PES Chronicles

After finally clinching the elusive Treble at the end of season 17, I have immediately cracked on with season 18. Why am I going on with PES2010, and not jumping over to FIFA10—even if only for a short while—as I’ve often looked forward to doing (and still look forward to doing, eventually)? Briefly: I’m still enjoying Master League, I’ve still got stuff to do in it, and I don’t want to break the spell.

My Treble-winning season took a lot out of me, mentally and financially. After assembling a great squad over so many seasons, there was a cost—my combined wages bill for all players was £99,500,000. Ninety-nine million, five hundred thousand pounds. I first saw that demented figure at around the 30-game mark, near the end of the season. Expected Earnings predicted a £30,000,000 shortfall. I thought I’d have to sell a player or two to make the cut on Budget Day. I had Morientes earmarked for sale. Surely I’d get a good £20m for him at least?

But there was no need to sell anybody. I got a ridiculous amount of cash for winning the Treble. A load of sponsors paid out on bonus clauses. The fan club brought in a cool £20m on its own. No AI teams made bids for any of my players, which was unusual, but fortunately I didn’t need them to.

I brought in a few promising Youths, paid all the bills, and emerged £300,000 in credit on the other side of Budget Day. It was a lot closer than I’d like, and really I’m just deferring the tough choices until the end of the new season. The only way for me to sustain this squad on these wages would be to win a Treble every season.

Last season’s big star was arguably my loan signing, Gilardino. His mid-season arrival was very timely. His goals were a decisive factor in winning the Treble. I tried twice to sign him in the transfer window, and twice I was rejected. What more do I need? I’m the number 1 club, the domestic and European champions, the inter-continental champions, and he still won’t come. But perhaps there’s more to it than that. Maybe the game automatically rejects transfer bids when you manifestly cannot afford the transfer fee. And I definitely could never afford the likely transfer fee of £30m+. But I’ll get Gilardino eventually.

I’ve changed both my kits for the new season. When my 60GB PS3 died last week (I’m still hurting), the only data I lost was my Edit file that contained the new kits I’d created just before the end. This new new home kit looks a lot like that lost kit, but I’ve put aside superstition and just gone with it. My new away kit is a little bland, but I was hankering for an alternative to the Galatasaray-style away kits I’ve had for a few seasons now.

My main ambition for the new season is to win another Treble. My secondary aim is to continue to develop my young players, particularly Castolo and Capuano. I’m still mulling over whether to move my star left-back, Capuano, up to AMF for good. He can play at AMF—I spent the money on positional training a while ago now—but has a lower rating there at present. At left-back, he’s now an astonishing 97 OVR. Would it be a waste of that talent to make him play in a new position? I’m torn in both directions.

Early games have been very good. I have won 9 and drawn 1 in the league, scoring lots of goals in the process.

Zaki, despite being past it, is still in my team. And he’s scored a few goals as well, even netting a traditional PES cracker from 35 yards into the postage stamp corner of the net. I’ll save up all the special goals for a mini-compilation later in the season.

In the D1 Cup my 1st round opponents were Manchester United. I lost the first leg at my ground 0-1, but turned it around at Old Trafford, beating them 1-3 there. In Europe my opening group matches have yielded 4 points (a draw, a loss, a win) and I’m joint-top of the group table.

So far, this season is shaping up exactly like last season. If it ends the same way too, I’ll be happy.

Just over 8 months ago, my 60GB PlayStation 3 suffered the Yellow Light Of Death (YLOD). I sent it away for a repair, the repair was successful, and from that day to this—8 months later—I had enjoyed trouble-free gaming on my faithful old PS3. Post-YLOD, I must have played 350+ hours on a variety of games, chiefly PES2010 of course, but also Valkyria Chronicles, Final Fantasy XIII, Uncharted, and several others.

On Monday just gone, the YLOD returned to spoil my morning. There was no sign of anything unusual right up until the moment it all went kaput. That’s always the way with catastrophe. In retrospect you look back and marvel how normal everything was until the dreadful moment.

