A few questions about PES from a newcomer

[johncmcleod]

I've heard of PES vaguely, but I don't really know what it is, so I have a few questions about it.

The last soccer games I played were Total Club Manager 2004 and FIFA 2004. I thought the gameplay of FIFA was pretty good. After a while its flaws started to get on my nerves, but I enjoyed it. However, I like the management aspect more than the playing. So I bought TCM. I loved that game-the in depth, realistic management and user friendly interface was exactly what I wanted. I did want to play the game too though, which was possible due to football fusion (playing fifa's engine with TCM). I decided the best thing to do was to simulate the regular season and play the tournament games. I wanted consistency in when I simulated and played, and I didn't want to play 38 regular season games, but I wanted to partake in the drama of high-stakes games. What I wanted to do most though was manage the US men's national team. I don't have a club team to root for or follow (there aren't any MLS teams near me), so my main connection to the sport is the US team. I planned on playing all of the US games. Unfortunately, EA sucks balls and I couldn't do either of these things. In TCM you can only manage European national teams. The other national teams exist just the same with fixtures and everything, but you can't manage them. It would've taken them an extra 5 minutes to put in the code to allow you to choose one of the non-European sides, but they decided not to put the time in. The other thing was that I couldn't really use the football fusion. The difficulty level in it was automatically set on either amateur or professional, which in FIFA 2004 was way too easy for me (I wanted the game to be realistic). Again, it would have taken them 5 extra minutes to program the game so that you can choose the difficulty level, but EA decided not to do this.

So here are my questions about PES:
1. Are there a lot of leagues and teams? Can you download roster updates so I can continue to have accurate rosters even if I don't want to buy the game every time a new one comes out? Where can I find these roster patches, etc.? What patches would you recommend downloading?
2. Is it easy to edit players and leagues?
3. Is there an in-depth youth player management system? This is my favorite part of the game.
4. How good is the management/simulation engine? As in depth, accurate, and realistic as TCM 2004?
5. Is it true that you can download it for free? I'm a university student and am dirt poor.
6. There are a lot of different versions, which should I get?
7. What third party software (ie editing programs) should I get?
8. Can you manage national teams and partake in international competitions?
9. What is the consensus on how it stands up to FIFA? What's similar and what's different? What are the strengths and weaknesses of the game?
10. Does my computer meet the requirements (I attached a file with its specs)? I know nothing of computers but I bet my graphics and video card are bad.

Anything would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Kibe Kru]

So here are my questions about PES:
1. Are there a lot of leagues and teams? Can you download roster updates so I can continue to have accurate rosters even if I don't want to buy the game every time a new one comes out? Where can I find these roster patches, etc.? What patches would you recommend downloading?
2. Is it easy to edit players and leagues?
3. Is there an in-depth youth player management system? This is my favorite part of the game.
4. How good is the management/simulation engine? As in depth, accurate, and realistic as TCM 2004?
5. Is it true that you can download it for free? I'm a university student and am dirt poor.
6. There are a lot of different versions, which should I get?
7. What third party software (ie editing programs) should I get?
8. Can you manage national teams and partake in international competitions?
9. What is the consensus on how it stands up to FIFA? What's similar and what's different? What are the strengths and weaknesses of the game?
10. Does my computer meet the requirements (I attached a file with its specs)? I know nothing of computers but I bet my graphics and video card are bad.

Anything would be greatly appreciated.

1- Not lots, FIFA has way more, and you may be put off by the fact that Konami doesn't own the licenses to all the teams and players, so they have fake names. This can be corrected with an option file, which is the equivalent of a roster patch. You can find those all over the web, pesfan.co.uk being a good place to find them, as well as pesgaming.com . There are plenty OFs around, so you can choose the one you like best (the ones that have your favourite teams or leagues, for example)

2- Yes for players. No for leagues, though I admit I'm not much into editing, so I may be wrong on that.

3- I don't think so. I'm not sure what you consider to be in depth, but PES certainly isn't.

4- I've never played TCM, though I can tell you PES is nothing like Football Manager.

5- No, you can't. Well, at least you can't download it for free legally.

6- Not much has changed from PES3 to PES6. It seems people enjoy a Korean version of the game, though I'll leave that to some other member to answer you.

7- I don't use any, I just download some option file and it works fine.

8- Well, you can choose USA and take them to the World Cup, for example, but in a career mode, no, you can't.

