So with the blog taking a formal summer break from regular weekly posts, until the new releases, I thought I’d up this new post as a placeholder for all future discussion going forward.
I will continue to adhoc post updates, goal clips, progress along with random tidbits from other games I may play, and just life in general, in the comments section, so feel free to post and chat below 🙂
FIFAFX.com 
Here are a few goals I’ve scored this season, as my Spurs ML is well underway in season 4.
It’s been a hit and miss season, starting the league campaign very poorly, trying various game play mods and the up in difficulty, results were sporadic, before an upturn in fortunes around December time saw us climb to 7th place.
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I’ve also been dipping into this over the last few days, as all the talk over on evo-web of the demise of PES, people were claiming to go back to this game, which i’ve always considered over-rated.
Screenshot taken on the actual 85″ screen in the gaming room, running on PC with a patch for proper kits and squads and stadiums.
and here’s some footage…
comments on the game to follow.
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Look forward to watching the footage later Paul, but PES5 blown up to 85” must have been physically painful to view, even before playing the wretched thing?
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Abbeyhill – PES 5 actually looked ok, no worst off than viewing in 4:3 on a 24″ tv all those years ago, obviously the dated graphics are exactly that, still dated but the game looked and played fine on the 85″‘er.
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great variety of goals in that eFootball PES 2021 footage, Paul, looked really good. Where did Jermaine Defoe suddenly appear from? Loved the Insigne hit after the free kick rebound. In fairness the PES5 looked surprisingly decent too, I miss the feeling of just blasting past players with R1 sprint as you did with Walcott for the first goal. Looks like your patch has also improved gameplay, none of those constant fouls which spoilt the original release
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and Drury scared me with that growling shout of ‘Del Horno’ on 2.05!
had a look at that new FIFA 2022 footage out today, although the voice over guy was annoying and there wasn’t much actual gameplay what they did show looked pretty promising. Less concerned now that it will be new animations sellotaped on top of the same old gameplay engine
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I’m horribly shallow and notoriously flip floppy having owned about four ps2s and repeatedly gone back to old games only to tire of them. But I think I’ve finally realised the past is best left there. I don’t see a perfect football game with the old titles, I see something that doesn’t have the off the ball run option, or the movement at corners, or the subtle touches, etc etc. It’s all quite arcade like. Which to be fair online fifa was the worst example of ever.
Very strange tonight – the ESO world is divided into parts of a map and depending on what you’ve bought is what allows you onto those parts of the map. I guess originally you bought the first, the story played out, they brought out the second, you bought it, etc. I have been doing the main story but a lot of other exploring and for the first time today I spent a good few hours in a part of the map and didn’t see a single online gamer. No idea how many there are per section but never happened before despite the map being huge. Really was quite immersive without ‘Ivor biggun’ charging past me on a dinosaur (I see him a lot and despair).
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Abbeyhill – Defoe appeared in my youths, and needed a backup striker as MBappé was injured for a few weeks so promoted him. Yeah that Insigne volley off the free kick was a satisfying dipping smash !
There are some odd commentary lines as i installed a commentary patch for PES 5 too, adds in Andy Gray from FIFA, so sometimes the lines get a bit random!
Have you read the latest deep dive post from EA about FIFA22, pretty damn good, the level of detail and transparency that EA show with their fanbase is such a stark contrast to the secret squirrel-esque, ‘you’ll get what we give you’ attitude of Konami’ !!
https://www.ea.com/games/fifa/fifa-22/news/pitch-notes-fifa-22-gameplay-deep-dive?isLocalized=true
Actually excited me for a create a club career mode on FIFA 22.
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Turf – going back and playing PES 5 has proved one thing to me – that I am justified in my opinion that the older games were good for their day but should be left there.
the limited clunky 8 direction turns and running, the inaccurate passing mechanics, the rigidity, lack of player runs or off the ball controls, and the same shooting mechanics for every shot just proved its a massively overrated game in this day and age.
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EDIT: Even the ML was shit.
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I didn’t listen to you Paul and installed gameplay patch from Holland. PES 2014 REVISED gameplay mod. And… .boy oh boy, I can’t stop playing, it’s a completely new game with this + virtuared v3.
