I have had a busy few weeks, although we are locked down and working from home has its perks, days are still very busy recently, I am heading up several high profile projects at work, commissioning and building new business intelligence servers and ETL to transfer and populate data cross-server, as well as all the normal day to day stuff, and by the time I’ve squeezed in my walks in the freezing cold, returned home, defrosted, showered, cooked and ate dinner, and get some free time late at night, I’ve not really been in the right frame of mind to sit and dedicate time to a career mode footy game, preferring to relax with some true crime docs on TV instead.
The times I have gamed, I’ve wanted a lighter approach so been playing some Shadow of the Tomb Raider (PS5 remastered edition) and some Cyberpunk 2077. so you’ll have to excuse the minimal career mode talk, and the relatively mix bag of content this week.
I’m still very invested in my career mode with Luton Town, and will pick it up again proper very soon, have a couple of days booked off work and with nowhere else to go and nothing to do, gaming is on the cards.
As shown above, we hover around mid table in the Prem, we hold our own on most occasions, and usually get dicked by the ‘big 6’, a recent 5-2 drubbing by Liverpool at Anfield shows the gulf in class, board target is avoid relegation so this season should be a ‘success of sorts’ barring some disasterous run of defeats.
A couple of goals below, Awoniyi (CF) signed from Liverpool, is proving to be a class buy, pace and power and a good finisher, most of our goals coming through him.
On the casual side of FIFA 21, I have been dancing with the devil, taking my ass online with the kids, and playing some Ultimate Team.
I created my squad ‘PORKY FC’ a nickname my mum gave me when i was younger, because I didn’t eat, how I’ve more than made up for that slow start …..
Complete with pink pig face kit, pink stadium hoarding and banners, and assembled a decent-ish squad.
Brent Stanley is the random name given to your team by the game, you have to unlock a name change. I purposely chose to assemble a team of all Brazilians, apparently team chemistry is paramount in FUT, I have since broken the 100% chemistry links by changing formations and incorporating some other nationalities into the squad, I’m always tinkering, trying not to get my ass handed to me by ‘f1FaSk1llZ_x_’ or whatever other snotty ASBO ridden teenager is online.
FUT is admittedly a superb mode, if you’re into the online thing, so many options, sub modes, objectives, ways to ‘level up’ etc, and I do enjoy playing, so far arouind 3 out of every 5 matches have been decent, the other 2 the usual nobhead tactics, pausing the game, for no reason, keepy uppies with the GK, time wasting, fouls rage quits etc.
It’s nice to have FUT on the sideline though for when I dont fancy getting deep into a career mode.
I’ve mostly been playing FUT division rivals, whereby you play online matches in an attempt to move up the divisions, and amass enough points to compete in the FUT Champions tournament. Yeah Right.
A few goals from FUT online matches, against real people and everything, notice my lovely Pig theme.
Whilst sat eating my lunch and watching YouTube videos the other day i watched a video titled ‘FIFA YouTuber reacts to Modded PES’. A well known FIFER YouTuber, played a modded PC version of PES 2021 and gave his opinions, he was blown away by it, and I must admit it did look impressive, so i grabbed a few of the Mods he was using, and have been dipping back into PES 21, just playing one-off odd matches from different leagues.
I have to admit, PES 21, modded to the eyeballs on PC, looks and feels so much better than FIFA, much more realistic, if someone could make a mod to port over FIFA’s career mode and merge with PES PC gameplay, it would be the footy video game super race.
It’s just such a shame that Konami’s presentation and ML mode, are so poor, as the gameplay, animations etc really are spot on now.
Have a look at this, Liverpool vs Leicester, this weekends upcoming fixture, but played at Anfield, the lush turf, the way the players move, the crowd chants, it looks sublime, and plays bloody good too.
FIFAFX.com 
Weirdly, I started up shadow of the tomb raider a few weeks back but haven’t moved past the first chapter as I just wasn’t feeling it. I’ll return to it I’m sure but for the moment I have three games to finish this bizarre Belgian league. I’ve arranged a few rather dull transfers to broaden the squad as the only leading free my scouts turned up was (now Everton’s) Rodriguez. He wants 120k per week.
LikeLiked by 1 person
great post Paul, loved the mixed bag nature of it. Admire your dedication to getting daily walks in despite the weather, I find by the time I’ve finished a day’s work, made supper and helped get the kids to bed it’s 8pm and can’t be bothered to do any exercise. Will be nice when it’s light/warm enough to get out in the garden again. Still getting 2-3 games of FIFA20 in each day which are decent but I have been playing FIFA non stop for almost 18 months now so it feels part of the daily routine rather than a highlight. Your PES footage does look really good, as you say if that could be attached to a half-decent career mode….