9- Experiences differ. Some people like one of them and bashes everything about the other. My advice would be to try it yourself (at a friends', or try to get a demo) then going for the one you like the most. I personally think it's better than FIFA, though EA seems to be closing the gap recently. FIFA has all the licenses, and that is a big plus for them, but PES' gameplay is imo much better.

10- Not sure. I think it can handle it fine.

 

[goal_machine84]

agree with most things Kibe Kru had to say

IMO, PES has the best gameplay you can lay your hands on....the rest of the game doesnt match upto FIFA...PES's player control/movement feels natural while FIFA will feel too "mechanical"

If you plan to play the football game just occasionally for fun then FIFA is good...with its presentation,licenses, awesome sound

If you like your game to be as close to playing on the field, PES is the king...period, Its gameplay more than makes up for its horrendous sound and presentation

You system will run PES fine m8.....if u have any more questions feel free to ask

 

[johncmcleod]

Thanks guys. I think I'm going to get it. I want to have a really deep and accurate roster base. I want to have leagues from the top 15-20 European countries along with a few Asian and S. and N. American leagues. Is there any way to get this? I looked at the evolution patch and it has about 5 leagues and the rest of the teams are lumped together in a few 'other categories.' I kind of want more than this, I'm used to playing with over 100 leagues from like 30 different countries. Is there any way to do this? Could I install the evolution patch and add other patches on top of it? I'm surprised that all of the editing people don't just get together and make a massive patch that would have all the teams and all the leagues. I've seen it done in other games. It wouldn't need to have accurate chants, faces, etc. for everyone, but it would be nice to at least have an extensive, accurate database.

Also, can you describe the career mode to me? How long can you go? Do you have a youth player team?

What I want in life from a soccer computer game is this:

1. A good depth career mode that you can do for a long time that has a youth player system.
2. Good editing stuff for players and the ability to download lots of leagues/players (it doesn't matter if they're originally there, as long as I can download them). I also want to be able to download updated rosters every year for at least a couple of years so I don't have to buy the new game every time it comes out.
3. Accurate fixtures and competitions and nothing too unrealistic or annoying about the management.
4. The ability to manage the US men's national team on the side in your career.
5. A good game engine (I mean playing the actual game).

TCM just about had it because of football fusion. Unfortunately they didn't take the extra couple steps to make it good. So my question is will I ever get this from a soccer computer game? How many more years will I have to wait? If I'm just looking for 1-4, what would be my best bet? FIFA manager or Football Manager?

And why hasn't the gaming industry accomplished this anyway? Especially with EA. They have so much money and they could easily make it a good game if they just listened to some of the fans. At least make two games-one with in-depth management and one with a really good game engine and give us the ability to combine them with something like football fusion. Why don't they just do that????

Last, would getting TCM 2005 and FIFA 2005 give me 1-5 (they're probably cheap now)? It does have football fusion but I'm not sure if you can adjust the difficulty level. You probably won't be able to answer this because you probably didn't have either of these games, but do you know who I could ask? The older management forum and FIFA 05 forum have absolutely no traffic and I don't feel like waiting months for a response.

Thanks again.

 

[goal_machine84]

m8...PES doesnt have the best of the league structures in career mode..though u can buy the option of setting up yourself from the PES shopl..using the points u collect in the game

You wont get the proper leagues and its structure in PES like u do in FIFA...i havent tried those superpatches n stuff so u might be able to do that but m not sure

The career mode is infinitely long....though you wont get any offers from other clubs for a managerial position...u r stuck with one club u choose to manage forever

You can update ur roster by getting an option file

You wont get the management experience like u do in FIFA....i havent played TCM so i wont comment anything regarding that....

I say again...PES has the gameplay...everything else is horrendous...y dont ya try the demo first ?

 

[johncmcleod]

m8...PES doesnt have the best of the league structures in career mode..though u can buy the option of setting up yourself from the PES shopl..using the points u collect in the game

I'm a little confused, please elaborate.

I'm downloading the demo right now (it will take forever though, my connection is awful). My last question is whether or not you can combine patches-it seems that the super-patches only come with leagues from 5 countries and don't have MLS teams. I'd really like to install one of these patches and then be able to add an MLS patch without overriding it. I have the feeling though that it is impossible to create new teams and that all the patches do is simply edit some of the existing ones, meaning you really can't have more than a few leagues. Is this true, and if so why? It wouldn't take much programming code to allow us to create new teams. One more quick question: in career mode do players age and retire? Where do new players come from?

