The Retro-PES Corner

Right. No PES is perfect in my opinion and each has some very good points and is unique in some way. For me the PS1 ones are the most fun maybe (even though they lack finesse and presentation).
 
Editing can be slow at the weekends. :(

For some reason PSD is really slow. It normally only takes 1 to 2 minutes to edit a player. But at the moment it is taking about 4 mins.

It was like this last weekend too and in the end i had to stop. :(
 
@geeeeee: Even on week days I've been having trouble with PSD, thought I was alone in this. Well, at least the transfer window is closing so you'll have more time to work on your OF without the frenzy of real-life transfers' interference.
 
My first experience with the wonderful PES08 PS2 Laziale OF is a proper Euro 2020, as a warm-up for the real deal. I'll be taking Portugal to glory, hopefully, and see whether we can repeat that unforgettable Euro 2016.

Portugal's qualifying group: Austria, Sweden, Russia, Liechtenstein, Cyprus and Azerbaijan. In theory, we're by far the best team but Austria, Sweden and Russia are a threat, so with four contenders for two qualifying spots, this could be messy.

The team:
I tried out a 4-4-2 diamond like this: Patrício, João Cancelo, Pepe, Bruno Alves, R. Guerreiro, Danilo, William, Bruno Fernandes, Bernardo Silva, João Félix and Ronaldo

This was our formation on the hardest matches, against the weaker sides I put Danilo as a CB alongside Pepe, and got rid of the DMF position to introduce a winger (usually Gonçalo Guedes, sometimes Quaresma).
Because I usually don't like having two attacking sidebacks at the same time, halfway in the qualifiers I replaced Cancelo with André Almeida, a much weaker player but with better Defense and above-average Mentality and Teamwork - a must-have for me. Then, Danilo as an anchorman, William as a box-to-box, Bruno Fernandes as a creative midfielder, Bernardo as a mix of a classic n10 and a WF/SS, João Félix as SS supporting Ronaldo up front.


The qualifying stage was nearly perfect for Portugal, much better than expected anyway. Our only draw was...against Azerbaijan. Yes, Azerbaijan. Playing against the bottom 3 teams was a pain in the ass. You can see that their players are visibly much worse but they compensate with a combination of intelligent, patient buildup, a cohesive defensive bloc, and CPU cheating divine inspiration meets unbreakable power of will. Anyway, Azerbaijan declared a national holiday after getting that 0-0 draw against us and after weeks of non-stop rioting in the streets of Portugal, we trashed Russia (4-0) and all was forgiven and forgotten.
We were always in control of the standings from day one and thus we get a spot in the upcoming Euro 2020.

Fixtures:
Cyprus 1-5 Portugal
Portugal 2-0 Azerbaijan
Russia 0-4 Portugal
Portugal 1-0 Liechtenstein
Austria 0-2 Portugal
Portugal 4-2 Sweden
Portugal 4-1 Cyprus
Azerbaijan 0-0 Portugal
Portugal 4-0 Russia
Liechtenstein 0-3 Portugal
Portugal 3-2 Austria
Sweden 0-5 Portugal


------

EURO 2020

The 23 players called-up:
GK: Rui Patrício, Anthony Lopes, Cláudio Ramos
DEF: Pepe, Bruno Alves, Rúben Dias, Daniel Carriço, André Almeida, João Cancelo, Raphael Guerreiro
MID: Danilo Pereira, William Carvalho, João Moutinho, Pizzi, Bruno Fernandes, Bernardo Silva, Manuel Fernandes, André Gomes
ATT: João Félix, Cristiano Ronaldo, Gonçalo Guedes, Quaresma, André Silva

I took the opportunity to tune the formation and fix the previous' issues. Bernardo wasn't really comfortable as a central AMF, while Bruno Fernandes wasn't shining as much as he should be as a Right CMF/AMF. Plus, defending the wings on a 4-4-2 diamond is a nightmare. So, I changed the formation to a kind of 4-4-2 flat with two false SMFs: Bruno Fernandes and Bernardo are actually AMFs who help defend the wings.
Rui Patrício had some horrible performances in the qualifiers so Anthony Lopes shall start as goalkeeper.

