (only the names and numbers are). Okay, so you say just create a new player and add him to the roster. No can do unless you have a ton of those "bonus points." I must have played twenty matches in season mode by now and still don't have even enough points to do a one-for-one trade. Which, BTW, is not only limited to 1 for 1 but must involve players at the same position.

In short, it's not worth the money if you already have the PS2 version. Actually, the PS2 version had better international kits and 12 vs. 10 MLS teams (obviously). I'm tempted to say that the gameplay was better in the PS2 version, but can't say for sure. There seem to be too many miraculous saves and goals off of keeper deflections in the 2002 edition.

It's funny, but I felt like going back to WTS at times. Somewhere between the two lies a pretty good game, but neither is particularly satisfying on its own.

Looks like another year of hoping for something better

KNIFE TRICK BABY!

A few more rants on the edit mode. Whatever weed those guys out in Hawaii were smoking it must have been a batch with some serious Paraquat.

The editor is on the surface powerful enough. That is why I had high hopes for the longevity of the title. But there are just so many stupid decisions at every turn it boggles the mind. The MLS rosters are already pretty dated and THEY CANNOT BE FIXED!!! If you create a player and want to add him to an MLS team you can't - it's not even an option. No amount of bonus points will let you do this. You can't trade to adjust rosters. Look at the Dutch national side. There's a Kleivert or something like that at striker. You think great, all I have to do is change the name and I'm set. But nooooo, turns out he's a 230 lb. white guy with a pony tail and there's no way to change any of that.

It's just a travesty that they couldn't even equal the feature set of ISS2, which is how old now? A lot of small details are lacking, no captain's armbands, no cooperative multiplayer in cup or league mode. No presentation of the flags and photo ops at the beginning of the match. The cut scenes actually are more annoying than last year - I didn't think this possible. If I see that stupid animation with the guy kicking the ground after getting booked one more time...

Argh.

A couple of other items to note. Looks like there's a new problem in this year's version. I lost Etcheverry to a red card. Next match - he's out of the starting lineup as he should be, but lo and behold I'm able to substitute him immediately after the match starts. I don't remember that being a problem in last year's.

One positive - the middle difficulty setting seems much more difficult this year. It really takes some serious time in the strategy section to fare well against better sides.

If someone has no previous version of ISS it might be a worthwhile purchase. I hate to discourage people, since the core gameplay is still worlds better than FIFA and a notch better than WTS. If I thought it would send a signal to KCEA to release PES here I'd say hold off, but seeing how they're apparently not the most brilliant marketing types, they'd probably just interpret that as there not being a market for any soccer title.

If you see Lance give him a slap on the back and a thank you, if you see the_man buy him a drink (or 10) for me (I'll pay you back later), if you see V-9..well...I guess you could compare knives... [Crocodile Dundee] "That's not a knife - THIS is a knife" [/Crocodile Dundee].

l8r lads

Lavan

PS Berty, careful - you'll blow up your PS2 playing WE5:FE for 27 hours straight like that.
PPS Good luck on your exams if you have them at this time of year.

 

[charles]

Thanks Neutral - this is the news I have been waiting for. I was hoping for better, but that's Konami America for you. Just senseless...

Looks like the chip and/or knife for me. Does anyone know what might work for WE6 when it arrives (besides buying another ps2)? It looks absolutely amazing...

charles

 

[Decado]

If it works for WE5FE with your system, it'll work for WE6. No English patch, though.

Not sure how it works with the newer version of the PS2. Hmm...I'd like to know myself.

Anyone know what version of GS2 you need to get the knife method to work with a (code) U4______ PS2?

Thanks

 

[CapnKill]

That's a shame

That's dissapointing to hear.. really I'm very disgusted w/ the fact taht the international teams get so little attention.. that was a big gripe I had w/ last years game, the international atmosphere was not there. This is amazing but I am not going to buy this game..

I will get my origa chip installed, or just buy the messiah, and wait for WE6. Till then, ISS2 on my modified PSX. That game rocks to this day!!

 

[bertkamp16]

Re: ESPN MLS ExtraTime 2002 X-Box Hands-on Impressions

Originally posted by Neutral LFC
...PS Berty, careful - you'll blow up your PS2 playing WE5:FE for 27 hours straight like that.

LOL I'M OUT OF CONTROL!!!!!!!! MUST.........PLAY..........MORE...........MASTER..............LEAGUE...

 

[juventusita]

I was going to buy this game...

Not anymore.

 

[Internazionale]

Great Job, Neutral LFC

 

[steveee]

I thought the knife trick didn't work for DVDs.. and I thought WE6 is DVD..