Just completed Death Stranding but still wandering around in the post-game making a few more deliveries, such a unique game. Gone back for another shot on the most recent Ace Combat – used to love the series but either it’s got much harder or my skillz are in decline, had to give up my ‘normal’ campaign and start again on easy. Any more thoughts on Cyberpunk Paul?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ended up 6th in Belgium, didn’t win a single play off game. Combined with an arsey youth player who wanted out (seems to really hit your success rating) and I was actually teetering on the brink of the sack. They decided to give me another season though, with a bizarre objective of selling shirts. Consequently I need to try and find a big name player.
LikeLike
that was how I got sacked in my previous career, Turf, so annoying. Was cruising along nicely in season 3 then suddenly Dozzell demanded a transfer owing to lack of game time despite starting roughly 75% of our matches. As he was a player with ‘great potential’ I refused to sell for such a stupid reason but then board rating started to plummet for not listening to players and after a couple of defeats was sacked. Seems to be impossible to keep a squad of players happy, you just have to target a core 14-15 plus a few youths in case of fixture pile up, nobody ever really gets injured anyway. Board objectives are completely random
LikeLike
Managed to swap an underperforming striker for Jesse lingaard and got Klopp to sell me shaqiri for 20m. Board were very happy and won the opener 4-2. Still finding the scouting useless. I send guys off to all the main leagues and they manage to avoid noting every well known player. I have to go in and search for players I think might be a good fit and then get them scouted.
LikeLike
I tend to focus my scouting on ‘first team quality’ and ‘promising’ for certain positions which works well in the lower leagues. And 0-1 contract 23+ years in the second half of the season if there are any holes to be filled in with free transfers. Promotion now almost guaranteed, 8 points clear of 3rd placed QPR with 6 to play, virtually every game is a dull 1-0 win….
Darryl, if you’re still reading this have you seen Valheim? A sort of viking crafting and survival game, looks completely in your wheelhouse. Very tempted to get involved myself
LikeLike
Turf – stick with it! Shadow of the tomb raider was a free download for me, included with the PSN+ sub, its superb, like a beefier uncharted, and looks glorious on the PS5, perfect side game for just take your brain out fun!!!
LikeLike
Abbeyhill – Have to make a conscious effort to get walks in and weights workouts in the garden when weather permits, im used to training 5 or 6 times a week ay high intensity, this gyms closed business is a struggle, my body craves activity.
I might start doing more of a mixed bag type content in posts, PES 2021 ML is still parked but with so many awesome mods these days its a shame to just leave it to stagnate.
Cyberpunk has had several huge updates – I picked it up again and had a go the other day, finally got past a mission i was stuck on.
The grandeur of the game is overwhelming for me, theres often things happening i have no idea about and just mash buttons aimlessly, then theres the whole crafting element of piecing together weapons, handles, sights etc, im really not a fan of any type of crafting game, there just seems so much to see and do, i know i’ll never get the most from the game, but for a pick up and play shooter its good.
LikeLike
Turf – pretty sure scouts take your budget into account, if you only have 20 mil to spend and 100k wage budget, they’re not gonna find you a 50mil player on 200k a week.
LikeLike
Paul – I agree on cyberpunk. There is much to do but at the same there isn’t; to me it’s more akin to Skyrim, being a mile wide but an inch deep. So I treat it as a shooter with a little bit of thinking sprinkled in instead of a full-on open world RPG, which it’s not in my opinion.
Love that second FIFA goal of yours, lovely dribbling sequence. If you (or anyone else) is thinking of dipping back into Pes you should consider Holland’s latest gameplay mod if you haven’t already. Very, very good.
LikeLike
Agree on Shadow of the Tomb Raider, really enjoying it.
Four games left in season 1 of my Harrogate adventure. Went up to World Class after 8 games and applied the OS sliders as well. Struggled at first but have found my feet. Clinging on to 2nd at the moment, but hopeful of automatic promotion. Star youth striker William Higgins tops the charts with 34 goals. Should finish of season one this evening.
LikeLike
#1 – Do you have a link?? i know its prob on evo-web but cant be assed to go searching?
LikeLike
Promoted on the last day of the season. A 1-1 draw enough to finish second. Now in the process of scouring the free agents and trying to bolster the squad with a £3 million kitty. Onwards to League One!!
LikeLike
Seven wins out of seven for anderlecht, scoring freely, 93 approval rating. There’s going to be a bump in the road I can feel it. I might switch back to something like tomb raider for a little while, or maybe alternate, just to avoid the feeling of churn.
In terms of lockdown fitness, a walk and a few press ups is about as good as I get. We managed a bit of taekwondo in the summer when first one ended but only patterns, no sparring allowed due to distancing, and we’ve been off again since tiers. So I haven’t had a fight in almost a year. That first one back I’m probably going to be in a whole world of pain but at the moment it doesn’t feel like it will happen in 2021.
