PES Chronicles

I’m still more or less in the football gaming doldrums. In PES2010′s Become A Legend, there’s a been a grim development: I’m back on the subs’ bench.

I spent a whole session mostly watching PES2010 play with itself. [Hah, which makes a change from... No, no, no.]

Being benched has come as a very unpleasant surprise. Until now in this season, I was starting matches. I thought I was past all of this nonsense.

It’s a peculiar kind of torment. Why? I keep asking myself, whilst watching yet another CPU vs CPU game spin towards its end, with the faint hope of my eventual appearance as a substitute. Why?

At first I thought it was a one-off. I recall being benched for odd matches here and there in last year’s BaL campaign. But when I was on the bench for the next game, and the one after that… and the one after that, and the one after that…

Currently, I’ve been on the bench for 6 matches in a row. Coincidentally, that’s been my after-match rating for all of them: 6.0. Which isn’t bad, and was the kind of rating that got me into the First XI in the first place.

What has gone so wrong? At the start of this season I was in the First XI. I’m not doing anything differently from before. If anything, I play more soldily as a substitute, knowing that I have less time to impress. I’m playing the percentage game, making my passes, holding my position.

This is nearly the middle of my second season. My gaming time, as ever, is at a premium. I’m not very motivated to spend it in staring morosely at the speeded-up ‘spectacle’ of CPU vs CPU action. That’s what I’ve done for most of the time during these 6 matches. In one, I didn’t get on the pitch until the 85th minute. I touched the ball once, then the final whistle went.

I have to ask myself what I’m doing. What’s it all about? Should a game mode in a football computer game really be triggering an existential crisis? I’ve got books to read and websites to stare blankly at. I can’t do anything else while the CPU vs CPU matches are on other than wait for my time to come, however briefly.

I wait as patiently as I can. And, post-World Cup, something strikes me: CPU vs CPU games are eerily like top-level International football at its very worst. There’s little in the way of goalmouth action. The two teams more or less cancel one another out. If there was something worth watching, things would be different.

By the time this post appears, I’ll probably have found my way back into the First XI. I hope so.

I’ve set aside FIFA10′s Manager Mode and Be A Pro mode, and Master League for now, in favour of PES2010′s Become A Legend. This is the solo player career mode where you take control of a single individual from the age of 17 all the way through a career in a Master League-esque kind of game world, albeit one with a few notable—and disappointing—deficiencies.

I played it for a bit last year and one of my first clubs finished bottom of Division 1. But the club was not relegated. Relegation is not part of this game world. I was unhappy with that then, and if things are the same for the 2010 version, I’ll be unhappy again, whether I’m at the club(s) that ‘should’ be relegated or not.

Still, all grumbling aside, BaL is the better of the two fantasista game modes in the two football games. FIFA’s Be A Pro has a lot going for it, but it’s a lot like its cousin Manager Mode: just a hollow, empty shell. It’s become a truism of the next-generation that FIFA might have all the animations and the fluidity of gameplay, but clunky old PES has got the only single-player game modes worth playing, and in my opinion it’s single-player game modes that ultimately count.

I named my player ‘not-Greg’ (what else?) and chose my position: AMF. I dithered over it, tempted to go for CF, or possibly WF, but as an AMF I can be involved in so much more of the play from back to front. (Not that the game plays me as an AMF very often. Mostly it plays me as a CMF, sometimes as a DMF or SMF.)

I didn’t feel like designing a player face from scratch, so I went with a default one. For a hairstyle I gave him the kind of shaggy mop that I had myself at the age of 17, loving Iron Maiden as I did. As this career progresses I’ll update the hairstyle over the passing years, hopefully arriving in the mid-to-late 30s wth the chrome-dome I’m sporting today. That’s the funny thing about the way time passes. One moment you’re a teenager surrounded by people and in personal charge of the whole world, or so it seems. The next moment you’re sitting in front of your TV on a Saturday night, all your friends are either married or dead, and all you can think about is where your precious hair went.

