eFootball PES 2021 Discussion Thread (CONSOLES)

I can relate, Chris. Last two-three years I had to have a drink every time I had a cup match coming in ML and I was playing on professional. Every single Cup match was like difficulty was suddenly ramped up to superstar in the background.
I especially remember one time where I somehow managed to win 1-4 in first leg. Second leg, home ground - I was battered 0-6.
And like that - I had no control over the players, every time I took the ball - foul was called. Every free kick they had went into top corner, every ball bounced back to them, weak low shots were parried by my goalie - it was so obvious that it was insulting.
Whatever is driving this, whether its Team Spirit, scripting, or some other background drama creator - Master League last few years is simply unplayable long term, without ending in a hospital.
I'm not ashamed to admit, But I refuse to be a prisoner or a victim of scripting. I am script survivor.

Whenever I have one of those games where I feel like the unwinnable bullshit starts creeping in, I simply reboot the game and restart the match.

Yeah call me paranoid but I feel it's like some kind of coding Russian roulette where you could play 3 fun, engaging games where it felt like you sucked right into the throes of the worlds greatest football simulator, than the 3rd game feels like all that control and responsive, all that agency and understanding you had adjusted and gotten accustomed to just gets absolutely destroyed in some kind of sick joke by the programmers like some kind of toxic senior prank.

It's like a racing game that flip-mirrors the steering controls in the 3rd race, Makes your brakes unresponsive and any minor clipping with another car sends you not only off the track but off the edge of the new flat earth and into the ether.

The handicap is seldom subtle and makes no sense, It just seems lazily extreme and is there to get an overreaction out of you because you're stubborn enough to keep playing because you refuse to be cheated out of the game. It's like continuing to play cards when you know the game is rigged, But damn if it isn't the only game in town...

Fuck that. I'm too old to convince myself I can beat this rigged engine for no recognition or nothing to prove for my burst open blood vessels.

I feel like among other things in not just football games but most games and their loot boxes being compared to a slot machine, When the scripting boogey monster comes into your fixture and decides to start twiddling knobs - I believe it's a matter of randomness, and you can simply restart and get a calmer game.

I refuse to dignify the script because it doesn't even try to be subtle and defeat-ble still like in older games. Here it just seems like being spat in the face by smirking jocks.
 
Sports gaming is just where I was afraid it would be when I was talking to a mate about it 5 years ago; the overpriotization of online at the expense of offline and thus gameplay overall.

I want to like the newer games. I tried (heck I'm kinda trying again). But it became abundantly clear that their attempts to make a better game made the game worse.

They slowed things down, they increased error in shooting and passing. But all that did was expose the aspect of gameplay that holds everything together. Something that impacts offline a lot more than offline. That's the AI.

When mistakes are more likely, when players are often laggy and movement is delayed, all of a sudden the issues that were covered up by high passing accuracy and roided up agility and acceleration become glaring.

The AI looks dumber because it isn't being bailed out by the game's mechanics anymore. Think about that. Konami essentially exposed themselves and their neglect of something so fundamentally essential to whatever experience they're trying to craft be it online or offline.

I'm not gonna mention everything I find to be lacking with the AI because I'm tired of mentioning it and I'm sure you're tired of reading it.

Logically though, that's gotta be the next thing they improve right?

I can't imagine they're making the next game from scratch which is shame tbf. I genuinely think that every decade? they should start from scratch. Maybe not the whole game, but significant fundamental aspects of it. And that's sports games in general not just PES.
 
Them teams never get selected in any European Competitions. It's basically the same 'other Euro' teams that start off in season 1 in ML in Europe, that go into every one after.

