Here comes the next generation. This season, my young players have started to emerge. Rooney and Gerrard are leading the charge. Schweinsteiger and Kaka are fast coming up behind. Even Hagi and Ribery are slowly inching his way up. Next season I think most of them will have regular matches.
Rooney and Gerrard could be guaranteed starters. Both bring so much to the team in different ways, just like their real-life counterparts at their best. Rooney is a snapping irritant that defences can’t cope with, and Gerrard is the consummate midfielder.
Rooney is a turn-and-shoot specialist, which makes him absolutely golden in PES2012. Gerrard’s long-distance shooting is just emerging from its coccoon. Here’s a clip of them both scoring goals. Rooney with a big turn-and-shoot goal, and Gerrard with a 35-yard rasper:
This must be the slowest-moving season I’ve played yet. Superstar is often like wading through quicksand anyway, but I’m also rationing myself to one or two matches per day just now. At the time of writing, Monday morning, I’ve just played FOUR matches. I feel stuffed.
The current league table:
Arsenal finally lost another game. Man Utd kindly beat them 3-0 for me. It restores my 6-point cushion and makes me feel all warm inside. And that goal difference is looking healthy now. So long as I’m not conceding many, it offsets Arsenal’s inflated scorelines.
I beat Benfica in the Champions League, and my next opponents will be… Barcelona. Actually, I’m not too worried. Barca haven’t been a truly formidable opponent for several seasons. #FamousLastWords.
The FA Cup semi-final against Man City is where I so nearly lost the Treble. I want that Treble. I covet it as only an extremely covetous man coveting something extremely covetable can.
It was a tough, tough match that ended 0-0 after normal time, and looked like going to penalties. I find in these big matches that it’s often an extra bit of guile or magic that changes things, and so it proved.
In the 115th minute, Gerrard passed to Rooney on the edge of the box. Rather than unleash a thunderbolt as I normally would, I turned inside, turned inside again (unusual for me), and dinked the winner past the keeeper at the far post.
I’ve got Sunderland in the final. Now, I’m not to naive with PES2012 as to think it’ll be a walkover. But if I don’t win the FA Cup now, I’ll be seriously annoyed with myself.
. the one thing me and mrs werd agree on is how we like our scandinavian crime...
Great stuff not-greg, nothing can go wrong now!!
It feels a long way from my current situation with the game. I’ve somehow managed to survive the first season of my 3rd attempt at ML without being sacked, but still failed to win any games at all! Defensively I’m now getting stronger, with a reliable back line of Voichlerud, Nzom Cole (bought to replace Schmidt who got a 25 week injury), Palmeiri and El Moubarki and the excellent Camacho at DMF, so most matches are competitive at least. A 4-1-3-2 seems to be working better than my previously over-defensive formation
Managed to get 3 decent new signings from contract rebels for the coming season – Bojinov, Jack Colback and an oldish CB called Basinas – but their wages might be a problem given I’ve lost 2/3 sponsors following last season’s lack of wins
abbeyhill – I had exactly the same problem in my first 2012 ML. Just when I signed some decent players a poor run of form ended in me bankrupting the club…
At least this time my new kit has spurred the players to greater things and I’m just about fending off Chelsea for top spot.
abbeyhill—have you won even one match in all three attempts? I’m still deeply sceptical about your method of playing PES2012 and I must scold you thoroughly whenever you mention it.
Chris99—good to hear you got the kits sorted out then—what was the problem?
NG – GoT – you think it’s almost unwatchable?! – I really like it. Accepted there have had to be a few compromises (the age of those involved to avoid criminal procedings for example…) and some of the cast aren’t very accurate but they don’t take such big liberties with the story like some adaptations and you can see it’s had money chucked at it. I think for people not familiar with the books the web wiki guide is essential – so many names are similar that it’s easy to lose track – but that’s the same when you’re watching the Sopranos, Wire, etc for the first few episodes. Nope, big thumbs up from me but I’ve heard the recent game is a dog.
uncle turf—the GoT series doesn’t match up to the epic experience I had reading the books a few years ago. Winterfell looked small and poky. Tyrion’s wavering upper-crust accent annoys me. Cersei isn’t how I imagined her at all (Lena Headey is beautiful, but not beautiful enough IMO). There’s a whole host of little things that add up to ‘almost unwatchable’ for me. And of course having read all the books I know what’s going to happen at every stage, which means there’s little reason at all to watch it in the first place.