Our group: Portugal, Wales, Germany, Belgium.
 
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Euro 2020: group stage

Wales 0-1 Portugal (Ronaldo pen.17')


A win is a win, even if it was far from brilliant. We did deserve it, as we controlled the entire match and Wales couldn't even get a shot on goal, but our offense was uninspired and only through a penalty we were able to grab the precious three points.

----

Portugal 0-1 Belgium (Lukaku 45')


Unfair. Belgium was a tough opponent but we had plenty of chances to score - like they did - and couldn't. Lukaku (who else?) scored in the last play of the first half on a corner kick, and so we are now in a problematic situation: either we win against Germany on the last fixture, or Portugal goes home!

----

Portugal 1-0 Germany (own goal 34')


The story of this game began with Niklas Sule being sent-off after chopping down an escaping Ronaldo from behind as he was nearing Germany's box and keeper unmarked. After that, we take control of the match, yet Neuer decides to deny Ronaldo a goal for more than half a dozen times. Ironically, what Ronaldo couldn't do, Kroos and Kimmich did: a fumble after a corner kick ended up in a quirky own goal; but hey, a goal is a goal! Germany didn't really bother us up until the 91st minute when Anthony Lopes saved a one-on-one with one of their strikers; my heart skipped a beat. If it were a goal, we'd have been eliminated right there...

...but we weren't, so we'll be playing...Austria next, which we faced in the qualifiers.

 
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miguelfcp said:
Euro 2020: group stage

Wales 0-1 Portugal (Ronaldo pen.17')


A win is a win, even if it was far from brilliant. We did deserve it, as we controlled the entire match and Wales couldn't even get a shot on goal, but our offense was uninspired and only through a penalty we were able to grab the precious three points.

----

Portugal 0-1 Belgium (Lukaku 45')


Unfair. Belgium was a tough opponent but we had plenty of chances to score - like they did - and couldn't. Lukaku (who else?) scored in the last play of the first half on a corner kick, and so we are now in a problematic situation: either we win against Germany on the last fixture, or Portugal goes home!

----

Portugal 1-0 Germany (own goal 34')


The story of this game began with Niklas Sule being sent-off after chopping down an escaping Ronaldo from behind as he was nearing Germany's box and keeper unmarked. After that, we take control of the match, yet Neuer decides to deny Ronaldo a goal for more than half a dozen times. Ironically, what Ronaldo couldn't do, Kroos and Kimmich did: a fumble after a corner kick ended up in a quirky own goal; but hey, a goal is a goal! Germany didn't really bother us up until the 91st minute when Anthony Lopes saved a one-on-one with one of their strikers; my heart skipped a beat. If it were a goal, we'd have been eliminated right there...

...but we weren't, so we'll be playing...Austria next, which we faced in the qualifiers.

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As @WhoAteMeDinner used to say, thats a lot fuffery and faffery!! :P :P may i ask the qualifing round is played in League mode, am i wright? An then you build up your tournament group based on the results?
 
@slamsoze: "Foofery and Faffery" is a classic of the Retro-PES Corner, thanks to the Dinner! Nope, it's played through the Cup mode, which seems to have incorporated the mode from PES6 which I believe was called "international Challenge". You can play the qualifiers and select your 18-man squad for each qualifier encounter just like in that PES6 mode, as well as then the final 23-man squad for the actual Cup.
 
miguelfcp said:
@slamsoze: "Foofery and Faffery" is a classic of the Retro-PES Corner, thanks to the Dinner! Nope, it's played through the Cup mode, which seems to have incorporated the mode from PES6 which I believe was called "international Challenge". You can play the qualifiers and select your 18-man squad for each qualifier encounter just like in that PES6 mode, as well as then the final 23-man squad for the actual Cup.
Click to expand...
Ohh great. And it is implemented for the Euro Cup ? Cause if yes, it is great on the one hand but makes me wonder how it works, since the PES pre-2020 had not enough Euro NT teams to make a proper qualification round. But i assume it is incorporated in a KONAMI way!! :P
 