But unrealistic but better than a load of random fake teams and cos them other Euros teams make up a small number of the teams in each competition, you don't really notice it.
Thanks pal. They don't even get selected instead of the relegated ones of their same nation I guess... Which in itself is a little pity. Imagine playing a Serie B and seeing three teams relegated at the end of the season and three other teams coming up even if there's no Serie C. It would be great.
 
guys one question. in my master league campaign i started to see strange behavior of ai attackers. somehow they get some boost and get past my defenders with trough balls. I speak about lower ranked teams in Eredivisie, I play with Ajax. Is that scripting or maybe I set my defence instructions wrong? thanks :)
 
guys one question. in my master league campaign i started to see strange behavior of ai attackers. somehow they get some boost and get past my defenders with trough balls. I speak about lower ranked teams in Eredivisie, I play with Ajax. Is that scripting or maybe I set my defence instructions wrong? thanks :)
Yeah unfortunately your not crazy or bad at the game, It's just one of those instances in competitive modes where the CPU boosts themselves for the sake of drama or tumultuousness. Only problem like we mentioned above, Is that it's not very subtle.

It's almost like the players are suddenly swapped out with highly skilled doppelgangers when the ball is out of play like it's some kind of prank for a TV show.

As for advice, When you feel the momentum occurring, Maybe try and set your teams bias to all out defence and pray - Clearing the ball up the pitch when you get a touch instead of trying to play it out as that's when it can feel like you can't get out of your halve.

Sometimes it is literally like a small storm that if you hold tight, It passes and you can get back into the game. Or you could just do what I do and if it's extra B.S, Just quit and restart the match. It's a bumming feeling and an extreme I know, But as I say it's better than throwing a £50 controller at the wall and being miserable with your missus for the rest of the day.
 
I had built my ML team up to 2 1/2 stars, did well in the local cup and then got absolutely murdered in the final by a 1 1/2 star team. Also beat very strong teams in the Europa league, but the final was a different story. AI is definitely getting some help with the cup finals, plus half my players are usually deeply depressed (down arrow) for those matches. I have been playing FUMA on top player. And most of the time I enjoy it quite a bit.
 
Here we go guys, a real fresh job made by Konami...it's taste so good


Overall 62(The Skills are in italian), please have a look this Wonderkid. Maybe they had confused him with Hakan who is playing at AC Milan :D


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Guys, about database, i didn't worked on the upcoming Pesuniverse version, but i'm far advanced (more than Konami on our created teams lol, that's the reason i didn't exported anything : transfers are still going on) so V5 or V6 don't remember will be something superficial, with some transfers that i think won't be compatible with my database and standards of how i create players...
But the upcoming version will be great. I will try to get the best full OF possible, with corrections of every players IG who got blank faces, many height/weight, wrong foot and errors. I really want to build something i can base on for the future, especially for uncorrect height, weight, preferred foot (i got a tons of wrong preferred food, more than 200 players on lower teams)

Sorry if it's off thread. I don't share that much Pesuniverse interests, i'm more focused on the data than kits and all.
But i'll stay this season
Next year i'll build my own stuff, and share to everyone. But i'll wait to see PES 2021 changes... Some people said i'm the best editor around clearly, i was a bit annoyed about it, but let's no play false humility : yes i can do everything, i'm as good to build faces than stats and tactics, except kits, and i know Konami's standards and more or less how ratings works.

.I'll probably ask help about kits for you, and some people if they wants to help me (simple things i don't have time to focus on, like teams info, and preparing teams just with names and IG players : it's more than enough to me).
An Evo-web PS5 patch could be great, if you help me to found kits useable for everyone with credits. I thinked too about Pesgaming, or sharing with Peshub for kits, etc.
But it will depends of how they will handle the edit mode. If we can't hide PLA/PAS, it will be without me. I want to focus on IG teams. Not only errors but boots etc.

I'm like you, i'm a caveman who quitted Online. Perhaps plays 11vs11 because it's pretty fun, but my main concern is the database. And the whole database... let's be honest, except Overalls ratings, is pretty bad in terms of info. Data editors aren't searching like they need to search, plus they can't do estimation like in FIFA. They need "proof" (even if some website gives estimations of weight too for example) or sometimes they got info from Opta when you can't found nothing anywhere.
The issue is OPTA don't focus on lower leagues. And i/we like to play with lower teams, i don't care about presets faces, it's just more fun and i love to discover new players.
 
