Finished season 12, in which I won NOTHING. Despite which it was one of my most enjoyable seasons on PES2012, and one of my best seasons on Master League ever. PES2012 still hasn’t toppled PES5 in my affections, but it’s getting there.
The last piece of the jigsaw has slotted into place. Ever since the demo, back in August 2011(!), I’ve played on 1 bar passing assistance. I’ve now gone all the way down to 0 passing assistance.
I knocked it down to 0 for the last few mostly meaningless games of the season, and for the Training Matches.
Debate still rages over whether the passing assistance bars have any real effect. I can say that after my first few minutes on my first match at the 0 setting, I noticed a huge difference. Not all good. This is by no means a done deal.
Zero passing assistance seems to make the game incredibly scrappy. I ended the first match with 56/44 on the possession stats. (Could be good, could be bad…)
There seemed to be a frustratingly random element to the passing sometimes. E.g., I aimed 10 o’clock, but the pass went to 11 o’clock. You would have thought the opposite would be the case. No?
But why should we assume that 0 passing assistance in the PESverse has to function in the same way as next-gen FIFA’s version? Could it be the case that on Zero passing assistance, PES2012 takes stats into account THE MOST, and favours them over the player’s input?
I believe that is how passing assistance in PES2012 works.
I.e., if I’m controlling a weak passer who’s fatigued or whatever, on full passing assistance he’ll still be able to make his passes. Even on 1 bar, he’ll still make his passes most of the time.
On Zero? Probably not as much. Those weak stats and other factors will come into play, big time.
Just my early thoughts on the topic. I sense that it’s a totally different concept from FIFA’s.
Zero passing assistance does make for a more realistic-feeling game at times, but a more frustrating one too. Realism isn’t always necessarily better. My matches on 0 haven’t been nearly as enjoyable as earlier in the season, due to the scrappiness. I’m giving myself time to get used to it, but I reserve the right to head back to 1 bar at any time.
I look forward to seeing what Seabass & co. have up their sleeves for PES2013′s much-touted new manual passing (and shooting!). Like many PES fans, a FIFA-style full manual option has never appealed to me. It doesn’t excite me. It seems antithetical to the PES ideal, if there is such a thing. But let’s see.
Here’s season 12′s final League table:
As stated, I won nothing in this first season on Superstar difficulty.
My goals-scored tally is pretty lightweight in comparison to the other heavy-hitters at the top of the league. The re-emergence of Liverpool as a major force in the league is a bit of a story. It’s pretty certain that the ML world is programmed to simulate eras of dominance for various teams, as in real life, and it’s currently Liverpool’s turn.
Well, it’s their turn until I start winning everything, of course. That has to be my long-term goal. To become a club capable of winning the lot not just once, but season after season.
A few of my lads made the end-of-season best XI:
I played through the Training Matches, and wheeled and dealed in the Transfer Market. I made a huge decision about my team’s personnel, which I’ll tell all about on Friday.
My club ranking took a hit, down from #2 to #3. That’s what not winning will do. I’m probably fortunate to still be at #3.
I’m riding on the exhaust fumes of my previous scintillating seasons, obviously.
My main priority for season 13? Just to win something, anything, on Superstar. League, Champions League, FA Cup. One of the three will do. Two would be marvellous. The Treble, after all this time, would be astonishing.
Still tinkering N-G? I for one am staying on one-bar as I feel he manual optionis all over the place on this PES. In fact I worry about how this “all manual” element will be implemented in PES 2013.
I didn’t get much chance to play over the bank holiday but caught up a bit last night. I managed a 2-0 home leg win Vs Att Madrid which gives me a great chance of reaching the Europa League final. Looks like I’ll be playing Ajax if I do.
Currently 5th in the league with four to play and only one point off a Champions League spot for next season.
My ultimate goal is to finish in the top four for the first time and win my first piece of silverwear in what will be my first cup final in this PES.