@slamsoze: Yes it is, I assume it'll work the same on a World Cup, I'll check it later if it works the same on other continental qualifiers.
They have enough teams, all of them in fact - obviously not the recent nations like Kosovo and the like, so I have to work with all the European nations that existed back in 2007. The likes of Andorra, Luxembourg, Georgia, even those three on my qualifying group (Liechtenstein, Cyprus and Azerbaijan) exist on the default database but are unplayable nations - only the CPU can control them. They all have real players but their names are "Konamized"...This OF I'm using hasn't updated them so they're the 2007 players - which so far is fine because I don't think any of these nations were even close to qualifying for my Euro 2020.
 
Ah, Football Kingdom aka 'the game with the nets'. Never played it (not for the lack of trying) but clips make it look a lot like Frostbite FIFAs, the way the ball moves around with obscene speed, swerve and accuracy. I remember it was more of a status symbol around the PES forums, upon release.

In other news I think I've finished both my PES3 option file and Amador odyssey with Grampian. Soon... soon.
 
miguelfcp said:
Not really PES-related, so forgive me for the off-topic: I wrote a Football Kingdom review - might be the only one around, as I didn't find any -, if you're interested, check it out:
https://liberomagazine.wordpress.co...dom-that-never-was-a-football-kingdom-review/
Click to expand...

Incredible piece, Miguel. So complete and satisfying to read it looks like a professional review (probably even better than a lot I've read in my life). I've never played FK and I finally gathered some good knowledge about it. Bravo!
 
@miguelfcp Nice going with Portugal, though surely you could have just picked Wolves ;) :LOL: I didn't realise that mode was in 2008, which shows how little I played the PC version at the time!

Makes you wonder what games like Football Kingdom would have been like now had they continued to grow alongside PES/FIFA.
 
@Madmac79: Really appreciate it Mad, glad you enjoyed the article. It's still a challenge to write long pieces in English but I feel I'm improving.

@Flipper the Priest: My biggest issue with it is definitely the speed. Thankfully it runs slower on my emulator so you can see how evolved the game was on some areas - and also how lacking it was elsewhere.
Great news then! Still playing Amador, how nice. I'm very interested to read all about your adventure.

@mattmid: Wolves, otherwise known as "Jorge Mendes Wanderers FC" :D I don't know whether the PC version has it, or it's just on old-gen thing.
Yes, considering that it was just a "Trial Edition" and the first-ever iteration of the game, one can only imagine how it'd be if they had kept building upon that platform...
 
saintric said:
Id like to share the work I did on Winning Eleven 6 J league I translated as much as I could including all player names there was some issues with the club team names due to text space and you will notice during the match intro 2 teams have a bit of a mess up in the team photo scene but otherwise its good to go.

I did this on PCSX2 (the game runs a lot better than any other pes title weirdly) and included the option files its decent game worth a couple of games on at least if you are looking to play something different plus the AI are pretty good to play against so just download throw it on PCSX2 and play no need for anything else

https://mega.nz/#!slo0AK6A

KEY FOR DL - tk9FrpXV5YQe1VyKKUedjIC1wj_tF0h15MIFW4MIeik

JLEAGUE2.jpg
JLEAGUE4.jpg
JLEAGUE3.jpg
JLEAGUE1.jpg


JLEAGUE.jpg
JLEAGUE6.jpg
JLEAGUE5.jpg
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Fantastic! :)
 
Euro 2020 PES08 PS2 - Portugal

Quarter-finals: Austria 0-2 Portugal (João Felix 5', J. Moutinho 68')
fdCCG0x.jpg
Here we meet again, after having faced them in the qualifiers stage. They put up a good fight but we were much better and controlled the entire match.

