PES 2010 70% Code previews

[Mitch Connor]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/pe...cer-hands-on_5

You have to feel for Konami. Even when it was the critics' favourite football game, Pro Evolution Soccer was still the plucky underdog - the Havant and Waterlooville of the games industry's FA Cup third round, scoring a couple of goals in front of the Kop and leaving with its head held high, even after getting pasted in the salesy second half. But things change, and they certainly have. PES 2009 was by no means a bad game, but its angular, sped-up one-dimensionality felt like a throwback next to the increased realism of EA's improving FIFA series, and the world gave it the hairdryer treatment. Back to the drawing board?

Our first, brief hands-on may not have suggested as much on the surface, but by the typically conservative standards of the PES series, the new Team Style and Player Card systems, not to mention the expanded range of directional control, were and are blue-sky, helicopter thinking. They've even removed the forcefield around throw-ins, allowing you to jostle and compete in a more natural manner. Imagine! Extended play on near-finished builds of the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions suggests these changes make a big difference. But all the same, the boys at EA Canada are anything but complacent. Will it be enough?


We love preview code. In the one we've got the players' shorts flap in the wind at insane speed. It's mesmerising. Goalkeepers are very slow to take goal kicks, too.
We won't be able to answer that for a while, but in the meantime we can give you a better sense of how Konami's revisions stack up. On the pitch, the developer is touting something akin to FIFA 10's 360-degree directional control, which would be about 45 times better than PES 2009's (or whatever 360 divided by eight actually is). In practice it doesn't feel as though you get that many degrees of response from the analogue stick when dribbling or playing the ball, but there's no denying that it's a dramatic departure from the fixed lines and diagonals of the past, and much closer to the effect achieved by EA Canada with last year's FIFA.

The vastly improved graphics engine helps here too, restoring humanity to the faces of the players thanks to something as simple as realistic lighting, and expanding the diversity and nature of animations considerably to accommodate the freer range of movement. There are still some work-in-progress horror shows (stand up Adebayor - actually, better sit back down again), but most players are suitably recognisable, and animations continue to reflect distinctive running and movement styles - one of PES' historical strengths. Overall the improvement is considerable, and 2009 is almost unrecognisable in contrast.


The final game will also allow you to manually request the ball when running into space alongside a team-mate.
With the pace more measured, PES has crept back up from an abstract game derived from football to something more directly resembling what we see on TV. A lot of the little flicks and feints that used to require complex contortions of various sticks and button combos are now performed in-line too, and prove easier to commit to muscle memory. The result is a strong footballing foundation that respects intelligent use of space and tactical imagination on the pitch, and makes for a more deliberate, precarious feeling in control, punishing slips and spillages swiftly but seldom falling into predictable patterns.

Elsewhere Konami has tightened the AI, particularly goalkeepers, who can't be rounded so easily, with manual control returning for them as well. Keepers can also be unsighted, which helps you make more of free kicks and players with an aptitude for long-range drives. The overall first impression is that PES 2010 plays out like FIFA 09 without the bias towards pacy attackers, making for tight, competitive multiplayer matches.

Potentially just as worthy of applause is the increased transparency off the pitch, with a number of structural changes that allow you to understand and adjust players, positions and tactics without the need for laborious trial-and-error. Player Cards are individual characteristics, some of which highlight strengths such as reactions, touch and particular types of turn, while active cards can be switched on or off, or between several settings. Every player has a card for changing their attitude between defence-minded, attack-minded and balanced, but some of the better ones have adjustable specialties. Frank Lampard has a long-range shot toggle, for instance, which sees him moving into better positions to line himself up, while Luca Toni has a fox-in-the-box card and others can be encouraged to poach and set themselves for eye-of-a-needle passes. You ultimately need to step up to take advantage of their skills, but the cards work to help you.

