Escape to victory
Posted by: Greg Downs in Aston Villa, Barcelona, Beerens, Bolton, Bradley, D1 Cup, European Cup (ECC), FIFA08, Golden Boot, House Rules, Man Utd, PES2009, PlayStation3, Reyes, Schwarz, Treble, West Ham, goal replay, league table, marking, master league, tags: Barcelona, Bradley, D1 Cup, European Cup, FIFA08, goal replay, Houes Rules, league table, master league, PES2009, PlayStation3, Reyes, Schwarz, TrebleIt’s been a long old journey from then to now. Not as long as my journeys in previous PES years. (PES2008 will always suffer in comparison to its previous selves.) But it’s been long enough.
I sleepwalked through what was left of the League: West Ham 0, Coventry City 5. Andy Cole got 4 goals in this game.
Manchester United finally lost one, meaning that a win in my next fixture would seal the Championship title.
That next fixture was against my forthcoming D1 Cup Final opponents, Aston Villa. (This often happens in PES. Especially in the early stages of a season. With two-legged cup ties, sometimes you can end up playing the same opponents three times in a row.)
I beat Aston Villa 5-3, and took the title. Here’s Captain Schwarz leading the celebrations:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fVYYWDWLYI&rel=1]
It was the easiest League title I have ever won on any instalment of PES. Still, it was my first title in PES2008. This season was memorable for many good reasons. It would be churlish of me to grumble any more now (there’s plenty of time left until PES2009 for that.)
The only thing left to go for in the League was a goal difference of +100 or more. (Schwarz, with 29 goals, was already the runaway Golden Boot winner.)
I beat Galatasaray 5-2. Orellano got a hat trick, playing in the centre CF slot in place of Schwarz, who has been blue- or grey-arrowed for almost every game lately.
The final league game was against Bolton. I went into it with a goal difference of +99. Easy, right?
Well, once again I tried too hard. I found myself 0-1 down and with just 9 players by the middle of the second half. No problem. This is PES2008, after all. I scored two late goals with my 9 men and won 2-1, taking me to a goal difference of exactly +100 in the final table.
My final goals scored tally was 136. One hundred and thirty-six. In one season. Ridiculous.
Here’s a full list of my team’s goal-scoring/assists performance this season:
(The discrepancy of 4 goals is made up for by CPU own goals, and one or two goals that Bramble got before I traded him mid-season.)
As can be inferred from the list, I’ve been less than dutiful in reporting just how effective Shimizu and Andy Cole have been for me up front this season. Some of my Schwarz-centric posts might have suggested that Coventry City was a one-man team. Not so.
Andy Cole in particular deserves a special mention. He’s another player I don’t think I’ve seen the best of, despite his 15 goals this season. Along with Beerens, I’ll be allowing myself to get him again next time around. Schwarz and Shimizu definitely won’t be allowed.
Final position: 1st (103 pts)
Won:33 Drew:4 Lost:1
Goals scored:136 Goals conceded:36 Goal difference:+100
Yellow cards: 34 Red cards: 6
———————-
The Division 1 Cup Final against Aston Villa was a peculiar game. Villa took the lead, I equalised. Villa equalised, I took the lead again. Then Villa took the lead. It was 3-2 to them going into half time. I was frustrated and more than a little tense. With the Treble apparently sitting on a plate begging to be eaten, I was in danger of throwing it away.
I shouldn’t have worried, though. I scored three goals in the second half and won the Cup 5-3 (the exact same score of my League title decider against Villa). The pick of the goals was this peach of a strike from Beerens:
I do love a goal that finds the postage stamp corner of the net. This one was achieved with a minimum of backlift, which always makes a player’s technique stats shine through.
I only got to play with Beerens for this one season. He’s still only 24. In my next Master League I’m banning myself from having all but a few players that I’ve had in this career. Beerens will be one of the exceptions.
——————–
After all of the fireworks in the League and D1 Cup, the ECC Final against Barcelona was relatively anti-climactic. I was nervous going into the game, and once again I conceded an early goal.
The amount of early goals conceded in big games is extremely dubious. It could be a result of being a little more uptight than usual, and playing in a withdrawn, over-careful manner; or it could just be PES’s pesky scripting; or it could be a mixture of the two. Or it could be something else. Coincidence, maybe. There sure are a lot of coincidences in PES2008…
I chose to man-mark Ronaldinho with Bradley in this game (I never usually bother with man-marking), and the buck-toothed wonderboy was pretty anonymous throughout, despite me rarely seeing Bradley within so much as 5 yards of him, all game.
I held firm against Barcelona’s persistent pressure. I got my equaliser with Bradley scuffing a shot over the line during a goal-mouth scramble.
I got the winner with Reyes toward the end. 2-1 to me. And that was that.
The Treble was in the bag. I had fought a war on three fronts throughout a long, long season, and been victorious on all of them.