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i'm as good to build faces than stats and tactics, except kits, and i know Konami's standards and more or less how ratings works.
Don't worry 'bout that. Konami's standards for kits are as low as they are for stats/preferred feet/faces so you'll learn in no time should you decide to try, and you'll soon be able to do the job better than Konami can. 😂
 
Konami's standards, i meaned overall and rating system, limitations on stats and for example B positions etc.
It's a bit more advanced. But personnally, kits... I'm good with Konami ones, i won't yell at them for one small missing sponsor or whatever.

I never created a whole kit in my life (only created sponsors on PS2) and i won't create kits myself, data and creations tooks wayyy too much time, at least with my own system focused on everything, details and all. I can spend 40 minutes for a 60 overall player rated to make him ressembling and found his way to play, when there's no info in FM or Fifa. It happens that i got to watch vids to see strenghts and weaknesses, and how the guy play... Sometimes even in a Youtube replay match, and i focus on the player (regarding his number corresponding to soccerway)

Also because FM gives randoms value, i use the pre-game editor, never used a save, except on PES 2019 when i wasn't aware of that randomness system. I prefers having basics attributes for X position than total randomness.

(Edited)
When i'll be more available, i'll open some threads. Also how i create players or set an overall range (based on TM advanced search with corresponding players, + FM overall current ability)
 
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last night, after around 10 games of first season in master league I started to feel dominant against lower ranked teams and all comes to place and was pretty enjoyable. only thing I assume was scripting was super human gk's. I struggle to score goals, maybe it's manual shooting, don't know but with the same team on training, same difficulty I have no problems to score. So far, after dp4 I am enjoying the game a lot!
 
last night, after around 10 games of first season in master league I started to feel dominant against lower ranked teams and all comes to place and was pretty enjoyable. only thing I assume was scripting was super human gk's. I struggle to score goals, maybe it's manual shooting, don't know but with the same team on training, same difficulty I have no problems to score. So far, after dp4 I am enjoying the game a lot!
i got up to legendary full manual when the game was released, now i only play every now and then and struggling on basic shooting PA1 professional level- the AI and as you say the GK seem a lot tougher. I have just experienced scripting in my cup game - England V Germany - it was 1-1 for 85 minutes but the amount of saves the AI pulled off i just had this feeling. Then all of a sudden after around 80 min mark my players couldnt pass the ball straight it felt almost every pass was going to their players, until on the 89th a pass from inside my own box went directly to their midfielder , who pinged it straight to an unmarked attacker dead center of goal - 2-1 Germany. I keep saying to smash it instead of passing out but i dont think it matters that much the game just felt like i was never going to score again - my point being its probably not much to do with your passing/shooting preferences.
 
Just had another session (playing as Newcastle on Top Player). Beat Arsenal 2-0 - biggest victory so far this season - and then, FA Cup round one, was getting beat 4-0 by Bournemouth (from the league below) when I turned off the console in disgust.

Now, I don't believe in "scripting" really. But this entire game, it was horribly obvious how handicapped and "laggy" my players were. Every time I got the ball to a striker, it took so long for him to control it, and turn to face the goal, that he was dispossessed every single time. (No sign of that vs Arsenal.)

For the final goal the AI scored, my keeper parried the ball to my defender, who was locked on a path walking (not running) into the net. Not close to the goal line - about five yards away.

He was walking, with the ball FULLY under his control (not ahead of him), and as I'm furiously pulling the stick towards the corner flag (pressing no buttons, not holding sprint or anything), he just carried on walking until he was JUST ABOUT to cross the line.

I've played PES for a long time but I've never seen anything quite like this - (without any exaggeration, I genuinely thought this is what had happened) it was as if the controller had lost connection to the console and "locked" the player running in one direction.

I pressed "pass" in a panic, while still holding the direction towards the corner flag, and he did a 180 turn to place the ball directly to the opposition striker, who hit the ball at about 100mph past the keeper who was just stood watching (the single realistic thing about this entire sequence).

That's it. That's me done. Fuck this game - fuck FIFA - fuck football games. How the hell are they all so badly broken? It's unreal. More than anything, I'm just so sad, and tired of trying to find a game to "make do". And Football Manager just doesn't scratch the itch.


Sorry dude. I couldn't help it. 😄
 

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Starting to realized how big tactics are in ML, especially 1st season.