NG-nice goals there, when Rooney is on form he is almost unstopable. Do you know of the long range L1 shot? Rooney is one of the few 20-30 players to have the Long ranger no.6 card and have a good enough shot acc/power to pull it off. I only found out about it a few weeks ago, its like turn and shoot but is a high arc curling shot that looks spectacular if scored. It took me a while in training mode to work it out and i have only managed 2-3 in game, in training messi was unbalivable at them but my Rooney is not that acurate yet, here’s one i scored.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwEkjrQdyf8&list=UUHP1eFV4BFZCzKR059rX0Sg&index=4&feature=plcp
Heres a goal i just bagged from inside my own half scored by who else but Irjescu!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xk0mEvqzNVE&feature=plcp
NG – yes, there is the ‘I know what’s coming factor’ but I do like the ‘oh right, not quite what I thought’ element. The cast are really quite far from some of the descriptions at times – less physically repulsive in some cases – but in the books there are so many characters that I have often felt unable to quite remember who should look like what in my mind. Someone like Jory Cassel for example just fades into the background of general Stark loyalists.
If you’ve not read Brent Weeks I’d recommend his Night Angel trilogy – nowhere near as massive as GoT but really enjoyed them.
not-greg – no, technically speaking, I have not won a match in this Superstar ML campaign or its two predecessors, but aside from that I would say that it has been a success
Those are some lovely goals there not-Greg. How do you pull off the turn and shoot? Do you receive, turn, and shoot all in one smooth motion with R2 pressed once the gauge is displayed? The rasper with Gerrard is amazing how much power you got behind it with no run-up.
I don’t know if anyone has tipped you off about this game that is in development called Lords of Football.
http://www.lordsoffootball.com/en
It’s basically what I’ve been asking for Konami to implement to their Master League mode in the PES franchise. The development of this game sounds very intriguing so I’m following their Twitter feed for updates.
https://twitter.com/lordsoffootball
Max—Rooney is just starting to come into his power right now, interesting times ahead.
Great goals as ever from you there too. How did your button-press even register as a shoot attempt from inside your own half?! I thought the shoot button was hard-coded to be a clearance from your own half. Or was it an R2+Circle shot?
uncle turf—I’ve tried to read a few fantasy series since GoT but never got very far. It’s definitely the gold standard, for all its faults. Sadly, the TV version will never be compelling viewing for me mainly due to the knowing-what-happens-next factor.
abbeyhill—just go out with the attitude that you’re defending for a 0-0, but you’re willing to snatch a cheeky winner if you can. That approach is often very successful.
bkmelendez—turn and shoot is all one motion with NO shoulder buttons at all. Just direction+shoot. Most of these types of goal happen on the edge of the box. Look for a striker standing in a ‘pocket’ of defenders and fast-pass to his feet, turn, and shoot instantly.
NOTE—well, it’s that time of year again, and the WENB-related comments and heavy-handed satire are already starting to show up in the comments moderation queue. Every July, without fail, here they come.
I won’t be posting any WENB-related comments. After this comment, I won’t be discussing why I won’t post any WENB comments. (It’s obviously because I’m on the Konami payroll too, as is perfectly obvious to anyone with any sense.)
I just cannot be arsed dealing with all the hysteria and posturing and Sixth Form satire-mongering that goes on in WENB-related discussions.
It’s not going to happen, ever.
NG- yes its hard coded to clear the ball but the trick is to press square before the ball crosses the line. I have been trying it with L1 traingle pass and hitting some amazing volley’s but that time i didn’t hit L1 in time.
I finished season 5 in third 2 points of first. In the Portuguese league third means i had to play the CL qualifying game and i scrapped through 3-2 against Man City. I was rewarded with a group of death, Barcelona, Man United and Galatasary. I actualy did quite well and have won 3 drawn 1 and lost 1, i need a point off barca at home to make it through.
Night Angel series by Brett Weeks is very good indeed.
Lloyd – yes, I think so. I was thrown at first as they all appeared in paperback at the same time, making me think they were some dross pulp fiction but I couldn’t put them down. The first one of his next trilogy (Lightbringer) is really good as well.
