So Who Won…?

So PES 2010 was released before the weekend – I pre ordered online and still ended up having to buy it in the shops (long story which I won’t bore you with).

So this year which game is better…?  May I say there is a clear winner – I’m not going to sit on the fence on this one.  Let me first express my initial impressions of FIFA 10.  Out of the box it was played an impressive game – but immediately I started to find some major frustrations – how do I shoot? why are my crosses not going to the right place? whats going on with my set pieces?

Then I started being irratated by FIFA’s graphics – the lack of likeness of the players, whereas on PES they looked so realistic.  So I thought to myself if PES 2010 this year plays as good as FIFA 10 and it already looks the business surely I have my winner.

Well when I started playing PES 2010 the spark came back – but then after a few games I realised actually this game isn’t too different from the previous versions.  Then the worst thing that can happen to PES – I started to miss things in FIFA 10.  The referee intelligence, the better goal keepers, the player animation, the slower pace, the emphasis on passing rather than hit and run.  The list can go on – but after a few hours on PES I was back on FIFA.  That was the nail in the coffin for PES this year.  Simply put FIFA 10 plays a better game of football than PES 2010 does.

 

Atmosphere: PES wins hands down – walking out to the Champions League music really gets you in the mood.

Graphics: PES wins on player likeness – FIFA’s likeness is off putting

Gameplay: FIFA all the way for me – PES 2010 is enjoyable like a game of pinball is enjoyable – but FIFA 10 is the far more rewarding game.

Animation: FIFA all the way again – PES has done very little in this department and the worst thing about it is there is major clipping in PES whereby players run right through each other.  This isn’t merely cosmetic as that affects the gameplay drastically.  I give you one example: Rooney in the area surrounded by defenders – unless any of the defenders get a touch of the ball Rooney is neither pressured or pushed off the ball – in fact one defender runs up to Rooney and runs right through him (yes through him).  Needless to say I swapped out the PES2010 disc from my PS3 after that.

Goalkeepers: PES GK’s are still poor still don’t save balls that are about an arms length away from them.  FIFA 10 GK’s are really hard to beat, one critisim is that they are too vulnerable to the chip.

Overall: FIFA 10 by a mile – I’m no PES fanboy or FIFA – I just want a game that represents the beautiful game well and this year at least FIFA10 has won me over.

Let Battle Commence

Its that time of year again – the clash of the two rival ‘Soccer’ video games: Pro Evolution Soccer v EA Fifa Soccer

So who wins it this year….?

Well I purchased myself a PS3 Slim over the weekend and tested out the two demos – and here are my conclusion.

Let me put things into perspective – I was introduced to football gaming when there was a raft of competition on the market: Sensible Soccer, Goal! and Actua Soccer.  Even in those days Fifa was seen as the more glamourous game.  Meanwhile in Japan only one football game was being played and that was one that was called Winning Eleven.  When brought to Europe it was called ISS which evolved to become Pro Evolution Soccer or PES as its more well known as.  PES in its earlier days was a soccer simulation through and through.  It was not a pick up and play arcade game that EA’s Fifa was.  You had to actually learn the controls and practice your passing and shooting.  You had to plan moves quickly ahead and sharp eyed enough to see gaps that you can thread throw balls too.  This felt like football!  Meanwhile with EA Fifa you were battling the AI with a 10-8 scoreline in PES you had to really earn your goals.

EA has always been the more popular product and PES more for the older more serious player – the purist if you like.  And they both survived in their own happy medium and eventually killing the rest of the competition and buying out the licences.  This was until two things happened – Konami looked at how EA frequently out sold it and also refreshed its product on a regular annual basis while they only realeased a product when they genuinely had a sequel.  So Konami wanted a bit of the action – they moved PES out of exclusivity from the Playstation and made it available to all the main formats – they tarted up the game with better graphics started to make the game engine easier on the player (thus appealling to a wider audience) and began releasing their game at a similar time to EA Fifa’s. 

Meanwhile EA had looked over its own garden fence and envied how PES managed to reproduced the game so well.  So EA went the other direction of making its game more simulation based thus a little harder – and that is where we have it.  Both games now are direct competitors, but who is better?

