Soccer Gaming Catch-All

Few notes of caution in the first review of the full game of FM 09.....including mention of (shudders).....CM4, in the context of further development needed for the 3d match engine. Apparently there's a patch in planning already.

Tempted to hang off for a couple of weeks - says he, knowing full well he'll be walking past a game shop while at lunch on Friday.

davet010 wrote:

Apparently there's a patch in planning already.

Jacobson said that they'll try to release it as a day-one patch, it's already been confirmed.
For me game is stable, only problem is injuries frequency which makes game unplayable for me (two-three injuries in every game).
Personally I don't use 3D engine, does anyone do that?

davet010 wrote:

Tempted to hang off for a couple of weeks - says he, knowing full well he'll be walking past a game shop while at lunch on Friday.

Same here, though FM comes to Poland week later (localization) so I'm not sure whether to download it from Steam or wait. I'll probably go for first option.

Going to try the demo to see how it fairs on my crappy laptop.

For us North Americans what would be the best purchase option... I see it on Steam.

jowner wrote:

Going to try the demo to see how it fairs on my crappy laptop.

For us North Americans what would be the best purchase option... I see it on Steam.

It runs pretty smooth on my netbook (although lengthy loading of match engine pisses me off) with dual core 2ghz intel and 2gigs of RAM.

A windowed mode that finally works properly with my computer! I'm sold I don't even care what else they did. I can easily just tab out now and read forums or whatever.

edit: mmmm fatigue bars + ratings in .1!!! my laptop is so bad though the 3d matchs are not even an option and even the 2d ones run fairly clunky.

jowner wrote:

A windowed mode that finally works properly with my computer!

Didn't it always work well? I've been playing FMs in windowed mode since FM 2007 and never had any problems.

UCRC wrote:
jowner wrote:

A windowed mode that finally works properly with my computer!

Didn't it always work well? I've been playing FMs in windowed mode since FM 2007 and never had any problems.

The resolution would always screw around. Tabbing was annoying as hell.

Not sure how much I care for the media stuff. Sure its more realistic but the responses are so repetitive its not like you can use the media to build up your own managers style.

It's finally PES day here stateside. Took them long enough. Sadly, UC, i'm picking up my copy for the 360, and unless it blows my socks off, that'll be the only platform I purchase it on.

Prederick wrote:

It's finally PES day here stateside. Took them long enough. Sadly, UC, i'm picking up my copy for the 360, and unless it blows my socks off, that'll be the only platform I purchase it on.

I haven't had time to play games lately, so PES have been gathering dust for couple of weeks now, I think I'll get back to it by the end of the month when I'll find some more spare time. I also want to play some more FIFA 09 to have some sort of comparison.

Just popped it in now, and holy f**k they don't have the updated transfers? Brad Friedel isn't on Aston Villa which means they're not even updated to July 25th. That's pathetic. I hope they have an updated patch with all the transfers or something because they had MORE than enough time to cover most of the major moves.

EDIT: Wow, so on the whole they lost licenses this year. They're doing a damned good job of making me pine for the PC version if only for the community-created EDIT files. Christ. I hope this is only because of EA snatching up exclusive licenses. I know the EDIT mode allows me to address both of these problems, at least to a certain extent, but that's work. Work the developers should've done already (especially the transfers). Games are for fun.

EDITv2: Spent two hours with it. It plays a bit better than last year, shooting has been happily tweaked and dribbling and defending feel much better now. But some of my gripes remain. FIFA whips PES's behind with passing (the gage really makes a nice difference, where with PES I'm just pressing A and hoping my man actually passes it to the guy i'm intending for it to go to), and through passes are still half useless, partially because off-the-ball AI still isn't too bright on offense or defense (why is my LMF helping play defense on the RIGHT SIDE of the field?). I'm going to tweak the in-game tactics a bit, see if that brings some life to my attack. Champions League mode is a nice add-on, but why wasn't it integrated into the Master League?

Something about this title feels very feast or famine. Like the games will be spectacular or crap. Either way around it, Seabass really needs to figure out how to approach this whole "Next Gen" thing because it still doesn't feel like Konami know quite what to do and EA is, at the very least, catching up fast.

EDITv3: 10 games in. The blatant, unrealistic leveling/cheating is back. Five years of this sh*t. Good times.

Prederick wrote:

Just popped it in now, and holy f**k they don't have the updated transfers? Brad Friedel isn't on Aston Villa which means they're not even updated to July 25th. That's pathetic. I hope they have an updated patch with all the transfers or something because they had MORE than enough time to cover most of the major moves.

I think there is transfer update for 360, check somewhere in settings.

After some serious time spent with it, I think I was right. It's totally a issue of taste this year. You can't really go wrong with either. However...