I did it the other way round, played 9 seasons on 0 pass assist then due to the sometimes scrappy, inconsisten feel, notched up to 1 bar assist, where I still play today.
Its all well and good having 0 assist reproduce the reality of tired,weaker stat players whereby passes go astray etc IF it was replicated across the CPU team too, but its not.
CPU teams will pass accurately and consistently all day long, whatever setting the human decides to use, unrealistic.
1 bar assist for me is as happy a balance between the two as you can hope for, IMO.
Liverpool and Chelsea are the two dominant forces in my ML world and have been for a while, Man City had a season, Man Utd are always challenging but Liverpool especially are always the team to beat.
In my ML Worled they hardly have any recognisable faces, no Gerrard, no Carragher, No Reina, no Suarez…some of which have regen’ed as they would have retired by now.
However they do have Chigrat in Defense, the highest rated player in my ML currently, a midfield of Farinos and Heycory and a forward partnership of Drogba and Carroll – which is deadly. They are the team to beat and have been for a number of seasons.
I approached the Jan tgransfer window last night and couldnt really pinpoint any essential signings, but my coach pointed out I had a potential superstar in the making coming through the youth ranks, but didnt say who, so upon looking through, i bolstered my squad to 29 players by signing Helder Postiga and Korshenko to contracts, both had very good stats for 16yr olds, and i hoped one of these two was the potential star my coach spoke of.
The idea was to loan them out to develop, as they were both ‘only’ rated 68 OVR, and a bit too weak to fit into my team.
However, due to the wonderful Internation games being scheduled the day before a league game, i was left thin in the strikers dept. so Postiga got a place on the bench.
0-0 in the 80th min, Postiga replaces Saha and scores a lovely goal, on his debut to earn us a 1-0 win. Shown here: http://youtu.be/HrwS9xdpRro
He also scored in his 2nd appearance, I will be nurturing this kid closely.
NG – Thats a fair point re the 0 assist passing, The issue with manual passing going exactly where you want is that it removes the need for individual player stats in those areas… it would instead depend on the human players skill aiming the stick and us PESer’s like our player individuality.
John—I’ve already abandoned 0 passing assistance and gone back to 1 bar. It’s just too much to try adjusting, when I’ve only been playing on Superstar for 5 minutes and still struggling there, relatively speaking. I’ve got a big season coming up where I just want to focus on playing.
If you’re at all curious yourself, give it a shot at the end of your current season. 0 assistance fragments the game a lot more, so anybody worried about dominating possession might love it.
Good luck with landing your first trophy in PES2012. It’s a bit of a rush when it comes. I was 10 seasons in before mine came along.
Paul—I’ve gone back to 1 bar, I’ll save 0 for a rainy day in the future.
Your goal is very nice – a fine example of a ‘tuck-away’ goal in PES2012 as I call ‘em. I think I had Postiga in my Youths and let him go. But I’ve signed another couple of youths now—details Friday.
Liverpool with Farinos and Heycory—! Sounds like me with my Neeskens and Farinos (a Lampard/Gerrard-style headache all round, usually).
Surely Heycory must be nearing retirement in your ML world?
Pete—indeed, so ‘manual’ is a bit of a misnomer in PES terms, because actually the more ‘manual’ you get the more you’re putting yourself at the mercy of stats-and-context-based interpretations of what you’re trying to achieve. In next-gen FIFA, human player control is increased the more manual you get; in PES2012, it’s actually decreased, and the challenge is to work within the player stats and contexts presented on the pitch.
Cheers, it doesnt look much and it wasnt really but in the context of potential superstar, 1-0 down, 80th min sub and a debut goal it all meant that much more.
Thats what PES does so well, takes little bits of your ML world and puts them together to create something much more meaningful.
I have also been utilising the L2 Manual pass alot more in the final third lately, great for directing the ball into spaces that isnt quite possible with 1 bar assist, i find it good for putting the ball the ‘wrong’ side of the defender, for my cf to latch on to, the defenders get wrong footed and lose a yard when they track you, which is invaluable for creating a chance.
