I dunno—you wait 14 years for one bicycle kick to come along, then get two in the space of one PES year. And, for similar reasons, neither of them are at all satisfying… I’ll get to that.
A couple of fine sessions, the lowlight of which was another 3-0 spanking at the hands of the CPU.
This was from Sporting Lisbon in the first leg of my first knockout game in the Champions League. I have no idea how it happened. I didn’t play too badly, the CPU didn’t play too great. Put it down to ring-rust.
I’ll really struggle to make it to the next round of the Champs League now, needless to say. My only chance of silverware in this 17th season of Master League competition may well be the title itself.
I met Manchester United in the league, at their place—and beat them 1-0. I played most of the match with 10 men. I’d had Neeskens straight-red-carded in the 4th minute for a vicious scything challenge. It came while I was trying to cancel the CPU’s straight-from-kickoff momentum by any means necessary. I succeeded in interrupting that notorious script, but lost my captain.
The rest of the match was surprisingly easy. Farinos carried the weight of being the sole DMF with ease. I held Man Utd at bay and slowly, slowly, asserted myself as the other end.
I’d more or less settled for a 0-0 when I had a breakaway with Forlan on the right, who crossed for Perrotta to score my second bicycle kick goal of PES2012, and my second of all time:
Perrotta has been one of my unsung heroes over recent weeks. Mr Reliability, I call him. He can play well in at least three positions (CMF, SMF, RB). He started this game wide on the right of midfield. Note his dynamic run to the middle as Forlan carries the ball out wide. It’s this kind of stuff that has kept PES interesting over the years.
The only downer here was the placement of the shot. I’d anticipated Perrotta actually heading the ball, and so I’d aimed for a near post glancer with the analogue stick in the 5 o’clock position. Which should have resulted in me almost hitting the corner flag, right?
I took a screenshot of the moment the ball crossed the line (those are my red lines either side of the ball):
I whipped out my pixel-measuring tool (quiet at the back, please), and confirmed what my eye was already telling me. That the ball had crossed the line in the EXACT MIDDLE of the goal, utterly ignoring my input.
My reading on the above screenshot is that it is precisely 242 pixels from the centre of the ball to the outer edge of either post. There is, at most, a +/- discrepancy of 1 pixel either way. With different screen sizes and resolutions, you may have different results. If you have your own pixel-measuring gizmo at hand, knock yourself out. (MeasureIt, a simple plugin available for Firefox and Chrome, is a good ‘un.)
So this bicycle kick, far from filling me with joy and delight as it should have done, actually depressed me and reminded me of one of PES2012′s most unattractive features.
It’s a glaring example of what we have known all along: that PES2012′s shooting, to a large extent, is dictated by the game itself, not by user input.
How many times do you think you’ve planted one in the corner, only to look at the replay and see that it barely cleared the keeper’s central flop, if at all?
How dismal to see goals constantly travelling down the exact gemoetric centre of the goal, as on this occasion, when I know that I’ve aimed to left or right.
I really don’t care about the argument from stats. Or the argument that loads of goals are scored down the middle in real-life. Etc. Etc.
In football games, especially in PES, we’ve got used to being able to aim our shots, within reason. Pointing the analogue stick (or d-pad) at either side of the goal, and seeing the ball rocket into that corner, looks good and FEELS good. I want to keep doing it.
Shooting that is remote-controlled by game-code isn’t what I want to see in a football game. Even if there is some overlap—accidentally or by design—with features of the real game.
‘PES2012′s shooting sucks hairy balls’ isn’t some terrible last-minute revelation. Far from it. It’s a testament to the quality of the rest of PES2012′s gameplay that the annoyance of shooting can be overcome.
For so many players, PES2012′s shooting is its original sin. Of all the players who walked away from PES2012 back in October, what % were largely repelled by the shooting? I’d speculate more than half.
