Firstly, apologies for the delayed weekly post, I had recorded game footage during the week but when it came to piecing it together for the blog, there was no audio, so fiddling with GeForce experience ensued and once it was working again, I had to replay, and re-record footage.
I am still playing 2K’s PGA Tour game, and doing alright.
I’m currently way ahead in the FEDEX Cup points rankings, so far that I can probably afford to pull out of a few tournaments, of which there around 12 remaining of the season, and still comfortably make the top 30, if not make the top spot.
I’ve now won 10 season tournaments, most recently the Trinity Invitational, I play 2 rounds, so 36 holes, per tournament, except the Tour Championship which is 4 rounds, but with 72 holes (4 rounds) an option per tournament, of which there are over 40, theres some decent longevity in this career mode golf game.
Now to the interesting part, I thought I would end this ‘footy gaming year’ the way I started it, by playing eFootball PES 2020.
This may come as a shock to those who know my thoughts and feelings around PES, but as I own a pretty sturdy PC Gaming rig, I thought I’d pimp PES up and just have a look as a side by side comparison vs a modded FIFA 20.
The above footage shows a full half of play using two random teams, I went for a London derby, palace vs Arsenal, using the Ultimate AIO (All in One) patch which contains all kits, badges, competitions, improved turfs, banners, crowd chants, goal songs and music, custom cameras, and bespoke broadcast cam settings for every premier league team’s home ground, pretty much everything you can think of, plus an amended gameplay exe.
It’s a whopper at 160GB uncompressed but is a very impressive piece of work.
I will be totally honest and say that if Konami released the game like this, there wouldn’t be nowhere near as much call for criticism, obviously they can’t due to licensing etc, but they could certainly enlist the skills of these mod makes to help improve the base PS4 game no end,
PES 20 above, modded, looks stunning, the atmosphere is superb, and I actually enjoyed playing the matches alot.
I was rubbish, as FIFA muscle memory was still strong, and there are issues with game play that annoy me that are still present, but I wont go into all that as it’s been said numerous times before.
If I was to start a ML, unfortunately it would still be the same bland, dull, stale, shallow emptiness of a mode that exists on the PS4, but at least the matches actually feel more alive and ‘finished’ looking now.
if only konami could totally revamp ML from the ground up, with these kinda mods, it would be a very decent football game.
I will probably mess around with Modded PES20 now up until the new FIFA is released, giving full manual passing and shooting is on my to do list.
FIFAFX.com 
Strange to see a PES referee with an EA badge 🙂
Even with these mods and your PC if you look at your goal celebrations the Palace shirts still don’t look right around the waist. It looks like they are made of cardboard rather than a flowing material.
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That’s the Konami player models for you Chris. Limitations of the fox engine, hence why they are switching to the unreal engine on PS5 for 2022
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wow Paul, who would have predicted that at the end of this footy gaming year you’d be the only one of our little community actually playing PES!! In fairness it did look quite decent, not just all the extra presentational elements but also the gameplay including some interesting defensive errors when Arsenal were fannying around at the back. Is this amended gameplay.exe file claimed to make much difference? Still no AI fouls though
after thinking for a bit I decided to plough on with my FIFA19 Exeter City career mode and do the full 15 seasons for the first and probably last time. Lots of good youngsters coming through, keen to see their development and win more silverware. Season 14 going well in early December, two points clear of Palace at the top and still in all the cups. A quadruple or treble would be amazing but the trophy I really want is the Champions League for the first time
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ABBEYHILL – id never have imagined it, it really was just a matter of happenstance.
I had pga tour in the background as my main go to game and wanted to use a little bit if spare time to actually see if I could get pes patched on PC as tried earlier in the year and it was such a messy fiddly mess that I gave up.
What resulted is a gorgeous looking game. I must make note that it hasn’t changed my views on PES as whole, there are still many gameplay issues and the shit show of ML mode still applies, but at its core with a good patch, the base core game is actually very very good, as is FIFA when its modded to the eyeballs.
One thing it has drawn my attention to, and ill say this openly as I’m not pro fifa or anti PES, I just call it as it see it. And only ever want the best from any game, is that after many months, and seasons of extremely enjoyable FIFA 20 action. That i’ll admit that PES moves and looks better than FIFA.
Many day pes is simulation and fifa is arcade, IMO both are simulation in their own unique way, FIFA does so much better than PES and PES does things better than FIFA. Its just a shame we can’t have a cross hybrid of both games.
