PES Chronicles

I’ve finished season 2014 in my Master League career with a semi-flourish. I lost the D1 Cup Final, but won the Masters Cup Final and the League. I’m happy with that.

The D1 Cup Final continued the dominant theme of Wednesday’s post. The feeling that a certain kind of outcome is favoured by the game and there’s little or nothing you can do about it.

I scored early, but then the game equalised and that’s how it stayed. 1-1 for 90 minutes. In PES Cup Finals over the years, I’ve often felt that extra time is mandatory. As if the game’s working to a quota system.

I.e., if a certain percentage—40%, or whatever the real figure is—of real-life Cup Finals go to extra time, then the game programmers are damn well going to make sure the same thing happens in PES. I played well enough in the 90 minutes to score a dozen goals and win a dozen matches, but it was never going to happen. 1-1 was the outcome.

Extra time passed without incident. I lost the penalty shootout quite badly. Somehow I managed to skew my first two penalties ridiculously wide. There was no coming back from that.

The Masters Cup final was much better. I ran out a 4-1 winner over Arsenal. The game was a lot closer than that scoreline suggests. It was 1-1, again, for most of the match. I only scored my three other goals in the latter part of the second half.

And so to finish off the League. In the race for the title I’d been suspiciously caught up by a free-scoring London FC. With three matches left we were level on points. I was second on goals scored.

I focused. I focused. And I experienced three of the most satisfying matches of Pro Evolution Soccer I can remember playing in a long, long time.

My three opponents were Middlebrook, Arsenal and Marseille. I beat them all. The scores were 1-0, 2-1, and 3-1 respectively.

When PES really comes together, there’s nothing else like it. I passed, I moved, I created opportunities, I defended well.

And at the end of them I was top of the table. PES United were champions. London FC had drawn one of their matches. I had a cushion, but I had to win that last match to make sure.

Below is a very brief clip showing two goals from my run-in. Zoro, my right-back, is the hero of both goals.

Link:

In the first, I’m madly pushing for a goal. I have switched to my 1-2-2-5 all-out attack alt formation on the strategy button. Ronaldo gets the ball out wide, crosses, and there’s Zoro—my right back—rising on the 6-yard line to glance the ball in with a header. For the second goal, Zoro is running down the wing and lays on a subtle short through-ball for Aguero to rifle the ball past the keeper.

And that was season 2014. Now for 2015 and the Treble…? Is there time?

Hmmm. Am I going to play another season of PES6(360)? Probably—but it’s not certain that it’ll be a very quick season…

Most likely I will play season 2015 v-e-r-y  s-l-o-w-l-y. I’ll have the PES2011 and FIFA11 demos to occupy me. Plus a lot else besides.

I’ve got unplayed games and unread books and unwatched TV shows & films piled up to the roof. From early October I think it’s likely that PES2011 (and maybe FIFA11) will take over my gaming life (and my life?), so I’ve got a lot to get done now.

I’ve had enough of wringing my hands and working myself up into a lather of anxiety over PES2011. The weight of testimony from the high number of early players is still very much on the positive side. I think the game’s going to be good regardless of the scares.

The pain of not being involved in the Master League Online beta has receded almost to nothing. There shouldn’t be any surprise at people rapidly assembling squads of superstars, but I am surprised anyway. Another reason why the mode will have almost zero interest for me cometh the day.

If I was still feeling left out, I found one method of alleviating the hurt. Look here—who’s this?

That’s right, it’s the ubiquitous Messi. Albeit in PES6(360), my current football game of choice, but still. It’s Messi. We all love Messi, don’t we? Damn right.

I’ve bought Messi for my ML team in PES6(360). In this way I can experience exactly what it’s like to play MLO, where buying Messi is apparently obligatory. As I understand it, you get kicked from the MLO servers if you haven’t got Messi in your team after a few days of play. And then you get kicked if you don’t squeeze R1 for 99% of the match. (Here endeth the heavy-handed satire.)

He’s scoring plenty for me, is my Messi. I play him on the left side of my front 3. He’s pretty darn good, even for 2005′s PES6, when he had yet to become the PES poster child.

I’m three quarters of the way through year 2014. It’s been a funny season. I lost all 4 of my opening European Championship group stage games. So I was out of the competition, but still had two fixtures left to play.

The thought of those meaningless, empty matches ironically sent me over to FIFA10 for a couple of days. I say ironically (possibly in an Alanis Morissette kind of way) because my experience of FIFA10′s Manager Mode is entirely meaningless and empty.

So I came back and got the two fixtures out of the way. I won them both, comfortably too, which makes me wonder what might have been if I’d only focused a bit better earlier on. I could have won the Treble this season and concluded my unfinished business with this game.

Which isn’t to say I resent playing PES6(360), or feel some kind of obligation to play it. As I hope I have demonstrated, I really only play the football games I want to play (cf. my abrupt abandonment of Become A Legend in PES2010. Yes, I’d sworn to give it 5 seasons, but after 1-and-a-half seasons I just could not take any more, and it had to go).

So I’m top of the league. I’m in the semi-final of the D1 Cup. I should wrap up this season with at least one trophy, hopefully two. And then the serious quest for the Treble begins.

