Albert

1 hour ago, Grimbeard said:

Fair enough, I genuinely feel better now. (me mam always did say that I was easily led)

It's a tough one with it all, and the real question to be answered this summer is just how much of the outward appearance of the club under Mel has been a thin veneer. If we can survive financially, a hard reset in League 1 might actually be beneficial long term, particularly culturally. What I fear is we get relegated, and nothing is learned from the experience, or it's seen as a chance to give Rooney a go with less pressure. 

5 hours ago, EtoileSportiveDeDerby said:

Genuine question, not stirring it, what happened to Albert and G Star Ram?

Did they go with Coronavirus thread MK1?

Still here, just not a lot to be bothered commenting about; I am by and large a lurker on here. 

The UK's vaccine rollout has been very competent, and while there's still some nutty stuff being spread about, we've all heard it before. I could go on about the comedy of errors that is Australia's vaccine rollout, emphasising my point that the Australian federal government has handled the crisis here pretty poorly, but lucked out on the states actually doing something, but it's not really relevant for this forum. 

6 hours ago, WoollyJumper said:

Perth WA. Subscribed for 1st month, and will so how it goes.

Adelaide, South Australia, signed up as well. Will see how it all goes. 

As it turns out Foxtel are blitheringly incompetent, and beIN sports doesn't, despite previous listing, have the EFL anymore. As such the Sunderland game and probably all broadcast games this season won't be viewable by legal means in Australia. Great stuff!

The new Don Bradman cricket is out. Seems decent. 

24 minutes ago, r4derby said:

Any lineup that contains a Zelda game, a Mario game and Mario Kart at launch or shortly afterwards is ok in my books! I would buy one just for those games

Seriously, I haven't touched my DS in years, but I walked into Sainsburys and saw a stand with 2DS and games such as Zelda and Mario and was tempted to buy one then and there. Will power prevailed, no time at the minute. Although Christmas may break me...

So far we know it's got Zelda: Breath of the Wild as a launch title, and that's looking mighty impressive. Everything else is currently suggest and rumour. The trailer hinted at a new Mario Kart (new mechanics, King Boo) and a Mario game, while there are rumours that Smash Bros. for Wii U and 3DS would receive a Switch port at launch or soon after (there were job listings for something referred to as 'Smash Bros. 6' shortly before the release of Smash Bros. for 3DS as well, which adds to that rumour). If they can get those out near release they should do well for themselves. 

5 minutes ago, RicME85 said:

Cartridges are cheap, have a bigger volume and read faster than disc. Whats not to be convinced about? The only reason they moved away from cartridges was the memory wasnt available in the size needed at a viable cost. 

Basically this. Cartridges are a strength, not a limitation of this design. No moving parts is probably the big thing for Nintendo though, disk drives in portables has always been a bad idea. 

From what I can tell, it seems that nvidia and Nintendo have teamed up to basically make the second generation shield, branding it as a Nintendo console. With nvidia's portable and scalable graphics know how and Nintendo's ability to make games that aren't garbage there may be something to do. There's definitely a lot of unanswered questions at this point, not least of which is the battery life. There's no point to a portable console that has a 2-3 hour battery life. 

It seems they were trying to emphasise that this console will launch with some games as well. Many blame the Wii U's weak start, and fall from grace, on a combination of it's lack of clear marketing (Wii U as a name led some to believe it was an add on to the Wii) and lack of a strong launch lineup, they are at least hitting that first point hard this time. 

42 minutes ago, mrdave85 said:

That's going to need some kind of battery too. 

Hopefully they've got a different supplier to Samsung. 

13 minutes ago, David said:

Connections might be due to your location, can't say I've ran into any exploits or cheaters. Both I put down as excuses for being rubbish and getting beat which you would obviously argue is not the case.

Wheres the social interaction in playing AI, beating one off by yourself in the bedroom if we're getting sexual in here.

Connection issues are due to my location. I've come across plenty of exploiters, they're not hard to beat if you know what you're doing, they're just boring. It's like playing a board game against someone stalling for time. It's just not a fun experience, the modern gaming experience is rarely enjoyable, and ultimately the true fun is being able to do it while enjoying time with others rather than playing the recluse with shades of pretend interaction. 

1 hour ago, David said:

I haven't and that's because it's pants. AI is AI, no fun. Zero fun in beating a computer no matter what game it is. 

Play the same group of mates on a couch or go online and play challenging games against random people across Europe, hmm. Can't even compare the two.

Inconsistent connections, game exploits, cheaters, absolute bags of fun in my experience. All the experience of beating people to a pulp with the social interaction of a glory hole. What's not to love. 

1 hour ago, David said:

Sums up any offline football games/modes. Where's the fun in playing AI when you could play other people? 

I'm now getting sent off at every game for Newcastle just to go through and watch the cut scenes. No doubt I'll get tipped for an England call up still. 

Not played enough PES then. 

Online modes get boring fast, the fun of playing with other people is playing with people on a couch, something the weak gameplay of FIFA doesn't help with. 

15 hours ago, David said:

I'll refuse the loan move by not playing anymore. 

About sums up the quality of the offline side of FIFA for the last 3-5 years. 

13 minutes ago, Srg said:

You are taking a bizarre stance in favour of a massive corporate machine in a creative industry.