I have just beaten Chelsea in the 1st round of the Cup and have a w2 d3 l2 record in my 1st top flight season. I reckon I will be ok this season.
Max—thanks for another great tip—I know what I’ll be trying in my next session (if I remember to try it; I have a problem where I often only remember things I want to try before and after the times when I’m actually playing).
I find the super-tough CL matches are made easier if you get hold of the ball in the first few minutes and have at least a short spell of pressure. It seems to set the tone.
Lloyd—thanks for another Brent Weeks endorsement. I might look into it now. I admit to being biased against Brent Weeks because an SF/Fantasy forum I often visit had a long-running thread attacking him and his stuff as derivative of Robert Jordan (SFF World forums).
uncle turf—it sounds as if all the hard work of those false starts, and your first seasons in this current save, is now paying off. It’ll be intriguing to see where you finish this season and if you can ‘complete’ this ML before PES2013 arrives in just over 2 months(!).
re. your attempted comment about WENB, I’m afraid I meant it when I said that I won’t deal with it any more, period. I have sent a reply to the email address that you commonly leave. Check your spam if you don’t see it.
I will not be posting any more comments or content of any kind relating to WENB. Not because I have anything against that site (I want to make clear), but because I’ve seen first-hand what a ‘discussion’ about WENB-related topics rapidly turns into. I haven’t got time to deal with it even if I wanted to, and I don’t want to, so that’s that.
But I will cheerfully leave a link to WENB in my sidebar, partly because I think it’s a good site—and also, of course, to annoy those who wish to be annoyed
This is all I will have to say about the subject, ever.
NG – no worries mate, sent you a reply – it was innocent, I’m the equivalent of the old guy on the bus who complains about the rubbish in the ‘hit parade’, decimilisation and punks. Way out of touch. End of subject!
Early doors Arsenal look the team to beat in my world – they have John Terry in their defence and he scored a Van Persie like turn and shot against me. If he can do that no wonder the rest of them tore me apart.
uncle turf—Arsenal are giants now in mine, scoring an average of 4 goals per game. The only reason I’m ahead of them is because I beat them and drew with them in our two fixtures, and have been consistent ever since with my super-duper-team of individuals. Without my great players I’d have got precisely nowhere in this ML. Thank God I enabled Classics.
not-Greg The patch installed on my PC uses an excellent program called KitServer to allow third party mods of just about everything in the game. This reads in the kits from png template files when required. Also the secondary leagues have been restructured to allow the choice of the Championship, the Bundesliga 2, La Liga 2 and a couple of others I can’t remember off the top of my head. I can only assume that one of these disabled the editing options. So I learned how to modify the kit templates as required. I’ll try and get a few pictures soon.
It does however seem that my Cardiff are not keen on their mostly yellow away kit as I lost two and drew one yesterday, leaving me in fourth place.
not-Greg and uncle turf Similar taste in books. Have you tried Joe Abercrombie?
Chris99—I’m passingly acquainted with kitserver and the joys of PC footy gaming. I still have gorgeous installs of PES3, PES4, PES5, and PES6 sitting on my Windows laptop’s HD. The great thing about time passing is that those old PES games run on modest hardware nowadays.
I’ve tried Joe Abercrombie but his style puts me off a bit. I even tried the audiobook of The Blade Itself but gave up halfway through. Game of Thrones has spoiled me for fantasy—which I’ve never really read much of anyway. I’m much more of a sci-fi and general fiction man.
SALVATION!!!
The new ML I started just wasn’t the same, no Sibon, no Heycory etc. I just couldn’t get on with it. And then suddenly it happened, I was going to give it one more chance and was about to load up my save when my finger slipped and scrolled right down past my 4 saves, past all the empty files, and there it was in save file 11, a ML save from 1/2 a season before I went up to Superstar. Don’t know why it was there i must have put it there by mistake. No Sibon or Riquelme but bids have already been put in. Bumped it straight up to Superstar and played a Europa League game and won 3-0. I’m back in the game.
The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch is the best Fantasy book I have read in the last few years
I spoke to soon – Liverpool 6 Gateshead 2. When you see that Gerrard and Cristiano Ronaldo are kicking off you know your scruffy 4th season squad is going to struggle… Still I’m getting 1.28m quid per home game so my bank balance is going to help in that dept.
