Why FIFA is better than PES  

Let me be the first to say, i suck at football. There i said it. Both the videogames and the real thing. I'm just not athletic enough for the real thing, and for some reason i can't seem to get my head around the electronic one.

Having said that though, i AM substantially better at the electronic footie games. Simply handicap the computer, and BAM! Instant superstar. It seems like EA will never end their yearly installment of sports games, seeing as Fifa 09's out now. I got the demo earlier in the week, loved it. I found it significantly better than Fifa 08, and coming from me, that's saying something. Note that i don't necessarily mean easier, i just found it a better experience than the last edition. Fifa for life, yo.

So Slash said to me, you gotten the PES demo yet? and i thought, meh, let's give it a try, couldn't hurt, love the free stuff, etc etc. As an aside, if Apple offered me a free Macbook, just to try it out, i wouldn't say no either. Microsoft for life is one thing, but free stuff is another story entirely. So i queue up the download, turn off my xbox so it can download in the background (and hence not be paused because i decided to play grifball on halo).

Fast forward to several hours later, i turn on the console to play, and it's freezing. I'm thinking, aww hell naw. My bad boy's less than a year old and while it still shows signs of microsofty craziness (which they really should patent) like randomly freeing in the middle of gameplay, it's never frozen on start up before. Naturally, i employ the one universal solution to problems like this: I turn it off, and then back on again. No joy, repeat: No joy. I'm getting worried now, because i'm afraid of the ring of doom showing up. But i can't do anything with a catatonic console, so i turn it off again and search the intarwebs. Google points me to microsoft (well duh), who then tell me to either wait for it to cool down, or clear the cache, or both. Neither works. Then i notice it's only freezing after i sign into xbl, so i disconnect the wireless bridge and hey presto, it's working now. Then i first turn off background downloads so it won't try any funny business when i turn it off, then i check my downloads to see what's up.

The PES demo hasn't been downloaded. After several hours. Hours, because i had 4 other items in the queue and they should all have been done by now. So then i cancel the demo, then clear the cache, then plug in the wireless bridge, and the next item starts downloading as soon as i'm signed into xbl. I'm relieved but i don't dare turn off my console in case it doesn't start up again. Yeah, i'm paranoid like that. I spend the whole time playing Mass Effect, and as soon as the downloads are done i quit the game, turn on backgroud downloads, and switch off.

Do you see now? I'll take dodgy looking players over console destroying demos any day. And yeah sure it might not have been the PES demo, it might have been my connection, etc etc. Seeing as xbl and the marketplace have never given me any trouble with downloads, and the only problem my connection gives me is lag, i think i'm justified in blaming it all on the demo.

I'm not touching that demo, let alone the game, with a 10ft pole and neither should you. FIFAAAAAAAAA for life, yo