So I’m going for the Treble in season 16 of Master League on Superstar difficulty. I’m still 6 points clear at the top of the League table with only a few matches left. I’m in the FA Cup Final, coming up soon. But I’ve run into a slight wrinkle in the Champions League.
I played and beat Barcelona in the Quarter Final—pretty comfortably in the end. They held me 0-0 at my place in the first leg, a result I was happy with. Over at their place, I employed the tried-and-tested PES2012 match strategy of playing for a 0-0 and taking whatever scraps fell off the table.
I fluked a goal from a corner after 15 minutes. It was one of those weak shots that squirms in off Busquets’ arse. I enjoyed this one very much, as I loathe Busquets in real-life. John Champion: ‘Oh no… it’s an Onan-goal!’
It was the key to the whole match. I stuck with my defensive mentality, and cruised to a 0-3 win at Barcelona—one of my best performances and victories ever.
The semi-final opponents were Real Madrid. I didn’t really go into this one with much trepidation. The last time I remember facing them, 5 seasons or so ago, they were good but not formidably so.
They’re a bit better now.
I’ve only played the first leg of our encounter so far. I lost 1-0 at their place.
It was a strange, crazy match. I felt the effects of what I call the PES2012 dampening field from start to finish. The final stats were something like 62% possession to me, but I only had 5 shots, just 2 of them on target. Real had 13 shots, 7 on target.
Every time I approached the goal I found my players taking strange extra touches, overrunning, being muscled off by two or three Real players all the time…
I’m well accustomed to PES2012 by now and I know when it is and isn’t playing silly buggers. The way my team handled in this match stank to hgh heaven, believe me.
Real Madrid were first to every loose ball, won every 50/50 tackle and every aerial challenge. They got their goal from Brazilian Ronaldo (my former player, still going strong for them at the age of 35).
I did really well to keep the scoreline so low, considering the forces arrayed against me. We go back to my place with the tie delicately poised. I have to stop them scoring at all. If they hit me with an away goal, a hard game will be almost impossible. This match will be the one that decides the whole Treble.
In other news, Rooney and Gerrard continue to delight with their rapid growth this season. Both have really emerged from their shells. Here’s a great Rooney distance strike:
I spotted the potential gap between two Villa players, tried it, and it came off. Rooney is keeping Sibon on the bench at the moment. Gerrard might soon be doing the same to Farinos, incredibly. It’s all happening now.
Next season should see my other youths—Hagi, Schweinsteiger, Kaka—all starting to come through strongly as well. Fingers crossed, especially for young Hagi.
NG – re; your Busquets arse squirm… do you think when there is a ricochet in the area and the ball is slow bowling past the keeper that it turns in towards the goal like the cushion of a dodgy pool table? I’ve had quite a few over the months (in my favour) that are clearly going to hit the post and yet deviate just enough on a bounce to nestle inside the net. This is nearly always when it’s raining and I have never yet had one go the wrong way.
uncle turf—you have mentioned one of my pet hates there, most often seen when your keeper palms or parries the ball and at first it seems to be heading sideways, but always spins out for a corner as if it’s got check side. Works both ways, as you say, so we can’t complain too much, but it shouldn’t happen at all. It’s blatantly a game-balancing feature coded into the ball physics to make things more ‘exciting’. Maybe one day we’ll get a Flight Simulator-level of football sim (but would we want to play it?).
Sooooo many times ive been the victim of CPU shots have have deflected off my defenders shoulder/face/head/arse/ear etc and slowly trickled towards the corner and just spun inside the post, when it deflects now i just look away as i know whats coming.
But my 2-0 UEFA Super Cup win over Man utd came courtesy of 2 of those such goals.
A shot from the edge of the box from Iniesta hit a CPU defenders thigh and slow rolled past the keeper and then a 25yd free kick from Simao flicked off the wall and wrong footed the CPU keeper.
Nice to get one back on the CPU sometimes.
Out of curiosity what did you think of the new video on ‘TWTSNBN’ that showed gameplay footage of PES13 recreating EURO2012 goals?
Massively underwhelming was my impression.
Paul – personally I don’t get excited about any preview videos. Even more nowadays you get that disclaimer on tv adverts (‘not actual…’) and as we have seen with this year initial reactions may not be valuable; ‘shooting’s crap..too hard..hate this..hmm..actually it’s fantastic..no, i hate it again..promotion, actually i love it!’
