After the missis informed me she would be away with her friends for the weekend gone, I decided to phone my best mate, (who lives in Sunderland), to come down and stay at mine for the weekend. My mate is a massive PES fan, he loves his ML, but due to working away for the last 6 months, has yet to play PES 12, or even any of the demo's.
My mate, Lee, is old skool PES. In fact, upon the launch of ISS 64 on the N64, we both packed our respective girlfriends and newborn children off together to Butlins. We spent the full weekend hammering ISS64, barely sleeping, eating, and even sprinting upstairs to pee as quick as we could. Ah, the memories.
Anyway, I introduced him right from the offset to Zero Assistance. He loved it. Lee was decent player in real-life, he played with me at Durham City in the Northern League for years, so he knows the game inside-out. He, like me, was blown away with PES 12 on Zero and this whole new philosophy. We both felt that this is, by far, the most realistic replication of football we had even had the pleasure to experience.
We started off with a few 1v1 friendlies, 15 minute games, Top Player, pre-patch, Middlesbrough v Sunderland. We had some amazing games before we moved onto a World Cup, 2-Player Co-op, with England on Professional level. Wow, and I mean Wow. What an incredible experience this was with two footballing brains at work. Having one of us contain the ball-carrier whilst the other read the potential passing channels was superb. We never actually got out of our group on 3 seperate occasions, but we had one hell of a time attempting to make that happen.
The individuality on this game is mind-blowing at times. With each player bringing so much to the table. On Zero Passing Assistance, the only player we really needed to worry about on the passing front was Dawson. Lampard and Stevie G were pulling the strings from midfield and causing our CPU problems with strikes from range. Dropping the likes of Milner in to tighten up proceedings when required, and using the electric pace of Walcott late in games was simply incredible. Ashley Cole was Ashley Cole, great at reading the game with pace to burn. Andy Carroll up front was a monster, he held up everything for us, and was a great target man, and superb in the air. John Terry was just like JT, a true commanding presence with this ability to get the strong challenge in when required. In a fair but firm manner, and his positioning was off-the-map.
We then had the likes of Adam Johnson giving us that little something on the left, great poise and balance with superb feet and a cracking delivery. Then we had the likes of Jack Wilshire whose impact gave us something completely different to anyone else on the park. It was Jack, but without the injury.
There is something very, very special about playing this game on Zero Assistance. It's football simulated in it's most purest form. The need to adhere to footballing fundamentals is truly frightening. Being fully aware of body-posture, correct foot, and most importantly, angles is so realistic its uncanny. Not only do you get the most success from following these basic footballing techniques, but also being aware of which player your controlling when trying to pull off these passes and techniques, is equally as important as making sure you adhere to fundamentals. You get more assistance in this regard with the likes of Jack, Frank and Stevie G, and lesser so with the likes of Carroll et al.
Rooney pretty much had a nightmare of a World Cup Campaign, in fact, I dont remember him being on anything but a Blue throughout. His endeavour though was first-class Rooney. Always there to track back and bully his way around the park. I love that about this year, that stat is a brilliant addition.
I remember in one qualifying game we brought on Defoe in the last 10 minutes for Rooney. What an impact he had, it was 100% Defoe. Frank sprayed one from deep onto Defoe's run, Jermaine's first-touch was like watching him in real-life, slick and quick. In typical fashion, he took it down and moved it out of his feet, all in one motion. The then smashed it first time into the bottom corner from just outside the box. It was, pure, classic, Defoe.
Our best match during qualifying produced three stunning goals. Two from Stevie G and one from Carroll. A trademark Gerrard screamer from 30 yards into the top corner started the rout. Another drilled strike from Stevie, hard and low from distance made it 2-0. Then Carroll added one for his scrapbook with a chest turn, and half volley with his left foot into the top corner. His strength made it, and sometimes, just sometimes, Carroll can hit them and they truly stay hit. I will upload the video later, as it does give great examples of superb strikes.
We played PES into the early hours of Saturday night, finally getting to sleep at 5am. We spent Sunday hammering it, this time in an ML with the Boro, again, 2-Player Co-op. This was completely different again, with the individuality brutally apparent compared to the World Class players of the English national side. Goals and chances were very hard to come-by. With the rare goals accompanied by the classic fist-clenching, jumping-out-of-the-seat moments.
I've never ever played a game as realistic as PES 12. It's quite scary how this game can play with the right settings. It's beyond phenomenal, or at least it is for me.
