Pro Evolution Soccer 2008: "After-the-initial Impression" Impressions

Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 Demo


I'm glad I didn't write this mini review directly after the first match I played on the Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 demo (Xbox 360), as it would have fallen way short of the Fifa demo.

Initially, it felt too fast and more arcadey than any previous games. I think what has happened this year is Fifa have gone too realistic, and have forced this extremely slow (but, perhaps, more realistic) paced game on to it's gamers. Where as PES, although faster (maybe, still, a little too fast) gives the player that freedom to slow the game down with their individual style of play. Now, it's hard to gauge the success on this with the demo, as it's only a 5 minute match so it's hard to really play a slow passing game with the clock counting down (up?) so fast, but it's an option that's plain to see.

Graphically. I feel I'm missing out. I don't own a 30'inch HDTV, I have a 15 inch portable that I play my games on, but it does look better; improved much so. But no ground breaking. The likenesses of the players are perfect and leagues ahead of the license-grabbing corporation that is Electronic Arts.

Gameplay. The different types of players handle and feel different, where as, with the Fifa demo, this wasn't so obvious; every player seemed to handle almost the same even though it was obvious who were the better players. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008, firstly allows you to play your style, but also limits that with the players you have at your disposal. Say you play Morientes instead of Torres (Spain nation team). Morientes is marginally better than Torres in the air, but Torres offers that thread in behind; he's faster and more direct. However, compare Torres to the more slight build but more skillful Villa; Villa has more tricks and a better touch, but the taller more heavy built Torres will be harder to knock off of the ball. Now that goes for every player; every player has his own strengths and weaknesses and thus far it looks like this has been tweaked to it's best in this most recent version.

A few niggles however...

Goalkeepers. Are these men between the sticks so difficult to code? Fifa's were in some kind of slo-mo limbo, where as there's a host of bad things about the keepers of PES. I feel the goalkeepers are worse than they were in PES6, which just isn't on. They'll rarely keep a hold of a shot, even when it's fired straight at them. We were promised that goalkeepers will try to push shots around the post instead of into the path of an oncoming striker... Bull-hucky! They're worse than ever! At least Fifa have the animations down to a 'T', PES goalies are lacking in this area too. Fix it KONAMILots 'O Glitches. Animation popping, telekinesis goalkeepers, terrible hit collision... The list goes on. I accept that this is a demo so I assume these will all be fixed for its release.

Ref and Lino's. Refs seem better but less consistent! They now let well timed challenges go, even if you get the ball and the player! Score! But they'll now send you off for fouls on the half way line, and give penalties for perfectly timed challenged coming in from the front?! Sort it out..


And that's it really. I'm really enjoying it apart from the occasion glitch and (sometimes related) terrible goalkeeping/Referee error. If the niggles are fixed it should be the best PES to date (maybe!).

Full version still expected for 26th of October - so about a month!
Much love,

RU

Update 'eth the Blog 'eth (Games)

FIFA '08 Demo

Now there's essentially 3 types of people in this world; those who like and play the Fifa franchise (i.e. the goons), those whom play the Pro Evolution Soccer franchise (the cool cats) and those whom don't care either way, usually because they don't like football (!) but sometimes because "they like both". Pah!

Previously, I would have placed myself among the "cool cats" (naturally), however I did waver slightly when I got my hands on the 360's Demo. As always, the game looks pleasant, but it's usually what's under the hood which has let FIFA down in the past. This year there's a huge improvement. Here's a mini-review I did on PESFan.com

Bad things

Goalkeepers. Terrible. The A.I is atrocious; they never come out to close players down, when the balls played through - or anything.
There's still too many "Hollywood saves" in my opinion. Not to mention how they seem to be diving in slo-mo. That leads me onto my other annoyance:

Game speed. Was it lagging? I changed the camera from the default cam to a closer one and it seemed to play faster? Anyway, it's still rather sluggish. It's possible that I'm just used to playing PES6, but I also watch a lot of football too and don't think it's at that pace.

Passing. It's harder, but there's something about through passing that doesn't seem right. Either it's intercepted or it'll get through to your player no matter what. And by that I mean it felt scripted. At one point the ball went through a defender and my own player as it dropped over (through) my player and I volleyed it home (looked nice, but when I saw the replay I wasn't impressed...) There's no freak occurrences, no mistakes (unless obvious)

Good things

The tricks. Difficult to pull off (partly to do with the speed, maybe) but also because they're just difficult to pull off successfully. However, once mastered it could make the game too easy (I'm still not a master of PES6 a year on...) Once you do pull them off though, they work effectively - leaving the defender in your wake.

Animations. As expected they are very good, and they do seem to add to the experience instead of just being something aesthetic.

Physics.... Are better but still not as good as PES in my opinion. It's less scrappy than reality, less gritty - but it is better and has been improved. I like how players will stick out a foot to try and gain advantage of a short pass, though it happens sometimes when it is required to which may become annoying.

Overall. I'm really considering getting it. It used to be a 'this or that' choice between Fifa and Pro but I feel this year they both (will) offer totally different things. When it comes down to it though, PES is my kind of game. Fifa still feels much more like an individual showboat than a team effort.

FYI: Pro Evolution Soccer also has a release date (October 26th) with Fifa releasing their title a month before (September 28th)

Game Review: Bioshock (Xbox360)

Decisions, Decisions...