I’m puzzled and disturbed by the contradictory reports we’re hearing of PES2013′s shooting, with many people starting to say that it replicates the issues of PES2012.
I’ve already passed one PES year with wonky shooting. I would like to regard PES2012′s central/wrong-side shooting issues as a blip, not as the new norm. I really don’t know how keen I’d be to play another year with this uninspiring, unintuitive, unPESlike shooting.
Uncle -PEmmmmgghh….2008...
NG – Im going to sort of ignore the fact you dont want to hear about any stats arguments….BUT…..
you aimed to the left or right, whichever it was, but the players position, body angle, pressure from opposing players, his actual embedded stats, his fitness level, his frm level, all transpired and dictated that the shot didnt follow the pinpoint accuracy you had intended, but instead went central.
I believe there is some sort of algorithm in place that says ‘The user has aimed extreme right, take a,b,c & x,y & z into account and calculate the probability of the shot following the exact intended direction, if abc+xyz/probability*10000 is greater than 90% then execute intended shot, if not then execute central shot)
I believe its not an intentional ‘aim at centre’ ploy by Konami, more just a complete fuck up of their coding logic and calculations that determines whether a shot is successful or not.
Im far from defending the game, as, to quote one of your comments above:
“‘PES2012′s shooting sucks hairy balls’ isn’t some terrible last-minute revelation. Far from it. It’s a testament to the quality of the rest of PES2012′s gameplay that the annoyance of shooting can be overcome”
The testament as to the quality of the rest of PES12′s gameplay?? Really?
I find the game play that is hindered, crippled, ruined, obstructed,and foggied by the numerous basic issues with the game – inconsistent passing model, shoddy player selection, dampened down dumb AI both of the CPU and Team mates, pressure abuse, bus parking, identikit playing style for every team, scripting …
I find all that more than overwhelming enough to NOT be able to forgive the wayward shooting.
It all adds up to a mess that ruins what is, deep down, a decent, maybe even very good core gaming model, but far too many very basic, schoolboy errors and issues/bugs completely take away any good that is in this game.
PES 13 needs to have revitalised ML Game mode, with all those basic unrealistic shennaigans removed, or at least implemented properly.
It needs a solid consistent passing model, shooting needs to be fixed, not just powerful, AI needs a major revamp, Team playing styles need to be varied not just all set to counter attack/direct attack in as few passes as possible.
Only THEN will we have a PES game that we SHOULD have had on this gen of consoles 3 or 4 years ago.
One thing I absolutely concur on is…
“How many times do you think you’ve planted one in the corner, only to look at the replay and see that it barely cleared the keeper’s central flop, if at all?”
Too bloody right – in real time I think ‘that’s one for You Tube’ then the replay crushes my joy, at times looking like a completely different goal. I too scored a bicycle kick the other day with Sibon. I was not thrilled as it was 6 yards out, I wanted him to head it as it was a nailed on goal (or as near as you can), instead he did an overhead that went through the keeper’s hands with barely a ripple of excitement.
I’ll be honest the poor shooting, heanious scripting and half-arsed ML drove me away from PES 2012 and I just don’t think I’ll have the time to return now.
For me, if a sports game has to resort to impossible feats to beat you, I’d rather not bother. If there’s one thing that ruins the immersion for me it’s when that overdrive mode kicks in or your one on one with the keeper and your heavily statted (is that a word?) striker tamely passes the ball forward.
I’m not a moron with the attention span of a goldfish – I played PES 2011 to death and loved it despite all it’s faults but, on the whole, PES 2012 left me cold.
I’ve played FIFA 12 sporadically since abandoning my ML but this is definitely the first year of my life where football games have come second to ‘other’ gaming.
So maybe the problem is me, maybe I just hit a rich vein of ‘real’ gaming fun or maybe the problem is with the PES anf FIFA this year.
The most footy fun I’ve had in 2012 is 1v1 offline with mates which is a shocking fact for somebody as dedicated to playing Master League as myself.