I have The Blade…but never got round to reading it, not sure I ever will now it seems to be an ever extending series. Generally I find recurring character books have a point of diminishing returns, when the author gets a deal stating one hardback and one paperback per year and the plot simply treads water to keep pace. The slow pace of Robin Hobb’s Farseer books put me off fantasy for a long while, especially as I’d been into David Gemmell. I used to be a big Niven fan – the Dream Park books are an easy read and for a long while OSC’s Speaker for the Dead was my favourite book but again the series droned on and lost me. Without doubt the finest audio book available is the decidedly non-sci fi ‘Rogue Male’.
Anyone seen the new gameplay video of pes 2013? the arrows look like an ace addition… if they aren’t just for effect in the video. haven’t played pes for a while… must try harder!
uncle turf – if you liked Gemmel you would probably enjoy James Barcley’s Raven series of books, they rattle along at a fair old pace and the first book grabs you from the first page.
2 more games this afternoon and 2 more victories, it’s good to have my boys back
Lloyd—congrats on the miracle find, and make sure you backup the new save in a nice safe place—to USB and somewhere online. Human error, hardware failure, burglary, fire, anything could happen.
uncle turf—PES2012 is so ridiculously variable that it’s probably premature to decide that you’ve finally discovered its essential character at any stage of an ML career. But I am finding myself that as long as I keep it tight at the back, I can win matches I always used to struggle in.
In sci-fi Vernor Vinge’s first two Zones of Thought novels are the gold standard by which I judge everything else. Shame about Volume 3, but every series must have its Feast For Crows, eh…
Pete—I’ve seen the video, and apparently the arrows are a gameplay feature for manual passing and shooting, and can be disabled if you wish.
Great joy at midnight last night as I finally managed my first ML victory on superstar, 2nd game of 2nd season of 3rd ML campaign! I was even awarded a playstation Trophy for the achievement!
There was added drama in that my chairman’s approval had fallen to zero (after an unfortunate bankruptcy the week before) and I was informed I had to win to save my job – although obviously I realised a draw would have been ok. But at the end of the first half Ettori sent Zarate scampering into the area with a nice through ball, and then applied the finishing touch to a powerful low cross. The second half was chaos, unrelenting pressure including a shot that hit the inside of the post and rolled across the goalmouth and out past the other post. Obviously I’m still likely to be sacked soon, but a memorable game…
not-Greg Here’s a picture of Aaron Ramsey after he found himself in a South Wales sandwich http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/5769/sshot1ai.png
Bet you breathed a sigh of relief Lloyd.
I always back up to USB then straight into the mac and into dropbox. Safe keeping.
I had a session last night, started season 17 with aplomb.
These 2 things happened, it was a decent session:
http://youtu.be/tUZ6Es0CN18
a 2-0 win over Man Utd in the UEFA Super Cup set things rolling, I followed that with a 5-0 spanking of Boca Jnrs,including that 40 yard screamer from Gemiti shown in the vid, a 2-0 win over Man City and a 3-0 win over Gil Vicente.
The only change I made… changing cam to Pitchside. It feels fresh again and even the parked bus defences seem easier to pick apart due to the different view of space and positioning. Early days yet but looking good.
abbeyhill—many congratulations, Superstar is a beast even with great players, so I shudder to think of the cliff-face you have to climb up with Defaults.
Chris99—I have one of those unreasonable football dislikes of Aaron Ramsey (and Jack Wilshere), so thanks for that. I have to admit I was a bit scared opening the image. This being the Internet and all. Relieved to find it so innocuous.
Paul—I’d love to play with Pitchside cam, but the altered perspective alters all my shooting routines and I always switch back after one match. Pitchside, with a bit of angle on the goalmouth—now that would be a great camera.
Nice video and a lovely strike, Max-stylee!
Paul – with Pitchside camera do you not find it really difficult to play on the far side of the pitch? And do you play PES in 3D at all? I’m addicted to it now
My first outing with iMovie – not great by any means, was just testing it out.
It was a first time strike, powered just below half way, was amazed to see it fly in.
Loving pitchside cam, its more FIFA-Like. i havent really had an issue with the shooting angles, been banging the goals in.
