As you may know, there’s a reasonably popular football tournament happening in South Africa this summer and PlayStation is one of the major sponsors. Also, I’ve wanted to write some retro game features for a while so here’s my tribute to one of the greats.

I’ll never forget Pro Evolution Soccer because it introduced me to PlayStation. I was at an event called Match of the Day Live in Birmingham and I was pulled out of the crowd to play PES on-stage against another teenager.

It was notoriously difficult to score in those early titles but somehow, Argentina’s Butatista (not a typo, that’s what he was called in the game) reacted to a rebounded shot and scored the winner with seconds to go. I won and Garth Crooks gave me a PlayStation and a copy of the game.

I spent most of my time playing four player matches with my friends via a Multitap, but whenever I played on my own, I would spend a lot of time in the edit mode that was tucked away in the options menu. I even spent a summer recreating my school team and simulating matches using different formations; I considered taking the PlayStation to school and presenting my findings to the P.E. teacher, I was that much of a loser.

I find it can be easy to idealise retro games and then be a bit disappointed when you go back to them but the original Pro Evolution Soccer is still a winner in my book. In fact, in terms of playability it’s hardly different to the most recent games in the series, despite the two generations of hardware between them.

And the standard of animation was amazing for its time; the players might not have had as many pixels as more recent games but their actions had a kind of stylised realism that made everything look like a moving oil painting.

That’s my Football Flashback, now I’d like to hear yours in the comments. Which beautiful games live long in your memories? And let me know what you think about us running more retro features here on the PlayStation Blog.

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Once again, we have been graced with the joys of the bank holiday this weekend. But, with distinctly average weather and still another two weeks until the World Cup, today could prove to be the perfect time to clock up some serious gaming hours, and it just so happens; we have a few suggestions up our sleeves.

The obvious option would be to crack on with some of the longest games available to truly make use of a prolonged weekend. The key choice would be Final Fantasy, whether it be the most recent in the series, Final Fantasy XIII, which will definitely take a while to complete, or one of the earlier titles in preparation for the arrival of the PlayStation One classic, Final Fantasy IX, which came to PlayStation Store last week.

Not up for an RPG? Never mind, there’s still plenty to keep you occupied until work tomorrow. If you’re feeling creative, you could enter our competition for THE EYE OF JUDGMENT LEGENDS, and design a card for the game. There’s some pretty unique prizes up for grabs, most of which will be signed by the developers.

There’s also plenty of creativity to be unleashed if you’ve got yourself a copy of ModNation Racers, which could see you creating tracks and mods, then racing them all day with your mates.

Of course, all good things have to come to an end. This feeling will usually set in on Monday afternoon when you realise you have little precious time left before that alarm goes off on Tuesday morning. One way to get over this is to release some anger, and what better way than with UFC 2010, which is released today on PS3. Create your own fighter, get in the ring and experience the brutality of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, all from the comfort of your own sofa.

Alternatively, you could don a cowboy hat and take down some enemies in Rockstar’s latest masterpiece, Red Dead Redemption. I know that’s what I’ll be doing.

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The PSB.Europe weekly reading list (week commencing the 24th of May)

Here are a few stories that have piqued our interest this week. Next week we kick off our scintillating schedule of E3 content, so look out for that.

• Interviews// LittleBigPlanet PSP
• Snooker coming to Hustle Kings – for News – VideoGamer.com
• Review: ModNation Racers – Technology – NZ Herald News
• PS3 ModNation Racers celebrate the election | Technology | guardian.co.uk
• new killzone 3 images hit net
• Mag Patched
• FirstPlay Episode 8 detailed
• Final Fantasy IX now available for PSP and PSPgo | Final Fantasy IX …
• Final Fantasy IX Confirmed For PlayStation Network – News (PlayStation …
• 3DTV and motion control move front and center in flagship PS3 titles …
• Red Dead Redemption film puts movie-making in the game
• Be a Master Sharpshooter in Red Dead Redemption
• 30 Best Sony PlayStation Network Games – PCWorld
• Sony: Developers aren’t ‘fully utilizing’ PS3 yet | The Digital Home …

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PlayStation.Blog.Europe Weekly Content Recap

This week has felt like the eye of a storm: we had two huge gargantuan pieces of news in LittleBigPlanet 2 and Killzone 3 and now we’re preparing for the excitement of E3 2010. I’ve been beavering away in the background and I’m confident that you’re all going to enjoy what I have in store for the next two weeks. Here’s your round-up:

• Feel For Two – get comfortable with a friend and play this collection of multiplayer games on the same PSP.
• Hustle Kings Winners – see some classy clear-ups from our Hustle Kings competition.
• Fancy Winning A ModNation Racers Mod? – win yourself a mod figurine to decorate however you please.
• Killzone 3 Announced And Playable In 3D – it’s big, it’s bloody and it’s back in stereoscopic 3D.
• Patch Alert: MAG v1.06 Coming In June – MAG gets a major update that addresses your community feedback.
• LOVE IT ! – tell Sony Pictures which films you love and why.
• FirstPlay Episode 8 – The latest news and reviews from the FirstPlay team.
• Modnation Racers Press & Community Event – Breda – NL – our Dutch friends have a blast go-karting.
• ‘Heads-Up’ PlayStation Store Update (26th May 2010) – Mike Kebby braves the comments once again.
• Digital Comics Store Update (26th May 2010) – Pete brings you this week’s batch of Digital Comics, including a new publisher.
• New minis Title: Supermarket Mania – Shop until you drop your PSP.
• The New minis Game Robin Hood: The Return Of Richard – Riding through the Glen.
• PlayStation Home: ModNation, Red Dead Redemption And More! – PlayStation Home gets a stack of new content.
• FINAL FANTASY IX Returns! – not many of you saw this coming: Final Fantasy IX comes to PlayStation Store.
• OZ Community Event Showcasing Video Store, 3D Gaming, And PlayStation Move – our Antipodean friends have a party.
• High Stakes on the Vegas Strip: Poker Edition – all-in!
• VIDZONE UPDATE: World Cup Fever Hits VidZone – the VidZone team helps you towards football fever.
• The People vs: Red Dead Redemption – the Rockstar development team fields questions from the PlayStation community.
• Obsession Confessions: PlayStation Move – tell us which classic games you’d like to see remade with PlayStation Move in mind.

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Welcome to Obsession Confessions – a community driven feature I have been running over at eu.playstation.com in conjunction with the official PlayStation Forums.

The idea is to give you people a topic and let you run with it, whether that’s the toughest boss you’ve encountered or the most gruesome toilet you’ve discovered in your gaming life.

This time, with the release of PlayStation Move drawing closer, we want to know which classic PlayStation games you think are screaming out for a motion control remake and write a few words on why. It could be the original Crash Bandicoot, with sickness-inducing realistic spin attacks, or even Pandemonium (does anyone even remember that game).

Either drop us your comments below or click on the links below to go to the local forum thread in your country (I know some of you prefer to write stuff like this in your native language). The most popular choices will be put into a top ten list along with our favourite quotes.

Official PlayStation Forum links:

• UK
• France
• Italy
• Germany
• Spain
• Netherlands/Belgium
• Portugal
• Poland
• Russia
• Denmark
• Norway
• Sweden

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