RamSteelwood wrote:

Although I won't be available for selection until Christmas, is there any interest in a (PS4) forum 'club' in FIFA 17? Or is there already one, and if so can I get my agent to speak to you about my signing up?

I'm up for exhibitions now and then but shouldn't be relied on for regular fixtures.

I'm up for games of Fifa on Xbox one.

First season of Master League done and a creditable 15th place finish in the English 2nd tier. Mostly just struggled to score (shooting is hard) and was hovering above the relegation zone, but it all started to come together at the end and we managed 5 wins out of 6. Brought the big striker back into the starting 11, after he'd lost form earlier in the season and he responded brilliantly. Even got a hat trick in one game.

Just hoping for a better transfer budget for next season now to up the quality a bit. A few select changes and we should challenge for top 10.

Just over 3 seasons of ML done, and it finally happened - scoring direct from a free kick. It is possible! 

It's a beauty as well.

stop trying to temp me with your (freekick) sorcery...PES master league has burned me too many times now!

is there a proper online equivalent to fifa clubs in the 'become a legend' modes, so you can play with other humans when controlling just one player?  I always like the idea of BAL type modes, but just find it really dull watching the AI play 90% of the game...always end up running all over the pitch trying to get passes so that you can make things happen and grind your stats.  at least online with other humans it feels more like a fun team game.

Scored this 90th min winner against oor @chazmano last night. Best goal I've ever scored in any fifa. Pick that one out!

FIFA physics robbing poor Chaz there.

Had the first Pro Evo tournament for 5 years today.  It used to be a yearly thing with colleagues but fizzled out.  Quite a few of my mates have been made redundant over the past year, so we did one last tourney this afternoon. Can't remember the last time I played PES, I've been a Fifa boy since 2012ish, but it's still a fantastic 1 on 1 game.  We had one group playing 2016 on PS3 and one group playing 2017 on PS4, with the semis and final played on the console that won the coin toss (PS3). 

Preamble out the way: I won.  Winnings went back in the whip, but I steered England to victory, lads lads lads.  Blind panic when I switched to the PS3 and played the semi with Jonjo Shelvey, James Milner and Oxlaide Chamberlain as my default midfield trio.

I had the briefest of tries on PES2017 'Become a Legend' mode last night but it managed to annoy me as so stupidly designed I don't think I'll play that again.  Similar story when I tried to play the online 'individual player' type mode where you can join with other people for a game where everyone controls one player....but that was an absolute faff too and I never got into a game.  It really shows how out of touch Konami are that so much of the presentation and UI element are so clumsy and behind the times compared to FIFA.

I did manage a couple of quick exhibition matches against cpu, but even that wasn't overwhelmingly positive.  Normally when I switch between FIFA and PES, I don't feel like PES is weaker on the pitch barring the graphical sheen, but this time everything felt a little more clunky and robotic than i remember FIFA.  to be fair, it's been a little while since I've played FIFA, and i was playing using two shit teams in PES, so there's still scope for the gameplay to come alive.  But overall not a great start for PES.

My main issue was that I considered it extremely dull to have to sit and watch an entire match played out by the cpu, exasperated by the fact i didn't even get brought on...even with the fast forward option it still took too long (especially as you still got all the replay interruptions that PES enjoys so much).  But the whole setup and design of the mode annoyed me, such that i didn't even get to the point where I played a game.
it seemed pretty clear it's basically just 'sit back while the cpu plays master league mode and wait until they decide to play you'.
It's not that I expect my player to automatically start each game, but I expect the experience to be built around the person playing the game. It shouldn't force me to watch an entire match played out by the CPU.  It also would have been nice to have some choice in which team to sign for, rather than just automatically allocated to a random team in the first league you click on.
I did proceed to the 2nd match of the season, at which point I was told I wasn't in the match day squad and needed to work on my training.  Since the training is a menu of sliders and point allocations rather than actual gameplay exercises, I decided I didn't want to sit and cycle through any more matches just waiting until my player developed enough to be worth getting some game time.

@Ram

That's harsh. I never had the problem of not getting a game. Perhaps it depends which team you play for. I started in the Chilean league, and most players in my team were no better than my player even with the low starting stats. I came on as a sub in the first game then started every game from then on. It was actually a relief after a while to have a 1 game suspension to recoup some energy.

As for getting involved (once you get a game), it definitely rewards you if you move out of position to some extent. My player was a left-winger but ended up playing on the left of a front 3 most of the time. It helped to drop deep sometimes. In general it's probably best to play as a mid-fielder anyway, rather than the main striker. But also, there is a button (I forget which) that calls to your other players to pass it to you, and you can use the closing down button (square?) to get them to put tackles in. Using these at the right time can really help.

Sounds more like you were unlucky than anything. Once you get going there's no faff at all, you just play the games (you sometimes get subbed if your stamina gets low, but otherwise you always play). Training is all automatic too, you decide which areas to focus on and it happens over time. At the end of the season you deal with some basic transfer stuff, and that's it. If anything, I thought I had too much control (a realistic reflection of the modern game, perhaps).

I'll probably just try master league until i get to the 2nd season hump when the game normally decides to turn up the 'dirty cheating AI' routines to full!

I don't like in football games where it feels like the game is trying to engineer a narrative.

Paul the sparky wrote:

Andy wrote:

Anyone know how easy/complete the options file stuff on PES2017 is?

I'm sure I read it was easier this year. I'll have a squint later if there's time.

It appears time ran out. Did you get anything sorted Andy? Going to have a look now.