PES”s issues are still prominent enough that I’m not suddenly contradicting my months worth of criticism, ML is still unplayable, I’m just playing a patched PES to compare to a patched Fifa Md can be honest enough to say both games in that respect have their selling points.
Congrats on the15 seasons. In FIFA that some time investment and any success you Have in the game is totally deserved.
Having won the champions league in FIFA on ultimate difficulty, I hope you achieve it, it is a massive sense of reward. And a great way to end the footy gaming year.
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I’ve returned to fifa with the season starting and being encouraged to do a fantasy league for the first time in years (imagine NGs revulsion at work colleagues who know nothing of football approaching him to chat real life soccer because of them being in an office fantasy league). Blackburn are 7th after 26 games, 17 points off automatic promotion though in a league that Leeds have run off with.
But I’ve just been offered the Fiorentina job! It might be a little unlikely but I feel like who wouldn’t accept it? So not even a full season at my first club, but I’ll leave with a soft spot for them – managerial rating is 80 so they are clearly not going to give me the boot, but might as well try my luck in serie A. Gorgeous strip too.
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Turf – Always liked the idea of fantasy footy but after 3 or 4 weeks I forget about it, or dont get time to make changes etc, so it just falls away.
Good luck at Fiorentina, my year in Spain was enjoyabke at Athletico, but the Italian Serie A doesn’t have many licensed stadiums, so I chose not to move there.
Is Fiorentina’s recent kit still a garish vivid Purple?
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Yes, I know what you mean, I don’t bother watching highlights if the games sound dull or Newcastle lost so I’m not upon who is in form, out of favour, etc, consequently I fall away too.
Yes, it’s a clergy style purple, a sort of Archbishop of Canterbury accessorise shade. They have a ridiculous number of loans in and out, with at least ten very similar central midfielders on silly money. I hope they give me more than half a season as it’s a fairly substantial rebuild.
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As long as you complete your main board objectives your manager rating should stay fairly decent enough to avoid any half-season sack.
I played with the FIFER mod on PC so board objectives and their impact had been reworked so may difer from PS4, but fairly sure you’ll be ok.
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Fiorentina don’t have a huge budget so I’m offering player swaps which thankfully the dim AI of transfers accepts. Bellerin might want to have a word with his agent as he dropped his 62k a week at Arsenal for my 38k a week. Decent start but it’s a long job. Loving the enhanced crowds of serie A. Don’t see any reason why I’d move to fifa 21.
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What do you mean by enhanced crowds Turf?
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Well I don’t know if it was because my first game or that the next one was a cup tie but I had a big Fiorentina display followed by an inter Milan effort. They just looked more customised than the city stadium Brit effort. Mind,I’ve not played in any of the premier league ones so it might be the same?
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Yes, I played Napoli last night and they had the full crowd display out complete with huge image of maradona. It seems like every serie A game has a proper effort, whereas in the championship I on,y got it first game and last.
Only clunker is Piedmonte calcio.
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That player mosaic is called a TIFO. Every single team has them in the mod I use, plus fire canons behind goals, goal music etc. And piedmonte calcio is juventus, no fake teams in the mod. Get yourself a PC Turf 😉
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Welcome to my world of ten years ago, although the mods weren’t as all encompassing on PES. Once I played patched I could never go back to fake teams, kits and player names.
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No chance, your talk of installing, problems, updates, workarounds, etc puts me off immediately and then I use my best laptop for work and try and keep it work only. Besides which I always feel like pc games should be sandbox efforts not arcade, I just can’t get away with footy on pc ever since I bought actua soccer years ago. Massive disappointment.
In a spot of bother at Fiorentina. Haven’t won yet despite dominating games and scoring freely. Leaking goals badly and one thing with fifa is the inability to get players in quickly, unless you can gamble on a huge offer. I only three points off relegation.
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Turf, if you are even semi literate with PC’s then modding isnt as complicated as it sounds, certainly not on FIFA which couldn’t be any easier, download mod, file, open mod, apply, start ganme, job done.
Only hassles are when odd windows uodates go awry.
PES modding is more complex with its cpk folders, modulkes, sider servers, and ini files but once you know what goes where and how it hangs together that too is pretty straight forward.
Will try and get a post up later, have had workmen in all week doing garden work, and my day job work has been busy so haven’t had chance to prep the post yet, but will get one up later today.
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Nah, still not for me. PCs are for civilisation, sim city, football manager, etc. Although I think I’d be thinking that way if I was considering a next gen console and their pricing. The future is retro.