Put it this way. I doubt I’ll return to PES6(360) after this current period. So I’ve got probably a few weeks of real time left in which to do the Treble before the 2011 games completely turn my head. If I don’t do it, PES6(360) will be the only PES Master League in which I’ve never won a Treble. I can’t let that happen.

I’m forging ahead in season 19 of my Master League career in PES2010. It’s now the year 2027 in the ML world—an impossible, ridiculous year that I cannot imagine ever seeing in real life. But then I never used to think I’d see the year 2000, never mind 2010.

Up there in the future I’ve just gone top by a point. As shown by the current table (below), my goal-scoring is very poor. That’s one of the side-effects of getting a bit rusty. Happily I’m not letting many in at the other end.

I’m most concerned about my performances in Europe. I’ve been steamrollered in my first two Champions League group games. I lost 0-3 and 1-2 against the first two group opponents. This would have been inconceivable before my mini-break. It just shows that you can’t afford to let your edge grow dull and blunt, even in a game as supposedly by-the-numbers as PES2010.

It’s not too late for me to rescue matters in Europe. There are four fixtures left in the group stage. Three wins and a draw should see me through and I’m more than capable of getting them. This is still essentially the same squad that I won the Treble with two seasons ago and the Double last season.

And FIFA10? I haven’t touched my BaP career for a few days, but I do feel the tug of it once more. And also of Manager Mode. But will I ever be able to get into Manager Mode with fresh memories of Master League? It’s all yet to be seen.

I was in town the other day and saw the FIFA World Cup game being played on a big screen. It looked mighty impressive, I have to say—and it looked different. It seemed weightier, somehow, and more rugged. I’ll have to take a look at the demo when I get a chance.

I’m still a bit bemused about Tuesday’s PES2011 news. On the whole it was all good, I suppose. There were whispers of problems with idiotic keepers and dodgy collisions and so on, but you’d expect them to be resolved for the final release—surely? Every next-gen iteration of PES has featured idiotic keepers, so it’s got to be a worry. As for PES’s infamous collision system…

No, it’s best not to talk myself into a state of worry, and I’ve also come to realise something: exactly what am I worried about? I’m a Master League player first and foremost. The quality of the on-pitch gameplay is almost incidental. As my long year of PES2010 is demonstrating, I can cope with a less-than-perfect gameplay experience. The modes maketh PES. But I know that with a ‘proper’ next-gen gameplay experience, PES could be so much more than it is, and I do yearn for that.

I think I need to see a gameplay video. I say ‘I think’, there, because I’m not convinced that it would do any good. Football games all look pretty much the same, really. Even the best gameplay video won’t convey how the game handles, which is the most important thing to any football gamer. You can read all the descriptions of water you like, and look at all the pictures of water in existence, but in the end you can only tell how cold or warm it is by drinking it.

I’m yearning for Pro Evo at the moment. FIFA10′s gameplay is sublime—really, it’s sublime—but I’m struggling to feel anything at all for Manager Mode. It’s a mostly empty shell. Like a Wild West town hammered together for a movie, there’s nothing behind the facade (so it’s best not to look).

I only play the career mode in football games. That’s literally all I do. A football game is empty without a great career mode. I know there’s plenty of other stuff to do, but I’m just not interested. My position on playing those other modes is this: Imagine only playing Champ Manager/Football Manager as a series of one-off friendlies, or isolated tournaments, or single-season league competitions—how crazy would that be? I’d effectively be twiddling my thumbs in the garage while a sleek sports car sat there idle, waiting to take me away on a great adventure. Or not.

That’s how I feel about PES, and about FIFA. The core gameplay is important, of course it is. But in the longer term they rise and fall by how much or how little their career modes engage me. I’ve just spent a scintillating 7 months in PES2010′s Master League. How am I supposed to cope with this sudden shift downward to FIFA10′s Manager Mode?

Still, it has only been a week since I stopped playing PES2010 after many solid months. A wobble was inevitable. I’ll keep going through it. And last year I was kind-of immersed in Manager Mode, once I let it sink its hooks (such as they are) into me. I want to give the game the same fighting chance again this year.

(But what about PES6(360)..! No… I must shove such thoughts aside. For now.)

Fortunately for FIFA10, its gameplay continues to feel intoxicatingly novel and addictive. Stitching together passing moves to create chances and score goals is so challenging. It’s a novelty to play matches on snow-covered pitches, even if that never really happens anymore. Alas, the sprint-clamping problem continues to bug me. I need to go up to World Class asap, but I’m worried about being sacked as Torino manager.

I chose to play this career with the simulated Board difficulty set to World Class. Only wins will do. Draws and defeats cost me in terms of my reputation. Despite doing pretty well, I’m always only at around 50% on the confidecne meter. You get sacked in FIFA if you’re not careful.

One of the Board Expectations is to win Serie B. After 12 matches I’m 9th in the table. I could suddenly click with the gameplay and surge up to the top, but I don’t think it’s going to happen. As long as I can keep out of the 30-40% zone, and finish the season in a decent position, I should be all right for another season at least.

But will I still be playing Manager Mode/FIFA10 by then? That is the question.

So, it’s a weird formula. I love FIFA10 and I dislike Manager Mode. I like PES2010 and I adore Master League. Which formula is the best? Where do I want to spend my summer?

I’ll give Manager Mode another week to claim me. I haven’t got the time to spare to play something that doesn’t fully engage me, so the whole of FIFA10 is riding on the outcome.