Paul – when the coach says you have a promising youngster coming through, if you look in the youth section the text under said youth will always say he could be as good as Bale, Scholes, gerrard or whoever.
i had a regened ruskin come through at 82OVR and the coach said he could be as good as cole.
and he is, with not any of girls aloud in sight.
Paul—the Postiga goal’s a bread and butter one, but it’s the context and meaning that makes it so, so much more. Every PES fan knows this, and it’s the reason the franchise is still going. Time and again I score ‘ordinary’ goals that have me howling for joy as if they’re 40-yard blockbusters.
Hey, give the L2+circle pass a go as well. I’ve been using that off and on for a few days. It’s great for playing high balls into space.
gramswagon—I also saw Regen Ruskin in my Youths as well, and let him go… If I signed every player I wanted from the Youths, I’d have a squad of fifty, all Youths.
^^ This. Completely.
I have a player called Meriem, promoted from the youths as a 16yr old 9 seasons ago. Was a regular in my team early days as a AMF. over the nex few seasons i aquired a better team, better players and Meriem found himself 4th choice in the AMF position behind Seedorf, Isco & Henriksen, only ever getting the odd game here and there. But pre-season I had a bid come in for Henriksen, £17 million, for a 30year old so whilst he was a hell of a player I decided to cash in and try to develop Meriem further.
Over those 9 seasons Meriem has continued to develop steadily despite the minimal match time due to a good training regime, and is now rated 88OVR.
So first game of the new season, Meriem filling the void left by Henriksen, slots home a scorching 25yard free kick to level the game at 1-1.
88th Min, Free kick 19yards out, up steps Meriem to bend a floated free kick over the wall that drops in at the foot of the far post, for a 2-1 win.
Faith in Meriem and youth pays off, cements his place in the team and is now the first name on the team sheet.
These kind of moments, are what Master League, and PES are all about. NOT the slight ghosting of a foot or a jaggedy goal post.
How many hours have you chalked up now? I’ve just broke the 500 hours mark, which is almost 21 days!
Its good to see a PES game with some real longevity again.
Paul—I’ve just got some new players and I’m absolutely salivating at the thought of steering them through the next 10 seasons (details Friday). This is before Regen Hagi hopefully turns up in my ML world in the next January window. All in all, it seems nothing may prevent PES2012 being my first year-long PES since PES5.
Robin Hood—last time I was brave enough to look, I was on about 270 hours—it’s got to be above 300 now. I’ll check for sure later. And you should count a day in gaming terms as 16 hours (because you’d have to sleep sometime), which gives you an actual tally of 31.5 days or so
Sorry about the hit re: Club Ranking, but I have to say, that looks about right to me. Money United, Inter, Coventry City . . .
Still cracking on with the reading of the blog! Little by little I am catching up to the present – I am up to about January 2011.
On the gaming front, I have resumed my playing of my Arsenal Career Mode on FIFA 12. I have nearly completed my second season – first season I won the FA Cup but finished 3rd. In this season I started by winning the Community Shield, and crashing out of the Champions League in the group stages. I won the League Cup AET against Stoke, but lost in the 4th round of the FA Cup to Chelsea.
After finishing 3rd in my CL group I finished in the Europa League spots but lost to FC Twente in the Round of 16 – I won the first leg 2-0 but got destroyed 3-0 in the second leg (that result had more than a whiff of scripting about it).
With 3 games of the league left, I am 7 points clear of second placed Manchester City. I haven’t lost a game yet and have only drawn 7 so it is pretty unbelievable I haven’t romped to the title! It seems to be sewn up but whereas usually I would put out my youngsters for the last couple of games I still have an unbeaten record to protect … should be an interesting finale!
