Yeah, all this stuff is perennial. These have been the things that have plagued ISS, and the only reason why the over-12s who play FIFA persevere with it. They hire ISS Pro Evo 2 for two nights, switch it on, you've got the wrong player names for a start, the graphics in those days weren't as good as FIFA (how the tide has turned!) and you can't start off playing as Man United, or Juve, or Barca, or PSV, or Bayern, or whoever. So you have to be an international side, you start the game and then your first impressions are: so-so graphics, and what the hell is the commentator on about? If you're used to the Motson and Lawrenson commentary in FIFA (which is pretty wooden too, but at least it's accurate and has some depth), Chris James sounds like the cheap hired out-of-work actor he probably is. I'd just like to inform all our Dutch/American/etc readers - no, in England we haven't got a clue who he is either. He's certainly not a football commentator for any TV station, or any radio station you can pick up in London.
And then it's so HARD! These guys sit there with PE or PE2 and after two nights it's time to take the game back and they've only scored three goals. They're not playing THAT game again. Their only memory will be of Terry Butcher (who IS an ex-England player, but ISN'T a TV or radio pundit) saying "Good evening - I AM TERRY BUTCHER....." like a Dalek.
The English football mag "Four Four Two" gave a rapturous review to Fifa 99, then when Pro Evo came out, they spent half the page sniggering at how bad the English was in the screen information, and on the fan's banners (this is one of the cute things that makes ISS so loveable!), and the rest complaining about the commentary, the lack of club leagues and how "unrealistic" the Master League was. Their grudging compliment was "for a game which looks like an arcade conversion, it is impressively hard thanks to the superb computer AI". In other words - the Japanese has been translated badly, the commentary is bad, you can't play club leagues - but the game is great.
THIS is why ISS lags behind -- I think they've just given up on the commentary, cos it takes up too much space that could have been used for the AI. But PES makes an effort to rectify the other things. It looks MUCH better than FIFA 2002, the gameplay is immediately brilliant, even if you're no good at it yet, and yes you can switch it on for the first time and start by playing Arsenal vs Man U at Highbury with (mostly) the right players.
ALL that's missing is the club leagues.....and I don't know about you, but I think the Champo Manager link-up could spawn a club edition of PES very shortly. Not in the summer (they'll still be pushing PES cos you can play the world cup in it), but maybe for next Christmas. Maybe leave in the 32 World Cup countries (would annoy Aussies/Dutchmen, I know
), and as most of the players would be signed to big European club sides, that would leave plenty of space in the database for all those lovely leagues.....
What's the betting they make you start each league with Eddington, Huygens, Cellini and Matt?
