Soccer Gaming

Welcome to this weeks edition of Do I Not Like That….

Obviously do I not like the fact that England are out the World Cup.  It doesn’t matter how much we expected to go out at the hands of either the Germans or the Argentina, it doesn’t make it any easier, especially on the back of an absolute drubbing.  If anybodies tried to use Germany on PES they will know that they are 100% not as fast or fluid as reality would suggest. Going back to my column a few weeks ago, this is one of the teams I pointed out as having stats which may not play quite true.  Regular updates of players abilities and potential should be revised via DLC, I’d be interested in having a few games with a Ghana or Uruguay if the stats reflected how they play; as a team.  I’d hazard a guess the English, Italian and French teams still have a high teamwork ranking on the next edition of PES and FIFA.  The fact of the matter is that the team at Konami have time to draw up the new kits that have only been out a week or two but still can’t get the team rosters or team stats correct !!

No News is…. Good news?!?!

The lack of news about the on-line side of PES is becoming a worry for me.  They have commented upon the master league overhaul, again, and obviously we haven’t heard the end of 360 control, which was allegedly 2010’s selling point.  So will they deliver? It’s a prudent question which Dougie is completing a survey about.  I’d urge you to scroll down and complete this, if you haven’t already, as this feedback will ultimately, hopefully, affect the products we’re complaining about. It doesn’t really need saying again just how woeful the online play has been over the past few years which is a major disappointment as its certainly something I’d enjoy playing more of.  I’ve tried probably five times this year and each time has been a disappointment with one of us suffering an obvious lag of some description.  We all know the computer becomes predictable and you can always and will always find that one way to beat the AI, for me this year its been shooting from tight angles and we all know it was all about the square ball in years gone by, a feature which I feel the misses are exaggerated on these days, unless your names Yakubu, I digress; The short and tall of it is that on-line play needs to be as good as sitting in the same room as someone as we all know split second decisions could make or break the game. 

Free Kick !! 

Regular readers of the column will probably know by now that one of my biggest gripes in soccer gaming is set pieces.  This is such an adaptable creative part of the game which needs exploiting.  Anyone who plays a one on one knows this year as the defending team you can risk a last ditch and probably not get sent off for it, another matter, but the ensuing free-kick is not the advantage it should be.  Options should be available as an attacking team to ask for off the ball runners, a square ball lay off to the second man hovering on the edge of the area (not the man stood next to you) or even being able to request someone to stand in the wall and create a defensive problem.  The limited options during set plays often results in loosing possession, especially near the half way line.  The defending team, if human controlled, can clearly see where your aiming and control a free man, which is more of an advantage than the attacking team has.  Its very frustrating.  Realised more so on throw ins.  Players who use a lot of crosses will invariably win many throw ins, again the defenders can be controlled to walk between thrower and receiver, surely there should be more options as the attacking team.  I play quite a lot of one on one and my biggest frustrations is those who play within what’s deemed to be acceptable boundaries by the referee.  It breaks up the game they can re-group and then nick possession back as I don’t have an option but to hoof it into the box as they come and stand in front of the reciever.  Unfortunately in PES it very rarely lands like a German goal kick.   To have options assigned to say each trigger during a set play would just put the advantage back with the attacking team.  Imagine playing on line, defending a free kick, and the camera doesn’t move, you don’t know how to defend it or whats coming next.  Do you retreat to the post? stay short for the lay off? rush out the wall? Play the offside? Move your man behind the attacker in the wall? It would give an edge I think would be welcomed.

Offside….

Would we like to see dodgy decisions brought into the gaming world or are we happy playing with modern technology?  I think it’s part of the game and I’m not suggesting they should be in the context of Frank Lampards ‘goal’ but certainly more off side situations like Tevez’s first goal  would perhaps be an option.  I agree you would NOT be happy when on the receiving end, but if its in there as ‘one of those things’ it would create plenty of banter, I know from league nights something like that would in all honesty be hilarious… if it didn’t happen to me, obviously…. Any thoughts??

And in answer to Aadams question in the posts on IWP; I’ve received 10 penalties in 493 games. 

Well its over to you lot now, feel free to join the debate on the comments section or get in touch at doinotlikethat@hotmail.co.uk

Until next week