Well I can not give you a clear and out right answer until the full games of both are actually released – but based on the demos’ this is what I feel. 

EA are at the moment clear winners almost in every category.  PES has really allowed EA to catch up to it big time and PES this year has tried to come a little more back to its roots after what really were poor 2 previous games.  The old PES shooting is back and you feel it less mechanical which was EA’s weakness.  The shooting is probably going to be PES’s saving grace as in almost every other area EA wins hands down.  Yes the players look better in PES than in Fifa – but that would be mainly about it.

Graphics: PES wins on player likeness.

Gameplay: Fifa wins save for the superior shooting in PES, but this is not enough.

Animation: Equal – both animations are different and are as good as one another.

Goalkeepers: PES GK’s are still poor – I need to stress test the Fifa ones’ a bit more.

Atmosphere: Fifa hands down – better commentary, fan sounds are better – Fifa has always been strong in this area.

Overall: Full game yet to be played but the demo on PS3 has convinced me to splash out on Fifa – PES I will still probably buy too but how  long will I continue to play it for?

Football’s Last Gentleman

Rest in Peace Bobby Robson – football will always remember you.

The New Bellion…?

I sure hope not – Fergie brought him for his ‘potential’ and he sure looks like he has bags of ability – but will this young player who obviously has certain issues will he set Old Trafford alight and blossom into a fine player or disappear into football wilderness as that other young French footballer United took a punt on a few seasons back David Bellion?

Only time will tell.

Owen…?!

Still in shock with this move – this is either a shrewd move or a massive gamble which may not pay off.  The gamble isn’t financial, after the player is free and probably on a pay as you play basis.  The gamble is that Fergie might be putting all his eggs in this one Owen basket.  That is MY fear.  And if that is the case United can surely kiss the Champions League and probably the Premiership next season goodbye.  I will support Fergie he deserves the support of the fans simply for what he has brought to the club.  However, this move has really put him in the firing line.

Roddick Puts Fiery Scot in His Place

Roddick raised his game to smash Murray out of a Wimbledon where typically the British press yet again over hype the prospects.  With Nadal out this year, and Murray’s form at the best its ever been there was surely good foundation for the hype.  However, Roddick was having none of it.  The cool American brought along his lethal serve and blasted the Scot out of the tournament along with the hopes and dreams of all those who supported Murray.

Another year says the BBC – wishful thinking I say…I guess hope is free and hype gets ratings and people buying papers

Thanks for the memories…

“I was a boy when I arrived at Manchester and now I’m leaving a man. This club and its fans will always have a place in my heart”

United Miss Out On the Benz

Yesterday United fans hopes of signing up a truly potential world class player that can come in and fill the goal void that Ronaldo will leave came to end as Lyon agreed to sell their forward to Real Madrid.  Who will Fergi set his sights on now????

Death of a Genius

Michael might of attracted controversy throughout his life – but what no one can get away with was this man was unique artist of our age and we will not see any like him.  May he rest in peace.

Hidden Gem

Stumbled on this today from the South African soprano Mimi Coertse

Who will Fergie Bring in?

Not these two?? Fergie rarely buys big outside the Premiership – when I say big I mean plus £25million big.  Not the daft 20 million on Hargreaves or 17 mill on nani -

Who can really replace Ronaldo? Well I think due to the fact that Fergie has now admitted he has been trying to persuade Ronaldo to stay for the past two seasons, Fergie would of been eyeing a suitable replacement on the right wing.  Looks like that player is Wigan’s Antonio Valencia.  Yes he is probably a decent winger – yes he probably do a good job- but we have lost one of the best players not only in the team but in the world.  When that happens you must go some way to fill that void.  Personally, I think that player is Benzema – who has the potential to rock the world like Torres has.  Whether any amount of money will be enough to prise him away is another matter – I’m sure given the opportunity he would rather go two Barca or join the revolution at Madrid.

But I fear saying – if we don’t get a top class attacking player we will go into this next severely weakened.  And not only will I fear are domestic credentials but I fear we will fall short yet again in Europe.

So Fergie – go all out and get those world class players…now!