Semifinals: Portugal 1-0 Spain (Danilo Pereira 93')
ng65UCD.jpg
A tough encounter which was only decided on the very last play of the match, when Danilo headed a Bruno Fernandes' corner kick into Sergio Ramos' head, which then hit the post and got in. This was by far the most dangerous play of the entire game and the one that gave us our second Euro final in a row!
We're now up against...France, yet again. Only there's no Eder this time around...

Final: Portugal 1-1 France, 5-4 PK (William Carvalho 54', Tolisso 64')
BDu0ApH.jpg
What a game. Plenty of chances for both sides, PES5-like physicality and two managers trying to win the tactical battle. João Félix was out with an injury, so Gonçalo Guedes started alongside Ronaldo. In order to deal with France's Griezmann down the right, Moutinho started instead of Bruno Fernandes in order to help Guerreiro contain that powerful french wing.
It was such a balanced encounter that it only got decided on the PK shootout, where Portugal scored all 5 shots whereas Tolisso, the goal scorer, missed one. Bruno Fernandes scored the 5th penalty that gave Portugal the second consecutive Euro title!

qdVZj1I.jpg

Ronaldo is about to lift the trophy, he who played horribly in this competition. At some point I was even considering benching him, but Jorge Mendes gave me a call and said that if I went through with that, he'd call his goons on me and they'd wreck my PlayStation2.
William Carvalho, on the other hand, was fabulous; a mix of Patrick Vieira and Zidane. Easily my favourite player so far in this OF Laziale experience.

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Oh and @slamsoze, have a look:
2LjyEQm.jpg

You can play a proper Asian Cup on PES08 PS2, plus a Copa America with hidden teams like Venezuela, etc. However, unlike the Euro Cup, you can't play the World Cup qualifiers, only the final stage.

(Check out Malaysia's stats there. Not even on Amador they'd be a threat, would they @mattmid?)
 
miguelfcp said:
Oh and @slamsoze, have a look:
2LjyEQm.jpg

You can play a proper Asian Cup on PES08 PS2, plus a Copa America with hidden teams like Venezuela, etc. However, unlike the Euro Cup, you can't play the World Cup qualifiers, only the final stage.

(Check out Malaysia's stats there. Not even on Amador they'd be a threat, would they @mattmid?)
Click to expand...
This seems like a hidden gem. It looks like the PES6 international challenge, but in an improved way. And the eternal question reappears, why there are hidden unplayable teams, since they do exist in the database!!! :THINK: Why not playable? At least just in these modes?
 
Something i want to share/ask. Once upon a time i saw a documentary about the career of either Bobby Charlton or George Best. Although my memory fades, i believe it was Sir Bobby Charlton. Most footage was old and black&white , colourless.
During a postcarrier interview, a reporter asked him what was his speciality on penalty taking. He replied that his speciality was that he didn't know where the ball would go, cause he wasn't aiming to the goalpost. That also confused the goalkeeper , who couldn't expect anything.
Ofcourse he explained that the shoot wasn't random, he had trained to lock his eyes on the ball when kicking it during a penalty, he aimed for the spot of the ball he would kick on the ball and not an area on the goalpost.
He also explained that this random!! Shot is the best shot, cause the GK has zero anticipation and cannot play mind games with the attacker, or check you eyesight to take a guess.
Except for the obvious question, if someone knows if he is Charlton or Best, i would like to add, that this was my mentality in all retro PES games as penalties was very dangerous to go out for a goal kick. I used to press little inputs in all directions, so neither me nor my opponent could know where i aim, by watching secretly my gamepad!!! :P
Furthermore in most modern PES games i do not have such problems, since there are not any penalties at all against CPU :P :P
 
miguelfcp said:
Not really PES-related, so forgive me for the off-topic: I wrote a Football Kingdom review - might be the only one around, as I didn't find any -, if you're interested, check it out:
https://liberomagazine.wordpress.co...dom-that-never-was-a-football-kingdom-review/
Click to expand...
An excellently worded and articulate article. You're a natural reviewer and if that English wasn't your so called best... I can't imagine how immense your eloquence would be at full strength.

