Text Box: Text Box: Text Box: Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 Online (PS3) 30/7/08 Ah cometh the digital age. No need to invite your mates round, play new, random friends online! Well in theory a splendid idea, in practice it’s a rather different experience. Setup is fairly simple- you can either use the Playstation 3’s built-in wireless adaptor or connect via your Ethernet cable. Of course that’s not the end of the furore- you will need PnP port forwarding enabled on your modem/router to actually use this (that thing you have to do to enable Torrent sharing, not that you’d know what that is). Logging into the lobby brings some options, random games either for fun or status, should you wish to be picky- you can set up your own room and wait for the brave challenger. The Quick Play is fantastic actually and very rarely finds no matches (when isn’t someone online playing Evo?!), even at 4am on a Thursday. Once you’ve picked your team, kit, options and stadium you’re pretty much all set. The secret to Evo Online is understanding that the game engine is a rather distorted, uglier and more random cousin of the normal game we all know and love. This means that you are rewarded for randomness and unpredictability but punished for hesitance. Shots from anywhere are more likely to cause havoc and goalkeepers are gravitationally challenged. My first adversary was a rather plucky Austrian who played with Inter Milan. Unfortunately the online game is a bit indecisive, meaning that although you think you’ve just skinned the left back, what actually happened was a fine recovery tackle was made. The game will occasionally jerk about like this and you will have to quickly adjust to the new scenario. In the interests of gamesmanship, you can send eachother messages along the lines of ‘Well done’, ‘Haha’ and ‘Nice shot’ when a replay shows. You can of course type messages as well, but there’s simply no time for such nonsense in the heat of battle. Plus of course, the clientele of men can’t do two things at once... Come a free kick from deep in my half and the Nerazzurri were ahead. The goalmouth scramble, the indecisive defender and it’s 1-0. But my lads weren’t about to lie down and die. Cometh the hour, cometh the man... Michael Ballack with an unpredictable long-rang shot from the half-way line... keeper saves... crowd noise plays... oops no he didn’t! 1-1! The replay of course shows a bemused Cesar cradling the ball, but the goal that never was still stands. My Austrian foe was clearly riled by this as straight from kick-off his error margin was noticeably on the increase. 2-1, a bullet cross from 2nd half kick-off meant Drogba volleyed into an empty net. A freekick from Ballack blasted at the keeper from 40 yards out followed, Cesar unsurprisingly spilled, its 3-1! And then came the decisive blow. Corner Kicks are a fantastic way to surprise the opposition. After throwing in a few textbook ones, slide one in at 90mph on the grass and lightly tap shoot. More often than not, you’ll be celebrating, just as I was. Lampard hit the bar, Drogba headed home... “The connection with the player has been lost.” Rather unsporting I thought. Of course comeuppance is a hard dish to swallow. My next challenger was an Italian playing with Brazil. Playing him made me feel like Agent Smith watching Neo fly around at the blink of an eye. I had met my superior- a truly incredible player who gave an outstanding performance (either that or he had a fantastic hacking program!). The Blues went down by no less than 8 goals to 1 and it could have been more. But unlike my previous opponent, I didn’t just log out when times were tough and fully accepted my drubbing. And that really is the spirit of this whole experience. PES2008 has endured a lot of tough criticism but love it or hate it, the Network play is fantastic fun, as long as you don’t take it quite so seriously. 8/10 CM Text Box: Links and affiliates Contact Me