I actually bought my copy of PES 2009 on the day it was released, just like I had for every previous installment. I can remember the excitement I used to get when the demos were released, I even pre-ordered them and went down to my local GAME store to pick them up. I remember the excitement each year at the prospect of putting the discs into my PS2 and playing what was surely going to be the greatest football game ever made. I tried to muster that same enthusiasm for PES 2009, and very nearly did, although I really should have learnt my lesson from 2008 -- but I had hopes they would turn it around.... surely? For the first time in many years, I actually purchased a copy of the latest FIFA release, to see if that would quench my hunger for a football game that would keep my attention and enthrall me from the first play right up to the following year's release, just like it was in the old days.
Neither really did it for me however. Both undoubtedly had their qualities, but I've started to notice a worrying problem with the "evolution" of the football game: It just isn't fun anymore. Games are meant to be played for that very reason, and it seems that with the step up to the latest generation of consoles, games companies are seeking to attain that realism that is now possible. But I don't need a realistic football game; I have a genuine, real football and good mates to play with, and that's a lot more fun than twiddling some sticks on a pad with a game that tries to simulate that real game feeling.
When I play a game, I want it to take my mind off all the shit that's going on in my life; I want to wake up in the morning, go downstairs in my boxers, scratch my arse and play a fun game of football that makes me scream with joy at each goal I score and chuch my pad on the floor whenever I concede a goal. I don't want strategies, or balls that feel like you're kicking a rock around the pitch, even if all of that makes the experience more "realistic".
I downloaded the demo for FIFA 2010, and it's alright, a decent game but I know it won't keep me coming back all year. So I downloaded the demo for PES 2010, and since it was taking such an age to finish, I decided to give one of the older games a go, to see what nostalgic, child-like emotions I could conjure up, to see if it was as good as I had remembered: Did I really play PES 6 every day for a year? Did it really never leave my PS2? The first sign was when I opened up the case only to find it empty; the disc was still sitting in my old, dusty PS2, just where I had left it and where it had remained almost permanently since I first played it. So, being the lazy sod I am, I chose not to plug in the old beast and went instead for PES 5.
I got downstairs, inserted the disc and was welcomed with the old PlayStation 2 logo, then came the memories. The intro sequence featuring Kasabian's "Club Foot" was the first thing to get me pumped up, then came the title screen, with the voice-over that tells you exactly what you came to hear: You're playing "PRO! EVOLUTION! SOCCER! 5....." Well that got me all giddy again. So I played my first game, and feck me, it was amazing. Sure, the graphics are crap and there were occasions when my passes literally went in the opposite direction to where I'd told them to go, but what a FUN game. Is it realistic? Not a chance. Is it just like playing the real thing? No, and it's all the better for it. This isn't a football simulation and it doesn't intend to be, it's a computer game made for kids and big kids to chill out and simply enjoy.
Everything moved at about 10 times the speed of a real game, the ball pinged around the pitch like a bullet. You win possesion and find the ball at the feet of your defender, you look down and see on that little radar at the bottom that you have a red dot moving free down the wing, so you hold L1 and triangle to hit the most ridiculously sublime chipped throughball the world has ever seen, right into the path of your winger. In the blink of an eye you have seen off the danger and created a chance for yourself. So you get to the byline and fire a cross into the box....... Your striker rises and..... HOLY SHIT you hit the bar and it sounds like you've hit a plank of wood!! The ball falls to one of their players and you're racing back with all your might, those little men, Rimaldo and co. are doing all they can but the game is just moving too quickly and the oppositon get to your area and shoot. Your goalkeeper pulls off an incredible fingertip save he had no right to make and the action begins again, all at lightning speed.
Eventually I decided it was time to hit the sack and I quit the game, only to remember that my PES 2010 demo had finished downloading. So I installed it, had a quick look at the new tactics and the fancy screens and I played one half of a match, then turned off my PS3. I felt like I'd spent all afternoon playing the latest relase, then given one of the ageing copies a go for old time's sake, when in fact it was the other way around. Everything was so slow, it felt heavy and dare I say it, boring? What has happened to the game I used to love, that took up so much of my youth? I think for the first time since I can remember, I won't be buying either FIFA or PES. You can keep those debates over which is the best of the newest releases, it's like arguing the case for the newest model of a FORD or FIAT car, when you could just as easily be driving around in an Aston Martin DB9 that's been sitting in your garage gathering dust for the last few years. I'm going to stick with PES 5 this time, or if I can summon up the energy, I may just give PES 6 a try.