If only Coinami could take an example from folks who do all this magic with what is already there…
I’ve got best fun with PES at the moment since PES6, swear to god.
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Good stuff Abbes, the Holland Mod isn’t for me though, you’ll see over time it introduces issues of its own, random player positions, no awareness of the ball, dumbed down keepers in critical situations, etc. I prefer to stick with the vanilla GP.
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I chose that one in the exact case you talking about – thankfully his mod works in a way, that you can change it to vanilla any time without consequences (or any other GP).
On the other hand, for the sake of relax between work, life, learning and PES – I went down into the American Truck Simulator, really recommend to all of ya, put some country music on and drive through the states (or Europe if you prefer the other one from same dev) :).
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Abbes – Truck Simulator? next you’ll be recommending some type of game where you walk for ages and ages to deliver a parcel.
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If I am not mistaken some of you already was in love in such game – from Mr Kojima ;). Which, by the way I didn’t like at all, even tho I really, really tried to like it.
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Indeed!!! I have never played it, but the concept just seems like a dull one to me, but several on here swore by it.
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If you’re a geek you’ll know what Stack Overflow is. Well in this week’s newsletter the top item was an interview with the one bloke who develops Dwarf Fortress https://stackoverflow.blog/2021/07/28/700000-lines-of-code-20-years-and-one-developer-how-dwarf-fortress-is-built/
You’re welcome 😉
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I’ve had a strange hankering all afternoon to download Dwarf Fortress on my laptop. Please tell me it isn’t any more complicated than Rogue.
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Hmm not sure who were the Dwarf Fortress fans here Chris, certainly not-Greg, perhaps Werd? One PC strategy game I am really keen to try is Wildermyth, reviews are very positive
Death Stranding remains an all time classic and it’s not even up for debate
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Afternoon all.
Chris99 – after mention by NG and a google to find out what dwarf fortress was I downloaded on the laptop. It comes as is, with keyboard symbols for graphics or you can get overlays. I went hardcore, it looked like a spectrum code yourself type game. Played it for a while then admitted it was just too hardcore for me. I hate the phrase ‘like 3D chess’ but…it works on many levels and you (at least I) can’t effectively visualise them easily. Imagine minecraft where it tells you what you have dug out but doesn’t show you it. And of course you can’t beat the game, ultimately you will get attacked and be overrun. I think everyone should have a go at it once in their life but I don’t imagine the committed play anything else.
A bit like ESO really. I’m starting to understand that if I stick with my development curve I might as well sell all my other games. Which I don’t want to. So ESO might be getting a daily 10 minute spin and a longer go at weekends. Can’t believe the football season is here, I’m not early releasing fifa but I will order the disc.
Abbeyhill – bierhope alpacas, just south of Kelso. I recommend everyone walks an alpaca once in their life as well!
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looks excellent Turf, did you go for the alpaca Stroll, Trek or Hike? Will definitely visit next time we’re down there
Giving FIFA20 another career mode season with Ipswich. Was all set to bin it after a boring season and try 21 to clear the backlog before the hopefully more exciting 22 turns up, but there are several interesting players coming through the youth squad and keen to see them develop. Off to a very good start. My son got PSVR for his birthday yesterday and I am absolutely loving playing through Rez again in VR, even better than it was in 2005
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Abbeyhill – Just the stroll as had no idea what to expect, but would definitely opt for 2 hours if kids are ok with the modest inclines of the Cheviots. Woman who owns it is brilliant.
Unfortunately a bit of a tough end to the holiday- I witnessed a really bad car accident. Fortunately no fatalities but happened 100 yards in front of our car with no one else on the road so I had to do the 999 bit and go and check on the occupants. I wouldn’t wish that moment when you don’t know what you’re about to see on anyone. I was in stunned awe of all the emergency service folk.
On a happier front I’m just downloading the 22 beta!
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Liverpool 2 v 3 Bayern Munich
It’s whatever the online beta thumb on the box looks like….I was never an England Scotland man.
