Game Review: Pro Evolution Soccer 2009

First things first, back again, after a year or so. Hi!
Second, Game review, wtf? Yes. This game deserves a review. If you want to know why, keep on reading.

I've found myself playing PES2009 for a while now, on my Xbox 360. Now I feel like I've played enough to have an opinion about the game. I will be concentrating this review on the 'Become A Legend'-feature. Which is basically all I've played, since it is the new selling feature from Konami.

I can make myself with this thing
When I started off playing I decided it was time that my football (saying soccer is for retarded people that claim football is played using hands) career started of for real. So I set off to make a nice copy of myself to play the game with. Man, there was a lot of sliders and settings. Almost half of which did not show any sign of effect until maximum or minimum values were reached. When I had gone through the myriad of sliders and settings for the face, I got the choose everyday stuff like hair style, accessories and shoes. The contrast to the amount of sliders for the face and body had me stunned for a while. Only a set of ~15 different pairs to choose from? There must be hundreds of different brands of shoes as far as I know. Konami could really have made an effort and packed a little more into the game here. Not that it increases the actual gameplay, but it could be nice. As a side note there is a feature to let the Xbox 360 camera do some face-recognition for you so you don't have to work the sliders and things. But I really have no clue as to why I would be a webcam for my Xbox, so this feature remains untested.

I've made myself and I want to play
So, starting off my carrer, I got to choose which league I wanted to start in. But again, Konami and licensing. Sometimes I doubt they even have lawyers, and if they do, they apparently is not trying to get licenses for league names. After I while I discover that League C seems to be a perfect match for me. The dutch league could be a good place to start. After choosing you get thrown into some random training match between two teams whose names have never been heard of ever, at your chosen position. So here I am playing for a random team having scouts watching me (from what I thought would be the dutch league). After the game I had a stunning record of two goals and one assist. So I was sure I would get some sweet deals put on the table from some nice dutch football club. Not, so, fast, Mister. After the game, the only three contracts that was available was from English clubs. This really got me worried. I get to choose a league, and then get put in another? And once again, the team of lawyers smoked to much pot and forgot to push the licensees for the English teams. Only Liverpool FC and Manchester United has their real names. Bummer. Let the games begin.

What are they doing? WHAT IS HE THINKING!?
When you start off your carrier you are 17 years old, and basically suck. And you have to play some "inter-squad" matches before the manager even lets you take up space on the bench next to the sweaty team doctor who smells of garlic. But when you become a sub, you move into the starting 11 fairly quick, if you know what you're doing. But you then discover that even if you know what you're doing, your teammates and opponents does not always know whats up. I've seen keepers holding the ball so long that they get tackled and lose it, with the attacker having an open goal and the ball at his feet (FIFA 97 anyone?). The wing defenders sometimes take the ball at midfield, and when set under pressure from the opposing team run back to the corner flag at his own side and kick the ball over the sideline for a throw-in. WTF?! Who does that? There are countless of idiotic AI decisions, and I don't have enough strength to remind myself of all (I still have to take my national team to the European Cup). These small (?) AI misshaps tend to annoy and sometimes really piss me off. And then I haven't even mentioned the fact that the managers is even worse. I've seen managers in this game that put an extra attacker on the field at '68 and take him of the field at '81 to make room for a new midfielder. WHEN HAS THAT EVER HAPPENED?!

Who decided upon the music?
The people who dealt with the music in PES2009 should really be ashamed of themselves. There is a list of 10 songs maximum. They only play when you're not playing which is nice. But when you have heard the same song 100 times when getting back from a game, you really want to turn it off. Same goes for the commentaries. Which most of the time seem like they're watching a completely different game. Cracking wise ass comments about stuff that didn't even happen in the game, and the same comments, over and over, and over, and over, and over again.

Overall reflections
The only thing saving this game from complete doom is the fact that become a legend let's you play alot longer than FIFA's dito. The only thing saving FIFA from being overtaken by PES this time is the fact that PES actualy suck. It plain sucks. Sound, AI, Graphics, Music, Team/League names... Sucks.

The results are in...

and the winner is me!

I passed the project with honors as well as the Erlang course. Today was the offical end of this term. From monday there is new shit coming up. Embeded systems, testing and verification, software process improvement and a new project handeling embeded sollutions.

This is going to be the most interesting term so far according to me. Learning a new language is always nice since I've never even dared to look at C for all this time. So now C might become my new best friend or my new worst enemy. We'll just have to wait and see how it treats me.

The project might be a real challenge this term, since there is a lot of lost souls in our class. People who really can't code for crap and have problems with the documentation as well. I, myself, have aimed at the Quality Assurance team or the management team.

The last few days I've been playing around a bit with our eggdrop or0n. He is also a game show host now.

By the way, I haven't posted the group blog yet. But know I have. Check it out.

Tomorrow is the end of this year.

Tomorrow is the day that this year comes to an end. We are leaving 2007 behind to go into 2008. For this year I have promised myself to start working out and get healtier, get ready for beach 2008. Not that I sincerely like the beach in any way, but still.