I had some breakfast as normal and then switched on the PS3. I started up PES2010, after first signing out of PSN to prevent the game downloading new advertising boards from the Internet, which has caused occasional freezes of the entire game.

It’s season 17 of what has turned out to be my most epic Master League career since the balmy days of PES5. I still haven’t won a Treble in this career, and I’m very keen to change that fact. I’ve actually been struggling in my Champions League group. I won the opening fixture but I lost and then drew the next two matches. My fourth match, against the current group leaders Besiktas, was a mammoth game. That was to be the first match of Monday morning’s session.

I spent a minute or two picking my team. A lot of injuries recently, and more blue and purple arrows than usual, gave me a selection headache. My final team choice was a bit of a patchwork job, with Pires playing up front and Gattuso—still young and unreliable—having to play at DMF. I started the match. Besiktas kicked off.

I will remember the next few seconds for a very long time to come. I won the ball just outside my penalty box, played a pass up to Munitis, and turned with him and started to run at the AI defence. And the screen froze. Hmmm, I thought. I have never had freezes during a match. This is something diff—

There were three rapid beeps from the console. The screen turned black, then the universal blue of the HD era. My PlayStation3 expired there and then.

As a YLOD veteran, I knew immediately what had happened. My console had just died and this time it would not be coming back. I went through the routine anyway. Switching it off and on. Pulling all the leads out. Pressing and holding various things while pressing and holding various other things. Going out of the room for a few minutes and coming back in, pretending it made a difference.

No. Nothing brought it back. After last year’s repair, I had a 6-month warranty from the company that carried it out (the excellent Console Doctor). I’m 2 months past that warranty now. I would not pay to get it repaired again.

There was one pressing problem: the PES2010 disc was stuck inside the console. There is a trick to get them out even in the aftermath of a YLOD incident. It didnt work. I ended up having to buy a special screwdriver with which to take apart my beloved 60GB PS3. Look at the obscenity of these pictures and pray that it never happens to you.

It was fairly traumatic, digging into my PS3, seeing things I was never meant to see. Just removing the faceplate (picture 1, above left) was torment enough. Things were to get much worse as I delved deeper into the innards. I had to unscrew an awful lot of screws to get at the blu-ray drive (picture 2, above right), and then a lot more screws on the drive itself to make a gap to slide the disc out of (picture 3, left).

When it was all over I didn’t put everything back together. No. I scooped together all the screws, (about 20 of them, of many differing sizes) and put them into a small jiffy bag. Then I went into town and bought myself a new PS3. This month is a tough one financially and I had not planned to spend £250 on a new games console, but that’s what I did. How could I not?

Back at home I set up the new Slim PS3. First thoughts: okay, so it’s slim, but why is it so bleedin’ wide? And as I sat there in a mess of cardboard and polystyrene and miscellaneous wrapping material, I couldn’t help thinking: this shit again? I have now had 2 Xbox360 consoles and 2 PlayStation3 consoles in this generation of gaming.

I put the old PS3 in the new one’s empty box, carefully placed the jiffy bag with the screws alongside it, and put it somewhere out of the way. Technically, it could all be put back together again, and possibly even returned to working order. I don’t want to think about it for now. I’m still kind of grieving.

I remember the day I got my 60GB PS3 home. August 2007. It was a Monday, the same as the day when it finally died. I think I had more hair back then. I was so thrilled to be a part of the next-gen, finally. Oh, and I was looking forward to PES2008, which, AS WE ALL KNEW, was going to take the PES franchise to the next level. It would be like no other football game on earth, the greatest football game ever… Oh, such innocence!

Ever since the YLOD first hit me last year, I have meticulously backed up all my save games and other data to a USB stick after every session of play. This disaster has robbed me of my 60GB PS3, but it has not impacted my Master League at all. My previous session was on Sunday, and I backed up after it as usual. After I signed into PSN on the new PS3, the saves transferred over and worked, in-game, absolutely straightforwardly.