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(AKA Grilled Seabass)
Just been catching up with your posts Paul. I’m surprised you played so much online. Most of the guys back on PES Chronicles were dead against it. I’ve been playing Seasons mode and it’s pretty good, no super squads. Quite satisfying beating hyper dribbling kids with a patient passing game.
How do you find the offline play in career mode?
I’ve been pleasantly surprised by FIFA this year after not trying it for a few years. The players feel heavier and more individual than years gone by.
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Seabass – on FIFA 20/21 I find the career mode offline play ok, as you say there is much more weight and individuality these days to your players which leads to a strong connection to your squad as it develops over the years, akin to classic PES. In fact I got the full 15 seasons out of 19. My main criticisms are that AI teams play identically, aside from differing levels of ‘attackingness’, and there only seems one real way to play the game, with lots of tippy tappy passing through midfield followed by a well timed through ball
Turf – who cares what the score was, just tell us whether it’s any good! Sorry to hear about your experience on the scottish roads, I’ve always dreaded encountering something like that
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Abbeyhill – agree that Death Stranding is a classic. I have been more focused with my gaming in the last couple of years and have completed the following:-
– Detroit Become Human
– Metal Gear Solid V
– Death Stranding
– Heavy Rain
– The Witcher 3
I have to say Death Stranding still stands out as being the best of them all. I would have liked them to actually have stripped back some of the action parts a bit more and made the climbing, traversing of hazards and load management even more sim like. Unless you have played the game you wouldn’t understand why this is one of the games strengths. Witcher 3 became a little bit repetitive and the main story isn’t as strong as some of the side quests. Still loved it and for immersive reasons I always kept to a day/night cycle of settling into a local village or a tavern at night time where I would plan what I wanted to achieve the next day and then set off on my travels at sunrise. I also loved some of the politics and the power struggles that became more evident as you completed some of the other quests.
My next adventure is to revive the sleeping giant of Sunderland on Football Manager on the X Box One. I did play it previously for a while but have got back into it now there are less distractions going on, such as the Olympics.
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Hiya Guys, hope everyone is well.
Been away for over a week, little secluded cabin in the Herefordshire countryside, beautiful, few days fishing on the private lakes, sat in the hot tub, eating and drinking, just what we needed.
Haven’t downloaded the FIFA 22 beta yet, doubt i’ll bother, EA always drastically change the game before release and after anyway, but good things heard about the career mode changes.
Darryl – Did you enjoy Detroit? I did, good storyline, and love the decisions affecting outcomes scenarios, and the flow map of how your decisions shaped the narratve.
Also heavy Rain was one of my all time fave games, David Cage/Quantic dream do that type of genre better than anyone.
Socrates – Purely played FUT so much as I was a bit jaded with career mode, and after investing so much time into learning the FUT mechanics, and shaping a good squad, i just carried on playing.
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Was it ever possible to create a team in career? Don’t think I’ve ever done it.
I’ve not played much yet but it’s not revolutionary and I’ve not been burdened by fouls.
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Also…keepers are not great, professional is ridiculously easy, passes rarely go astray…like Paul says it’s not going to tell us much.
Career mode doesn’t feel different beyond the club creation. Same training, same transfer setup, etc
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Paul – Yes loved it and the story tree was such a novel idea. It was a game that made you think long after putting the controller down. Also loved how the pace picked up dramatically towards the end as it flicked quickly between the different characters you had left. Do you remember the scene near the beginning where you are in the house and have to escape with the daughter. My heart was literally in my mouth.
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Turf – how have you downloaded FIFA 22 beta? i looked on the PS store and its not there, apparently you have to have been sent a code by EA to get it ??
I even have EA play and FIFA is not on the early access for that either
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Darryl – I certainly do remember the early scene with having to help the daughter escape. pulls you right in to the characters and makes you instantly hate her dad.
Also liked the abandoned fairground bit, proper build up of intensity there. great game.
Heavy Rain – one question – did you make him chop his own finger off? 😉
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Paul – I didn’t as there is a cold heartedness about me that can only be reflected in games. Abbeyhill will know what I mean when I say I took the money and basically sold out Ciri.