Since the consensus is that the gameplay of PES is good and everything else is bad, when will that everything else improve? It seems they got the hard part-the game engine. It wouldn't be that difficult to allow us to do the rest of it and make an editor that allows us to create leagues, teams, fixtures, and competitions. Any amateur programmer could make such an editor. In every other sport they have a game with both good management and gameplay. But they don't for the world's most important sport-it doesn't make sense.

 

[Kibe Kru]

Thanks guys. I think I'm going to get it. I want to have a really deep and accurate roster base. I want to have leagues from the top 15-20 European countries along with a few Asian and S. and N. American leagues. Is there any way to get this? I looked at the evolution patch and it has about 5 leagues and the rest of the teams are lumped together in a few 'other categories.' I kind of want more than this, I'm used to playing with over 100 leagues from like 30 different countries. Is there any way to do this? Could I install the evolution patch and add other patches on top of it? I'm surprised that all of the editing people don't just get together and make a massive patch that would have all the teams and all the leagues. I've seen it done in other games. It wouldn't need to have accurate chants, faces, etc. for everyone, but it would be nice to at least have an extensive, accurate database.

Not possible in PES. The amount of leagues and teams can't be modified, though the clubs themselves can be edited, so you're stuck with 6 or so leagues of whatever countries you get in an option file. Also, in the Master League (career mode), you get 4 leagues (the one you're in has a second division) and some kind of interleague competition.

Also, can you describe the career mode to me? How long can you go? Do you have a youth player team?

Choose a team, work your way up from the second division to international glory. No youth player team or reserves or anything like that.

What I want in life from a soccer computer game is this:

1. A good depth career mode that you can do for a long time that has a youth player system.
2. Good editing stuff for players and the ability to download lots of leagues/players (it doesn't matter if they're originally there, as long as I can download them). I also want to be able to download updated rosters every year for at least a couple of years so I don't have to buy the new game every time it comes out.
3. Accurate fixtures and competitions and nothing too unrealistic or annoying about the management.
4. The ability to manage the US men's national team on the side in your career.
5. A good game engine (I mean playing the actual game).

TCM just about had it because of football fusion. Unfortunately they didn't take the extra couple steps to make it good. So my question is will I ever get this from a soccer computer game? How many more years will I have to wait? If I'm just looking for 1-4, what would be my best bet? FIFA manager or Football Manager?

1- I've never played the career mode for more than 4 or 5 seasons, so I can't really tell you how the youth system works, but you sure can be on the career mode for a long time.

2- The in-game editor works quite fine for few changes, you may want to look around if you want to edit loads of players. Also, I'm not sure how often the community updates rosters of past games.

3- Well.... PES has some annoying stuff, like your player being randomly called up for international duty, but League, Cup and Continental competitions are quite well done.

4- Not possible in PES.

5- That's PES strong point.

I'd say football manager has much more depth than TCM, then again, I've never really played TCM. It does cover your 1-4 points.

And why hasn't the gaming industry accomplished this anyway? Especially with EA. They have so much money and they could easily make it a good game if they just listened to some of the fans. At least make two games-one with in-depth management and one with a really good game engine and give us the ability to combine them with something like football fusion. Why don't they just do that????

It'd probably need a superfast computer to deal with all the leagues, transfers between them (so you don't play against the same players year after year), calculating realistic results for each of them (so you don't have a world superstar playing for a San Marino team, or a club with no money ends up buying Beckham) and still have a good match engine in which you can actually play the game. PES is not heavy, though Football Manager sure is.

Last, would getting TCM 2005 and FIFA 2005 give me 1-5 (they're probably cheap now)? It does have football fusion but I'm not sure if you can adjust the difficulty level. You probably won't be able to answer this because you probably didn't have either of these games, but do you know who I could ask? The older management forum and FIFA 05 forum have absolutely no traffic and I don't feel like waiting months for a response.

Thanks again.

Sorry mate, can't help you there. Maybe some other forum? I don't know where you can go though.

I'm a little confused, please elaborate.

I'm downloading the demo right now (it will take forever though, my connection is awful). My last question is whether or not you can combine patches-it seems that the super-patches only come with leagues from 5 countries and don't have MLS teams. I'd really like to install one of these patches and then be able to add an MLS patch without overriding it. I have the feeling though that it is impossible to create new teams and that all the patches do is simply edit some of the existing ones, meaning you really can't have more than a few leagues. Is this true, and if so why? It wouldn't take much programming code to allow us to create new teams.