Player Cards may be the most eye-catching element of the new PES - the kind of trademarkable bullet-point concept more typically associated with the old EA Sports - but Team Style is arguably the more broadly impactful, allowing you to fine-tune things like a team's compactness, how much support the team provides players advancing into the opposition half, the style of your defensive line and whether players will instinctively swap positions to mix it up. Superficially similar to FIFA's Custom Tactics, Team Style allows you to transform a team's behaviour in concert with the Player Cards, and this is likely to ease progress considerably when you're forced to withstand assaults from tougher teams by pressing harder and holding your ground in possession, for instance.


Online isn't something we can test right now, but having ditched Konami ID, the company's representatives are promising a significant change.
One of the quirks of our preview version is that a lot of the line-ups and formations have yet to be calibrated for release, so you fire up almost any team and discover players wildly out of position. This will be fixed by the time you can buy the game, but in the meantime it helps to highlight another significant change - the loss of the occasionally ambiguous skill pentagon in favour of a 1-100 player rating more akin, again, to FIFA. Individual players have a peak potential rating - Buffon is 95, for instance - but if you put them in a role they're not comfortable with, that drops off, so it's important to keep an eye on their preferred positions, highlighted on the same screen.

All of this is likely to help you back into the revitalised Master League, where there's a new Youth Team section for managing younger players and fast-tracking the best. Konami reckons the new menus should be easier for players to deal with, despite the volume of new options for things like sponsorship negotiations. Veterans of the Master League system may also be pleased to hear that you can qualify for and take part in the Europa League and Champions League, forcing you to deal with fixture congestion and other issues, although we didn't get that far during a week of testing (mostly because of my bitter, ongoing feud with the Eurogamer Expo's Tom Champion).


The menus and music are still, er, an acquired taste, but you'll have a lot of fun on this one, the Team Style page.
For all the game's seeming improvements, however, Konami must know that it has work to do to win back the core fans who finally took the plunge on FIFA last year, and PES 2010 will struggle to do so in one swoop no matter how much it reduces the quality gap. After a week at the controls, PES 2010 appears to play a game much closer to FIFA 09, with less of the latter's polish but a more quantifiable relationship between decisions on and off the pitch. However it stacks up in the final reckoning though, there's no question Konami has turned sharply away from the cul-de-sac into which the series appeared to be disappearing last year, and if nothing else PES 2010 looks like it will serve as a decent manifesto for the Japanese developer's future plans. The difficult question is whether it will be enough to see off EA Canada's own efforts, which we'll be considering in a thorough hands-on with a near-finished build tomorrow

http://forums.pesfan.com/showthread....04#post8378104

Originally Posted by andyofbramall on PESFan

Tell you what Jon, it’s that time of the year again. Yup, Konami have released the latest code of PES2010 to the press, and here at the bright lights of PESFan towers we’ve managed to get our grubby little mitts on it for your benefit. Oh happy days.

As always when trying a new build of PES for the first time, I headed straight for Exhibition mode. What better way to test the ins and outs of a new code than by reliving that most classic of world football matches - West Midlands Village vs. East London.

The first thing that struck me about the game was just how hard it was to run with the ball now. Granted, every time I play a new version of PES there’s always that little adjustment period, but I was completely beyond all redemption. Every time I tried to dribble around a player I came unstuck, it seemed almost impossible. Even faster members of the squad like Ashley Young could only run a finite amount before being thwarted by a member of the Hammers defence. Before I knew it, I was a goal down inside 10 minutes. What on earth was I doing wrong?

Several games later - it hit me.

I was playing PES like I always had. A general rule of thumb I’d previously employed was a few long passes to a member of my team on the wings, sprint for a while, cut in and shoot. Probably about three or four passes in total from receiving the ball. This sort of thinking failed me utterly in PES2010.

As soon as I realised what I was doing wrong and started to actually pass the ball around, the game opened itself up to me. It felt more realistic, goals actually took…effort. There was no bolting around seven men and planting the ball easily in the corner of the net, these were worked build ups and felt genuinely satisfying.