I absolutely grinned along while reading and shared the exact same sentiments about FK; It's an interesting prototype and a temporary distraction from PES3/4 which as a kid with a less critical viewpoint - I would've welcomed if it wasn't for the gamer segregation of region locking and importing from Play Asia with pocket money back then.

It's quite significant and often downplayed that FK was a pioneer in terms of 360 passing and dribbling in a football game way, way before FIFA 11 & PES 2011 and the ball physics aren't too shabby here either.

One thing that did surprise me was the awareness you raised about the sub title: Trial Edition. A clever method of downplaying any scathing ridicule for even daring to enter the same competition as PES 3 by otherwise declaring "We aren't finished yet, We thought we'd let you try it first!". I'm curious of what the RRP this launched at, Was it full priced or was Namco self aware and didn't have the cheek to charge consumers who were already indoctrinated Winning Eleven being the status quo. How much would a new yet unfinished and unproven football title cost on PS4 in 2020? There's a bigger discrepancy of trust then ever now between publishers and consumers due to patching culture, withholding assets to sell later as DLC or just straight up finishing games post release after the consumer has already paid full price for them like FFXV or WWE 2K20.

However i thing the more sobering point you brought up is the what if...? What if Namco green lit a sequel? Rome wasn't built in a day and we went from the primitive Goal Storm to an ungodly body of footballing work and FIFA was stigmatised and you may as well admit you knew nothing about what good football was if you had that in your PS2 over PES 5 before that franchise took over the world.

Imagine a world where namco wasn't constrained to budget and the powers that be threw money at it and wanted to make a football sim out of pure passion, We could've had a 3rd and maybe a considerable critically acclaimed franchise. But much like Brazilian footballers, The next Pele is just a season away yet they hang around for a cup of coffee in European mouths and then quietly saunter back to their homeland with in no remarkable fashion.
 
@slamsoze: The eternal question. They went through all that trouble to recreate players from Andorra, Liechtenstein, and the like, only to make them unplayable - when actually, playing with and against these extremely low-rated teams is an even better football experience.

@MafiaMurderBag: Really appreciate your words man, thanks.
About FK, as I was doing my research for the article, I came across a couple of forum threads, one of them here at Evo-Web. It was interesting to read them; it seems the game was received with a polarizing reaction by the audience: on one side, you had the die-hard PES fans, those who were then living in that which has to be considered the golden age of football gaming (ISS Pro Evo - PES3). These guys had been playing iteration after iteration of totally revolutionary football titles, then they played FK and thought it was utter crap when compared to those PES games. Of course they thought that, the bar was being set too high for any other competitor.

On the other, there were the guys who were experiencing some PES fatigue - back then everyone had PES fatigue, some just weren't aware of it and kept playing the beautiful game anyway! - and after wearing out the PES disks, they were aching for something fresh. These people ended up overrating the game out of that necessity, some almost described it as some kind of Second Coming of the Football Gaming Saviour, which is absolutely unreasonable and unrealistic.

So, in the midst of this fierce "battle" between both sides of the barricade, I don't think many were able to truly appreciate FK as it was: as you beautifully put, a it was a prototype.

-
That's the thing: it was their first iteration. For a first-ever attempt, that game was awesome. In my opinion, fix the AI + slow the gameplay down and you'd have a serious competitor right there. God knows how much it'd be needed today...the question is: would people have the patience (and vision) to invest in a game like that, supporting it because they see it has potential, in order to get a good simulation in 4-5 years? I don't think so: they want it all and they want it now. It's such a shame though. The PS1/PS2 era brought us so many competitors, each doing their own thing, it seemed there was a football game for everyone really. These days you get PES copying FIFA, FIFA copying PES, and the stale bullsh`t is smelling worse and worse.

@Pavel08: Maybe a 3-team Konami Cup (5min/beginner) using, say, Spain against...Israel and Saudi Arabia? You might start a World War but you'll get your PES Points alright...
 
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