I've set up 3. A normal 4-5-1, an attcking 4-5-1 which becomes a 2-3-5 when I'm in possession and an all out defence 5-4-1.

I'm Schalke and played Bayern at home. I knew they'd dominate, so went all out defence. HT, it's 0-0. They press even more and I catch them on the break and score a deflected goal.
They continue to bombard me but with so many bodies back defending, I hold on and snatch a 2nd goal for a heroic win.

I have used the 2-3-5 once. I was 1-0 v Wolfsburg and went for it 2nd half. They done me twice on the break and I lost 3-0.

Usually I just set up one tactic and stick to it. This is changing how I approach every game and its deffo helping in the 1st season!!
 
Starting to realized how big tactics are in ML, especially 1st season.

I've set up 3. A normal 4-5-1, an attcking 4-5-1 which becomes a 2-3-5 when I'm in possession and an all out defence 5-4-1.

I'm Schalke and played Bayern at home. I knew they'd dominate, so went all out defence. HT, it's 0-0. They press even more and I catch them on the break and score a deflected goal.
They continue to bombard me but with so many bodies back defending, I hold on and snatch a 2nd goal for a heroic win.

I have used the 2-3-5 once. I was 1-0 v Wolfsburg and went for it 2nd half. They done me twice on the break and I lost 3-0.

Usually I just set up one tactic and stick to it. This is changing how I approach every game and its deffo helping in the 1st season!!
for me tactics change games, literally. just give it a go first 10 minutes of the game to see how cpu team play and then set tactics. big differece!
 
Sorry for double post, also I know this thread isn't for videos but just want to share the beauty of playing full manual. this was me (Ajax) against Porto in UCL group stage, master league. I enjoy this game after dp4 a lot!

 
Since I'm messing about, I figured I'd thrown on an option file. What I've always done is add the MLS and then add Mexican sides to the other Latin American teams section. Looks like I can't do that anymore because I don't see the option to choose what team data replaces which team you want. Am I missing something? Because that would be a ridiculous thing to remove.
 
Sorry for double post, also I know this thread isn't for videos but just want to share the beauty of playing full manual. this was me (Ajax) against Porto in UCL group stage, master league. I enjoy this game after dp4 a lot!

Goals nice , i love lobbed goals but two things

1. As a manual player myself - switching back to basic or advanced there are far more outcomes in shots that you dont see on manual
2. Why did the defender put on the brakes for a split second - sometimes i think its manual that causes this - the AI gets confused - even for your own team ive seen my own players get confused with a pass and end up colliding into each other and then giving the ball away
 
Goals nice , i love lobbed goals but two things

1. As a manual player myself - switching back to basic or advanced there are far more outcomes in shots that you dont see on manual
2. Why did the defender put on the brakes for a split second - sometimes i think its manual that causes this - the AI gets confused - even for your own team ive seen my own players get confused with a pass and end up colliding into each other and then giving the ball away
for shooting yes, maybe you tried holding L2 while shooting and shooting is more free but limited in variety of shots. yeah basic shooting gives more variety but is not that challenging and satisfying. for the second part of your post, maybe defenders were caught on wrong foot, it's game after all, if there are no mistakes how would we or cpu score. had some really interesting games last night, not realistic though! this one ended 4:4, i had 2:0 lead after that, 3:2 for them, 3:3, 4:3 for them and in 94' minute 4:4. exciting but not realistic in my opinion :)
 
for shooting yes, maybe you tried holding L2 while shooting and shooting is more free but limited in variety of shots. yeah basic shooting gives more variety but is not that challenging and satisfying. for the second part of your post, maybe defenders were caught on wrong foot, it's game after all, if there are no mistakes how would we or cpu score. had some really interesting games last night, not realistic though! this one ended 4:4, i had 2:0 lead after that, 3:2 for them, 3:3, 4:3 for them and in 94' minute 4:4. exciting but not realistic in my opinion :)
mistakes is one thing as is skill of one player compared to another based on stats, but when the game deliberately stops a player in order to create a chance i'm not ok with that at it happens quite a bit
 
Sorry for double post, also I know this thread isn't for videos but just want to share the beauty of playing full manual. this was me (Ajax) against Porto in UCL group stage, master league. I enjoy this game after dp4 a lot!