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Darryl, I got the ‘witcher’ ending where Geralt and Ciri meet in a tavern and set off for new adventures together. And much later, at the end of the second DLC, she comes to live in our beautiful house in the Mediterranean vineyards. Lovely stuff. Personally I am more cold hearted in real life than in games
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Paul – I did. I have two accounts, my old ps one that is connecting to the PS4 I gave mini turf and the new one I set up when I got yours. So I also have two EA accounts. Luckily they chose me to get the beta. Annoyingly they sent it to the account my son uses, so I can only go on when he’s not on fortnite. Luckily they gave me career mode. Annoyingly it feels a bit pointless doing one when it won’t go anywhere.
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Lucky draw then Turf!
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Quite strange really given how I haven’t used that account ever since I got your machine – basically all of my fifa 21 efforts. Tbh all it’s done is encourage me to pre-order. I haven’t played it much and there seems so little point doing a career that can’t develop over time that after I saw that all the training, etc worked exactly the same I switched off. It’s nice to pick some top teams and just try it out but I’m anticipating online being very fast again, few fouls if any again, players chosen not for position but stats e.g lighting quick winger up front, lightning quick midfielder up front. It obviously looks good and sounds good but it’s not what I’d ideally like to see (slower, more fouls obviously, less of the tricksy shit).
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Hi all, long lurker since the PES chronicle days, I commented there a few times, I’m the Spanish Adriano not the Brasilian one! Doubt any of you will remember but I had a talk with ng about modded PC in I think 2013!
Paul, I have loved your posts about modded PES 2021, I think PES 2021 is the best since 2013, maybe since the PS2 days. It deserves a chance
I really unlurked to say to uncle Turf – PES 2021 is the game you are looking for! you would love PES2021 even on console! Its heavy, you can slow it down to a crawl, the shooting and player individuality is as good as it ever was, and Master League is OK (all its ever been since the middle of PS3 era). If this is the end of PES as we know it, 2021 is a good sendoff.
I’m shocked when I look at FIFA 22. I’ve had tons of enjoyment from FIFA since it got good after the PS2 times, but 22 looks like a step back.
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great to see you back here Adriano! And you have inspired me to download PES2021 this evening; I had been planning to get it anyway as potentially the final ever decent PES and suspected it would get taken off Steam once the new abomination is released. What are your recommendations on mods etc?
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hi abbeyhil, anyone who has ever love PES will love 21! It’s got to be vanilla gameplay for me, Paul makes the poimt well that the gameplay mods are interesting but never really last well for some reason, would like to find one that proves it wrong. vanilla gameplay not perfect but is best we’ve seen for years, still annoying a lot but that’s football games they never do what we want all the time.
I use virtuaRed mod too as it has its own installer, the main work is downloading all the files to begin with. about 6 or 7 big 3GB downloads adding up to 50GB I think. There’s a camera problem at some grounds but that’s the price you pay
I played 2021 a lot on console and I swear it’s the best PES we’ve had since 2013 for me
The individuality is strong, best for years. Enough fouls for me. And the goals great too. A 9/10 PES at the death of the series!
We’re all curious about the efootball thing but lets face it, its over
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Turf – I will pick up FIFA 22 as I always do, and will play a career Mode in the absence of any other worthwhile footy game, the ‘create-a-club’ mode should be interesting and add a little variety to things.
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ADRIANO02 _ welcome and good to see you again after all this time, and completely echo your comments, PES 21, with all its patches up to DP7, and PC Mods, is probably the best PES ever made, not the ridiculously fast, foul-littered, clunky, 8 directional PES 5, or the superb ML of PES 10, but for game play, PES 21 seriously.
I stress to add though, *WITH PC MODS, with out them, its just a decent but piss poorly presented PES game.
I use VirtuaRed patch too, and its hands down the best, most inclusive patch out there.
I’ve updated to V3 and the camera in the stadium, usually rooftop issues, is largely fixed,
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skyrim anniversary edition, I said never again but…
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Pual, I thank you for your gracious welcome and let’s see what that efootball monster brings shall we. I’m expecting a pure online-only game that us offline players will get something out of but it won’t be much and we’ll have to really try. Cannot believe PES is no more.