LikeLike
I don’t know how to those compilations but spot the similarities…I basically have two goals
LikeLike
haha Turf, you have certainly found the sweet spot on the edge of the D! Unfortunately my players cannot shoot that well so it’s all about finding the sweet spot on the edge of the D then playing a through ball, it does get repetitive
LikeLike
you dont get the time or space to pull those shots from the D off on F21, with slider tweaks.
LikeLike
Abbeyhill- Just been catching up on comments. I hadn’t seen Valheim so just looked it up now. From what I have seen it isn’t available on consoles and I am not a PC gamer sadly. Looks good though. I am currently playing Football Manager 2021 on the XBox One. It is based on the lite version of the PC game but has more than enough depth for me, having not played a FM game since 2011. The presentation is superb and is very addictive. With 10 games left I am 10 points clear of 3rd place with Sunderland in season 1.
LikeLike
Abbeyhill – Congratulations on finishing Death Stranding as well. It is a game I will never forget and ever likely to play anything like it again. Two parts stood out and that is the section of the game where you are in the snowy remote mountains and the long track down to the coast. I remember feeling quite emotional when I finally arrived at the coast.
LikeLike
Goals from season one.
LikeLike
Darryl – yes, and that final trek back up to the incinerator reprising the first mission, was literally in tears by that point. Also loved building that gleaming road network from scratch, so satisfying. Although Death Stranding was derided as an amazon delivery simulator with nothing much to do, I’d have liked the game to have even more walking and less of the combat and cutscene/chat bits. Hard to find another game to follow that, as I remember you saying at the time
LikeLike
Link to Holland’s gameplay; https://evo-web.co.uk/threads/gameplay-mod-pes-2021-version-1-04-00-il-calcio-release.84356/
LikeLike
Cheers #1 – Will give it a try !
Death stranding sill doesnt appeal to me, could be massively wrong, but just seems a bit of an overhyped thing just because its Kojima, i really dont see how walking translates to a fun game play experience.
Wife is working in living room having meetings etc, and I need to get on the Pc there to finish up the post, so expecting to have it up this evening.
LikeLike
You can run too, Paul, not just a walking simulator! But I can say with 100% confidence that you, and indeed Turf, would hate it. One of this month’s free PS5 games, Control, looks really really good though
LikeLike
Abbeyhill – I totally agree with you as I too would have liked to have seen less combat stuff and more emphasis on the walking. Unless you play the game it is hard to understand why anyone would wish for that. I particularly didn’t care for the war missions. I suppose this balance was more for commercial interest.
LikeLike
I came to that conclusion a while ago abbeyhill. Much as I initially loved no man’s sky it was the complete lack of anything to do that made me drop it. In Death Stranding I’d be looking round for the gun upgrades or spell combinations or something. I mean who can forget the worst game in the history of overhyped do nothing rubbish…Ico.
Between lockdowns I did get a load of games to pile onto Paul’s PS4 and as I’m not going 5 for many years I do intend to actually try them. £50 or so now gets you a ridiculous shelf of stuff in cex- I even bought fallout for the third time with the intention of finally sticking at it, despite the awful opening and horrible map. Played a small chunk of Lara the other night and I’m not convinced the vision identifying collectibles is right in these games but at times they’re so dark you absolutely need it.
LikeLike
LikeLike
LikeLike
Well that’s the star striker out until next season. Bollocks.
LikeLike
Paul – Forgot to say me and the misses have been obsessed with the real crime series as well over the last few months. Have you got any recommendations? K take it you have watched ‘Night Stalker’?
LikeLike
Darryl – Night Stalker has been my fave so far!!! Loved the build up of tension.
Some other notable true crime docks you should definitely check:
The Jinx
Don’t F*ck with Cats
Outcry
Disappearance: The Cecil Hotel
LikeLike
I’ve now worked out how to edit together videos. Turns out the technophobe who had the PS4 before me hadn’t downloaded sharefactory. Clearly an older, newb gamer…
Whisper it, as every time I said this over on peschron it went bad, but I’ve now played 10 games and my nearest rivals and I’m unbeaten. A third of an invincible regular season. I have 29 points. The second place team have 28 – just to emphasise how this story will go if I slip up. Come what may I think I won’t be staying in Brussels much beyond another season, I need to be managing the William Higgins of this world.
LikeLike
haha well done Turf – A video editor is kinda essential if you want to, you knowl,edit together videos!!! 🙂
An invincible season would be some feat. Good luck!
LikeLike
Ouch Lloyd, I had just been admiring Higgins’s pace and deft finishes. 74 OVR 18 year old is some find, he came through your youth team? A cruciate ligament as well, my football career was never quite the same after that
29 points from 10 games, Turf? This Belgian league business is peculiar
LikeLike