Disappointment at a cafe
Posted by: Greg Downs in Arsenal, defending, free kicks, scriptingI have played my long-anticipated first game in Division 1.
Arsenal 1-0 Coventry City
Hmm. This isn’t how things were supposed to be. I was supposed to streak to the top of the table, laying waste to all who crossed my path. Schwarz was supposed to be a one-man team. Donadel would stop everything that came within 40 yards of him. Kim U Don would safely catch every single shot on goal - including the CPU’s magic free kicks.
It was looking that way for most of the first match against Arsenal. I started superbly, having 62% of possession and 9 shots on goal in the first half . Arsenal didn’t have a single shot.
As the second half started I thought I’d cruise to a win easily. For most of that second half, that’s the way it was looking. By the 80th minute, though, I still hadn’t scored. The CPU suddenly upped its game, but I held them off, and held them off - and then in the 90th minute I conceded a free kick a few yards in front of my penalty area…
If you’ve played PES2008, you know what happened next. About 80% of CPU free kicks in the ‘Hot Zone’ will result in CPU goals, and this is a conservative estimate by some accounts. See my sophisticated and scientific diagram:
The Arsenal player took his run up to the free kick… and the ball sailed into my net, as I knew it would. I’d even dragged a defender to that side of the goal and stood him on the line. But when you put a defender on the line, they never jump. You can press the button all you like but it just won’t happen. Even if they did jump, the ball is so exactly placed in the postage-stamp corner of the goal that he wouldn’t stop it anyway.
Even if the CPU doesn’t score directly from its Hot Zone free kicks, the ball very often hits the bar or post, and they’ll score from the rebound while your unresponsive defenders stand and watch.
Grrrrr.
Despite the loss I am in a reasonably healthy 14th spot. Losing by only 1-0 has its advantages.
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Oh, I can tell what I’ll be bitching about already. Teamvision, shmeamvision, that’s a CPU cheat!
—–
(Not) Greg, I have a dilemma and a proposition:
Dilemma: My European copy of PES2008 won’t play on my U.S. Playstation 2.
Propsition: If you aren’t using your old PS2, I’ll pay whatever you think is fair, plus shipping cost (in advance, naturally) if you’ll send it to me!
cklarock at gmail.com
Ohh, how I feel that pain.
Last season I had about half a dozen games end up like that, I was thinking “I’m going to draw, points yay!” nope.
I don’t know about you but I haven’t had a SINGLE 0-0 draw. Always 1-1.
Good luck for your second match, might go better. I was being as omtimistic in my season 2 d2. Just started it tonight, lost the first match 0-2. (Annoyingly too! A defender I’m not controlling sliding in my box - and a keep dropping it behind the line!) But my point is, my second match I won 3-1, very happy about that. At least bringing me to 0 goal difference, something I haven’t seen since pre-first game of the first season lol.
Good luck, who are you playing next? Hopefully someone mid-table (I’m assuming after 3 seasons the ‘lesser’ premiership teams got relagted. On that though, have you seen any team get relegated and promoted back to back while you were in D2?
Once again, GL Paul.
lol sorry ck, can’t do it. I have kept my old PS2, but there’s a couple of good reasons why it wasn’t part of the trade-in deal that got me my PS3.
Reason #1, the awful trade-in deals currently being offered in UK games stores are an insult. When I got my PS3 I traded in my silver Xbox (in excellent condition after barely being used after I’d played Halo and KOTOR on it) plus a stack of about 20 assorted games. I got £15 trade-in for the console plus an average of £1 each for the games. Shenmue II was among them and even it was only worth £4. I felt disgusted but by the time I found out there was no turning back. And I felt relieved that I’d left my faithful old PS2 and most of its games sitting at home.
Reason #2, keeping my PS2 is an insurance policy in case my PS3 goes kaput. This way I will always have access to console-based PES action.
Reason #3, sentiment. I got my PS2 5 years ago now - almost to the day! - and it’s always served me well over God-knows-how-many thousands of hours of gaming. I’ll keep it until the bitter end.
Try eBay if you’re serious about getting a Euro region PS2
Or - and this would be my recommendation to any PES fan looking to play the allegedly next-gen PES2008 - get a 360 plus the game. Cost will be less, and technically it’s 10 times better than the stuttering PS3 version (pre-patch for now).
Paul - I’m starting to get seriously annoyed at all of the 2-2 and 4-3 and 3-2 scorelines and the like.
It seems that if I score, they score. If they score, I score.
I’ve had odd 0-0 results now and then but they are an absolute rarity. And I used to be a great defender on PES.
Maybe it’ll come, but have you tried to stop the CPU when it’s got behind your SBs and starts to run across toward your goal? Nothing seems to stop them.
They know what button you’ve pressed to tackle and just go around you. Standing off them and bringing across another player doesn’t deter them. Then the shot comes in, and my keeper spills it to their other attacker(s). Goal. This goes on, game after game. It’s starting to annoy me……
— And re. relegation/promotion, in my second season in D2 I saw Derby County come down and do well, but they were still in D2 when I left it. Perhaps other teams have got relegated then promoted but I didn’t notice them.
Reading around the forums, people are saying that they’re in relegation battles in Division 1 this year. It’s looking ominous for me. Division 1 teams play in a supercharged way that I’m finding very tough to overcome.
I’m not suprised, I was never an awesome pes player but I knew how to keep clean sheets (my team was the fulham of the league).
Forgot to comment on the freekick you lost out too, I’ve been doing the same thing. I’ve had a player on each post, they just stand there!
Yes I know what you mean about them getting behind the SB’s. Bizzarely thats one(only?) thing I’ve been able to stop. I hold back putting a player on the far post and bring the keeper out. Its failed me a couple of times (i.e. they’ve used a dummy and score at the near post) but its been quite sucessful.
My real problem is them getting behind my CB. For some reason they think they’re midfielders and end up higher up the pitch than me DMF and even sometimes my SMF’s! Wish I knew why, I wouldn’t conceed some many soft goals I’m sure of it!
Reason I asked about the bouncing back up is I really like playing against an almost full premiership division. (WIll do my nut in if I see Bayern beating the ‘big four’..