So I come back to my original thought which is that the offline modes in 2012 are to blame.
FIFA’s Career Mode, whilst taking a step in the right direction, is lacking something over a period of seasons – it just doesn’t draw you into the gameworld like ML. After season 4 I started to feel like I was playing a series of one off games with no emotional investment in the progression of players or my team.
Also ML 2012 was very poor to me – the changes were clunky and added little value whilst the elements they took out reduced the experience. Combine that with the AWFUL AWFUL AI scripting and bobs your uncle.
So for me, the only way is up this coming year.
However, if Konami continue to try and tell the story for me – I will turn away from PES 2013 just as quickly.
Paul—it could be as you say, but we’ll never know. All I know is that when user input is ignored to the extent it often is in PES2012, my playing experience is sub-optimal to say the least.
And if you haven’t already completely stopped playing PES2012, I think you should. Your downward curve of recent months seems to be charting new depths.
I’m still in the place with the game overall that you were back in January-February time, when you loved the game. That’s been the kind of experience I’ve had since February, when I almost walked away because the Issues. PES2012 does play a great game of football, for me, enough of the time for it to be a worthy endeavour.
You should probably quit while you still have some good memories of the game!
uncle turf—for me the most damning evidence against Konami’s jiggery-pokery with PES2012′s shooting would be these instances where the shot goes perfectly central, and I mean pixel-perfectly central as in the example above (they’re common).
Whatever’s going on, it’s not even subtly disguised by putting it a few virtual feet to the left or right of centre. No, it has to be straight-down-the-middle, with Euclidean precision. It spoils what would be otherwise wonderful moments. After the bicycle kick went in, I had two reactions. First: WOW! And then: oh…
I cling to the promise of PES2013′s manual shooting.
Chris—one factor that needs taking into account by anybody who’s played football games for a long time—for longer than 10+ years, say—is that with every year that goes by, the more familiar and therefore habitual all football gaming must seem. I remember PES2 and PES3 feeling as fresh as a spring morning for most of their lifespans. Now? Now we open the latest demo, and then the latest game, with the hard-bitten weariness of grizzled veterans. We have an extended personal history with football computer games that we didn’t have back in the glory years. That’s got to be a major factor.
I remember your semi-comic, semi-tragic deflation back in October, including having the game in your bag to trade in.
It’s Gamescom this week (I think), and I’m 99% sure that we’ll hear one thing about PES2013: that it’s faster than the preview and demo builds. This is so predictable that I would put money on it. A hundred pounds, easy.
I’m 50% sure that we’ll hear that assisted shooting is the same as PES2012′s, but seeing as I’m looking forward to PES2013′s manual shooting anyway, that’ll be less of a blow.
Oh yes, and fingers crossed for Master League making a return to form. This year’s has been a pale shadow of what it was even last year, in a PES I disliked. And of course PES2010′s ML was the Superman II/Wrath of Khan/Empire Strikes Back of the mode.
NG – you’re probably right, i should abandon PES12 now, but im stubborn and will feel ‘dirty’ if i dont play the game through to some kind of conclusion, even if its not the treble winning one i aspired to back in October 2011.
Im aware that alot of my sudden plummeting from loving the game to despising it may be down to the fact Im playing it on professional, the absolute Inbred Ugly Gypsy troll-like level of the game, and therefore only seeing many bad points, but i fear Superstar is too late now, given my limited time with the game left between now and sept and fitting FIFA in.
Chris pretty much summed up my current thoughts/feelings.
Ha! I’d forgotten about my crisis of faith back in October. Maybe that’s it – I used to approach the latest PES iteration with a certain joie de vivre that’s disappeared to an extent. Maybe it left along with my 30 inch waist…
Anyway, despite being more Cracker than Columbo, I’m determined to enjoy both footy games this year, no matter the end product!
