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PES 2012 Football Life thread

Balls! Something dodgy happened with my xbox and I've lost my ML save file. Arrgh.

I've started for a third time, same team yet again, Benfica, and this time I'm synching the file to my xbox cloud storage just in case!

Anyways, I'm nine games into the season, and have started like an express train. Eight wins and a draw in nine matches has seen me jump to the top of Division Two, a point clear of second place, but most importantly, I have a whopping ten-point cushion over fourth place, making me comfortably in the promotion places after just nine games. That can of course change, but it's a great start particularly given I'm using ML defaults.

I've started by signing the usual suspects yet again, Palmieri, Duffy and Shimizu all graduated from the youth team, and Tolchotzryn and Bergessio were pre-season signings for around £1M in total. I started this ML on around £4M budget which is slightly larger than previous attempts, which helps a lot.

Bergessio is a FL legend, he's already scored nine in nine league games. What a signing!
 
I've had another great Div2 ML campaign, winning the title by a massive margin, but there are several things in FL that really need sorting out.

For starters, I win a match to win the Div2 title with a whopping five games to spare, I've been on fire all season and am nearly 20 points clear at the top, an incredible season. Before my first match since lifting the league title, a game you'd think would be a party atmosphere, my chairman gives me an assignment to stop the opposition striker from scoring because "he's in danger of topping the scoring charts" ahead of my own Bergessio. Except, I check the scoring charts, and Bergessio is miles clear, I think 15 goals ahead with four games to play. Hmm. Odd.

I then win the game 2-1, but with their striker scoring their goal. The chairman then tells me he's furious and half my players aren't "fit to wear the shirt" despite being nearly 20 points clear of second place!

Another oddity is that, per home game in Div2, my gate receipt money for home games is £56,000 per game. I win the league early, leaving three home games remaining that, granted, are now reasonably meaningless. Nevertheless, you'd expect attendances to increase given the recent massive success, but after lifting the title, my next home game brings in a meagre £8,000 rather than the usual £56,000. WTF is going on here?!

And finally, I've managed to secure three decent players on free transfers who had decided not to sign new contracts with their current clubs. There were loads of amazing bargains, but after signing my third player, the game won't let me negotiate any more transfers. The reason? Because they are still pending in my negotiation screen due to them not being able to join the club until the summer transfer window opens, the game basically still thinks I have three negotiations on the go and won't allow any more than that until those players have officially joined my club. Except, those three have already signed for me and are just waiting to join. It's ridiculous. There are tons of other great players I could have secured but might miss out on because of a bizarre loophole with the game's logic.

I've enjoyed the season but stuff like this has kinda taken the gloss off slightly, but only a little. But please Konami, fix stuff like this!
 
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Right, season one is complete, hopefully this time I won't lose my save game!

To sum up, I played as Benfica, on Professional, default ML players, and coincided with some little revelations I've had about tackling and shooting (which I mentioned on the other PES2012 discussion thread). The result was that I ran away with Division 2. In fact I beat the crap out of it.

There isn't a lot to tell really, there weren't that many ups and downs, just mainly ups. I did my usual wheeling and dealing during the pre-season, bringing in Tolchotzryn and Bergessio, upgrading Shimizu, Palmieri and Duffy to the first team squad. I sold off a few rubbish squad players to recover some of the outlay, but thanks to the game starting me with £4M in the bank rather than £3.2M that I had last time I played it, finances were a bit easier this time around. But from the start of the season I pretty much ground out win after win, leaping into a ten-point lead over fourth place after just eight matches.

Bergessio was the star, his £450,000 outlay proving to be a snip as he weighed in with 24 goals. By the half-way point of the season I was still well clear, and I signed Heldon Ramos from CS Maritimo in the Portugese first division, and his wing play also helped during the second half of the season.

One notable game that confirmed my dominance was when I was still unbeaten after 20 matches, found myself 1-3 down at home, but goals from Duffy, a stunning Bergessio equaliser (where he flicked it up with his first touch then volleyed Henry-style into the top corner) and a late winner from Shimizu sent Benfica wild as they miraculously came back to win 4-3.