I don’t even get worked up about the demos after playing a version of This is Football which was a tremendous demo and then turned out to be a total dog on release.
Turf/Paul – actually I was wondering about that issue of shots spinning inside the post after I scored one of my favourite ever PES goals the other night – a deep cross from Xechinto, just inside the opposition half, and then my star (63 rated, 34 years old) striker Dehrenbach crunched through the defender to power in a header from the edge of the penalty area. The replay showed that not only did the header curve dramatically in the air, it took a sharp bounce to deviate inside the post, a bit like an off-break
Paul—I’m still on the up with PES2012, so the notion of PES2013 being more of the same (with tweaks) isn’t a negative for me. I enjoyed the video. It was amusing to see PES2013 criticised on the forums for looking just like PES2012, when we’ve known that it would for months now.
uncle turf—indeed, I’d put a sizeable amount of cash on the final PES2013 release being very different from whatever we play next week on its demo. It’ll be faster for an absolute certainty, and there will be just enough twiddling of knobs on the gameplay values to make the general gameplay feel different too. They’ve done this for 3 years running now—especially the speed increase, which annoys me no end. This year won’t be any different.
So the treble is so on. Good luck although I’m not sure how I’d feel if you won it and stopped playing! Especially with the lure of the PES 2013 demo.
I’ve just reached my own Champions League semi after coming back from a 3-2 home defeat in the quarters by FC Twente to won 4-3 overall. Nailbiting stuff. I now have Barcelona so I think I’ll go 4-2-3-1 and hope to nick a goal or two.
Still fifth in the league so this could be my one chance of silverware this season and to qualify for the CL next season.
John—whatever happens this season I will be playing on indefinitely. I’ve got youngsters to bring up, and I really want to play PES2012 with a Hagi firing on all cylinders again.
It sounds as if you’ve kind of found your form in this season at last, but as we know, a bad patch on Superstar in the league and you’re a goner for the whole season. Good luck with the CL—it’s a tough, tough trophy to win on Superstar, as I’m finding out.
PES 2013 Demo on Wednesday then, good stuff!!!
Really hoping theres enough difference in gameplay to get me stoked for the release, if its all too samey to PES12 then it will be a massive grumble, not gameplay as such as thats good but AI, tactics, bugs etc.
What worries me is that every year they talk about enhanced control, new flicks, more skill moves, etc etc and yet not many people I’ve read on this site seem to actually use them. If you look at what we’ve all written no-one has said ‘I wish there were more ways of doing a rainbow flick’ it’s been better keepers, the need to R1 defend, annoying admin stuff like neutral grounds for Cup games and the international schedules, infuriating scripting, etc etc. I would be delighted if they said ‘look it’s PES2012 minus the impossible scripted moments and all that duff league admin and we’ve improved training and some other minor things.
Paul—I think PES2013 will be to PES2012 as PES2012 was to PES2011. Essentially the same but tweaked in various hopefully good ways. In other words, just like PES always used to be from year to year in the PS2 days.
uncle turf—every year the summertime previewers talk about their experiences of the game in 1p vs 2p mode, and then everyone wonders why the game we end up playing in single-player mode is totally different. I’m still into PES2012 enough to not feel anything much, one way or the other, about PES2013. I’m not indifferent, but I’m not gagging for the demo either. I’ll still download and play it on Wednesday as soon as I possibly can, and get the PC demo and the demo expander and so on, but I’m perfectly fine with waiting. And as you suggest, it will be the final game before we know if our ML niggles are fixed.
For me PES 2012 with fixed shooting & ML training would be pretty much enough for me in PES 2013… we’ll wait and see.
I picked up PES again the night before last coming back to season 4 on pro, 2nd with 17 games unbeaten so far in the league and promptly lost games 18 & 19 against Man C and Chelsea – both title rivals… somewhat downhearted I kicked off against league leaders Liverpool and finally felt back in the swing of things, a comfortable 3-0 win.
And it continued last night with my 7th straight win, the run finishing around 1am with a personal PES 2012 record 9-0 thumping of Bristol City… Belhanda and Buffon (regen) joined in the Jan Tfr window and have signed up Hazard and Fellaini for the next season on frees.