My next decision was which club to join. I played a one-off match that was all about letting the clubs take a look at me and make an offer. I did pretty well, I thought, getting some important touches and keeping things solid the way BaL seems to like. My side lost the exhibition match 2-1 but I was one of the better players.

My three offers were all from lowly Division 1 teams—Blackburn, Hull, and Stoke. There was little to choose between them apart from their relative rankings in the BaL world. I couldn’t decide whether joining a slightly higher-ranked team like Blackburn would be a boost or an impediment to my progress. Stoke were the middle-ranked of the three, so I went with them.

And I went straight into Stoke reserves, and the ‘B’ team at that. It took me 6 or 7 games just to get into the reserve ‘A’ team. not-Greg is a ridiculously poor player. He’s rated 44 OVR, which is at least 15 points beneath Stoke’s next-worst player at the club. It’s a very long road from here, and it goes uphill all the way. I haven’t played around with the Focus Points thing yet. This is akin to starting with the Defaults in Master League, only more so.

I made it onto the bench for the First XI for one match, and came on towards the end for all of 15 minutes. I had to watch the first 75 minutes, of course, of CPU vs CPU. I played so badly when I came on that I was busted back down to the reserves for the next match, and that’s the current state of play.

For the past few years I’ve had a patchy record with these solo-player career modes. I always have an initial burst of enthusiasm and a recognition that I should, logically, adore this kind of thing, particularly in light of my well-documented love of Master League. But somehow it’s never really lasted. Will it last this time?

Friday’s arrival of my custom Capuano shirt (pictured right, fresh out of the box) came with a burdensome responsibility. Yes, I did mainly get it as a bit  of a jape, but it’s also a solid keepsake of my PES2010 year—which is now nearing the 250-hour mark. That kind of time investment is not a trivial matter.

The Capuano shirt’s future is either in the back of a drawer somewhere, or displayed in a frame on a wall. I’ll have to see how I feel. But first, I felt that I had to wear it at least once whilst playing the game.

So I played an entire session of PES2010 while wearing the shirt. It only felt odd and embarrassing at first. Once the initial strangeness was out of the way, it actually felt quite normal. And it is normal. Totally normal.

Capuano himself, funnily enough, hasn’t really shone since I started making a fuss of him on the blog. He’s continued to grow, acquiring another point of OVR rating (94 now). I now play him mostly in his original position of left-back, where he’s totally accomplished. I only risk him in his newly-trained position of AMF when my other options are unavailable. I want Capuano to be a full AMF in a few seasons’ time, but for now I need him in defence.

So, how’s my form in season 15 of this turned-out-epic-again career? Pretty good, really. I’ve got all my focus back. It’s worth remembering that I’m still pursuing not only my first Treble, but my first Cups of any description. I’ve ‘only’ got the 4 league titles to show for all 15 seasons so far. It’s not good enough.

Here’s the league table after 23 matches—it’s not looking good for me this season, I have to say:

There’s still a long way to go, and we all know how charitable Master League leagues can be, but I fear the worst. My patchy early-season form may have left me totally out of title contention this season. I’m slowly fighting my way back up the table, but I still run into those ‘impossible’ games where I’m strangled to death and feel lucky if I scrape a draw.

I think my best chances of honours this season are in the Cups. I’m still in the D1 Cup, where I face a tricky second leg in the quarter-final against Manchester City. It was 0-0 in the first leg at their ground. Things are poised for a heartbreaker at my place. I’ll try not to let it happen.

I’ve also just got through to the semis of the Champions League. My opponents there will be… Barcelona.

I was annoyed, and intrigued, by the draw for the second round of this competition. It saw me paired against French opposition for the 5th season in succession. Given that there are 15 other teams in the 2nd round draw, and only two of them are French, what are the cumulative odds for it to happen season after season like this? There must be something fishy going on.

I almost forgot to mention: the mid-season transfer window came and went. I’m still poor and I couldn’t afford any new players. Apart from one. I got him from the Youth team. His name? Ceciu.