I finally lost my first league match of the season in my 26th game, then lost again a few days later, but confidence was soon restored with another series of wins that sealed the league title and promotion with five games to spare.

By the end, I finished with a record of PL34, W25 D6 L3, with 60 goals scored and just 25 conceded, and 81 points. Benfica also finished 15 points clear at the top, with a 21 point cushion over the team chasing the last promotion spot. Bergessio finished on 24 goals, Tolchotzryn leading a captain's example with 9 goals from CM, and a whole host of other players like Maqualao, Shimizu and Elegost netting 5-6 goals each.

I think part of my success was finding a good formation and tactics. My strikers look like they're so deep they're bordering on ACM players but it allows for players to run into the opposition box from deeper positions rather than sitting waiting for the ball to arrive to them. This seemed to work wonders.

So, on to the close-season and preparations for the next challenge, to stay up in the Primeira Liga. I let go a number of players who chose not to renew contracts, rejected a £1.6M bid for Bergessio, and signed wide attacker Jorge Martinez on a free from Cesena, 80-rated RB Cuadrado from Udinese, and CB Kantari from Stade Brestois.

Next, in came goalkeeper Marton Fullop from West Brom for a bargain £400,000, big target man CF Dimitri Bulykin from Ajax on a free transfer, and CB Berra from Wolves for £900,000.

One thing I'm looking for when scouting players now are key elements such as balance, ball control, and player cards. Bergessio, on paper looks a bit shit, he's rated at 68, with stats around the low 70's but he has the fox in the box card which must play a massive part in why he's so lethal in front of goal.

Overall, my transfer dealings have so far been:

12 players out for £500,000:

Zalecki (GK) - released
Iorghenov (GK) - released
Voichulerd (LB) - sold £90,000
Giersen (RB) - released
Libermann (CB) - sold £90,000
Baumann (CB) - sold £120,000
Dodo (DM) - sold £200,000
Irjescu (CM) - released
Gutierrez (CF) - released
Heeders (CF) - released
Burchet (WF) - released
Fouque (SS) - released

14 players in for £2.3M

Fullop (GK) £400,000
Grzylachow (GK) £120,000
Cuadrado (RB) Free
Kantari (CB) Free
Palmieri (CB) Free - youth
Berra (CB) £900,000
Gilnicia (LB) £150,000
Shimizu (MF) Free - youth
Tolchotzryn (CM) £450,000
Duffy (DM) Free - youth
Heldon (SS) £350,000
Martinez (SS) Free
Bulykin (CF) Free
Schwarz (CF) Free - youth

And if that wasn't boring enough, here's my first choice team to take on the Primiera Liga:

GK: Fullop (78)

RB: Cuardrado (80)
CB: Berra (77)
CB: Kantari (76)
LB: Gilnica (73)

CM: Duffy (78)
CM: Tolchotzryn (80)
RM: Martinez (72)
LAM: Shimizu (78)

CF:Bergessio (67)
CF: Bulykin (68)

Season two has started with two home games against my fellow Div2 promoted teams, and I began with a win and a draw, Bulykin scoring on his debut in an opening day win. Next up came a tough away game at second place Maritimo, and despite falling behind, Bulykin again netted before Schwarz, signed on a pro contract from the youth team that very week, came on as a sub and netted the winner with his first ever shot on goal in professional football, curling a low effort in from the edge of the box! A real, PES-style, out of the seat moment. There's something about the players in PES, even default players, and youth players, where they have so much personality, you really buy into the whole thing of a player taking his chance and becoming a favourite. I don't know what it is about this and PES, but it's a great ingredient that makes ML so much fun.

Onwards and upwards!
 
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Hi guys, I have a question about ML youth team - I invested in my first season 1 mil (level 3) to my youth team, promoted Palmieri, Shimizu and Fatecha so there are 26 or 27 player in YT. Now I was promoted to Ligue 1 and when I try to skip my summer pause and start palying 2nd season there are not any new players in my youth team. I would like to ask you WHEN there will be some new - I would love to see that my investment was worthy
 
stajnko said:
Hi guys, I have a question about ML youth team - I invested in my first season 1 mil (level 3) to my youth team, promoted Palmieri, Shimizu and Fatecha so there are 26 or 27 player in YT. Now I was promoted to Ligue 1 and when I try to skip my summer pause and start palying 2nd season there are not any new players in my youth team. I would like to ask you WHEN there will be some new - I would love to see that my investment was worthy
Click to expand...