I also downloaded and tried the PES 2012 demo. I had one game and absolutely loved it. Really loved it, in a way I haven’t really loved a game before. I have only played a few games since then but I will have to pick it up at some point over the summer.
ng- I’m always excited to hear about your upcoming transfers, sounds like it could be major restructuring this time round! Some high profile regens maybe? A certain romanian trickster?
Oh, me and my many careers…..See, certain things generate interest to me, like Newcastles current underdogs making good, or my past career was all about breaking the Barca/Real stranglehold on La Liga, I really was enjoying the Valencia career and still have the save to go back to (start of season 9) the problem lies when I’ve completed a few seasons and then something happens in real life, a big signing etc that I suddenly think “Hmmm, that’d be cool to try and do on Pro Evo) Fingers crossed I can keep on this time tho.
ck—I have considered renaming every club ‘Coventry City’, just for the heck of it. Every season, they win everything. It’s the only way.
Stevenage-Chris—interesting stuff, what difficulty/controller settings/sliders etc. are you playing on on FIFA12?
And how many careers in how many footy games is this now?! I make it 6 in 6—is that right?
Mike—Hagi’s only just retired in my ML world and won’t Regen until the middle of the next season at the earliest.
There are other signings of note, plus at least one shock departure.
Going through a tough patch mid season, had a run of 5 games where i was finding it incredible hard to score, managed to grind out 2 draws, 3 wins and a loss though so not too bad.
Bit pissed that DiVaio, a CF I signed at age 26 for a club record 12.8 million last season was only on a 1 year contract and has subsequently accepted a free transfer to Lyon. Gutted, 12mil down the shoot.
I had to sign a replacement so managed to get Sazi, a promising 25yr old CF, rated 86 OVR on a 3 year deal, and 500k a year salary, only cost 2.4million too.
He has shooting accuracy stats of 90, and kick power of 88 so hoping to fire off a few scorchers with him.
You know those lofty-type of dipping volleys you can hit sometimes but that usually go miles over the bar? Well, I scored with one last night to put me through to the Europa League final!
Having scored as a sub in the first leg, I promoted my 18-year-old winger Georgio Karragounis to the start XI away to Att Madrid and he did the business again. A corner was cleared out to the edge of the box, my big striker headed it down to the right edge of the area and Karragounis unleashed a flying volley that dipped into the top far corner from 20yards. I was off my seat in silent celebration.
I now have two league games (Villa at home and Southampton away) to claim a Champions League spot and then it’s my first cup final in this PES and a chance to win the Europa Cup Vs PSV.
Great stuff John, i’ve done loads of those but never seen one fly in!!!
what a reward too, good luck in the final.
Do you have a vid of that goal?
Paul – It was certainly worthy of saving the replay so, yes. I’ll post a vid up tonight in case anyone wants to see it.
Amazing that after all these hours of playing we’re still experiencing new moments like this.
I’m riding high in my season 11, about a third of the way through I’m top of the league, pretty much qualified for the champions league knockouts and and still in the FA Cup. It can go wrong so quickly though. Del Piero is still a star but the other main man is Sibon. That’s right, Gerald Sibon. I signed him at the same time as Del Piero and he’s almost caught him up in attributes. He’s now 102OVR as a striker, pretty much one of the best players in the world. I really recommend signing him. My Anelka is looking good too at 99OVR.
Paul, wasn’t Sazi one of nG’s heroes from PES2010? I looked at Di Vaio too but he seems like a bit of a poacher with not much to his game.
John, post a video of that goal? If you have an iPhone it takes all of 2 minutes to upload it. Karagounis is a great playmaker and a bit of a legend in my book.
Grilled Seabass – I have Sibon too. What a player! He’s about 96 overall in my ML and deadly from crosses. But he’s also remarkably good at setting up goals too. He seems to struggle to get through 90mins though so I tend to use him as a super sub and he quite often is just that.
Paul—Sazi was my main man for much of PES2010. Of course this is a different PES with different rules and such. I think PES2012′s game mechanics favour the small nippy sort of striker, the Forlans and so on. So it’ll be interesting to see how your Sazi turns out. Here’s what I had to say about PES2010′s Sazi on Jan 25th 2010:
Also going through a sticky patch at the start of season 13, details tomorrow though.