But we have the old games! Which 21 is nearly one of. I do think the vanilla game on console is still the best PES tjhere since PS2 days, but PC is next level. Worth getting a whole gaming pc for for sure. Before I only had the laptop I used to play modded pes 2013 on!
The problem with gameplay mods is many of them boast they they’re removing scripting. I dout that’s even possible
Like a lot of PES diehards I play FIFA every summer for a while with enjoyment. Just starting my FIFA 21 story and it looks great, plays great etc., I know I’m loving it, but as you posted a while ago Paul there is nothing like that solid heavy feeling in pES
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Werd – to be honest I am really struggling with Skyrim. Just constantly being killed by random passing dragons, tigers etc – how on earth are you meant to bring down dragons with that feeble bow? – which makes the 10 year old graphics and animations less easy to endure. I followed a main quest marker to the island of Solstheim where the enemies were particularly impossible and I could not find a way of leaving; only after checking an online guide it became clear that this was DLC which needed a much higher level character to complete, no indication of this in the game. Have uninstalled it for now in frustration but will have another look when it updates to the anniversary edition
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Abbeyhill! No…you are playing it all wrong my friend. You ignore the main quest until you are much stronger. Go to the village by all means but don’t go into bleak falls barrow and take the dragonstone (yet). Dragons will not appear as long as you haven’t triggered this part. I’ve had many adventures where I told them to fuck off with their dragon nonsense and lived a life of a simple mercenary come thief. You miss out on the fus ro dah and all that but it’s a good life. Once you feel strong enough you can go back and set it away (although Skyrim is a bit shit at acknowledging what you’ve done and when – walk into a town as the Dragonborn and a guard will still treat you like a leper). You need to focus on skills early doors – if you’re a mage then cast spells to build up experience, a fighter benefits from easy fights with wimpy stuff, personally I always go for the archer type as eventually you can one shot bosses and it gives you distance to run away from bears etc. Do lots of smithing and the like, buy training in things and always always move in sneak as it adds to your levelling. Just avoid stealing, it catches up with you.
Werd- there is currently an event in ESO where dragons have been released – they are incredibly tough and it’s where the online cooperation comes into its own. Just helped take down my first one alongside people ranging from level 18 to level 1450. There’s no barriers, no snottiness, no beating up the newbies. So nice after Ultimate Team’s shitbaggery.
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That whole thing you just described about ESO is everything i hate in a game.
All this wandering around, crafting, forging, building skills trees, levelling up, just to get past a certain point in the game, horrible.
I know theres a big audience for this kinda thing but it repulses me, i find it so offputting and the complete opposite of immersing, if i have to wander round looking for some ancient duck feather and gimble wood to craft a bow and arrow which will allow me to build a homestead wher ei can further forge more items, no thanks!
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Haha, it divides the gaming world. I love it. I do it so much I forget why I’m doing it and then take down a boss with a single hit and feel slightly underwhelmed. Duck feathers and gimble wood though…pfff….everyone knows at level 49 you’re on fell hide medium armour, yew bows and ebony swords. Now did I say there are different crafting centres around the world that provide different bonuses….
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Turf – I totally get that this kind of game mechanic is very popular and used in alot of big AAA games but it just isn’t for me, i hate it and find it very offputting and overwhelming.
Cyberpunk uses it to a degree, and Shadow of the Tomb raider, probably why my progress with both is so slow, the thought of it puts me off firing up the game.
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Thanks Turf, none of this was in the Skyrim instruction manual but I’ll take your word for it! It’s a compelling game world and I do enjoy the thought of generally wandering around without being constantly slaughtered. So, go down to the village to start but not to Bleak Falls Barrow or necessarily to Whiterun next, just head off at random?
Paul – another reason why you’d love Death Stranding, no skill trees, levelling, crafting, gimble wood or any of that shit. Actually maybe just a bit of crafting but not enough to distract from gameplay. Have you seen the latest news on eFootball? Game releasing without all the ‘kicks’ included despite a good two years to sort this…..
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