5-0 thumping of Udinese relieved a bit of pressure. I’ve got work folk in too so am using it as an excuse that I can’t concentrate on my so called work. Idiotic new local restrictions mean I can’t socialise with my parents in my house but I can have a plasterer, plumber, electrician and their boss all drinking tea in my kitchen.
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Turf. Don’t start me on the social restrictions. The government are truly clueless. Its a shambles.
They don’t want me having dinner with my mum dad, sister, wife and cousins. But they’re happy, even promoting going to work and sitting in an office with 20 strangers. Ridiculous.
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ooh, any interesting garden projects underway Paul? I’m currently making a new little woodland area, including another pond, in the hoping of attracting a wider range of birds
Anyone else pre-order a PS5 this morning? Given that we have all suffered genuine shortages of basic necessities this year I felt guilty hovering over the websites waiting feverishly for the moment this expensive inessential item went on sale. Very sold out just before I checked my basket out but fortunately managed to grab one on Amazon
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ABBEYHILL – ripped an old knackered conservatory down, putting decking on the footprint, lights sunken into it, had new outside electrics fitted, have a hot tub being installed tomorrow. Then artifical turf laid down in the concrete paths and skirting along the walls. Outside of back of house rendered and painted. Downlighters fitted, and just installed a wireless CCTV system. Nice little project.
The PS5 fiasco is ridiculous. It all kicked off because GAME broke the rules and started taking pre orders last night at midnight after the Sony announcement, when they weren’t supposed to start until 10am this morning. All other retailers panicked and did the same so by the time the proper ore order time came around, everywhere was sold out. Websites crashed the lot.
I registered pre order interest with shopto months ago. Confirmed it tonight so hopefully get mine from them.you did well to get one from amazon. They had closed pre orders when I looked.
Argos take pre orders from midnight.
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Woodland area? F’kin ell, how big is your garden?! And can you host a dozen friends grouse shooting??
We currently have four kitchen cabinets, a stand alone cooker and a sink. The walls are back to 70s plaster, no flooring, the start of the whole of one wall being knocked down to install doors and 15 holes in the ceiling where lights will go. The toilet no longer flushes (you have to use a bucket) and when you turn a tap on the pipes groan and the shower comes on. And still…I’ve lived in places in a worse state.
Back in the shit with Fiorentina after a bad loss. Crowd booed. Really struggling to get the last year of contracts up. I’ve set all the instructions correctly and it’s just ignoring them.
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Hey, how come my woodland area and not Paul’s hot tub caught your attention, Turf? ‘Area’ might be a bit of an exaggeration, it’s basically only a couple of trees – a eucalyptus and Japanese maple – with woodland bark over the soil. Thinking about accompanying with a few azaleas and maybe blueberry/blackcurrant bushes plus some primroses, anemones and heathers.
If 20 is anything like FIFA19 then offering 1 year on a contract renewal isn’t an extra year, just giving him more money for his remaining months. You need to offer at least 2 years for it to be a contract extension, if that’s what the problem is?
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Abbeyhill is right on the contracts turd, whether its poor design, a bug or what, if someone has a year left, and you offer a year, it stays at 1 year, the first year is inclusive, not extra.
Loads of complaints when FIFA20 first came out, jao felix at athletico has, like in real life a 7yr contract, people were renewing him by 5 years, meaning 12 in total, but no, the game toom his contract down to 5 years, shortening it, not lengthening.
Plays on 1 year contracts need to be offered 3 years, this will increase them to 2 years, and so on.
Daft but true.
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Abbeyhill – sounds like a hole at Augusta National…somewhere for the roe deer to explore, while the gamekeeper checks on the pheasant chicks and Parker shines the rolls.
The hot tub is just entirely in keeping with our friend Paul, no surprises there. Whereas I never saw you as a plus four wearing, arboretum planting Laird of the manor….
Sorry, no, what I meant was I’m searching for players in the last year of their contract and have set scout instructions for 0-1 but I’m getting everything but. I don’t quite understand it as I was seeing them when at Blackburn but it’s almost like the move has thrown it off. I wondered if I maybe have to recall all the scouts and resend them out?
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Reset the scouts Turf. Your criteria has to be 0-1 years on contract and age 23 or greater. You can only sign players on a free i side their last 6 months if they are over 23. That’s the real world rules.
Players contracts are up in the summer so you have to negotiate with them in the Jan window.
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