Mind you, I was hardly playing with world-beaters (Steve Sidwell excluded), so next on the agenda was Barcelona vs. Manchester United. As you would expect with a higher quality team, it was easier, but the dynamics were still the same. Even Messi wasn’t able to just buzz past players like he was some sort of mutant fly.

One of the reasons for this is that changing direction at speed is no longer painfully easy. The new turning animations ensure that the pace of the game slows down when trying to dodge past a defender, and although this movement feels unnatural and weird at first, when it clicks - it really clicks. It’s something I ended up missing when going back to an earlier version of PES. Although you can still gradually change your direction while running with the ball, 2010 made me want to cut down on the easy ninety-degree turns I'd got so accustomed to, instead opting to pass.

The AI also seems to play a part, with both your team and the opposition providing much sterner challenges to work around. From personal experience, it felt the AI was far more competent at covering gaps in its defence, and would eagerly close me down at the earliest point. Goalkeepers too seem to be more skilled, and in my opinion managed to position themselves and cover goal much more successfully than before. There was still the occasional unwelcome spill or unnaturally acrobatic mega-save, but overall I felt they were a definite advancement.

The new Cards and Team Style systems are an interesting addition, and I found combining them both results in quite a variety of games panning out. The changes are subtle, but they are there, and I'll be curious to see how people use them differently as time goes on. One point of note was that I could only find twenty-one different cards (with two even being allocated for goalkeepers), but I should mention this was only by investigation of Master League at the start of the game, so don't quote me on it.



Penalties are another area in which Konami has tweaked for 2010, with the idea being that how you take a pen now lies in a) how much power you give the ball and b) which direction and how much or how little you point the analogue stick. However as of writing this the system seems to be either too sensitive, resulting in penalty after penalty being blasted miles high and wide, or not quite finished yet. Out of about twenty penalties taken I only managed to score two using the new system, although this may just be down to my lack of skill. I actually found it was a more successful tactic to press no buttons at all, as after a time the computer automatically takes one for you and usually scores with a minimal of fuss.

The animations show real promise at this stage, and are already a step above previous instalments. Even with a fair percentage of them yet to be included, they still look fantastic, smooth and as genuine as I’ve seen in a PES game. Injured players even hobble around the pitch when they aren’t being called into action.

I regret to inform I'm not able to comment on the game's new 360 degree movement control, as this is a feature that has apparently been left out of the Xbox version's current build due to technical limitations of the hardware. We are informed that this will feature on the Playstation 3, and perhaps 360 control on the Xbox is something the makers are looking into for the near-future.

It's worth mentioning that the overall presentation is a big step-up, even in this preview build. The early lighting effects look brilliant, the menus feel slick and player faces have seen a ridiculous level of improvement. Having said that, some lesser known players from smaller clubs can still resemble beings from an alien world, but for the most part even they looked more like their real-life counterparts than in 2009. I think it's safe to assume the player faces are still a work in progress, you can tell that a lot of the teams in the game haven't been properly dealt with yet, so hopefully it's still on the to-do list of Konami's efforts.



Areas of the audio have also been tweaked. It was great hearing my fans jeer the visiting team if they had too much possession of the ball. Jon Champion and Mark Lawrenson return to their seats as commentator and co-commentator respectively, with Lawro continuing in his tradition of making sarcastic comments at me when I’m at my lowest. The overall commentary doesn’t seem noticeably different at this point, but it’s difficult to say at what stage in 2010’s development any new lines would be included.

Master League on the other hand has evolved considerably and now includes proper team budgets, coaches, athletic trainers scouts, youth teams and more. You can change the way the league is organised; do you want it to be structured by goal difference after points or head-to-head results? It’s up to you. There are some interesting improvements, and I’ll be discussing these in much more detail in a special Master League report tomorrow.

Unfortunately the much maligned Become A Legend has not seen a similar overhaul. Apart from the general gameplay improvements implemented in PES2010, the mode itself hasn’t changed noticeably, which I found a bit troubling. I can only hope that BAL is scheduled to be upgraded closer to release date, because in my opinion it’s something that showed a lot of potential when it debuted in 2009.