Ceciu! He’s 20 now, after languishing down there for a few seasons, but he has still managed to reach a rating of 70 OVR. I couldn’t resist.

As for my other Regen Defaulter, Castolo… Oh dear. The Second Coming is not going well. I’ll update fully on that front next time.

A new season begins—season 15 of what is becoming quite a PES odyssey. Thanks to last season’s undignified collapse (I won nothing, and finally did well to finish 3rd in the league), I faced serious financial problems for the first time in a number of seasons. Panic-buying Morientes for over £20m didn’t do the damage. (I more or less offset that expenditure by immediately selling another player for about the same amount.) My poor season meant that I missed out on prize money. I also overspent on skill cards for many players, and I splurged £4m on extra positional training for two players (Capuano and Castolo). It all left me a good £15m short of the amount required to stay in the black.

I cut my Fan Club and Youth Team levels from 5 to 4, saving £10m at a stroke. I put a few players on the transfer list. Zaki was among them—cash crises in Master League are always a time for unsentimental ruthlessness. But there were no bids at all for anybody. This was unusual for a transfer window in PES2010 ‘s Master League, where you’re usually fighting off the AI clubs with a stick.

With just a week to go before Budget Day, I needed to do something fast. I looked at the wages and saw that my fading 32-year-old striker, Itzhaki, was on a salary of £4.5m per year. I took a deep breath, and released him. I scraped through Budget Day with just under £5000 to spare, the closest I’ve come in many seasons to incurring the automatic staff/player reduction penalty.

Itzhaki’s summary release caused instant unhappiness among the rest of my squad (left), but it would fade soon enough. Releasing Itzhaki was tough, but it achieved the desired effect. It was a good old-fashioned seat-of-the-pants squeak through the negotiations window to end in profit. In the old days you risked the dreaded GAME OVER. Now, the penalty is ‘only’ a random reduction of staffing levels and/or players being sold without your consent. Whichever, it’s still hard-coded into my Master League genes to avoid any end-of-season debt at all costs, so that is what I seek to do, and what I did in this case. I will stand or fall accordingly.

The last bit of pre-season business was a kit-change. I left my away kit as it was (as pictured at the top of this post, being worn by The Myth of Castolo). For season 15 I went back to basics with a new home kit (right). It’s a traditional plain sky blue with white trimmings.

And so to the football, where things are going rather well. I’m second on goal difference after about 10 matches. I huffed and puffed my way to a narrow win over newly-promoted Anderlecht. Then I thumped Arsenal 3-0. Why is that always the case in Master League, no matter what else changes?

Among my fine wins against top opposition was a 7-0 (SEVEN-NIL) demolition of Porto at their ground. Almost everything I tried seemed to just work. Zaki was born again in this match, getting a hat-trick. He’s also scored a few in other matches, and is now getting back to his old strike rate before last season’s calamitous injury. His hat-trick goal was set up by Castolo, on as sub, who took the free kick that sparked a training-ground type of move:

Link:

I’m very cautiously optimistic that The Myth of Castolo might actually shape up to be a useful player in time. He’s painfully acquired another point or two of OVR rating—up to 63 now—and no longer feels like so much of a liability. He still has the turning circle of a tank. And he still has the ridiculous reputation that’s nowadays staggeringly out of all proportion to reality, but that’s myths for you: stubborn as hell.

My Champions League qualifying group this season is made up of Inter Milan, Besiktas, and Boca Juniors. It’s nice to have a group without Juventus for a change. I played the first two fixtures, beat Inter 2-0 quite easily, and I beat Boca Juniors 1-0 in a  tighter game. Once again I doubt I’ll have much trouble qualifying. It’s the knockout matches I’m terrified of. I can’t wait to see if I get French opposition in the second round again, as I have done in all four of the seasons I’ve played in the CL so far. If I do, something is definitely going on there.

I’m also still in the D1 Cup, of course. I’d have mentioned it by now if I wasn’t, if the Treble was once again out of reach. At this stage, about a quarter of the way through season 15, it’s still very much on.