John—good luck on the run-in to claim a CL spot and in that final too. And let’s see that goal as soon as possible. I love me some dipping volleys. It sounds like the kind of goal that’s a once-a-year kind of goal, i.e. you score just one like it in all of a PES the whole time you play it. I can think of about 6 such goals going back over the years.
Grilled Seabass—Sibon was another one I let slip through my fingers from the Youth team. You can’t get ‘em all, I suppose. But it occurs to me that a Youths-only policy and NO outside transfers in at all would be a very interesting House Rule to play a whole career on. Not volunteering myself, of course.
I picked up some interesting players in post-season, details tomorrow.
Sazi sounds promising, as you say, different PES, different rules but Im hoping he can fill the void left by DiVaio, whom was more of a poacher than an out and out ‘Rooney’ style striker.
I forgot to mention, I also picked up a Regen Gerrard, 17yrs old, some of his stats are already mid 80′s !!!!
Paul—Regen Gerrard… Almost as high a priority for me as Regen Hagi. My current wishlist goes Hagi-Gerrard-Heycory. (To see what the fuss is about in Heycory’s case.)
I don’t know if it’s a side-effect of having the Classics in my world, but I’ve found a few top, top Regens hidden away in the Other list, languishing at age 20-25 or so, not picked up by any team. I helped myself to one of them and wish I could take more (lol as if they’re poor orphans), but I just find it odd that they’ve obviously been released from some CPU teams’ Youths. Must be the Classics edging them out.
As a Liverpool supporter, having Gerrard in the hole as an AMF would be bliss!!
His long range shooting is a desired skill, although im finding it very hard to pull off any shots outside the box since 1.06, theyre all blocked. Hence the scraping 1-0 wins at the moment. On a plus note, i have conceded 1 goal in 6 matches so defending on professional, at -1 speed is definitely improving.
Paul—I’m really undecided about 1.06. It’s always tempting to ascribe every new aspect of the game to a recent patch. I am having a slightly different gameplay experience right now, but I did go up to Superstar roughly as the patch landed, so I don’t know whether to blame the difficulty level, the patch, both, or just the natural evolution of my year’s PES experience.
Re. crafting long-range opportunities, it takes passing it around and passing it around (and then passing it around some more) until the chance arises. Then BOOM. I keep trying with Farinos and just failing to score the goal of the century…
I play on Legendary with sliders adjusted to make for a slightly slower game. For some reason I have never got into playing manual, but I think I will try to or it will become too easy.
I think I will most likely play this for the rest of the football gaming year. It may well be 6 in 6, I’ve lost count! For some reason I always find it hard to get into a single career mode for the first half of the football gaming year – for instance last year I had several Career Modes as Stevenage but never got past the second season. Last year I created a new Career Mode and played it over the summer holidays and managed to get us into the Premier League in consecutive seasons!
It seems the same has happened this year, but hopefully I will manage to play this Arsenal Career Mode up until the release of FIFA 13. I think this will be my last season on all-assisted controls for the time being, hopefully I can do better on the cup front(s).
Here’s the vid of that dipping volley from my Europa League semi I was on about for anyone who fancies a look.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqkfCf_Slgw&feature=youtu.be
I’m off to play the final now. Wish me luck!
Stevenage-Chris—don’t overlook the semi-assisted settings in FIFA12, a nice halfway house between the two IMO. I’ve set out my case against manual shooting in particular many times. It’s just not right!
John—that is a sweet, sweet half-volley, in my career it would be a strong candidate for goal of the whole year so far, don’t know about you. I’ve had a couple like it that dipped late enough but were off-target.
So how’d the final go?
Great goal John – deserves my favourite all time commentary Batistuta! (Karagounis!) – what a bender!!
Del Piero named World Player of the Year in my game just now. Lovely moment.