January transfer window.
 
I was wondering this too, thanks Taylor.

One other odd thing I've noticed playing ML, is the communication function. Why oh why did Konami make it so that you have a limit of three players who you can speak to at any one time? After a particular match, I had two players complaining about fatigue as they'd also played an international two days earlier, but I also had another two players complaining about not being picked.

I answered the first three, then noticed that you can't speak to anyone else, meaning I just ignored a decent squad player who was rested for one game and was subsequently unhappy about it. Ridiculous. What football manager in the world decides that during the course of an entire week they only have the time to talk to three players because he can't be bothered?!
 
Thank you Taylor

I think that this whole "Communication" thing is not good. I don't need to communicate with more than 3 players, but I would like to see more sentences to choose from. Players usually ask me why I am not picking them. And it is usually because their form (condition) but I can't say that to them. For me there should be more options.
 
You can speak to 5 players when you improve staff I think, I can't remember..

But it is frustrating, to know I didn't pick a player cause he isn't on form (which is a key part of PES) but not be able to tell them that.
 
Season two has just been completed, and again Benfica exceeded all expectations to finish a remarkable 4th place in their first season, qualifying for the Europa League in the process. I never expected that at all. I went into the final match of the season just needing a point, but given the nature of this game anything can happen, so it was a tense affair right until the end of the match even at 2-0. Despite never challenging for a Champions League spot, and that I couldn't qualify for it long before the final match, I ended up actually finishing level on points but with an inferior goal difference with Sporting in 3rd place.

The season was up and down as you'd expect, my new signings all gelled pretty well, I'd go through periods of losing several in a row followed up by winning several in a row. Notable performances included a 1-1 draw at both Porto and Sporting, and a couple of 3-0 away victories that proved comfortable.

Bulykin proved to be an absolute bargain, scoring 14 goals as a target man alongside Bergessio. Not bad for a free transfer, and his goals earned him a new contract, conveniently on half the money he was on before! Bergessio yet again weighed in with the goals, also netting 14, with Tolchotzryn and Shimizu weighing in with 6 goals each.

My final record ended PL 30, W 15, D 8 L 7, GF 47, GA 35, which isn't bad at all considering there were no major new transfers, only some free's and Berra arriving for £900,000 at the end of season one. During the January transfer window, I signed Argentine LM Llama for £850,000 but he struggled to make an impact ahead of Shimizu. The Primeira Liga has only 16 teams, making it a short season but also an incredibly tight one. There are only seven places between Europa League qualification and the relegation zone, so a poor run can see you drop into trouble very quickly, hence the up and down nature of my season.

I now have to start preparing for my second season. I'm expecting more of the same to be honest, any improvement would be welcome but it's a case of consolidation and building the finances and club from the ground up now. I will have to replace Martines because he's bizarrely retiring at the age of 29 (WTF?), and have also signed left back Traore on a free transfer, along with young striker Kravets from Dinamo Kiev also on a free transfer. I'm hoping Traore, rated at 81, will provide an attacking, pacey option down the left hand side instead of the tall and clumsy Gilnica, who I signed in my first few weeks as manager. Kravets is one for the future, aged 21, rated 71, with a goal poacher card.

Financially, surviving my first season in Primeira Liga and finishing 4th has been brilliant. My prize money was £8M on top of increased crowd money, so after expenses I should have around £10M in the bank to decide what to do with. The days of scrimping around for cash, worrying whether the likes of Hamsun's wages at £40K a year will break the bank are gone. Now I can start to build the club properly, from improving scouts, coaches etc, to bringing in better players.

An interesting summer lies ahead as Benfica prepare for Europa League football. I'm not sure where the game decided it would happen, but I really enjoyed the way the crowd numbers in the massive Stadium of Light were still as sparse as they were in my first season in Division 2, then towards the final matches of the season, once I was really going to challenge for the Europa League places, the fans suddenly came flooding back the it's now 75% full per home game.