——————-
It was difficult to progress in the Cups on one or two occasions. The absence of Italian clubs in Europe takes the gloss off winning the ECC. The League took its time to ripen and fall into my lap, thanks to Man Yoo’s peculiar reluctance to lose any of their games.
But it was all just too easy, in the final analysis.
The reasons why it was too easy have been gone over again and again (and again) here and on dozens of other PES-focused sites. Goalkeepers have emerged as the #1 reason why there are so many goals in next-gen PES2008. The keepers in the game are broken.
There is also the matter of player pace. In years gone by, your players’ pace and acceleration stats meant next to nothing. The slowest CPU team defender could catch the quickest human team player. We complained and griped and grumbled about it for so long that they finally caved in. The result? Every player is a potential Maradona. This is a tough one to criticise Seabass & co. for. What he/they should have done was to find a way to make CPU defensive AI a lot better.
But this is not the place for a PES2008 post-mortem. Not now.
There’s life in the old dog yet. I’ll say it again: the core PES gameplay of next-gen PES2008 is as good as it’s ever been. (In my opinion. Other opinions differ.)
—————–
Here’s the download link to my final saved game file: PS3.zip
WARNING! Transferring this game save to your PS3 will overwrite any ML save of your own that’s called Master League 03. Proceed with caution.
Any PS3-owner with a USB stick who’s curious to see my players and check out my season-by-season record is welcome to do so. Anyone who might want to pick up where I left off and play on is also welcome to do so.
The save file will place you in week 1 of negotiations at the end of season 2012, with the squad that won the Treble.
——————-
NEXT on peschronicles: next-gen FIFA08 week.
I said I was going to do it. And now I’m going to go ahead and do it.
I could do with a break from PES2008 (familiarity breeds you-know-what). I have a lot of unfinished business to deal with in FIFA08.
PES vs. FIFA is an ongoing (and largely dull) debate.
Until this year (or arguably last year, with FIFA07) PES vs. FIFA was a no-brainer. PES was the thougtful, mature, simulation-oriented football game for mature gamers of all ages. FIFA was the arcadey, pass-pass-shoot game for kids of all ages. There was little or no argument to be had. PES all the way.
Well. In retrospect, PES-lovers can see that our unshakeable confidence in the franchise was unrealistic. Next-gen FIFA08 is the first serious challenger to PES ever.
Over the next seven days I’ll be talking about my progress with FIFA08. I’ll discuss its gameplay specifically in relation to the PES series and to PES2008 in particular. I’ll be treating FIFA08 as a game in its own right (of course), but it’s only natural that much of my attention will be through PES-tinted spectacles.
—————-
After that it’ll be back to Master League on PES2008. In a Superleague. Starting all over again with the Default players. I can’t wait.
Entries (RSS)
Regarding player pace, from the videos you’ve posted, it seems to me that it isn’t pace that’s the problem, it’s the poor challenges from the AI defenders that let every player be a Maradona.
If you play a ball through and your blazing quick winger can beat a lumbering center-back to it, then leave him for dead seven meters behind the play . . . well, that’s how it’s supposed to go. That’s the kind of pace we were crying for. As I’m still playing PES6, just yesterday my forward (84 speed / 86 acceleration) was caught up by a (77/72) back despite having a four-meter lead.
Re: your files, try .zipping the folder and uploading the .zip file.
the AI defense is AWFUL. A shambles. the keeping is also poor.
Its asif the computer only controls one of its teams players, ever. I can run through the hole team with one opponent following me (lugging behind because im faster), and the others, closer, just watching me.
The keeping of course, sucks too.
The game is only a challenge when you cripple your team stats. But wheres the fun in playing with crap players? I want a better AI system in PES2009!
I’ll be finishing my old ML soon too, the treble is more than on. 13 - 3 i won (over 2 legs) against AC Milan, youre really not missing anything without those italian teams lol.
I will finish on more goals than you (ill be closer to 160, id guess) but ive let in a few more. Torres has 33 goals in the league, and i have the 2nd/3rd and 4th placed goal-scorers in the league too lol.
p.s. 9 games left (so ive played 29), 122 goals scored, 35 condeded.
I aim for 10 - 0 scorelines in each game lol
ck - Doh! Of course, *zipping*… Thanks for the tip. I’m not a PC innocent but can you believe I’ve never had occasion to try to upload a folder anywhere. Ever. I’ll have that PS3 save posted before sundown….
And re. pace, like I said the onus was on Seabass & co. to make better defensive AI. We’ve been calling for years for player pace to actually *mean* something. Slow CBs catching nippy CFs has always been a huge problem for PES. Now that they have fixed it, it’s opened up another problem: the existing PES AI cannot cope with the human player, and we get these cricket scorelines (or baseball scorelines
)
david - I had a feeling the Italian teams weren’t a great loss from my Master League. It’s just the completist in me who’d like to go up against them (along with the Spanish and the rest).