Back up to 2nd and 3 points off L’pool can’t wait to get back to it tonight.
Pete—that sounds like an exceptional run of form in every sense. The majority experience is one of struggle and frustration for so many seasons at the start and in the middle of a career.
The central and wrong-side shooting thing nearly drove me crazy in PES2012, and has got to go in PES2013. I cannot face the thought of playing several seasons all over again putting up with that. This question will largely decide whether or not I skip Defaults in PES2013.
NG – I haven’t played a 1p v 2p PES on the PS3, think the last time I did was PES 2 or 3. Good laugh with the right opponent but never anything likely to test the real quality of the game – how can it when you’re almost programmed to hack your mate down at every opportunity. I have never played online and all those minutes devoted to the enhanced features of that in 13 were wasted on me.
Had a couple of right spankings – Tottenham 5-2 and disgracefully Bolton 4-1 but won some crucial mid table games and into round 3 of the cup with Chelsea, Liverpool, Man C and U all out – it’s all div 2 teams till a possible Arsenal final. Sitting on w6 d4 L6 approaching the Jan break and 9m in the bank for strengthening. No glory this year I reckon but season 5 push for Euro places.
uncle turf—I won’t go off on my multiplayer rant or my online rant or my summertime previewers rant. Let’s just say I think it’s more than coincidental that the rise of online multiplayer more or less coincided with the start of PES’s decline.
Your first season in the top flight after your hair-shirt-on-bed-of-nails years of self-flagellating is proving very interesting indeed. You’ve built up quite the resistance there.
NG – I am now up to 9th, 1 point off Euro qualifying so maybe I stand a chance this season after all. January is here and I have done quite a bit of horse trading. My scout told me of a ‘reminds me of Gilardino’ in the youth ranks – Leon Best regen on 63ovr! – I wasn’t happy but I have to go with my 5 star scout so signed him up. Missed out on a lot of others – Jig, Henry, Klose (De Kaam still won’t join) – but managed to get Helteger – a guy who always seemed to end up at Spurs and punish me every game. Was I pleased…
Some of the others are flying – Chigrat, Farinos, Kmou, etc but still need to weed out a few weak ones, Virota is not quick enough for my needs and Camacho looks like he has stalled on 84ovr. No doubt whatsoever that buying those three guys and Heycory (never has a bad game) has made the difference between survival and actual chance of success. I do think there is an issue of balance really needs to be addressed between getting a supposed great youth prospect and the time needed to hopefully build him up and just signing a fantastic 17yo CF on 81ovr for 400k!
Continued on with season 17, managed to fit in 4 games last night, a 2-0 win against Inter who are ranked 2nd in the world, in my champions league group, a 2-0 win over West Brom, followed by two 3-1 wins over Wolves and Fulham respectively, both after going a goal down.
2nd in the league behind Liverpool with 6 games played, 5 wins and a solitary defeat, which was a 1-0 defeat at Liverpool on the opening day of the season, the day after an International match which left my squad depleted.
Currently on a 6 game unbeaten streak, including the Super Cup win.
Whether this is down to my change in camera angle or just a couple of good sessions time will tell.
uncle turf—the slow growth of promising youths is one of the big downers of the long-term vision thing in ML this year. 4-5 seasons ago I got players who are only now starting to come good. I’ve been waiting to play with Hagi again in this PES.
It sounds like you’re a good bet for Europe at least this season and you should be in prime position to ‘finish’ PES2012 in time for PES2013 after all. And it sounds as if Camacho has been nerfed since his heady heights of PES2008(PS2/PSP), no matter how good some people’s Camacho can seem for a time.
Leon Best, lol—that is all.
Paul—last season I lost to Man Utd early doors and then went onto win the league anyway. Just try to win (or at least not lose) your return tie against Liverpool, needless to say. More than the camera angle change or ‘good session factor’, it sounds to me as if you’re entering each game confident of being able to do enough to win or get a result no matter what happens. That is the required PES2012 attitude! Particularly on Superstar. Each match is a mini-narrative that you have to dictate the terms of.
I had one of those classic PES matches last night against none other than Barcelona in the CL semi first leg.
I was at home so, determined not to concede and away goal, I set up my Brighton team with one up front and two DMFs.