There was just one little wrinkle. Whenever I change my kits, usually at the end of every season, I back up my Edit data too. But this season I had forgotten to do so. The Edit file on my USB stick was from a whole season ago, and it reverted me to last season’s kits (left and right). I could have re-designed my newly Edited kits for this season, but I didn’t. I’ll keep the old ones as a reminder of this sombre period.

If I do win the Treble this season, it’ll be in memory of my 60GB PS3. Farewell, old friend. I will never forget you.

Season 17 brings new kits for home and away, and my latest attempt to secure a Treble—League, Cup, European Cup—in PES2010′s Master League. It’d be my first in this career. It’s never taken me this long before. I don’t think it’s taking 99% of other PES2010 players very long. The impression I get is that most manage it within 4-8 seasons, with a large number doing it in 3-5. Seventeen seasons (and counting)? Shocking.

Some peculiarity in me has collided with some peculiarity in PES2010, and this epic Master League career is the result. I’m pretty happy about it, actually. Whatever happens from this juncture, it seems PES2010—warts and all—will be getting a fine end-of-year review score from me in September. (It’s positively chilling to think that’s just 5 months away.)

Last season I had four loan signings, all strikers. They’ve now gone back to their clubs. Chevanton, Ronaldinho, Saviola, and Mantorras. All four were Youths and they arrived at various stages of their individual development arcs.

Ronaldinho, aged 20, was fairly weak and pointless nearly all the time. Saviola, aged 18, was very good. Mantorras, the senior member of the group at the grand old age of 21, was pretty much the finished article. I tried to sign him in this transfer window but he wasn’t having any of it. Or his club wasn’t. Either way, I failed to sign him with all my staff at level 5 and as the reigning European Champions.

Post-season (or pre-season, depending on your perspective) is a great time for pruning the squad. I decided to sell Mathieu. It wasn’t an easy decision for me. What Castolo still is to many Master League aficionados, Mathieu is to me. The Myth of Mathieu? I didn’t give it time to take root. He’s an average left-back and midfielder now. The explosive DMF who defined the phrase ‘Middle Shooting’, and who was arguably my player of PES5 (it’d be between him and Bergkamp), is a figure of the past. I got £2,000,000 for him—a good price.

I promoted a goalkeeper from my Youth team, a 16-year-old named Moya who is rated an incredible 86 OVR. I’ve heard about these young super-players popping up in other people’s Master Leagues. It’s the first time I’ve had it happen to me. And in my 17th season too. Clearly, there is no universal template for a Master League career.

With three GKs on the books, one has to go. I transfer-listed Zuberbuhler, a faithful servant whose time has come. He went straight into a mood, and nobody came in for him, so now I’m stuck with him at least until mid-season. Buffon takes over in the number 1 spot (about time too). Moya will deputise occasionally in selected games.

I have one other new signing, a name I’ve heard conjured many times in recent years. It’s KUKTAYAN, an AMF/WF/CF, currently aged 20. He’s 79 OVR and showing some impressive stats behind the scenes. He got a goal on his debut but has been quiet otherwise. As a youngster he still lacks real control and pace.

Zaki is fading. I’m officially worried. He feels very much like a spent force nowadays on the pitch. His touch and power and shooting ability are pale shadows of their former glory. The downturn started after he won the European Player of the Year last season. The same thing happened to my previous winner, Itzhaki. If Zaki doesn’t pick up by mid-season, I’ll have to move him on, and sentiment be damned.

And so to the football. I’ve had a decent opening few matches. STOKE CITY, of all teams, are in 1st. They’re newly-promoted this season, and I shouldn’t sneer—Liverpool came up last season and won the title at their first attempt. Speaking of Liverpool, they were my opening round opponents in the D1 Cup. I beat them comfortably in both legs. My Champions League group consists of Stade Rennais, Besiktas, and Porto. Bring on the Treble!