I'm enjoying playing the Portuguese League, it's something different and welcome to the PES series for sure!
 
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Good stuff mate. Glad to see you enjoying the game. I threw on a quick game last night of Valencia vs Wolfsburg in Exhibition mode. Was great. There was some lovely off the ball movement, through the middle and down the wings and also some nice mis-hit passes from the opposition.

I think if you get a nice formation/tactic slider setting and have the right players, you see a lot more movement and don't need to force play around the box. And maybe because it's in Exhibition mode?
 
I find that some matches my team has lots of movement, others they are really static and it's a struggle. It feels like exhibition mode has more movement but at the same time I create more and score more in ML.
 
I think I just need to be patient and buy some better players. Even if I have to sim a few games to get through another season or two. It's funny though, cause as soon as the next edition approaches release, I'm in a mad panic to finish off seasons and modes from the current game haha
 
Yeah that's what I'm doing, as soon as the demo for 2013 is out, I'll find it hard to persevere probably!
 
Currently on a downer with PES12. Am 16 seasons into my ML, and the more i play, the more it seems like a pile of scripted cheating bollox.

Since when should a Swansea team who's best player is rated lower than my worst player, and on blue arrows be able to wonder dribble through my team, fire off laser guided one touch passes and score at will!?!? ridiculous and unrealistic.

LTFC - completely with you on the player communications and random bullshit logic of the game.
You can indeed speak to 5 players when you upgrade staff, but still get the same pathetic whines and moans all the time.

Also LTC - care to share the shooting and defending revelation you sussed out?? I havent posted here in a while so must have missed it.
 
I just had an incredible Portuguese cup match away at Rio Ave. I took the lead with an early Tolchotzryn penalty, only to get pegged back 1-1 just after half time. I then regained the lead, new signing Kravets hammering home a header, only to again get pegged back late on with a soft goal to take the game to extra time.

To freshen things up, I made a triple substitution, including Heldon up front for Bergessio, who was knackered. Heldon responded by firing in Benfica's third, to go 3-2 up early in extra time. Seconds later, Heldon got onto the end of a cross to head home to make it 4-2.

Rio Ave then pulled back another goal with a near post header to make it 4-3, and I expected the usual PES2012 shenanigans to take the game to penalties. However, I then won my second penalty of the match, which Heldon dispatched for his remarkable extra-time hat-trick, then right on 120 minutes Heldon smashed home a shot from just outside the box which crashed in off the crossbar to make it 6-3 having been 2-2 on full -time, with Heldon coming on as a sub and netting four goals in extra time. Amazing.

So far I'm unbeaten after a handful of games in my second season of the Primeira Liga, but have drawn one and lost one in the Europa League so that's not looking too clever already. I can't believe the difference in finances though. In season one, I made around £50K each home game, and had about £2M in sponsorship deals. Season 2, my home gate money, now in the top league, increased to £200,000 per home game.

Now, with a far larger fan-base returning, after a fourth-place finish and European football returning to Benfica, I decided to sign players on the cheap, consolidate my second season in the top flight, and invest in the club. So, I signed a series of players on free transfers, increased my investment in marketing and youth development to £200,000 each per year, then signed a coach, fitness coach and scout far in excess of what I had, which costs £1M a year for each in wages. My first season in the top flight also netted me £8M in league position prize money.

The result is that I'm now raking in the money. I'm earning not far short of £1M in gate receipts for every home game, every Europa League home game nets me £2M each, and sponsorship has increased to around £8M. This all means that just a season ago I was struggling for cash, trying to break even, with around £1M left over after expenses etc. At the end of this season I've just started, my third in total, I should be in credit by about £25M, and that's without selling any players.

Of the players I signed, I brought in Turkish midfielder/attacker Youri Sercan, winger Moukandjo was plucked from the French League, left back Armand Traore and striker Kravets was signed from Dynamo Kiev, all on free transfers.

But the real coup has been the signing of two 17 year-old players out of contract. The first, keeper Scarpi, is rated at 76 already, but the best is a French defender called Rane, who can be used as a CB, DCM or RB. For a 17 year-old his stats are incredible, rated 85 overall, he's an effective CB but also plays as an offensive full-back if needs be. Find of the season for sure.
 