Paul—I can’t understand playing on in a game you seem to have come to loathe. Gaming time is so precious as we all know. Mind you I’ve played on myself—in this and previous PESes—through bad patches, mainly due to Master League’s narrative pulling me through, so maybe you’re not quite at the loathing stage yet. Personally I’m still liking PES2012 to see out its last season or two, but I’m looking forward to spending a relaxing few weeks between PES2012 and PES2013 with FIFA12 and other games, in the same way that I’d look forward to a really good holiday.
Chris—I know that we rarely saw Columbo out of his famous mac, but we saw enough of him in shabby suit jacket and trousers (with untucked shirt) to see he was rather chunky around the waist too. If you were reaching for an example of a skinny TV detective to contrast with Robbie Coltrane, you went for an odd choice, but I can’t think of one either. Uh, Adam Dalgleish?
I was thinking more ‘tude than waistline – I always thought Columbo was quite avuncular whereas Cracker was more of a cynical fecker.
There must be tons of slim detectives but I can only think of slim sidekicks…
Columbo was creepy (might have been his eye) – the sort to sit in flea pit cinemas watching 60s films about naturism and the native women of Fiji. As for slim detectives, surely Sherlock Holmes (especially Jeremy Brett) is the ultimate ‘wiry’ physique.
Anyhow, a first for me just now – my coach announces that training has led to Chigrat acquiring a skill card – speed merchant. Until now – and this includes a complete 99 for all team over various seasons – I have never managed it. It seems entirely random. Have we established if the player cards are also attainable? not that ‘Talisman’ etc seem to do much for me.
Chris—showing my age now, but Jack Lord in Hawaii Five-O (1970s) was quite wiry. And yes, Columbo was surely the most gentlemanly TV detective ever. He was always so delighted by everything his suspects/victims did to try to wriggle out of his sights.
uncle turf—of course, Sherlock Holmes is the original drug-addict genius ‘tec, as also exemplified on TV by Benedict Cumberbatch. Is he a TV ‘tec though? My view is skewed by having read all the Sherlock Holmes books before really seeing any TV/film representations.
I’ve had about 5 players spontaneously acquire skill cards out of the blue. If you find out why they get them, let me know.
NG – no, not really in so far as Holmes would exist without the TV, whereas some others are written for TV (although quite a lot are based on obscure, or less well known, novels that subsequently become popular – a mate who has read the Lovejoy novels reckons the tv is the worst updating for the screen imaginable). Not so much a detective as a private investigator but Jim Rockford was quite lean wasn’t he? Also runs Van Der Valk close in the ‘best title music’ stakes IMHO.
No idea how Chigrat got the speed thing – I was training technique at the time!
uncle turf—an old friend who worked in the antique business in the late 80s, around the time Lovejoy was originally on TV, told me that after the series became popular, lots of people in the antique business mysteriously started wearing black leather jackets and affecting Ian McShane-like demeanours and gruff voices. This persisted for years after the show’s disappearance as a kind of antiques trade race memory of former greatness.
I don’t believe that skill card acquisition has any relation to whatever category you train at the time—rather it’s an accumulation of seasons of training and experience-gathering. So I think anyway. Anything’s possible.
not-greg – so at least my bicycle kick with Ordaz into the corner of the net can count as one genuine achievement in PES2012!
Just got offered £98 million for chigrat.
Lloyd – and did you accept? I find it a bit pointless if you have plenty of money as you can’t then offer it for another top player. I’m currently trying to sign C Ronaldo – coach says ‘player wants to come but difficult etc’ – if I could offer 100m I bet they’d sell.