UCRC wrote:

I don't feel like playing next-gen title, it doesn't blow me away either, but it is PES-5-solid.

...this is basically my impression of the game, and it's both good and bad. Because while SeaBass is still making a solid title, he's still making a PS2 game in the "Next-Gen" era. Really, we're past "Next-Gen" at this point, which really is beginning to make PES seem behind the times. I don't think gameplay's seen a major overhaul since PES4. It's solid, but it's showing its age pretty badly, IMHO.

UCRC wrote:
Prederick wrote:

Just popped it in now, and holy f**k they don't have the updated transfers? Brad Friedel isn't on Aston Villa which means they're not even updated to July 25th. That's pathetic. I hope they have an updated patch with all the transfers or something because they had MORE than enough time to cover most of the major moves.

I think there is transfer update for 360, check somewhere in settings.

I honestly can't seem to find it, although apparently it IS out. Konami couldn't have been so stupid as to make a PATCH region-specific.... could they?

[size=1]Dear Konami: Please learn how to use XBox Live. Thank You.[/size]

EDIT: Oh god knows what they've done. Apparently, according to the posters on PESFan it's as simple as going to System Settings and clicking on Oct 08 update. But that button isn't there on the 360, and there's no automatic patch game update prompt either. Which means Konami contrived to release the game in North America with a patch/update already out, and despite the fact that every other game company on the goddamn planet has manged to figure out releasing material across regions, was incapable of putting XBox Live to use on this side of the Atlantic. The patch is out, Konami just hasn't figured out how to release it on North American XBox Live. Oh, and did I mention that there's no way to find out when such a patch may be released?

Jesus Christ Konami, this is really, astonishingly pathetic. There's a ton of Female Doggoing about online play being laggy as well as this too. It's like they view the Internet the same way Ted Stevens does.

Do they do it like EA does it? As in you have to go to play an online game and then it downloads the latest rosters?

No, they have their own, specific, annoying way.

You know, I feel horrible saying this, but I do not like PES 09. It feels horrendous. Whereas last year's game felt staid and clunky, this feels insanely chaotic and disjointed.

I really can't believe it, i've tried several games now, and i've won 4-1, won 3-2 (only thanks for a furious comeback), lost 2-1, and never, not once had fun doing it. It's felt like work, every time. AI seems just as dumb as it was the last two years, I mean...

...y'know, the game has been tweaked. It has. And i'm going to give it a few more tries, maybe the hardest difficulty level gives the game the most realistic taste, but right now, after watching Jamie Carragher run past a loose ball rather than clear it, after watching Xavi screw up a perfectly easy through ball by pinging the ball 10 yards behind Leo Messi when anyone with brain could see where the ball should've gone. I've heard "you have to get used to it" at other places, and i'm going to try, but this doesn't feel like getting used to a new way of playing.

I really can't believe I'm saying this, I really, really can't, but I'm with Spunior right now. The only thing PES has on FIFA right now, for my money, is the EDIT mode.

I dunno, maybe I'm not good at the game, maybe I don't know the way to play it anymore. I'd say that's entirely possible. But the game's about as intuitive as String Theory (let me just cut inside my defender here... oh wait, my player just did a totally needless 360 and lost the ball when I don't remember telling him to) and apparently, for all the tweaking, there's no explanation about how it affects the game.

I'll hang out a bit in the training area, see if that makes it better. And I'm not saying FIFA is perfect (the AI has a astonishing ability, once it goes down by two or three goals, to start hoofing 55-yard longballs through the air that just happen to land on their striker's foot), but... it feels like the actual game, and fun. And I say this as someone who never thought EA would ever make a competent soccer game. EA are making Next-Gen games, Konami's making a PS2 game dressed up like a 360 game.

IMAGE(http://img83.imageshack.us/img83/8190/50597066zv8.jpg)

Spooky - but have you cracked, or is that the demo ?

davet010 wrote:

Spooky - but have you cracked, or is that the demo ? ;)

That's CPU game in demo.

Pred, PES just came today from Gamefly so if you want to try some online play I am game.

I'm happy to try it versus, because I've literally played it twice. It honestly makes me a little sad.

Steam finally unlocked WWSM 2009.

Goodbye next 150 hours of my life. Was nice knowing ya.

EDIT: So I was tooling around in the database, doing some of the pre-game editing I always do (re-evaluating certain players, making more nations EEU members because that work permit sh*t drives me nuts) and I realized, Man City's new owners almost literally break the game. I mean, if what we know about their finances is even partially true, then Roman Abramovic, who is rated as having a "20" resources, should be like a 18 and they should be a 25. Really. You almost have to tick "Sugar Daddy" to show how much money they might have. You almost have to put $500M in the budget and another $150M as the transfer kitty. It's hilarious.