NG – I may be running out of time here but I started the start again last night. I just couldn’t buy players and had wasted money on that £1m trainer so decided to try the Max method from the start and look to take on more of the youth team to at least try and develop. I was 4th at the time so wasn’t hugely necessary, just one of those ‘I’m not enjoying this’ moments. I do think though that most games will go through a huge churn of players between that 2/3rd season in div 2 and 1st/2nd season in div 1. Ideally I want to avoid that. Unfortunately the selling method just isn’t working again – despite them all hating me only 1 offer. Interestingly though Ribeiro is 19 and a bit better than usual so I have switched the front three so he is playing right up front and the other two behind. Hope springs eternal.
Well, season 9 has come to a thrilling end for me and my super Seagulls and what a season it was – one of the best ever in any PES.
I had two nailbiting last league matches (a 2-1 win at home v Villa and a surprisingly tricky 2-1 win away to relegated Southampton) to claim a Champions League place. In fact I finished 3rd just behind Liverpool and runaway champs Man City.
Then the Europa League final Vs PSV. Still buzzing from the last league game but a little fatigued I went about this match with as much nerves as excitement.
PSV were good. Lots of great attacking play but I managed to get an early breakaway goal (a nice lob on the break by Emmanuel-Thomas). After that I have to admit it was the kind f cup final I hate. I parked the bus and tried to hit on the break and despite loads of manic pressure by PSV I held on for an ugly 1-0 win with just that one shot on target.
So my first cup in PES 2012 in my first final and my first season in Europe. And I did it on Superstar. Even if this turns out to be my first and last piece of silverwear – this PES ML is up their with PES 5 for me.
Grilled Seabass—my favourite all-time commentary would have to be the sound sometimes made by Trevor Brooking after a shot. A sort of cross between a post-coital sigh and a gargle, it was always pretty terrifying to hear late at night.
uncle turf—oh dear, the question now is: will you be able to settle ever again? Is the spell broken? You may have seen what’s happening to a few others who are flitting between careers across different PES and FIFA games. If you at least kept the original saves from your first careers, you should have a fall-back option at least if you find you just can’t get going again.
John—many congratulations on your first trophy, and on Superstar to boot. I’m still searching for my first Trophy at top table, but after 1 season only on the level, still learning my way too.
I’m now into my second CL campaign on Superstar and all I can advise you is: be very careful. The game seems ramped up to the max. It’s very, very clinical and ruthless. I went out at the group stage last season and, if I’m not very careful, will go out again at the group stage this season.
The final does sound like an ugly affair, as so many finals in PES and reality so often are. The type of PES finals I hate are the ones that seem destined for extra time and pens from the outset, os at least you avoided that.
And I totally agree, this ML is easily up there with the very best IMO, which would be PES5.
Hey there,
I am mainly a PES 2012 player (although I have to agree, the best ever is winning eleven 9 aka pes5).
I would very much like to hear your opinion on fifa 12 tactics. I really like fifa’s gameplay, its really realistic, accurate, but the tactics system isn’t just as simple as PES, and to me, this makes the whole difference, as I like to change players positions (and tactics)quickly, and I like how much you can “pinpoint” a player in certain position.
Other than that, I really like this blog. I recently joined WE9LE group I saw first here.
Cheers!
Claudio
Claudio—thanks for your comment and I fully agree about FIFA12—great game indeed—it’s just, well, you’ve probably read the blog and seen the immense regard I have for Master League and PES. And PES2012 really does grow on you after a while. I’d currently put it up there with the best on PS2—a controversial and faintly sacrilegious viewpoint that I’m waiting until September to make final.
I can’t really comment much on FIFA12′s tactical options. Except to say that it did frustrate me not having the same finesse of control over pitch positions, and no on-the-fly formation changes either.
Viva WE9LE! If it wasn’t awkward for me to play it, I’d play it a lot more. (I’m a Mac guy and the PC only comes out occasionally.)