Finally a couple of amusing incidents from my first few matches of the season. In the first clip, my superbly talented left-back, Capuano, performs a wonderful double takedown tackle on two opposing players. As he gets up he’s already performing the universal finger-wag of appeal to the referee, but the red card was inevitable. In the second clip, it’s late in a 0-0 match where I really want the win. Out of desperation I’ve started pumping long balls up to the front, hoping for a lucky break. And I get one…

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Winning the title last season triggered a cascade of cash, an avalanche of bounty, a tidal wave of credit, a hurricane of moolah, a tsunami of dosh. I could go on there, but I won’t. It’s safe to say that I’m rich now, richer than I’ve ever been so far in this Master League career. I got £15,000,000 for winning the league. I got another £10,000,000 or so from new and renewed sponsorship deals. I got a bonus couple of million from the fan club.

With all that money swilling around it might be expected that I’d bring in a ton of great new players for season 11 and my first Treble attempt. But no. Something confusing happened with Expected Earnings, again. After upgrading a few of my backroom staff, I slapped in a few bids for some 90 OVR-rated players—a CB and a DMF. The combined transfer fee would have been around £6,000,000. Expected Earnings duly took this bid into account when reckoning my final balance, giving me a figure of -£1,000,000 or so. This triggered those warnings you get from the game that you’re about to run into debt.

I was utterly confused. I’ve never made big transfer bids before. I was unsure about what was going on. I suppose I couldn’t believe I was as rich as I was. I lowered my team staff levels right back down to where they were, and waited until the end of the transfer window. My two bids for the players were refused. I was too worried to make new ones for other players. Wages and costs were paid… and it turned out that I was still about £7,000,000 in credit. Expected Earnings had caused me to mess up a transfer window yet again.

So I go into season 11 with exactly the same squad that won the title last season. This is a good thing in one way—there are no new players to dilute the team-work pool. But with Europe coming up, my squad feels pretty lightweight. I’ll line up a few top signings for the mid-season window, and hope my season is still alive at that stage.

My annual change of kits saw me decide to alter the horizontally striped home kit that I loved so much last season. I wish I hadn’t changed it now. I really did love it. I’ll be going back to them stripes next season. For this season I made the stripes wider and adopted black shorts. For the away kit I chose a red strip with white trimmings. I’ve just noticed that I picked different shades of red for the shirts and shorts. Ooops. Thankfully, in PES2010 you don’t have to wait until the end of a season to fix mistakes like that.

Season 11 got underway, and the short news is: I’m struggling. Badly. I’m playing terribly. I’ve had odd good games, but not enough to make my current league position—13th after 7 matches—anything but an embarrassment. We’re supposed to be the champions…

At least I haven’t fumbled the Treble just yet. I squeezed through the first round of the Cup, against Arsenal, thanks to a lucky away goal. But things are precarious in the second round. River Plate are my opponents and after the first leg at my ground I’m 1-2 down on aggregate. It’ll be tough at their place. I’ve got to score twice to have any chance at all.

None of this post-title-winning struggle is unprecedented for me. Thinking back, all the best Master Leagues—PES5′s, of course, in particular—has thrown me a curveball in the first season after big success. I can vividly recall a season on PES5 where I flirted with relegation immediately after a superb title-winning campaign. This iffy start to season 11 is a good sign that ML is back to its classic best.

The Champions League has started. I’ve played one match in the group stage, against Juventus. I was ridiculously proud to see my Coventry City team—my Coventry City team!—lining up beforehand, and the music, and the lights… The match itself was a minor disaster. I lost 1-3 at home.

Juventus steamrollered me. They were 0-2 up before half time. I was totally on the back foot, and couldn’t seem to do anything to stop the relentless waves of attacks. I got a lucky goal back after the break to give me some hope of recovery, but they scored a killer third goal soon after that.

And so I had lost my opening game. It’s a weird Champions League group: myself, Juventus, Manchester City, and Aberdeen. I hate seeing Man City there, not just because they’re a good team—and they will be tough—but because they’re from my own league.

Finally I have to show this very interesting goal scored by the AI. I rarely show goals by the AI, but this was something very special. When I looked closely at the replay I could hardly believe it. This is the first time I’ve ever seen anything like this from the AI in a PES game:

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