Overall, I think 2010 is showing a lot of promise. but is PES2010 a return to form? Personally I think it could be. On the other hand, in the same way beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, playability is in the eyes of the player. But for my money, it already presents a good, solid game of football, with only minor glitches preventing it from being the best I’ve played in a long, long time. With Konami really under the spotlight to make this year's PES the best ever, I've no doubt most of these will be ironed out in the coming weeks.


Note: As this preview is based on the Xbox 360 current code only, information may well change before the final release.

Some more pics on WENB if yo can get it to load up.

Will be more info released throughout the day.

360movement (or something like it....) in the PS3 version of the game, but not the XBOX360 version. Quite shocking imo. Makes my decision to buy the PS3 version very easy though.

EDIT: Some spanish site seems to be saying 360 movement will be in the PC and 360 versions on release, not sure what the official word is.

[Mitch Connor]

http://forums.pesfan.com/showthread.php?t=220771

Konami unveils new 360-degree control system, and more key gameplay advances determined by fan requests

Konami Digital Entertainment GmbH has announced that PES 2010 will benefit from 360-degree control and further elevating the unrivalled realism of the title.

The announcement comes following Konami’s close contact with the global network of PES and football fans, who have played a key role in the development of the new game. Via forums and feedback, the PES Productions team in Tokyo has canvassed opinion on elements fans hoped to see included in PES 2010, and 360-degree control was part of the long list.

360-degree control will be available on both the PLAYSTATION 3, Xbox 360 and PC-DVD versions of the game via the analogue sticks on the respective controllers. The system will allow players to spread the ball with ease, opening up new attacking and defensive possibilities. PLAYSTATION 3 owners will also benefit when using the Dual Shock’s D-Pad, but Xbox 360 and Win D-Pads are limited to eight-directional control due to technical limitations of the hardware.

Konami has also confirmed a number of similarly crowd-pleasing elements as requested by the fan base, including:

Manual Goalkeepers: PES 2010 will be the only football title to offer users complete control of the keeper. Players can switch to their goalkeeper at any time, and will enjoy total control of his actions.

New Goalkeeper Moves: Players can now perform quick under-arm throws to their nearest defender to get attacks rolling more quickly.

All-New Animation: Key animation related to dribbling, running, turning, etc, has been reworked and enhanced, creating a more natural and organic feel to the way players chase down balls, change direction and move around the pitch. The result is a more fluid and natural look to the game.

Fine-tuned Close Control: The PES Productions team has worked to improve trapping of the ball and basic close control elements, giving the user more ways to spread and move the ball around effortlessly.

Manual Ball Request: The ability to demand the ball when running into space is now available to the player, and will be accessible in all game modes, such as multi-player, online, etc.;

Simpler Skills: Moves such as feints, drag backs and upper body feints can be applied more naturally when taking on or trying to beat an opponent. The PES series has long been associated with clever flicks and tricks, and PES 2010 will boast the most to date.

"The PES community has been an incredible asset in the development of PES 2010, and we can finally lift the lid on the many requests the team has been able to meet,” explained Naoya Hatsumi, Producer for PES Productions at Konami Digital Entertainment Japan. “We have strived to make the system work and coupled with the new AI and player elements in the game, it helps make PES 2010 a much richer and more realistic experience.”

“We cannot thank the PES community enough for their unerring support and constant stream of ideas,” commented Jon Murphy, PES European Team Leader. “They have offered a non-stop list of elements and options that has given the team so much to think about. As anyone can see, we are committed to making such things happen, and the addition of 360-degree control and extras such as the manual goalkeepers, being able to demand the ball, and all-new animation shows that the PES team are determined to make PES 2010 the greatest football title imaginable.”

[thorbarry]

Sweet

So 360 movement is available on all versions of the game. I was surprised earlier reading that it was only available on ps3, how did they get that wrong i wonder?