Just been thinking of something very unrealistic about this PES – I have never had a player injured during a match, in a whole year of playing. I have had a few knocks but they always return, no sub needed, and one or two after the game notifications but every injury is a training one. Why don’t the scything challenges result in more serious consequences?
not-Greg My heart sank when I read your post about the CPU hijacking of your bicycle kick, as on Sunday I scored one of my most spectacular goals in this PES. A break down the let flank, the ball was crossed in, near post bicycle kick into the box where it was karate volleyed into the net. This is the first replay I’ve saved in 2012, and now I’m going to have to go back and double check the ball didn’t end up dead centre of the goal…
abbeyhill—indeed, I really enjoyed seeing that one. The ball went directly behind the plane of Ordaz’s body, but he was facing away from the corner. One of the largely meaningless buzzwords they like to use on the forums is ‘organic’, which that bicycle was more an example of.
Lloyd—yep, highest I’ve heard of, congrats.
uncle turf—I’ve had about 4 instances of in-game injuries over the course of the 17 seasons. If you’re getting off-screen injuries no problem then it’s unlikely you’ve got the no-injuries bug—or at least not the main version of it that I had in PES2011 where I had no injuries, of any duration, to any player at any time.
And you’ve had a lot of short careers too. Although your 8-season one should have yielded more.
Chris99—don’t look at the replay, is my advice. To paraphrase somebody or other: ‘Better the delusion that exalts me than ten thousand truths’…
Upped the level to Superstar last night as I entered the Jan Transfer window, just to try and squeeze a bit of enjoyment out of the remaining half a season.
Much more difficult but there is a level of freedom during play, not as much pressure abuise or bus parking, enjoying the games slightly more even if the scripting is still just a bad.
Ive had 2-4 week injuries to players sustained during an actual match but all the lengthy ones (Balleteros currently on a 28 week lay-off) have occurred during training.
I think the skill cards are attained by players in a predisposed manner, once their individual stats reach a certain level it triggers a skill card, which must be specific for each player.
I hear rumours that individual player training is back for PES13.
So I’m looking for a partnership to replace the Hooper-Ribeiro twosome and I’m thinking more and more than this PES is a bit different in the striker department. I’ve never had chance to play with the likes of Messi, Rooney, etc but in my first game I desperately wanted Inzhagi, Metelger and a few more. Now I have them I’m not convinced – Metelger is a lot of left foot, Inzhagi seems poor at 1on1s, Otam is great at 1on1s but gets higher ratings when playing as an AMF, Sibon doesn’t quite have the control for me, or beat Ribeiro on heading (they are all still young mind). I’m scouting the leagues and am struggling to find anyone better though. I remember Neymar being unbelievable for me, but only 1 game in 3 and at the expense of my all round play. Admittedly how I use them ie. my playing, is a big factor but I reckon it’s about who is the right striker for your style of play, we don’t seem to have agreed on the best front men (which is a good thing I guess). What do you think – is there a definite ‘best in game’ or have we got a top 5? I have to put Ribeiro in mine for all he is 68ovr!
Lloyd £98 million not bad I got offered £112 million for Kmou. I had no intention of ever selling the best defender I have ever played with in a PES game, so I was messing around with offers and got the offer up to £120 million
Paul—fair play to you for carrying on. I had a couple of matches this morning that felt very fresh and alive. I don’t think PES will ever, ever, ever be free of scripting. It simply cannot be done with current levels of AI and technology. I hate to say it but you’d be far more likely to get a script-free game (allegedly) out of multiplayer in the future. But then you have to play squeeze-the-controller and Barcelona all the time.
uncle turf—’bestest PES2012 striker’ has got to be about a combination of things:
1) Who we sign and when they arrive in the chronology of our individual MLs.
2) The inherent qualities of that player, e.g. height, speed, shot-power etc
3) Most importantly, our individual playing styles.
IMO the three influences are all critical. My example would be Forlan.
1) I got him early on as a Youth, well aware of his prowess from previous PESes. I ‘knew’ he would be a good striker, so I stuck with him where many other promising and big-name youngsters were shipped out.
2) Forlan is one of those nippy nuisance strikers, good agility, moderate-to-good pace, high shot accuracy and a decent shot-power. Good stamina, nice array of skill cards.