Prederick wrote:

Goodbye next 150 hours of my life. Was nice knowing ya.

FM is being released in Poland on Friday so... I've stolen it. Worse yet, I'm not even gonna play it because I don't have time, I just wanted to... test downloadable graphics with it. By the time I buy it legitimately I should have pretty awesome facepacks folder completed ;] (I could make a torrent out of it if you want me to)

AFAIK, all the torrents have little 'surprises' in them - like not being able to save after the end of the first season....

davet010 wrote:

AFAIK, all the torrents have little 'surprises' in them - like not being able to save after the end of the first season....

That's no problem for me, game will be officially in stores the day after tomorrow

UCRC wrote:
Prederick wrote:

Goodbye next 150 hours of my life. Was nice knowing ya.

FM is being released in Poland on Friday so... I've stolen it. Worse yet, I'm not even gonna play it because I don't have time, I just wanted to... test downloadable graphics with it. By the time I buy it legitimately I should have pretty awesome facepacks folder completed ;] (I could make a torrent out of it if you want me to)

Or you could upload it to FileFront. Anyway, I personally am more concerned with Logos and Kits. :p

wwfan and millie deserve some sort of lifetime achievement award from the FM community.

They're released a Zip file with a 50-page PDF of TT&F for 09, that also comes with a tactic creation cheat sheet and 72 of their own formations to use rather than the default ones. Christ, geniuses these men are.

Prederick wrote:

wwfan and millie deserve some sort of lifetime achievement award from the FM community.

They're released a Zip file with a 50-page PDF of TT&F for 09, that also comes with a tactic creation cheat sheet and 72 of their own formations to use rather than the default ones. Christ, geniuses these men are.

ZOMG!
I think they've managed to do release it so soon cause they've been beta testers on both FM Live (which uses the same engine, I think) and 2009 so they know it inside out. Yummy!
In my demo game I've created 4-1-3-2 for Arsenal with three CMs and it have worked well, after 13 games top of the table, 5 goals conceded, but I didn't feel 'in control'. Hopefully I'll be able to understand all changes now.

I'm still working on making a good tactic that works for my team. I find that, using their tactic builds, I get a unfortunately constant message from my Assistant saying that there's too much space between defense and midfield.

Does anyone else find the Assistant helpful at all? Does anyone else listen to him? Or am I best off trusting my gut and my brain as in previous titles?

UCRC wrote:
Prederick wrote:

wwfan and millie deserve some sort of lifetime achievement award from the FM community.

They're released a Zip file with a 50-page PDF of TT&F for 09, that also comes with a tactic creation cheat sheet and 72 of their own formations to use rather than the default ones. Christ, geniuses these men are.

ZOMG!
I think they've managed to do release it so soon cause they've been beta testers on both FM Live (which uses the same engine, I think) and 2009 so they know it inside out. Yummy!
In my demo game I've created 4-1-3-2 for Arsenal with three CMs and it have worked well, after 13 games top of the table, 5 goals conceded, but I didn't feel 'in control'. Hopefully I'll be able to understand all changes now.

Do you have a link to this magnificent document ?

http://www.fm-britain.co.uk/forums/i... Yep

Prederick wrote:

I'm still working on making a good tactic that works for my team. I find that, using their tactic builds, I get a unfortunately constant message from my Assistant saying that there's too much space between defense and midfield.

Does anyone else find the Assistant helpful at all? Does anyone else listen to him? Or am I best off trusting my gut and my brain as in previous titles?

Both. He could be very helpful with opposition instructions, analysing your team morale and blending (great feature, btw) and passing instructions. But generally his assumptions might not fit your style (for example: sometimes it's vital to leave gaps between defence and midfield if you rely on quick attacks) so don't bother.
I had "too much space" information when I was playing tight 4-1-3-2 (with Palombo as a DM, check him out!) so it's obviously rubbish, although I think that using RoO or similar tactics (that would be Authoritarian style in TTF) should help. I've started my first game with Atletico and use split mentalities (Wenger style in TTF), I'll check whether I get the same feedback as I had with Arsenal.

I've built my first 4-4-2 in this game, scored 19 in three games, everything works pretty well and then... I get Arsenal in CL Qualifier, Forlan, Maxi Rodriguez and Simao look to leave and Aguero is called up for Olympics. And game at Emirates is in four days. What a clusterf*ck that might be.
I'm okay with likes of Forlan and Simao leaving, but buying new players = more gelling problems.
Pred, any FCd reccomencations? I will have something like 5-8 millions to burn and right now can't find anyone who would be skilled and strong striker.