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With every new generation of console, with every more powerful graphics chip, with each faster processor we are moving even closer to perfectly recreating sports such as football and basketball for our own digital consumption. But there is one thing that hardware cannot provide, and that is the human element.
Pro Evolution Soccer 2 is a brilliant game, the closest to football any developer has ever gotten…but apart from the odd AI bug, the computer doesn’t make many mistakes. Sure, it misplaces the occasional pass thanks to your mastering of the middle of the park, but mostly as you go up the difficulty settings the mistakes disappear, and you face what seems to be more intelligent opposition. The thing is, most of the goals I concede aren’t down to great skill on my opponent’s part – it’s down to my suicidal nature, and Konami’s infuriating refusal to remove the triangle button in the setup despite many requests from my old Master League team’s goalkeeper. Whenever the striker breaks free of my centre backs, I call my goalie out rushing like Maurice Green. He invariably fluffs it and lets the player run round and pass the ball into an empty net, occasionally hacks him down and gets carded, but almost always fails. This is the only human element the game has.
Would it not be brilliant if it was derby day, say Arsenal vs Spurs in Fifa 2004? The game’s still a dead heat in the seventieth minute, neither teams willing to lose their grip on the game. A few rash challenges on Dennis Bergkamp from Ledley King go unpunished and before you know it, the AI-controlled Dutchman flings an elbow across King’s face. An act of utter stupidity, sure, but wholly believable. Just look at Alan Smith’s midweek Malaga mischief. If somehow Konami and co could programme certain hotheads like Roy Keane so that they may occasionally lose their rag, it would make it even more like the Beautiful Game.
Then there’s the computer controlled goalkeeping. Most of the cool things I’ve seen, such as a keeper falling back into the net after a shot, are down to glitches – the keeper reacting too late to the shot, diving into the back of the net rather than towards the ball. What if the pitch reacted to wear and tear? After lots of hard challenges the turf would be torn up and when a low shot from Henry looks to be sailing straight at him, Keller simply gets on his knees ready for the catch. Imagine if the ball bobbled up and over Keller’s shoulder? His head would sink into his hands, as the bemused goalscorer celebrates.
If you’re playing a basketball game and the score’s tied in the last quarter, you’re bound to be tense, right? So imagine what’s going through your star shooter’s mind when he steps up, five seconds left on the clock, to hit two free throws. Imagine if there was a composure bar, a little like what we’ve seen in The Thing and Eternal Darkness. Steady your concentration by bouncing the ball a few times. Stay focused. Look at the board…if you can’t keep your cool, your hands’ll start shaking and you’ll completely fluff the shot. It could get so bad you can’t even hold the ball itself. When you’re in a penalty shoot out in the Semi Final of the World Cup, you’re not just going to stroll up and slot it straight into the corner…show a little emotion, dammit!
Robots and computers are often shown as cold. Numerous schmaltzy films (ie The Terminator) are centred around such things getting their man-made heads around love, feelings et cetera. Why don’t the people in the games industry stand up for their machines, and finally fight back? Give them some feelings! Championship Manager has players feeling homesick, why doesn’t This is Football see Hasselbaink go on a ten game goal drought and end up kicking the ball away in frustration after giving away a free kick, earning a booking for dissent?
As I said before, games are coming very close to achieving mirrors of reality. So why not carry on as before with the normal stuff like motion capturing, and devote more time to the little things like this. After all, life is nothing but a series of little things to be noticed.
Thanks for reading.
-El Blokey.
Pro Evolution Soccer 2 is a brilliant game, the closest to football any developer has ever gotten…but apart from the odd AI bug, the computer doesn’t make many mistakes. Sure, it misplaces the occasional pass thanks to your mastering of the middle of the park, but mostly as you go up the difficulty settings the mistakes disappear, and you face what seems to be more intelligent opposition. The thing is, most of the goals I concede aren’t down to great skill on my opponent’s part – it’s down to my suicidal nature, and Konami’s infuriating refusal to remove the triangle button in the setup despite many requests from my old Master League team’s goalkeeper. Whenever the striker breaks free of my centre backs, I call my goalie out rushing like Maurice Green. He invariably fluffs it and lets the player run round and pass the ball into an empty net, occasionally hacks him down and gets carded, but almost always fails. This is the only human element the game has.