[Mitch Connor]

Originally Posted by thorbarry

Sweet

So 360 movement is available on all versions of the game. I was surprised earlier reading that it was only available on ps3, how did they get that wrong i wonder?

i reckon people misunderstood the xbox 360 pad limitations.

You can use the PS3 d-pad for 360 movement (as it is analog too) but the 360 pad is limited (by hardware) to 8 directions, or maybe 16. So while you can use 360movement using either control style on the PS3, you HAVE to use the analog stick on the Xbox.

[thorbarry]

Originally Posted by Mitch Connor

i reckon people misunderstood the xbox 360 pad limitations.

You can use the PS3 d-pad for 360 movement (as it is analog too) but the 360 pad is limited (by hardware) to 8 directions, or maybe 16. So while you can use 360movement using either control style on the PS3, you HAVE to use the analog stick on the Xbox.

Cool, sure i think most xbox users, myself included, would be suing the analog stick as the d-pad on the xbox is terrible...

I stopped using the dpad around pro evo 4 on ps2, lol, i played it so much my hand would cramp up using the d-pad... so i had no choice but to use the analog.. I play both console versions of the game regularly and I find the analog much much easier to use, on ps3 and xbox versions of the game, rather the dpad

[thorbarry]

anyway enough about the 360/ and dpad... the game looks great, and it looks to have some very good improvements, something that the 2008/2009 versions lacked

[Mitch Connor]

What really disappoints me is that the BaL mode doesn't appear to have received any real update itself.

Was really hoping that they would bring back the training challanges from PES4 or 5, and incorporate them into the BaL mode, so that the players could progress in their stats quicker, and with more human input. Very annoyed that it doesn't appear to have happened.

Maybe it is the last mode to recieve an update, and that there will be some new stuff by the time the game is released, but I would doubt it at this point.

I hope that at the very least they will have improved your team mates AI in it, it is shocking in PES2009.

[thorbarry]

I'm not too upset about BAL not updating. The main points that i think should have been updated have, gameplay seems to have been improved, from what i hear it feels a lot more like a game from this generation, than just an updated version of a ps2 game. I hope this version is a very good game, and if they make the same amount of progress in next years game to other aspects of the game, we could be back to the strength of previous games

[thorbarry]

Originally Posted by PCros

Looks fantastic I can't wait. Glad they put more effort into the manager section.

I wonder who will be on the front of the Irish cover? Probably Keane.

hah nah we usually just get who is on the UK one, Messi and Torres i think

[BeeSee]

didnt wanna get my hopes of for pes 2010 and now they're sky high, really hope konami deliver this time

[Mitch Connor]

http://www.welovepes.com/

Stadium List In PES 2010
Will get this up on WENB, but for now I'll post it here where its easy to digest away from the constant stream of news!

Stadiums:

UNLICENSED:

Konami Stadium
Estadio Amazonas
Bristol Mary Stadium
Estadio Del Pelenque
Mohamed Lewis Stadium
Ville Marie Stadium

LICENSED:

Anfield
Old Trafford
Wembley Stadium
Camp Nou
Santiago Bernabeu
Estadio Do Dragao
Estadio Jose Alvalade
Estadio Da Luz
Amsterdam Arena
El Monumental
Saitama Stadium 2002
Stade De France
Stade Louis II
Giuseppe Meazza
San Siro
Stadio Olimpico

22 so far, expect more in the final version.

YAY! Old Trafford!

[Mitch Connor]

http://www.pesfan.com/news/8381892/2...ough---Part-1/

Ahh, Master League. A jewel in the crown of the PES series both past and present. Having said that, even the biggest fans will have to admit the mode has been going a little downhill in the past few years, and with very little advancement from game to game, was in danger of becoming obsolete.



Then rejoice, my friends, when I say that Master League has been thoroughly upgraded and, dare I say it, is returning better than ever. Why? Well read on, as I take you on a journey spanning literally hours in Part 1 of PESFan’s Master League play through.