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xPJRx said:
Currently on a downer with PES12. Am 16 seasons into my ML, and the more i play, the more it seems like a pile of scripted cheating bollox.

Since when should a Swansea team who's best player is rated lower than my worst player, and on blue arrows be able to wonder dribble through my team, fire off laser guided one touch passes and score at will!?!? ridiculous and unrealistic.

LTFC - completely with you on the player communications and random bullshit logic of the game.
You can indeed speak to 5 players when you upgrade staff, but still get the same pathetic whines and moans all the time.

Also LTC - care to share the shooting and defending revelation you sussed out?? I havent posted here in a while so must have missed it.
Click to expand...

I find that the bullshit happens to me when I play a really top team, I'm trying my best to ignore it and carry on but no game has tested my patience like this!

Oh and I mentioned the shooting thing in the discussion thread, you'll see it in there :)
 
Hello.. I'm new here. However, I've play ML since PES2010. now I've just completed my 1st season in ML PES2012 using Everton.

Just notice that free kick in PES2012, is like fu**ing penalty. They always score when the distance is 19-25m. The odd is like in 3 freekicks, 2 of it will be a goal.
 
maxkiller said:
Hello.. I'm new here. However, I've play ML since PES2010. now I've just completed my 1st season in ML PES2012 using Everton.

Just notice that free kick in PES2012, is like fu**ing penalty. They always score when the distance is 19-25m. The odd is like in 3 freekicks, 2 of it will be a goal.
Click to expand...
Hello, welcome to Evo-Web.

I know exactly what you mean in response to the cheating on FKs. It's. been commonly discussed here and the following bit of help has been posted before several times, but was maybe hard to search for.

Select the goalkeeper as soon as they are in position to take the FK. I think it's L1 or L2 combined with R3 (when on PS3) to toggle between goalkeeper and outfield players. Move him across a little, towards the area they'll likely be shooting at. Toggle back to outfield whenever you like. I concede one out of every 20 or so now.
 
Some amazing PES related drama, my Europa League campagn is going poorly, four games in and I've yet to win, but a home game to PSV (just after drawing with them 2-2 in the away match) meant I absolutely coudn't afford to lose as they were two points ahead of me.

The match starts and the CPU has made PSV income out of the blocks in crazy fashion, every attack is lethal, each player can burst dribble repeatedly past multiple players, and Chamakh is tearing me a new one. After half-an-hour PSV are a ridiculous 3-0 up.

Second half, PSV seem to completely take their foot off they gas and are 'human' again. Kravets continues his amazing scoring run with a consolation goal midway through the second half, and hopes are raised as Shimizu curls in a beauty of a free kick oaround. 75 minutes in to bring it back to 3-2. Then, in the 87th minute, there's chaos in the PSV penalty area, and it falls to Shimizu who gleefully tucks in the loose ball for his second and cap a stunning comeback for 3-3. Not only was it an amazing comeback, but it also kept Benfica's Europa League campagn alive for another game. Trouble is, I have to win now away at runaway group winners Lazio .....

An amazing game nonetheless!

YouTube - Benfica 3-3 PSV
 
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So does anyone know much about the marketing budget? Does increasing it actually make a difference? I'm guessing it increases the matchday income but I don't know whether to raise it even further. Last season I increased it to £500,000 and sure, my matchday income has increased to £1.2M but I've got a whole load of cash since qualifying for the Champions League and am not sure if increasing this to £10M will be worth it or not.

Season 3 is finished and I got myself ahead of the pack around the halfway stage and never looked back, keeping a relentless FC Porto five points clear the rest of the way. I was lucky in that whenever I seemed to drop points, so did they.

I won the Portuguese Primiera Liga by five points, with a total of 71 points, winning 21, drawing 8, losing 1. I scored 51 and conceded just 20.

Kravets, my summer free signing from Dynamo Kiev came up trumps as my joint top-scorer with Bergessio, both netting 12 each, Shimzu was next with nine goals.

All of my summer signings proved to be invaluable, with Traore at LB one of the standout players, along with Kravets. But my top signing turned out to be 17 year old CB Rane. What a signing. Rated at 86 now, he's being coveted by the top European clubs, and is now my captain I'm going to build the team around.