Outline

You play as an unnamed individual (possibly named Jack) who is flying to an, er, unknown location for an unknown reason. However, something goes wrong and the plane crashes into the ocean off the shore of a large building. As the only survivor you find yourself in an underwater city named RAPTURE; a so-called safe haven for great (boarder-line insane) individuals who can better themselves without the restrictions of morality, humanity and all that other silly stuff.
Enter genetic modification and ultra-cool weaponry... but ignore the homicidal maniacs (once genius') whom roam and live throughout eerie RAPTURE.

However, there is trouble afoot - as, seemingly, one of the few sane individuals left around, you believe that you are the one to save everyone and, with the help of Atlas - your ally and narrator, put a stop to the madness and such like.

Story

Don't let it's glossy visuals and frightening setting fool you. This is a story driven game. It covers somewhat philosophical issues in a very surreal setting; our choices, fate, control, power, truth, the greater good... all of these issues are posed to the gamer and actively seek to allow them to make choices which pose yet more questions.
To begin with there is the choice of either saving or harvesting the numerous Little Sisters whom walk RAPTURE seeking dead bodies to which they can extract ADAM (where harvesting them gives you more ADAM and saving them...less); a substance required to survive - or at least feed a strange sort of addiction. ADAM is also used by you, the gamer, to improve your character; adding PLASMIDS and other nuggets of variables which will make you stronger and more powerful. It soon comes apparent that you must close your eyes to your own morality to essentially destroy it - just one of the many fantastic issues this game poses you with. Having completed the game, looking back over it and reading articles discussing it's conclusion, it comes apparent that this game is a fantastic story FIRST AND FOREMOST and a brilliant action/RPG second. In fact, even though the action itself was brilliant, it still filled in the gaps between each 'story-point' - as opposed to it being the other way round.

Gameplay

Gameplay just falls short of the Story aspect of the game, mainly because there wasn't as much emphasis on having a choice that actively changed or influenced the game. You're given 2 endings depending on what actions you took during the game (I won't say how you get one or the other..) but other than that it was very much more about how you decided to deal with situations that opposed you. Although it perhaps should have, at no point during the game did I feel that it had become repetitive even due to the amount of 'clone' enemies; this is perhaps due to each 'clone' having a different personality - they all seemed to be doing something different, having conversations (which, also, never seemed to repeat) with each other...For instance, at one point a grenade Splicer (he throws explosives at things, people..) attacked me and ran away. I tried to take him down with some range weapons but his grenades were slowing me down (throwing them over his shoulder with great precision); I then decided to use my Telekineses plasmid to catch his grenades and throw them back, but he was too agile. Eventually I followed him into a room I had already been in, with various dead splicers scattered around the floor. The room was empty apart from the dead bodies; he was nowhere to be found... I walked forward and the lights started to flicker, the door behind me shut closed and I heard laughing. I turned around to see a spider splicer on the celling and then the room went black and I was attacked, the lights came on and I made for the door but to my surprise the 'dead' splicers rose up and began attacking me..
After this encounter, and after I had died, I thought to myself; what an amazing sequence of events, scripted or not, it was truly amazing to participate in: being led into a trap, evidently, which lent itself to a very cinematic perspective.
These sorts of situations happen many times during the course of the game and all-but-add to the already impressive enemy A.I; Houdini Splicers whom attack you, disappear and reappear behind you. Spider Splicers, who will jump to the ceiling and drop down right in front of you for an up-close-and-personal attack. The diversity of combat and the options available to the player make this initially generic shooter an ideal playground for fans of playing devils advocate.

Graphics

This isn't as much a selling point as the other aspects of a game are to me, but nevertheless this is a beautiful game. However, I don't think it matches GoW (Gears of War) when it comes to the aesthetic presentation; it's not quite to that standard. But it's the next best thing...
This is perhaps the first game (certainly the first FPS) that I've literally 'walked-thru', when running is perhaps the most obvious choice. Of course, that's not counting the times I've ran away from something or towards someone, but generally when I was exploring I was just walking, listening to my footsteps and anyone elses and just taking it all it; the environment, the shadows, and so on - as what this has over GoW is atmosphere boat loads and buckets full of atmosphere. So although the graphics on a scale of 1 to 10 aren't matching GoW standards, they are used more effectively - the setting and level design is brilliant, open and enclosed at the same time; I, on more than one occasion, would find a corner of a room just so I knew that nothing was coming up behind me. Not, really, because I was scared or such, but because I was hanging on to my life by a thread, or because I only had one more anti-personal bullet left.
Since we're underwater it was only right that the design team at 2kgames got the water right, and they sure did. Whether it be cracking glass, dripping from rusted pipes or exploding through hatches it was truly beautiful. It was also a huge aspect of gameplay too; several enemies sludging through knee deep in water? Zap them with the electric plasmid. Or, if you've set a Splicer on fire he'll more than likely actively seek out some puddles to jump in to extinguish himself; hilarity ensured.

Conclusion

The best game I've played on the 360... period. It's perhaps not as large as Oblivion or as pretty as GoW. But what this doesn't have in quantity and gloss it makes up for in Gameplay and immersion. It's only downfall is that once you've completed it you'll not be itching to play again, I will be trading it in for money off (PES 2008, Mass Effect, Assassin's Creed - one of them) as it doesn't have the replayability of some other titles. However, this is not a negative aspect. In fact it's a refreshing and, perhaps, more classy alternative. Like a good movie, perhaps you don't want to play it again straight away, but you'll be damned you if you don't remember it 5-10-15 years down the line, and when you see it for £5 a pop you'll be grabbing it with both hands and taking it on again, hoping that you don't remember the twists and turns of this fabulous game.