I totally dominated the first 30 virtual mins only to concede a crappy AI wonder goal. But straight up the other end and Benjani volleyed in to make to 1-1. Then right on half time Messi (now 35) scores and I look done for.
But no…
Second half and I go for it (while still playing defensively). Benjani scores a glorious over-head kick into the top corner to make it 2-2. I’d have taken than but then more. Thomas (my DMF) surges forward and breaks clear. 3-2! Then Benjani on the break to complete his hat trick. 4-2.
Now ALL I need to do is get a half-decent result away to Barca and CL final awaits.
John—that’s a fantastic result in the CL, where I’ve found the game as tough as PES2012 can ever be on Superstar. The defend-with-attack approach is vital, but even so it’s rare to come from behind once never mind twice in Europe, and against Barca to boot.
yes, Leon Best – could be the next Gilardino!
btw I meant Metelger – had a blank spot and thought it was Helteger.
What I am finding is that this team seems to respond very poorly to speed training. The R2 squad list progress bars nearly always show blue if I do speed but red for the others. It seems to reinforce the idea of a team ‘style’.
Turf – that’s interesting, so you can optimise training results by checking the progress bars every week? So are you now just sticking to the type of training that gives maximum red to the progress bars, or does this lead to diminishing returns?
Not-greg – I know you’re a fan of detailed training chat on your blog, so please feel free to add some thoughts
uncle turf—ahhh, Metelger. I was thinking ‘I am not knowing this Hetelger’, but the list of players I am not knowing in PES is very long indeed.
abbeyhill—just change the training to the next category along, in rotation, every week. All else is Fancy Dan, Carlos Kickaball stuff…
And if you’re feeling in any way encouraged in your insane quest by uncle turf’s progress, DON’T BE. He had 8 seasons on Professional before he restarted on Superstar. I’m going to include a special appendix to the book, possibly in heroic verse form, entitled ‘Abbeyhill’s Folly’.
well, it’s true that I only just survived another chairman ‘must-win’ game last night thanks to a cracking late save by Lothar, and face another one first up in tonight’s session, but a couple of training tips might make all the difference
abbeyhill – it’s not scientific I just noticed a season or two ago that the gains from speed didn’t seem to keep pace with the gains from physical or strategy (technical has way more skills so is always likely to boost both tech and offensive). After a few weeks of this seasons tech/phys/speed rotation I kept checking the red/blue bars and they were nearly always slightly blue or tiny red on speed but good red, rarely blue, on tech/phys. Maybe your team really does develop a ‘style’ and trying to push training too much against that may result in stagnation. I don’t know, just an observation from this campaign.
p.s abbeyhill – absolutely what NG says – this way madness lies… I started this whole game way back on Top Player and was getting creamed till NG persuaded me to boot up in Pro. I had 3 seasons on Pro, got promoted then another 5 in the Premier winning the double, single FA Cup, etc. When NG went up to SS I didn’t feel comfortable so decided to start again on SS, with the added lunacy of defaults/youth only. I spent many weeks dying a slow horrible death till this campaign where I dropped the ‘no transfers’ rule. Along came Kmou and Heycory and the rest fell into place. I just don’t believe a default keeper could ever give you enough safety. All the training tips in the world won’t make Lothar into Buffon, I don’t think anyone has experienced a truly brilliant default this year (apart from Ribeiro of course!!).
abbeyhill—in all seriousness, you really need to go down a notch or two of difficulty to have any prospect of enjoying PES2012. You won’t believe me, but you cannot learn the game on Superstar with Defaults. No way, ever. Well, perhaps it is possible, but only at an incremental, glacier-like pace.
I do completely understand wanting to play the game on the super-duper-hardest settings possible for fun, though. I just cannot imagine that much more than 5% of your current playing experience is in any way enjoyable or rewarding. In fact, going by my memory of PES2012 with Defaults, it must be a turgid, dull, and hateful experience. It must be a bad game with just occasional chinks of light. Deliberately putting yourself through all that for the sake of a jape? That’s what boggles my mind!
Please keep updating about your progress, though. As a Dwarf Fortress player, I respect the integrity of the ‘Losing is Fun’ ethos. If you ever make it out of D2, or even win 5 matches in a season, I’ll send you a bottle of virtual champagne…