3) My style of play is pass-and-move, through-the-middle, possession-based. It favours creating chances from the edge of the area. Snapshots, turn-and-shoots, the occasional long-distance screamer. Forlan fits this mould like a hand fits a glove.
There is no one perfect striker but rather just the best striker who came to us at the right time and fits in with our preferred styles.
NG – yes, agree on your points but I still think there may be candidates for the best of breed, in the way that we seem to have settled on a familiar selection of Kmou, Chigrat, Rane, Farinos, etc for all the other positions. I would suggest goalkeeper is a little similar in that we don’t seem to have regular mention of the same names, the youth and regens just don’t seem to be as strong for CF and GK. Obviously you using classics alters the pool a little but I’d still be keen to know who has emerged as popular choices. Biggest problem I’ve found is just never being able to buy them, hence me having Roux for so long in my Pro game.
BTW I am currently on course for a PL invincibles… 16 played, Man C, Utd, Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea all played…no scripting so far…qualified in Euro Lge, FA Cup qtr final to come, watch it all go wrong against Wigan or Wolves!
NG – i wouldnt expect to not witness any scripting at all, its ther eto keep scores down etc etc, its the level of subtlety that im aggravated by, in that there is none, its just blatant, smash, in your face full on handicapping.
Unfortunately, whilst Superstar plays a more fluid free flowing game, when the scripting kicks in its more formidable because 9/10 times you are punished due to the increased skill level of the CPU.
Its a shame i didnt switch to SS a season or two ago, maybe i would be playing PES12 until the very end then, but i feel ive left it too late, the rot has set in.
Still, 17 seasons is my most ever accumulated in any PES ever, so has had its time, it will do me good to have a break, play a bit of FIFA, Finish LA Noire, and might grab that Sleeping Dogs thats out this week, that looks decent, then i have a 3 weeks holiday abroad to refresh the batteries, which will see me come back a day or two before PES13′s release – so I can start again all fresh and cleansed from PES12′s game-rage, which only leaves one question…………
PES 13 ……. Master League ….. to start with the defaults or not!?
uncle turf—of your list of 4 names, I’ve only ever seen others talk about 3 of them, not had them myself. Farinos I can take or leave. I’d choose Perrotta over him. Neeskens, now, I would happily install as one of the greatest DMFs ever. Like you say, my experience of ML this year is qualitatively different from most others’.
Good luck with getting that Invincibles achievement. I came close on Superstar once. It’d be a fine achievement, probably as good as a Treble.
Paul—I’m saving an example of infuriatingly unsubtle scripting for tomorrow’s post. I don’t think we’ll ever be free of that either. Especially not with a decade or so of PES and general football gaming at our backs. We’ll always be able to tell when something’s up. Although I think even players new to PES would know something was wrong when they score a goal and suddenly they can’t make their players do the simplest things while the CPU has a ‘turn’.
My current PES2013 ML feelings: start with Defaults. But we’ll all need to see the final game to make a final decision. I like the idea of PES2013′s manual shooting, but would prefer to play it with classic PES-style assisted shooting at least to start off with. If PES2013′s assisted shooting is anything like PES2012′s, I won’t be going near the Defaults on any difficulty level. I just have not got the time to be bothered going through all that central/wrong-side thing again.
NG – I think the benefits of being a regular poster/reader on your site are greatly enhanced when we have common starting ground ie. same range of players yet different experiences. I’ve found at times I can’t really share the joy of the likes of Barnes or Neeskens and if you didn’t ‘default’ then the early years of 2013 might be something rather too special to you. I know the pain is significant but surely you must be curious to know if we get a different Schwarz? a bullet booted Irjescu? Remember your reaction when we all started congratulating ourselves on Heycory!