Loading up the mode I was instructed, as ever, to select a team to nurture and make my own for the foreseeable future. Having no real ties to the Premiership but liking Martin O’Neill, I chose West Midlands Village.



After setting up how I wanted the league to be formatted (unfortunately there’s still no third division), i.e. 20 teams, goal difference before head to head, the cup not featuring two legs, that sort of thing, I was presented with my given sponsors for the coming season.



Firstly, there was Zaalachsk, a “Dutch Car Manufacturer”, who gave me a deal of £1.4m for 3 years with a home win bonus of 60k. They also promised that if I won three games in a row, they’d provide me with a further 80k, with incremental increases the more I won. Hurrah!



But beware, as they then warned that if I managed to blunder into losing more than five home games during the season my sponsorship deal would be forfeit. Those fiends. I was also given two more sponsors, the first of which was Lesplindu, a French consumer electronics company who granted me 660k a season for 3 years with a 60k win bonus and no cancellation clause. There was also Alpilatteria, an Italian food company, also gave me a 4 year deal worth 800k a year and a 60k win bonus, again, with no cancellation clause. This brought my team funds to £41,785,000.



PES was not done, as I then found out my 28 thousand-strong fan club also came with £4.2m cash for my managerial pocket, bringing the total team funds for the year to just over 46 million. Sounds a lot, but it’s surprising how quickly it disappears.



My coach, athletic trainer, club doctor and scout were all set to lvl 3, meaning I spent 4m on them collectively and my youth team and fan club were set to lvl 2, which meant another 2m. Then, there were my player wages, which came to just over 12m in total.



So before I’d changed anything my team funds for the year were down roughly 18m to 23.7m. Looking for ways to remedy this expenditure, I changed my youth team and fan club to lvl 1, along with my athletic trainer and club doctor. This saved me a few million I’d plan to use on transfers, job done for now.



I set up my formation, a 4-3-3 with Carew up front supported by Ashley Young and Gabriel Agbonlahor, and played around with my Team Style settings. After a bit of a think, I ended up going for high player support, attacking style and no compactness or pressing. I called it the ‘Tony Mowbray’ and gave myself another pat on the back.



This image has been resized, click here to view the full image




I also tweaked my training schedules, taking full advantage of Master League’s new ability to change the areas training points are spread about for players who I thought would benefit from it. I told Carew to train mostly in shooting and Ashley Young to focus on dribble speed, for example. I also went on a bit of a spending spree with my newly freed up funds and increased my coach to lvl 4, at the cost of 3m, which also upped the total points I could assign in training slightly.



Anyway, enough with that, my first game was coming up. The football gods must loathe me, as it turned out to involve an away day at Anfield to take on Liverpool. It was a pretty dull game truth be told, although I’m generally a pretty dull player, so there you go. Much to my displeasure, Salifou missed an absolute sitter with the chance at an open goal, instead choosing to blast it completely wide of the post with his first touch. I tell you. He couldn’t finish an egg that lad. Mark Lawrenson suddenly awakened too, spouting, “Well quite honestly, that would have changed the course of the game!”



Thanks for that Mark, I’d missed you.



0-0 at half time, not bad for me if I’m honest. With the second half in full swing however, I managed to score an absolutely cracking goal using Big John Carew, surprising myself, everyone in the ground, and perhaps most startlingly Mark Lawrenson, who had since changed his mind about us and declared it the best goal he’d ever seen.



At the end of the game I was presented with a screen showing the gate receipts from the match, although presumably because I was away this time the number totalled 0. Back on the menu, I had a look at the youth team, and after a brief look at some of their individual stats and a recommendation from my coach that Ximelez was a pacey player, I signed him up on a 222k professional contract.