On the educational side there is only good news at this point. I recieved a B in the Erlang course, which is really nice to hear. The next thing to do now is the Project Management exam, then this term is officially over once and for all.

I have also spent christmas in Karlskoga my old hometown. Which was nice, but I hate to break it to you all, Karlskoga is NOT a nice town. It is on the other hand the most boring town on the face of this planet. Spending a week in Karlskoga should be somewhat similar to spending a week on Mars. But I got some nice presents (yeah, it's all about the presents isn't it). Two new games for the Wii, some clothes and a lamp for the roof in my appartment. Guess my relatives got bored with my appartment not having enough light.

Well, that would be it for now. See you in 2008.

About that time ey?

Right on.

Well, well. Four (!) months has passed since I last wrote anything here. These posts always end up being a big galore in passed times. But not this one, no not this time. I feel like what has happened is now unimportant and it is time to talk about what really matters.

The future.

6 days to the next exam, and about a month until the next project deadlines. Should not be all to much of a hassle to nail all courses this year. Then we'll have to see what the hell the school has cooked up for us for the next term.

And Now.

Well, I've found three really good albums this week. Dillinger Escape Plan prove every last music professor wrong by turning every beat and tone inside out on Ire Works. Gay For Johnny Depp throws themselves out there and shows that not all emo-core has to be mainstream. While Nofx records a new live album and kicks even more ass than before.

"Everyone knows George Bush is an imbecile. He loves Dick, but he hates homosexuals." - Fat Mike.

Sleep is the enemy

...or atleast that's how it seems. I didn't get much sleep last night, so now I'm at work and I'm dead tired. I need to go home later and lay down and get some rest. I had trouble getting to sleep and when I finally fell asleep I got waken by a random phonecall from some random party. I could have been declared dead this morning, for sure.

Saturday me and a couple of friends went down to metaltown to see some gigs and have a nice time.

The positives of metaltown:

• The weather
• The bands (Ill Niño, Machine Head and Entombed was great)
  
• The company

The negatives of metaltown:

• The beer
• The bar
• The whole bar area
• The tight schedule

The bar area was still small, the queues where big and slow, the beer was really awful and expensive and they didn't accept cards at all. These were the obvious things that they could have done something about since last year (it was the exact same problems then). Machine Head put on one of the best shows I've ever seen. Now after the festival my body aches and the lack of sleep last night isn't really helping the situation. Well that's all for now, over and out.

New found glory.

Well well well. Work has started, but not on the project as I would wish, but at my actual summer job. So, what's this summer job I'm talking about? Well, I'm a communicator. I speak to people about their problems with their internet connections. Yeah, I work for an ISP, get over it. No, really. Stop laughing.

Other than that? Well, summer has hit Sweden for real it seems. Heat is here and it doesn't seem to leave. I also just designed a couple of pins for a contest over at paintball.se. We'll see how it goes in the end, but I would love to get myself one of those sweet t-shirts.

I better get to bed. Gotta get up at 6 A.M tomorrow. Over and Out.

Project FreeFTP Started.

One project done, next one just getting started.

Problem:
Both me and my friend David are used to Windows environments and all the graphical convenience that comes along with it. When switching over to GNU/Linux we have both discovered the lack of satisfying FTP clients for the platform. The convenience just is not there any more. Either you have to give up your freedom to click what you like to download or upload, Or you have to struggle trying to install applications using meters of text to help guide you through the process. But even worse, If you still want that same feeling as in windows, you have to struggle with emulation through Wine to get your old friend from windows to work.

There is of course some alternatives that are not so hard to install and quite user friendly. But instead they lack support for such obvious things as TLS or SSL. This is somewhat standard now-a-days as people become more and more aware of the security issues and absolute threats against their systems. This does not leave many options left when it comes to usability.

Vision:
The decision has been taken to try to produce an FTP client that is platform independent, free for use and free to alter and redistribute. Most likely the GNU GPL license will be used, or an equivalent to it, to support the legal issues when releasing the application. The language of choice is Java because of its platform support, which basically supplies the possibility to run the application on any platform.

The plans are as of right now quite abstract, but the goal is to have the first stable version out somewhere around late fall 2007. More specifically have the first release of the software around Dreamhack Winter 2007, to represent the school with our creation.


Why Free Software?
Why not, really? Money is something that rolls in when you work. This gives a better platform for the CV later in life any how. I would rather see the application getting used by someone for free, than getting ripped and released.

Why Java?
Platform independence and general knowledge about the language. Free software gives you the possibility to do what you like with the software. So why not aim at a language that is commonly taught in schools around the world, and give as many people as possible the freedom to play with the software?

Any new cool features?
We will try to if not in the first release, but later on, give the ftp server a web-interface for searching and administration. This should of course come with authorization, and be fully customizable since its free software. So if all goes well there will be some sort of apache integration and a java-applet utility to administer the software remotely. And these are just the basic ideas. Stay tuned for more.

//Niklas