Well done on the goals total by the way. I wonder if it’d be possible to get 200 League goals in a season? I think it would be possible. It’s ridiculous, isn’t it?!
In preparation for FIFA08 week I had a few games on it this morning. I had a couple of 0-0s, 1 -0, a 1-1…. It was great. It felt like PES used to feel. One more Master League on PES2008 and then I’ll be heading back to PES5 for my PES kicks this year. Hopefully I’ll make PES2008 last until the end of January.
I wont be playing another season on the old ML league when (not if) i get the treble. 200 goals is more than accomplishable, lol.
ive been putting the new super ml on the backburner to finish the old ML. I really love playing with superstars, but the scorelines reaching double figures is so not the football we know and love in reality.
It’s funny, too, because I remember Seabass complaining re: PES 5 and 6 that they’d really stretched the Playstation 2 to its computing limits, and therefore, couldn’t evolve the AI any further.
So what I want to know is, did they need to rebuild the AI for next-gen due to hardware differences, or is this the product of them adding a number of poorly playtested “features” to the existing AI?
I would *love* to hear an insider perspective on what they were trying to do, and what the limitations and obstacles were.
Woohoo! Just read about Ranson!
david - Yesterday I had a few - just a *few* - games in a quick new ML setup. It’s not the Superleague - I’ve got FIFA08 week to come first. I wanted to play with the defaults just to see how I’ll cope next time around. I’m better than I was first time, but the CPU thrashed me in both games I played. I was still trying to play as if I had Schwarz and Shimizu and Bradley etc. So, yes, I think I will restart ML in a Superleague eventually. It’s very tempting to run straight back to PES5 and forget PES2008 ever existed. I think I can get just one more ML out of it though.
ck - re. Ranson - whew, it was so close. As a confirmed CCFC pessimist I was already resigned to League 1 football next season. At least this way we have a fighting chance of just missing out on the playoffs! <<<More cynicism.
re. PES2008’s playtesting. It would be very unusual for a Japanese developer to skimp on playtesting. Their whole national ethos is geared toward testing, testing, testing. Japanese shipbuilders used to carry short swords under their jackets and commit suicide if a ship’s launch failed for some reason. It’s not so extreme nowadays, but still. I’m sure they did playtest it, and right now I’m in the school of thought that next-gen PES2008’s gameplay is a *deliberate* design/marketing choice. Tempting in the kids who bought old-style FIFA in their tens of millions etc. That next-gen PES2008 features 5-2 scorelines as a matter of routine is atrocious. That they probably intended it that way is doubly so.
We all know game companies are out to make money. I am starting to feel that it is highly possible that Konami have looked at the sales figures from FIFA and EA over the past few years and decided that the only way for them to make more money is to appeal to the gamers who prefer the type o game where 5-3 scorelines are the norm.
It’s a harsh reality for those of us who have enjoyed and stuck by Konami and Pro Evo for so many years but when it comes to big businesses money is king and loyalty means little. If they can make an extra 3-4 million sales by making what we all feel (and possibly themselves to) is an inferior game on their previous versions then they are probably going to go for it.
stinger - there’s a lot of pain and denial out there with next-gen PES2008. I’m so frustrated by it, as its core gameplay is possibly as great as it’s ever been, but in the final third of the pitch it turns into FIFA99 for some reason. I think the PS2 players have got the better deal this year. I’ll be getting the PSP version next month. I’m already saying goodbye to the PS3/360 version in my mind.
IN OTHER NEWS - I’ve now added the download link for my game save file. (For what it’s worth.)
I’m sitting here right now, looking forward to going to play FIFA08. This is unheard-of. I still can’t believe it.
I was scheptical of all the 10-0 scorelines I was hearing about, but now I believe it. I was playing the ECC semis against Barcelona, and I beat them 8-1 in the 1st leg. My CF Kim Cyun Hi (again, write that name down), scored 7 (SEVEN!) goals in that match. He got a 9.5 rating then. The only reason he didn’t get a 10 was because he got a yellow card. I didn’t take note of how many goals my team scored the whole season, but Kim Cyun Hi has scored 111 alone in the couple of years he’s been in my team.
Mirandinha - are you saying that the PS2 version has got the same affliction?! I was looking forward to the imminent PSP version, but if it’s the same then I might skip it.
And don’t worry, Kim Cyun Hi is one I’ll be watching out for in my Superleague career
heres me struggling to avoid relegation to D2 and everyones like ” i win 10-0 every game!”
bostongoals - my first season in D1 in this career was a relegation battle. Have a look back through my posts from that season - this is a typical one: http://peschronicles.wordpress.com/2007/11/18/fighting-for-my-life/
yeah ive read this since it began
In ML it looks like there’s little or no middle ground between constantly being overrun by the CPU and being able to stick 5 or 8 goals past the CPU at will. Which is a shame, because it’s that middle ground that all previous PES games inhabited.
Good luck with avoiding relegation. I know from my own battle that it’s a very real possibility this year.