Time to try something a little different...

Those that know me know that I'm well in to my football gaming and I've been exclusively Fifa only for well... for ever. There's only one rival to Fifa; PES, and every time I've picked it up to see what all the fuss is about I've hated it. You may also know that over the past few months I've become increasingly frustrated and disillusioned with Fifa 11 to such a point that I now refuse to play it! Lately I've been playing EA's World Cup 2010 game which in my opinion is a more enjoyable game to play but I really do miss the club football.

So... I decided it was time to bite the bullet and give PES a proper run out to see if I can get some enjoyment out of it. There are still 6 months to go until we see the new (hopefully) improved versions of each game land on our doorsteps and I don't like the idea of having no football gaming in all that time. I don't expect that I will be won over by PES and there are some things that it just doesn't have that Fifa does have, full manual controls being one, lower league football being another. However, I'm hoping that with an extended period of playing the game I can find enough good in it so that I no longer hate to play it, so that I can provide more constructive feedback to the developers at EA and so that I can continue to play football games without the urge to throw my controller out of the window!

The first thing I did last night after picking up PES2011 was to get all the latest updates including the Option File that gave me licensed teams and leagues, this took about half an hour but I know that without it I'd probably have fallen at the first hurdle; licensed teams and leagues are pretty important to me and the idea of playing Man Blue against Merseyside Red is a non-starter! I now have a fully updated game and am hoping to start a new Master League career and a Be A Legend career over the weekend.

There are likely to be many ups and downs as I battle to like a game that looks and feels so different to what I am used to. The experience may last a week, it may last 6 months, nobody knows but whatever happens I'll be sure to let you know right here on my blog.