Abbeyhill – i’ve tried a few of the cameras in 3D, the only one it really works with is the proper dedicated 3D camera, which is over the players shoulder perspective, BaL type cam, which im not a fan of, so no, never play in 3D.
Uncharted 3 in 3D – now THATS a different story!!!
abbeyhill—I genuinely believe it’s only you and Nigel Nintendo in the whole world who love 3D gaming.
Paul—it’s just Pitchside’s restricted angle of view on the goalmouth that throws me off whack a touch.
I think the 3D ship has sailed for me. Maybe 10 years ago when I never had to wear regular spectacles for anything I’d have been fine. Now, 3D just isn’t good for my eyes.
NG – think 3D gaming has its place, if done well, like uncharted, really helps the game come alive.
As with many cinema releases that are in 3D, its often converted to 3D as an afterthought and released as such because 3D is in trend, in fashion and it will help sell the film, but the 3D doesnt add anything to it.
I watch alot of footy matches on Sky Sports 3D, its alot more visual, and certain nature programmes that i normally wouldnt be interested in, seem to be more engaging in 3D, so i think its useful, just oversaturated at present.
does that mean your Nintendo 3DS is gathering dust and will probably not see much use?
Paul—the 3DS doesn’t have to be used as a 3D machine—3D is an ON/OFF option. So essentially it’s a souped-up DS for me. My old-school DS sees a lot more action, but I rarely play that either to be honest. I’m more of a PES/FM/Civilization/Dwarf Fortress gamer right now. The Vita gets an hour every other day at best. I decided long ago not to feel a speck of guilt or remorse about neglecting any game or games platform. I have a large library of books, physical and electronic, but don’t feel obliged to read every one of them. The same applies to games and games platforms. Anything else is madness!
abbeyhill – many congratulations although I’m astounded you have survived that long without the chairman’s boot! I always restarted before I got to that must win. I have found there is a certain point in a default starting superstar campaign – around beginning season 3 – where you have either improved the team sufficiently with frees and good youth to compete at the top or you haven’t got the players, the other teams have, and you are suddenly lucky to get a kick.
thanks Turf, ‘many congratulations’ might be overstating it a bit given that I must have gone around 85 ML games on superstar without a win, which most people would dismiss as a pointlessly stubborn endeavour!! But yes it felt suitably epic when it happened, given that so many times previously I’ve lost a 1-0 lead to a late goal. It really is addictive trying to put together a competitive ML team starting from the defaults, I’d forgotten (thanks to the mediocrity of PES2008, 10 & 11) just what a great gameplay experience it is
not-greg – I like to think of myself as an early adopter; I suspect that you’ll be playing PES2014 in 3D. And online.
abbeyhill—I still view your ML as a pointlessly stubborn endeavour that’s just not worth the hours of crushing tedium you’ve spent on it
My anti-3D stance is pretty much one of my eyes being unable to process the effect with any comfort. 30 minutes of launch-day PES2011 on the 3DS in 3D left me with sandpaper eyes and a throbbing headache. We all have different makeups. Remember the Magic Eye pictures back in the 90s? I’m one of those people who never, ever saw anything in them, ever, no matter how much I stared from any distance or angle—to the point where I still half-suspect they were a mass delusion. Yet I had 20/20 vision at the time.
not-greg – it’s a fair point. But I always find the ‘sweet spot’ of ML to be the moment when your hopeless starting team starts to become competitive for the first time. Later on, when you’ve assembled a high quality team and the scripting kicks in to ensure that you don’t win too easily it can get boring and frustrating quite quickly (as eloquently described by Paul here)
actually I do agree with you on 3D, it’s clearly going to be a flop. But personally I really do love the immersion of the 3D effect, I’m still playing the 3DS daily, even more than PES/FIFA, and including some quite mediocre games like Ace Combat and Resident Evil
abbeyhill—enjoy your affinity with all things 3D. If enough people share your X-Men-like ability, it’ll stick around. My totally unscientific perception though is that 3D is the CB Radio of the 21st century.
I agree that ML can get old fast once a certain level is reached—but PES2012 seems to prolong the moment of orgasm, Tantric-Sting-stylee, indefinitely. Nearly 17 seasons now and it hasn’t got old yet.