Financially, my Europa League adventure which ended in the group stages, plus winning the league and the Portuguese Cup on penalties, saw Benfica bag a small fortune. By signing free transfers in the summer, and pocketing most of the money that came in the last season, I'm now in pre-season with a Champions League campaign to look forward to and £70M in the bank. After expenses this will go down to £25M but I've spent almost no money again, so will be able to invest most of my money into building the club.

First step towards building a 'Barcelona pt II' is that I've used my funds to sign the best coaches across the board. They're all the best that money can buy.

Next, I've invested £10M into the marketing budget in the hope that this will create more income than I spent. I'm reserving judgement on this until I try it. I am planning on investing properly in the youth system once I've accumulated more money this season. A CL run, and qualifying for the CL league again next season should pocket me another small fortune. How things change to when I first began the game.

So, a lot of transfers have come in as I try and make the leap from overachievers to European giants. Out went a number of remaining ML default players such as Lothar and Van Den Berg, and in came a number of high profile free transfers. In came:

Oscar Cardozo (CF - 78)
Machado (CM - 78)
Agbonalahor (FW - 78) - an odd one, but he's pretty useful in this game and possibly the fastest player. Very useful.
Belhanda (AM/FW - 83)
Romero (GK - 82) - Argentina GK for a fee of £3M
Callejon (FW - 81) - My best signing, brought in from Real Madrid on a free, this guy is gonna be a star.

So a fresh new look team is in the offing. The likes of Bergessio, my star of the last three seasons, is beginning to fade and may have found his level, but only after hamming home over 50 goals in three seasons. Legend status does not do him justice! I now have the experienced and world class Cardozo, the emerging Kravets and Callejon, so poor Bergessio is now down the pecking order.
 
This morning I woke knowing the PES2013 demo would be out, but I've had such an urge to play the current full game instead recently that I decided to block it out! Even though whenever I play Master League in my current save, I'm suffering from constant AI cheating. I've noticed it happens more often as you get through season after season, it feels like there's less technical depth and more direct overdrive by the AI, which is such a shame. It would begin after a couple of seasons, the big leagues and cup matches would always include one star AI striker being unstoppable and simply lethal with any attempt on goal within 18 yards. Then after 3 or 4 seasons, I have always found it to be an experience littered with more of the above, with such things as wingers who jump over 3+ tackles and play the perfect pass (often whilst stumbling) or many AI goals scored by deflected shots. Also AI defensive midfielders having telescopic legs, able to intercept every single pass I attempt through the centre, no matter how much space I thread one into.

This evening, I've had a 4-match stint in my AS Roma ML. A stint I feel has ended my desire to carry on, as I literally rage quit the game for the first time I can remember. Every match I didn't sim was an important one and in each match I went one goal up first, for them to equalise instantly with an overdrive goal, repeat, repeat and finally I would then lose in the last 5 minutes when they decided to kill me off. Three out of four matches these goals were own goals by my team in scenarios where I had the ball and pressed to clear, with plenty of time and space to do so. The other case was a clear offside, seriously around 3 or 4 yards. Total hogwash. Last minute losses of 5-4, 4-3, 4-3 & 4-3.

A few minutes I went to look at my save files for PES2012. This has been my third ML career, as the cheating simply got too bad in the previous two. Looking at the data on my saves, all three careers reached their end at the business end of the 5th season. I wasn't aware until I just looked - this must be some kind of black hole period for any sense in the game. Such a waste as I love this mode more than any other football game mode ever. Really hope there's less of this scripted trump sludge in the new game, which I now will be trying tomorrow, instead of this.
 
Same here mate, hopefully FL will be a lot more slick, player interaction will make some sense, and the game won't cheat. You did well, I only ever reached season three in one of my three ML attempts.

But having played the 2013 demo I have no inclination to go back to this whatsoever. My Benfica oddysey will have to continue in the next game, hopefully without forcing me to rage quit every four games!
 
I've been playing quite a bit of BAL, scoring some goals and enjoying it. The thing that annoys me are numerous training matches mid-season and endless friendlies with the national team.
 
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