uncle turf—I think Schwarz would be a Youth player whatever squad was chosen to start ML with. I would miss out on Irjescu & co., but if PES2013′s shooting turns out anything like PES2012′s on the wonkiness front, I won’t miss the Defaults one little bit. Missing out on something and missing something are two different things. Starting with Defaults on PES2012 nearly destroyed the whole game for me. It soured the early months so badly that even the Classics couldn’t save it and I nearly walked away. I loathed my experience with the Defaults on PES2012, in other words. What pleasure there was was totally overshadowed by the pain. And not good, jokey, grinning-at-PES’s-foibles, slap-me-back, oooh-aren’t-I-a-one kind of pain, but the crushing sort that made me ask myself ‘why am I bothering with this shite?’ Spend all match crafting one good chance and aim all the way to the right, only to see Hamsun shank it into the keeper’s chest? No thankee!
It’ll all be about the shooting. I can take a bad crop of Defaults. I cannot take PES2012-style shooting and Defaults. It won’t happen ever again.
Careca
Turf – I agree with that. After reading this site over the course of the PES2012 season I was really intrigued to find out how the likes of Irjescu, Ettori, Shimizu, Ribeiro would get on in my ML world once I started playing. And although I wasn’t that keen on this new possibility of being sacked (e.g. it makes relegation battles unlikely), it does actually add a frission of excitement to a default campaign; every game seems vital, you can’t just spend the first 2-3 seasons near the bottom
Lloyd—noted.
abbeyhill—the fault lies not in our stars, but in our Defaults. When you marry up the post-PES5 tendency for them to be really rubbish with PES2012′s shooting, you’ve got a nightmare scenario on your hands that isn’t so much a football game as just a tiresome slog. This is why, if PES2013′s shooting model is even similar to PES2012′s—i.e., overriding user input to direct shots centrally and/or to the opposite side of the goal—I will skip the Defaults without even the slightest pang of regret. Manual shooting might yet save Irjescu & co., but I’ll need to see how that works in the final game.
Start of new season and Sibon ensures that I’m top with 4 wins out of 4. I did sell Chigrat and used the funds to get George Best and Agostini. Wage bill is creeping up towards £100m so the £98m for Chigrat will give breathing space for another season. Beat Man City 2-1 in first game Sibon with a brace, he’s 23 now and will probably start most games. I qualified for Europa League and will be going all out to win this. Wife and kids away next week so I think I’ve got two seasons to try and crack Superstar.
yes, shooting is what turned me off from pes12 …
My PES2012 is patched, so some of the players I am used to may not be in the original game. I also ticked the wrong box at the start of my ML, so I don’t have control over my staff, and hence my ability on the transfer market to get the big boys is limited.
With those caveats I’m a bit fan of Leandro Damião and Dzyuba up front, with Sigurdsson as an AMF. Brian Jensen was a bargain goalkeeper, and you can’t ignore Shimizu, who I play as an RMF.
not-Greg – Checked my bicycle assisted volley goal last night and am pleased to say the ball went to the keeper’s right about a quarter of a goal’s width from the post.
Lloyd—I found George Best skilful but weak on shooting, will be interested to hear how yours plays. The game loves Agostini.
andy—shooting is, or should be, one of the most satisfying features of a football game, and too often in PES2012—especially early doors—it’s anything but.
Chris99—I can and do ignore Shimizu, frequently
For me an attacking midfielder or striker must be able to shoot, and he just can’t.
not-Greg – Ah, but I play him as an RMF, and he still contributes double figure goals a season with a decent number of assists.
Chris99 – I stuck with Shimizu in my first game longer than most as his crossing for Ribeiro’s head was tremendous. Ultimately when I moved to SuperStar that woeful power stat made me get shot of him early as he is so restrictive. Now I have Taraabt in the RMF and he is great at cutting inside. long range, crossing and stepping up to SS. Shimizu has stalled at the club I sold him to.
Chris99—playing style, that’s what it all comes down to. An SMF or AMF has to have shooting or I can’t use him.