Pretty sure that first cross field pass is literally impossible with pass assistance. It would just go straight to the player where he is at the time of passing.
 
That's it. That's me done. Fuck this game - fuck FIFA - fuck football games.

I'm so close to this, but not yet there because i stopped when i understood i couldn't enjoy football games anymore, never forcing myself to like a game again just because it's called Pes and it was part of my childhood. Now i'm here waiting for Konami, EA, or anyone else to give us the true revolution in football games we desperately need.
 
Since I'm messing about, I figured I'd thrown on an option file. What I've always done is add the MLS and then add Mexican sides to the other Latin American teams section. Looks like I can't do that anymore because I don't see the option to choose what team data replaces which team you want. Am I missing something? Because that would be a ridiculous thing to remove.
It is removed since PES 2020.
 
I haven´t been posting in a while here.

Took a little break of PES 2021, been playing Modern Warfare a lot.
Tbh, at the moment I have a hard time enjoying this game.

The game plays well, player movement, ball physics and a few other aspects is something I really enjoy.
But the AI trying to beat me in my ML in any way is so frustrating.

I feel disadvantaged in so many ways.
The ref is still a problem...me pushing the opponent (not even tackling or slide tackling) is being called a foul, often with a yellow card.
AI is doing the same thing to my players and gets away too many times.
Very annoying: this often happens near to my box, so when AI gets a free kick, you know what happens.

Two players collide, trying to get a free ball, both players fall on the ground and in every single case, the player of the AI ALWAYS gets up faster than my player.

The passing: often I have the situation, pushing down the passing button to the max, but it just loads up a bit and the player performs a weak pass.
And no, my controller isn´t broken^^. The through balls are too overpowered, even when I just tap the button. But here I´m trying to get used to press the X button for a normal pass, since I play manual.
Player awareness in passing is a problem too, sometimes. Ball gets near to the player but you areset to control one, that´s more far away.

Oh and that damn stumbling. Whether it is my fast paced player that gets body contact from the opponent and stumbles and loses the ball or two players of the same team (of course my team) collide or my own player runs in my lane.....god!

Out of 10 games I find like 3 or 4 verty satisfying.
But the mentioned flaws really piss me off at the moment.

Even tried several gameplay patches, which smoothen them, but aren´t really blowing them away.
 
Forgot to post this, but somehow I'm playing, and enjoying, PES 2021. Of course, need a graphics overhaul on the PC, but for the most part the things I've tried can be applied to consoles as well.


Great job as always Matt. Recently I am experimenting playing in lower difficulties in FIFA to humanize the AI. Its really nice to see them make mistakes. However I never thought about doing it in PES given there are no sliders....
I might give this a try but I haven't even installed it on my console and seems its a lot of work to get to that compromise (in my case learning FUMA)... But again, great video.
As to what PES needs in 2022? Its missing that old feeling. I downloaded the demo for PES21 and its just felt dull (same as '20 ; although I enjoyed '19 which seems most people hated). Scoring/shooting is dull, AI the same, etc... and of course get rid of the damn scripting which is the #1 offender.
 
Forgot to post this, but somehow I'm playing, and enjoying, PES 2021. Of course, need a graphics overhaul on the PC, but for the most part the things I've tried can be applied to consoles as well.


Made a new test save after making tactical adjustments (like the ones you suggested) to all the Premier League teams. I'll never understand why so many teams have deep defensive line on by default.

Exploited the loan system to bring in as many players as I could to get me near max TS as possible (currently sitting at 97). So this really is the perfect testing environment for how the AI behaves in ML.

Then I played a few fixed cursor ML matches on regular (-1 game speed) tonight. Absolutely smashed them all. It was fun scoring and watching Rashford, Greenwood, Martial, and Fernandes do the same. But that sort of fun usually doesn't last long.

I'll give regular another go tomorrow, but I do think I'll have to go to professional. I have no interest dealing with this AI on top player or higher at this point.

The AI wonky to say the least. It's basically just finding a combination of difficulty and game speed that allows me overcome my AI teammates shortcomings while not making the opposition AI completely toothless.
 
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