Pes 2018: News and depression, the king will never return".
Jokes aside, I think I may have “liked” almost every single post in the last page or two!
On the hand hand, although perhaps I'm more optimistic, I can't help but empathise with Lami (whose rant made me chuckle heartily). I feel your pain, bro! The ability shown by KONAMI in the last decade or so to consistently shoot itself in the foot surely has by now become the stuff of legend. I mean, besides invoking financial masochism and/or creative schizophrenia, how exactly does one fathom the logic behind the decision to arbitrarily
remove perfectly good features from a game? Some of the choices made since the PS2 era are outright baffling. One would be tempted to think that Seabass really was more that the Keeper of the Flame, and that since his departure PES has been helplessly groping in the dark. The last edition I played—and by played I mean “properly played”, Master League etc.—was WE10, and even that I considered something of a step backwards compared to the mythical WE9LE. So I do feel your pain.
On the other hand, I'm fairly certain I'm not making any groundbreaking philosophical insight if I say that both the emotional investment in the series, as well as the broader role of videogames in general, tend to change throughout the various stages of one's life. My passion and investment for videogames—and WE/PES in particular—has definitely ebbed since I was younger, and has only recently been reinvigorated almost singlehandedly by the amazing experience of playing The Last of Us (Remastered). Thus, differently from someone like Lami, whose Herculean efforts to support PES during the last disappointing decade quite understandably must really start to feel like a gigantic exercise in frustration, perhaps because I, as it were, “carry less baggage”, I'm able to approach the whole thing with a more optimistic, less cynical attitude. Am I just being naïve? Possibly. But I don't think it's completely panglossian to hope that, however slowly and haphazardly, things may improve. Especially now that I can finally see a glimmer of sunlight peek through the clouds. The improvements exhibited in the latest footage are orders of magnitude greater than what I expected. Those new player models, the lighting, the way the ball bounces…so good! And above all, the real clincher for me is the new locomotion system, which, despite not being flawless, looks astonishingly similar to the sort of “endgame” innovation I envisioned in my dreams. And now, out of the blue, it's a reality. HOLY SHIT, YES!! THIS IS WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!!! Dammit KONAMI, it has taken you fucking ages but you finally nailed it! I honestly didn't think you had it in you, you dirty old bastard…
And although the new animation system, ball physics, and graphics, are by no means a panacea for all the other problems present in the game, taken together not only do they represent a significant improvement in the here and now, but in the slightly longer term might pave the way for the fully-fledged renaissance that we have been so eagerly, obstinately, and yes, in some cases bitterly awaiting. There are signs—some big, some small, some explicit, some only hinted at—that the tides may be turning. Whether this is because the Powers That Be at KONAMI have finally started listening, or because the dev team has somehow managed to get their shit together, or simply because the wheel of fortune in PES Production's offices has landed on “more sim” for multiple years in a row, we can only speculate. Only the people “on the inside” know the truth. But if with the revolutionary locomotion system we are really witnessing the coming to fruition of a three-year cycle, as Mr. Bhatti has claimed, then perhaps for the first time in a long while there's reason to believe that, after all, there really is a plan, a guiding vision, informing development. The cynics have every right to scoff at all the hype bandwagoning (once bitten…), but if the video footage, audio podcasts, and written impressions corroborating the PR talk (!) are anything to go by, then there is a smidgen of a chance that after years of talking the talk, KONAMI has at last started actually walking the walk.
So, in conclusion, if Lami is fed up by years of hitting a brick wall and wants to “retire” for a while, let it be known that I'm able and willing to carry the torch during his leave of absence.
EDIT: goddammit—it took me so bloody long to write this shit that the sheer number of posts that have appeared in the meantime have probably rendered mine entirely obsolete