Good Luck and Adios

The departure of Cristiano Ronaldo will mark an end of a six year roller coaster whereby the young lad came to Old Trafford with high expectations and ended top of the world and living out all those expectations.  United in the end could not deny or no longer block Ronaldo’s urge to play for his ‘dream’ club.  £80 million will cushion the blow of losing your best player – but that amount of money is worthless to the team if it is not reinvested into filling the huge void Ronaldo now leaves.

Some United fans are bitter and feel its good riddance – we shouldn’t be so fickle – in this global market of football loyalty is few and far between.  If a world class team comes knocking on your door offering you double your salary and it is the club you have always dreamed about playing for, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work out what will happen.

Ronaldo has given United an untold amount of success not single handed but pretty much the team would of not had the success without him – that can not be forgotten.  Good luck Cristiano – I hope you join the long list of United legends.

Beaten!

Barca 2 – 0 Man Utd

United were well and truly outplayed tonight – theres no need to delve into what went wrong becaue if every United fan was honest with themselves it has not been a vintage United season.  Sure there has been signs of individual brilliance like Ronaldo’s fantastic goal against Porto and good team performances like that which defeated Chelsea and the two legs against the Arsenal.  But for some reason United have flattered to decieve.  At the end of the day Fergie has his trophies and yes he missed out on the absolute big one – it does goes to show the kind of high standard that he set himself that winning the Premier League was still a disappointment.

But what went wrong? You have to go back to the Berbatov signing.  Yes he is talented, yes he pocess skill.  But no he’s not young and he doesn’t strike you as a player that will run his heart out for the team.  Add to that Tevez making it clear he feels unwanted and that the constant rumours that keep on resurfacing about how Ronaldo wants to leave is never a good build up to a major Cup final.

But these are not excuses – for all the so called ray of talent that Fergie has on the bench and in his squad, Fergie has yet again shown he is still learning as a European manager.  Tactically his plan B was plan and simple throw on as many forward players as possible.  It worked against Munich 10 years ago because we scored from set pieces.  But today United were against a vastly technically superiour team – who had done their homework.

Van der Sar - should of really had a hand to the first goal – shacky start but eventually turned out to be one of United’s better players on the night

O’Shea – does what O’Shea does – does the job asked off him in the position he is played – exposed the right wing a couple of times – but expectation was never high

Evra – attacking wise you can not fault Evra – defensively he is a worry – on too many players past him too easily. Guess its a trait of the modern full back.

Vidic – allowed E’to to get past him too easily – did not have a great night -

Ferdinard – again did not mark Messi for the second goal – also poor performance overal

Park – he does his runs – always lightweight as in too easily shoved off the ball – Barca handled him easily

Giggs – anonymous for a big part of the time – disappointing that he couldn’t influence the younger players around him to raise their game

Anderson – had a shocker – the game proved too big for him

Carrick – too many long balls – and too predictable -  instead of trying to unlock the Barca midfield Carrick tried to lump the ball over them

Ronaldo – could of scored early on – might of been different if he had – later on Barca had him in their back pocket – and Puyol on the right wing even gave him a run for his money!

Rooney – wasted on the wing – found it hard to really get into the game

Tevez – Barca packed the midfield – Tevez had very little space to do anything

Berbatov – had little time to influence the game but did had a few half chances which a so called ’special’ player like him should do better on

Scholes – did nothing except a bad tackle to get yet another card

Fergie – badly misjudged this one – this is a big learn like the defeat against Milan a few years back.

Changeling

Okay – recommended movie: Changeling. Based on the Wineville Murders and seen from the viewpoint of one of the mothers of the victims. This is a disturbing look into the 1920’s Police corruption at the time that surrounded the whole case and the general treatment of the main character. Clint as director portrays this era superbably and treats the subject matter with dignity, he never allows the various subject matters, and sub plots to over confuse the audience and never allows the story to move away from the main character it is meant to portray. With the spotlight and emphasis on the main character required a strong performance from a talented actress and we have that in Angelina Jolie. Bravo and its a shame that this movie missed out on alot of awards due to the success of Slumdog Millionaire movie.

Amy Where Art Thou…?