In the next game I beat Lancashire Athletic 2-0 to progress in the England Cup, but in the game after that Yorkshire Orange humbled me with a 1-0 defeat. Ups and downs to the season thus far, but not a terrible start. The next game was away at Manchester Blues, where it was raining (natch). I scored a lovely goal in this one with a move totalling probably 20 passes or so, and ended up winning the game 1-0. I was also being awarded with gate income from my home matches now, the cup game bringing a mere 80k but the league match earning me a respectable 260k, perhaps an indication that even in PES no one can be bothered with the league cup.



Back to the menu screen and I was presented with a warning that Brad Friedel, my goalkeeper, was unhappy about something. My coach explained further by telling me it was because his contract was expiring, so I gave the cheeky guy a 2 year extension, which seemed to keep him quiet for a while. I don’t know if my team saw this as a sign of weakness, because the turn after this Delfouneso was suddenly unhappy with the position he was being played in. Sigh.



Now, I either had two options with this, the first was to just play him in his natural position or choose to specially train him in the new position at the cost of time and money. Quite a lot of money, too (about 10m), so it’s probably only viable for a team with cash to burn. Or there was the third option, which was to continue and let him sulk. I chose this one, and then dropped him a few games later. You’re not with Martin O’Neill now you know.



Further investigation revealed I could also train a player in the use of a new card, but again, it was too rich for my blood.



This image has been resized, click here to view the full image




A few games later, and I began to notice I’d a) stopped scoring, and b) my players seemed unnaturally fatigued and in bad condition. Fatigue has always been a problem with Master League, the idea that a player can’t play two games in two weeks without becoming absolutely exhausted is a ridiculous one to me, but this was different.



I remembered what I’d done at the start of the season in diminishing the ability of my athletic trainer in favour of increasing that of my coach. Turns out a better athletic trainer deals with fatigue better, as well as increasing the chances of your players being in better condition. I increased him to lvl 4, and in a few games time I started to reap the benefits, even if it did take a chunk from my budget.



Likewise my club doctor seemed quite unable to properly deal with an injury my team had sustained in any reasonable amount of time. The injury was only to Steve Sidwell though, so I left the doctor at lvl 1.



I also liked how your scout gives reports on other teams prior to playing them, for example with West Midlands City “Will probably go all defensive and play 11 men behind the ball.”, I thought it was a nice touch, and true to form, they were exceedingly defensive.



About 6 games into the season and I seemed to not be scoring as much as previously, i.e. at all. I thought a change in tactics was called for, the Tony Mowbray was no longer benefiting me as much as I’d have hoped, so it was back to the Team Styles screen to devise a new pressurising, long ball using, thug team to bully the league from now on.



The Europa League groups were then drawn, and as West Midlands qualified last season, I ended up being put with Villareal, FC Twente, and some other team who I forget and as thus is unimportant to me. When you play a Europa League game it has its own separate background, is all nicely licensed, the competing teams are properly sorted into groups of A-L, and generally feels like a suitably grand step-up from the normal league.



I lost my next two games, as well as getting knocked out of the England Cup by East London. So far my debut season was turning out to be as disappointing as real football is. Who says PES isn’t realistic? The European Footballer Of The Year was then announced, unsurprisingly featuring Messi, C. Ronaldo and Kaka in the top 3 with 550 votes, 480 and 450 votes respectively.



I played on in both my domestic league and the Europa League (a campaign which had ended in disappointment for me by late December) to end up in 7th place in January, feeling encouraged and ready to expand my squad with the look into the transfer market. It would have to wait, however, as Part 1 was up.



Come back tomorrow to read Part 2 of my Master League play through. If you ask any questions about transfers/future ML events, I’ll try and squeeze them in the report tomorrow. Cheers for reading.

Master League looks like it has finally got the improvements it has needed for years now.

[thorbarry]

Originally Posted by Mitch Connor

Master League looks like it has finally got the improvements it has needed for years now.

Sounds great, it really is about time they updated the master league. It really did feel the same every single year for as long as i can remember really

[thorbarry]

oooof have u seen the new gameplay vids that are floating around, it looks great

[thorbarry]