Re: WE/PES 2008 Next Gen - Discussions Thread (Last Update 08/22/07)
All we can do is base our assessments on the stuff we're being show
What you see is not always what you get. We've heard alot each time about how Fifa has changed and how its better with silky videos. However every year come the time to eat the great 'looking' pudding has a slightly sour taste.
This year has been no different, Fifa IS finished (35 days till shops, it'll be done by now), but no one can play it at a massive games conference. This is dissapointing.
Konami are quite bad at PR. So bad they didnt have a big conference or show, they just knocked together a demo and let you play it 60 odd days before its released. If EA got a demo together a month ago and let anyone play it, without a big conference or speech, or showing the fifa street merger, just out in the open, a little less complete, the publics opinions (maybe not yours) would without doubt be different.
This place is very reactionary, the point where the ps3 version of PES2008 was meant to be better, you could see people flipping their view on one persons opinion. Perception management is something EA do very, very well (except with their treatment of staff), but by taking the information the PR department give you as gospel will result in dissapointment, the trick is that you part with your money before this has kicked in.
This dissapointment can be seen by the people that post about different models used in the distance, nearly every 3d game does this. They have brought into the PR about these new super-consoles when the reality is, 4X rise in the available memory in the new consoles is negated by the 4X rise in screen size (hd)... sometimes they dont even make this 4X screen size rise and the games are limited to 720p. I.e. the machines are struggling. Que people moaning about not being everything they've been told.
Fifa will sell by the bucket load, whether people will be happy with this after they have paid for the game is a different matter, hence making the point about trying the game sooner rather than later and my disapointment at no fifa demo and my credit to Konami for showing early.
Finally I think the games companies have it abit easier now, they can drop multiplayer from the schedules and do this in the normal 'off time' when the game is being manufactured and sent out. They can also fix all the small complaints after the fact and update the game... I think EA will be ontop of this too, they have the sales, the licences, the familier voices and the fluff, they are after the crown.