What has ever happened to Ms Winehouse – that charasmatic character that bellowed out of our radios with two hit albums…?  Seeing the Brit Awards earlier this week and seeing Duffy a darn right ‘jumping on the band wagon’ of an artist scoop up most of the awards was a bit disheartening.  The UK media did its usual of over praising someone who really isn’t that great.

Anyways while Amy is soaking up the Sun in the Caribbean others have grabbed her limelight and sadly it could be by the time she returns she has missed the bus – the Pop industry is fast moving and you can be all the rage one day and be nothing the next.  Amy hopefully can prove she is more resilient than that.  First she needs to sort herself out.

Liverpool Blow It

Rafa Rafa – where is your rant now???  This is still early days but Liverpool’s recent form is not championship winning.  Rafa’s rant at Fergie has not served his team well with them dropping points left right and centre ever since.

Rafa does make strange decisions.  Yes Torres is not yet match fit, but taking Gerrard off too who is the one player in your team who has in the past dragged your team out of the mire.  The whole Keane fiasco hasn’t shown Rafa in a good light either.  Paying a stomping £20 mil for him and then not selecting him in the first team.  Compare that to Fergie’s expensive buy Berbatov.  He was slow to get going, but Fergie gave him every chance and selected him in the first eleven whenever he could.  Berba is now becoming an intrigue part of the team and even when not scoring he is creating space or changes for his team mates.  Meanwhile Keane is feeling sorry for himself on the bench.  Oh well…

Wigan 1 – 1 Liverpool

Year of the Ox

It will be a tough year – The Ox was hard done by in the river race.  The Ox did all the hard work and got no reward for it.  Is there no good signs this year???

Ah yes isn’t this a good sign?

What Has Happened to the British Pound?

Over the past year we have seen our currency being rejected in favour of other currencies.  This begs the question does our currency have a future?  There is talk that the decline of the Pound is a sign of how really sick the UK is economically.  I really hope Gordon Brown can sail us out of these extremely rough waters, after all he has allowed us to sail right into it in the first place!

A New Dawn

Its easy to get carried away with the euphoria that comes with a new leader – the UK did when Blair came into power and the same thing happened with Clinton and we all know how disappointing those two turned out to be.  Alot is being made about Obama’s skin colour and his race – yes it is a great achievement for a non white person to have the top job in what is really the most powerful position in the world.

Lets all judge Obama on what he goes out and tries to do – Bush has left him the world in quite a state, economic turmoil, two major wars still outstanding and resentment against the US from his Western European allies.  There will be alot of bridges to rebuild and things to fix.  Can Obama rise to the challenge or will he just prove to be another great orator and nothing more.  Only time will tell.

Sensational United Crush Chelsea

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Man Utd 3 – 0 Chelsea

After a poor first half of the season and then a badly disjointed performance against Derby, United fans could be forgiven to fear the visit of Chelsea to Old Trafford.  However, in the end it turned out that the Chelsea that turned up was a toothless one that lacked the bite and snare of Chelsea teams of previous seasons.

Take nothing away from the United performance – it ranks as the best United performance for a long while (and I include the win in Moscow last season).

Van der Sar – rarely seriously troubled considering Chelsea could not hit the target
Neville – I questioned his selection, however showed his experience by keeping a stable back four
Evra – sensatinal comeback, showed what United have been missing while he was suspended
Evans – Rio wasn’t missed
Vidic – Commandered the back excellently, becoming a great role model for Evans
Park – ran his heart out and caused Chelsea problems on the wing
Ronaldo – still no where near his best but an average Ronaldo is still dangerous
Fletcher – Fergie masterstroke selection, hard working midfielder who does not look out of depth in this type of games at all
Giggs – again another Fergie masterstroke, ran his heart out and his intelligence and experience was invaluable – definately the man of the match
Berbatov – his contribution is under-rated – but his importance is evident with an assist and a goal. 
Rooney – snarling throughout which sometimes boils over, but Rooney is a special member of the team
Carrick – coming on for Giggs, had little time to make an impression.
O’Shea – replaced an injuried Evra and was never gonna be replicated but served as a great defender

One more word – Rafa “are you watching?!”