Would it not be brilliant if it was derby day, say Arsenal vs Spurs in Fifa 2004? The game’s still a dead heat in the seventieth minute, neither teams willing to lose their grip on the game. A few rash challenges on Dennis Bergkamp from Ledley King go unpunished and before you know it, the AI-controlled Dutchman flings an elbow across King’s face. An act of utter stupidity, sure, but wholly believable. Just look at Alan Smith’s midweek Malaga mischief. If somehow Konami and co could programme certain hotheads like Roy Keane so that they may occasionally lose their rag, it would make it even more like the Beautiful Game.
Then there’s the computer controlled goalkeeping. Most of the cool things I’ve seen, such as a keeper falling back into the net after a shot, are down to glitches – the keeper reacting too late to the shot, diving into the back of the net rather than towards the ball. What if the pitch reacted to wear and tear? After lots of hard challenges the turf would be torn up and when a low shot from Henry looks to be sailing straight at him, Keller simply gets on his knees ready for the catch. Imagine if the ball bobbled up and over Keller’s shoulder? His head would sink into his hands, as the bemused goalscorer celebrates.
If you’re playing a basketball game and the score’s tied in the last quarter, you’re bound to be tense, right? So imagine what’s going through your star shooter’s mind when he steps up, five seconds left on the clock, to hit two free throws. Imagine if there was a composure bar, a little like what we’ve seen in The Thing and Eternal Darkness. Steady your concentration by bouncing the ball a few times. Stay focused. Look at the board…if you can’t keep your cool, your hands’ll start shaking and you’ll completely fluff the shot. It could get so bad you can’t even hold the ball itself. When you’re in a penalty shoot out in the Semi Final of the World Cup, you’re not just going to stroll up and slot it straight into the corner…show a little emotion, dammit!
Robots and computers are often shown as cold. Numerous schmaltzy films (ie The Terminator) are centred around such things getting their man-made heads around love, feelings et cetera. Why don’t the people in the games industry stand up for their machines, and finally fight back? Give them some feelings! Championship Manager has players feeling homesick, why doesn’t This is Football see Hasselbaink go on a ten game goal drought and end up kicking the ball away in frustration after giving away a free kick, earning a booking for dissent?
As I said before, games are coming very close to achieving mirrors of reality. So why not carry on as before with the normal stuff like motion capturing, and devote more time to the little things like this. After all, life is nothing but a series of little things to be noticed.
Thanks for reading.
-El Blokey.
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With every new generation of console, with every more powerful graphics chip, with each faster processor we are moving even closer to perfectly recreating sports such as football and basketball for our own digital consumption. But there is one thing that hardware cannot provide, and that is the human element.
Pro Evolution Soccer 2 is a brilliant game, the closest to football any developer has ever gotten…but apart from the odd AI bug, the computer doesn’t make many mistakes. Sure, it misplaces the occasional pass thanks to your mastering of the middle of the park, but mostly as you go up the difficulty settings the mistakes disappear, and you face what seems to be more intelligent opposition. The thing is, most of the goals I concede aren’t down to great skill on my opponent’s part – it’s down to my suicidal nature, and Konami’s infuriating refusal to remove the triangle button in the setup despite many requests from my old Master League team’s goalkeeper. Whenever the striker breaks free of my centre backs, I call my goalie out rushing like Maurice Green. He invariably fluffs it and lets the player run round and pass the ball into an empty net, occasionally hacks him down and gets carded, but almost always fails. This is the only human element the game has.
Would it not be brilliant if it was derby day, say Arsenal vs Spurs in Fifa 2004? The game’s still a dead heat in the seventieth minute, neither teams willing to lose their grip on the game. A few rash challenges on Dennis Bergkamp from Ledley King go unpunished and before you know it, the AI-controlled Dutchman flings an elbow across King’s face. An act of utter stupidity, sure, but wholly believable. Just look at Alan Smith’s midweek Malaga mischief. If somehow Konami and co could programme certain hotheads like Roy Keane so that they may occasionally lose their rag, it would make it even more like the Beautiful Game.
Then there’s the computer controlled goalkeeping. Most of the cool things I’ve seen, such as a keeper falling back into the net after a shot, are down to glitches – the keeper reacting too late to the shot, diving into the back of the net rather than towards the ball. What if the pitch reacted to wear and tear? After lots of hard challenges the turf would be torn up and when a low shot from Henry looks to be sailing straight at him, Keller simply gets on his knees ready for the catch. Imagine if the ball bobbled up and over Keller’s shoulder? His head would sink into his hands, as the bemused goalscorer celebrates.