You're correct, they don't allow people to create new teams. Probably it has to do with the game being a port of a console game.

But you can find some option file (roster patch) containing the MLS, just look around.

One more quick question: in career mode do players age and retire? Where do new players come from?

Yes, players age and retire. Not sure where new players come from, though I think they just make new players out of the retired ones. Once again, I'm not sure as I haven't played the career mode for more than a few game seasons.

Since the consensus is that the gameplay of PES is good and everything else is bad, when will that everything else improve? It seems they got the hard part-the game engine. It wouldn't be that difficult to allow us to do the rest of it and make an editor that allows us to create leagues, teams, fixtures, and competitions. Any amateur programmer could make such an editor. In every other sport they have a game with both good management and gameplay. But they don't for the world's most important sport-it doesn't make sense.

Tough question for us, mate. You'll have to ask that to Konami and hope they do that. Or hope EA suddenly releases some good product for a change.

 

[johncmcleod]

Any way to mix and match patches? I've found a good MLS option file, but it doesn't seem to be nearly as comprehensive as the Superpatch or the Evolution 1.3 patch. Is there a way to get the sounds and stadiums but not the option file? Since the stadiums and sounds might correspond to specific teams, could things get messed up by mixing the two? And does an editor (for editing player ratings) come with the game or do I have to download it? If so, where can I get it?

One more thing, does this whole business of not being able to create teams apply to all other version of PES? Will they ever make a version where you can create teams?

Tough question for us, mate. You'll have to ask that to Konami and hope they do that. Or hope EA suddenly releases some good product for a change.

Is there a suggestions site or something? I'd love to tell them.

 

[goal_machine84]

I'm a little confused, please elaborate.

I'm downloading the demo right now (it will take forever though, my connection is awful). My last question is whether or not you can combine patches-it seems that the super-patches only come with leagues from 5 countries and don't have MLS teams. I'd really like to install one of these patches and then be able to add an MLS patch without overriding it. I have the feeling though that it is impossible to create new teams and that all the patches do is simply edit some of the existing ones, meaning you really can't have more than a few leagues. Is this true, and if so why? It wouldn't take much programming code to allow us to create new teams. One more quick question: in career mode do players age and retire? Where do new players come from?

Since the consensus is that the gameplay of PES is good and everything else is bad, when will that everything else improve? It seems they got the hard part-the game engine. It wouldn't be that difficult to allow us to do the rest of it and make an editor that allows us to create leagues, teams, fixtures, and competitions. Any amateur programmer could make such an editor. In every other sport they have a game with both good management and gameplay. But they don't for the world's most important sport-it doesn't make sense.

As Kibe Kru said, u r limited to certain number of leagues in the career mode and its kinda messy

I think the superpatches are meant to work with the option files they provided with the download....if u mix stuff from different patches u might crash the game....

For a good experience, u first decide on the option file you think best suits ur needs...if u wanna play MLS then find an option file with its team. Then you can download the kits and kitserver, stadiums seperately and play...no need to download a superpatch which may work with its own option file only

Some soundpatches may require a certain option file so do check their readme file before downloading them

As for why konami dont concentrate on the presentation and sound aspect, well thats beyond the realms of curiousness/anger....if only they can manage 50% of EA's presentation/sound then PES will be just out of this world

As for EA, well we can always hope they get the gameplay right one day

cheers

 

[Kibe Kru]

Any way to mix and match patches? I've found a good MLS option file, but it doesn't seem to be nearly as comprehensive as the Superpatch or the Evolution 1.3 patch. Is there a way to get the sounds and stadiums but not the option file? Since the stadiums and sounds might correspond to specific teams, could things get messed up by mixing the two?

You may try that, but I don't think it'll work. Here's thinking you'll either get wrong kits or no kits at all, as well as wrong names on comment.

And does an editor (for editing player ratings) come with the game or do I have to download it? If so, where can I get it?

It comes with the game, but if you intend to edit lots of players, it may be a good idea to download one. I can't tell you where, maybe google will find one for you.

One more thing, does this whole business of not being able to create teams apply to all other version of PES? Will they ever make a version where you can create teams?

From PES3 on to PES6, none allowed teams to be created.

Is there a suggestions site or something? I'd love to tell them.

Not that I know of. If there is, well... I'd say they haven't been reading it at all, as most PES problems are the same since PES3, maybe except the silly fouls that existed in PES4 and 5.