Re: PES 2013 Discussion Thread (Warez talk of any kind will be punished with a ban!)
Have to agree regards zero assistance this year - it really is rather spectacular playing the game this way and I too think the COM AI adjusts accordingly and is prone to error. I do think that on Top Player there could just be that little less strength and resilience shown on the ball by the AI and for it to show more in the way of tackling error. So far I am pretty damn happy in spite of it taking some time for me to get there.
I can't stress enough how important off ball defence approach is this year on higher difficulties, along with showing respect to the tactical side of the game. On PESFan there is outrage over the effectiveness of the AI's through balls and how the defensive AI is allegedly dumb. While it ain't perfect, I am not encountering much problems with through balls.
I think a lot of this has to do with how hard wired people are when it comes to defending, given how footy games before have allowed you to just spam pressure or double team and get away with it. PES2013 and to a lesser extent PES2012 demand that you think a play or so ahead in defence and that is where off ball defence comes into it's own. I also think many folk don't utilise man marking, tactics, pro-active use of attack defence emphasis and the secret methods to defending well, like not holding sprint when about to slide tackle as it increases chances of the defender performing hook slides, or using super cancel to barge. I will concede Konami don't do a great job of projecting the importance of these methods though.
KONAMI never have since PES1. Arguably never in any other WE/ISS game. With the exception of their Guides (PES6-'08 only maybe?) which a lot of folks didn't even know about or cared to read.
I've played in several PES tournaments in PS2 and early PS3 days and i can tell you that arguably 5% only ever used Super Cancel. Shot cancel with shot +
+
, so the keeper would just go to the ground and i'd go for the easy tap in.. "What's that is what they asked me?"
Online same thing, till this day. Let alone all the other intricacies like the magical
for traps or for pass/go (been there since PES3 i think) so you could make diagonal runs. Or to make yourself 'wide' to take it on the chest etc. Now you can even use it for more controlled passes, which arguably no one with the exception of non-assisted players even know.
On the topic of through balls, and team defence vs AI.
I've noticed if you play with lower position switch that your team-formation as a whole stays in position better ESPECIALLY in defence/counter. Granted the players and the formation they stand in, need to be balanced out with the tactic sliders, but in general it's the position switch slider that fucks it up bigtime.
I also think that people don't understand the meaning of playing 'pressure', let alone high pressure. Back in the day pressure meant, press
(secondary press), and try and block the 'obvious' passing lane, and because the game was basically 8 directions, you could braindead defend. That's why everybody still love the old ps2 PES games, because everyone knows this.. it's easy and consistent.
But now with more direction in aiming, individuality, off the ball control, more contextual and variable dribbling skills and what not, we get more freedom but so does the opposition.. So you can't always 'just pressure' and block the obvious passing route, which could very easily result in misreading the intentions of the passer, thus fucking up your organization by opening/creating space elsewhere, or better yet using the space you made (gave away) to their advantage.
You're completely right in the sense that we need to read or at least try to read 2-3 steps ahead, in terms of where the true danger might come from. Because back then 'we' didn't have to.
Then there's also the 'reversed' defensive mindset as in, do you want the oppositions Ozil on the ball or Khedira? Some might go for Khedira because he's not a good dribbler so it might be easier to take the ball off of him. But sometimes, depending on the situation, it's better to let him 'slide', because he's not known for his exceptional passing (in this case) and try to block for ex, Alonso / Ozil because of the killer pass/oversight they have on the play. There are countless of these examples.
With the exception of blind passing accuracy (could be toned down
way more imo), player awareness and a few little clipping bugs, it's quite advanced but in that regard truly lifelike, some will probably
never see or understand it though.
it means more money, good feature, just wish it can be turned off or there would be 2 type of pro evo like back then...one for beginners, one for experts
do pigs fly on your planet?
Hated the fact in PES2012 that you had to look for players with good form arrows every week. Will try to recreate my PES2011 team. 