If you’re playing a basketball game and the score’s tied in the last quarter, you’re bound to be tense, right? So imagine what’s going through your star shooter’s mind when he steps up, five seconds left on the clock, to hit two free throws. Imagine if there was a composure bar, a little like what we’ve seen in The Thing and Eternal Darkness. Steady your concentration by bouncing the ball a few times. Stay focused. Look at the board…if you can’t keep your cool, your hands’ll start shaking and you’ll completely fluff the shot. It could get so bad you can’t even hold the ball itself. When you’re in a penalty shoot out in the Semi Final of the World Cup, you’re not just going to stroll up and slot it straight into the corner…show a little emotion, dammit!
Robots and computers are often shown as cold. Numerous schmaltzy films (ie The Terminator) are centred around such things getting their man-made heads around love, feelings et cetera. Why don’t the people in the games industry stand up for their machines, and finally fight back? Give them some feelings! Championship Manager has players feeling homesick, why doesn’t This is Football see Hasselbaink go on a ten game goal drought and end up kicking the ball away in frustration after giving away a free kick, earning a booking for dissent?
As I said before, games are coming very close to achieving mirrors of reality. So why not carry on as before with the normal stuff like motion capturing, and devote more time to the little things like this. After all, life is nothing but a series of little things to be noticed.
Thanks for reading.
-El Blokey.
Pro Evolution Soccer 2 is a brilliant game, the closest to football any developer has ever gotten…but apart from the odd AI bug, the computer doesn’t make many mistakes. Sure, it misplaces the occasional pass thanks to your mastering of the middle of the park, but mostly as you go up the difficulty settings the mistakes disappear, and you face what seems to be more intelligent opposition. The thing is, most of the goals I concede aren’t down to great skill on my opponent’s part – it’s down to my suicidal nature, and Konami’s infuriating refusal to remove the triangle button in the setup despite many requests from my old Master League team’s goalkeeper. Whenever the striker breaks free of my centre backs, I call my goalie out rushing like Maurice Green. He invariably fluffs it and lets the player run round and pass the ball into an empty net, occasionally hacks him down and gets carded, but almost always fails. This is the only human element the game has.
Would it not be brilliant if it was derby day, say Arsenal vs Spurs in Fifa 2004? The game’s still a dead heat in the seventieth minute, neither teams willing to lose their grip on the game. A few rash challenges on Dennis Bergkamp from Ledley King go unpunished and before you know it, the AI-controlled Dutchman flings an elbow across King’s face. An act of utter stupidity, sure, but wholly believable. Just look at Alan Smith’s midweek Malaga mischief. If somehow Konami and co could programme certain hotheads like Roy Keane so that they may occasionally lose their rag, it would make it even more like the Beautiful Game.
Then there’s the computer controlled goalkeeping. Most of the cool things I’ve seen, such as a keeper falling back into the net after a shot, are down to glitches – the keeper reacting too late to the shot, diving into the back of the net rather than towards the ball. What if the pitch reacted to wear and tear? After lots of hard challenges the turf would be torn up and when a low shot from Henry looks to be sailing straight at him, Keller simply gets on his knees ready for the catch. Imagine if the ball bobbled up and over Keller’s shoulder? His head would sink into his hands, as the bemused goalscorer celebrates.
If you’re playing a basketball game and the score’s tied in the last quarter, you’re bound to be tense, right? So imagine what’s going through your star shooter’s mind when he steps up, five seconds left on the clock, to hit two free throws. Imagine if there was a composure bar, a little like what we’ve seen in The Thing and Eternal Darkness. Steady your concentration by bouncing the ball a few times. Stay focused. Look at the board…if you can’t keep your cool, your hands’ll start shaking and you’ll completely fluff the shot. It could get so bad you can’t even hold the ball itself. When you’re in a penalty shoot out in the Semi Final of the World Cup, you’re not just going to stroll up and slot it straight into the corner…show a little emotion, dammit!
Robots and computers are often shown as cold. Numerous schmaltzy films (ie The Terminator) are centred around such things getting their man-made heads around love, feelings et cetera. Why don’t the people in the games industry stand up for their machines, and finally fight back? Give them some feelings! Championship Manager has players feeling homesick, why doesn’t This is Football see Hasselbaink go on a ten game goal drought and end up kicking the ball away in frustration after giving away a free kick, earning a booking for dissent?
As I said before, games are coming very close to achieving mirrors of reality. So why not carry on as before with the normal stuff like motion capturing, and devote more time to the little things like this. After all, life is nothing but a series of little things to be noticed.
Thanks for reading.
-El Blokey.