I'm not in favour of either of them. 

17 minutes ago, Srg said:

They treated Kojima really well...

They treated him well for nearly 30 years, and he treated them well back. There are falling outs in business, largely about long term business decisions (as discussed above). The internet got their knickers in a bizarre twist over Kojima though, even though most couldn't name his works beyond Metal Gear, nor could most detail the timeline of what happened with his exit. More hate is directed toward a company over an internal matter where both parties ended up arguably better off than is directed to actual scandals within the industry. 

2 minutes ago, RicME85 said:

By going downhill I meant the games they were producing, not the stocks etc. Yes they have moved with the times and are in other areas like Pachinko (Metal Gear Pachinko anyone?) but as you say, some of their stellar back catalogue is going to ruin.

The gaming market comes in waves, there's still every chance that the Japanese home console market will pick up again one day, and with it demand for the kind of content they used to make. The big question mark there is what the hell the Nintendo NX actually is. All sorts of conflicting rumours about hybrid home and portable consoles, but until that's revealed it's hard to know either what Nintendo's long term plan is, or if it has any hope of succeeding. If Nintendo can recombine the Japanese home and portable markets, that's the kind of thing that could change the direction of lot of companies like Konami are moving in. 

The games that Konami make now are generally very niche (i.e. PES, Yugioh games, etc.), but tend to be of high quality. They've game downhill in terms of outright number of big name titles, but they're still making good games. 

6 minutes ago, RicME85 said:

Thats Konami for you. They have pulled out of console games except for PES and  moved to mobile as they have been going downhill for years so rather than rectifying things they have moved to an easier lower cost market.

I wouldn't call their best stock prices in nearly a decade "going downhill". They weren't going downhill, they were like many Japanese companies moving with the times there. They produce a lot of arcade games and gaming machines (i.e. Pachinko), these are more profitable than spending years and near infinite budgets on games. They aren't in the only ones in the industry moving that way, and they as a company are certainly not performing poorly. What they've done isn't great for some iconic series, but as a business they're really doing well very. 

I still fully expect that come November they'll have another crack at their free version of PES so they can again try for the best of both worlds, having both the full featured full price one with offline modes, and the freemium MyClub one going on the same system. I still find it odd that Daveo isn't all over that, it's basically the central thesis of an argument he had with himself on here a while back about. 

On 9/30/2016 at 18:27, Simsy said:

I tried the pes demo and I thought it was even worse then last years. Seems you are not allowed to slide tackle. Graphics are great but other then that I wasn't impressed.

each to their own though!

Odd, as slide tackling is if anything a bit easy to pull off in PES. 

On 9/30/2016 at 20:48, Simsy said:

Don't get me wrong I am pretty decent at playing all football games but even on the pro evo demo I was scoring for fun. And no I didn't have it on beginner level.

Educate me because I honestly don't know. Not talking about game play but what does PES have? Like fifa has Ultimate Team, a story mode with alex hunter, hundreds of teams with the kits badges, All the premier league stadiums and many more ones outside the prem also commentary from tyler,smith and townsend.

I take it Fifa has a much bigger budget and rights which is why they can have all this stuff and also the advanced technologies but genuinely want to know what I could be missing out on with PES because its probably unfair for me to solely judge it form the demo.

The technology behind the current FIFA is interestingly less advanced. They've repurposed frostbite to give the graphics a shiny new feel for the Journey side of things, but they're still not that impressive. The collision physics and bizarrely the controls still aren't quite up to standard. Face on dribbling is tetchy as hell, as is canceling, and the game has noticeably more input lag than FIFA 16. Hoping they fix that soon.

It seems most of their budget over the years has gone into marketing, licencing and the online side, and understandably so. It's not gameplay, realistic physics and player models that sells units, it's a consistent online experience and marketing presence, and FIFA has that in spades. Their effort into the presentation side of things as well is certainly something, but the issue is that the standards of the on pitch gameplay have just fallen behind in recent years.
 

I do find some of Konami's marketing decisions a bit odd this year though. One of their biggest selling points, the adaptive AI, just isn't really shown that much in the demo, yet is massive in the game itself. What's more, is that the demo actually locks you out of using most of the tactical options. Not sure exactly what they were thinking there, as that's one of the games bigger strengths. 

5 hours ago, David said:

Ultimate team is grating on me this year already, seems like they've ramped up the injuries and need for fitness cards, couple games and the players are pretty much dead with the pace of a one legged granny without a crutch.

Guess they are trying to make you spend more coins on either new players or consumables. Played 8 games I think, 5 players out with injuries.

Suppose it's time to venture into the constant stream of games v Real or Barca.

...or you could try the better of the two football games on the market...

11 hours ago, Simsy said:

PES comparison to Fifa was like us versus Liverpool the other night.

I'm also looking forward to Mafia 3 coming out soon.

Mafia 2 was one of my all time favourite games!

I agree, PES this year is just a class above FIFA. 

34 minutes ago, David said:

Albert, I do believe me and you meet here at the same time every year, each year you come you're always really really wrong. I have tried to put you on the correct path but I have to admit defeat as you are a lost cause determined to rebel against what is right.

I don't want to push you further into where this may end up with a nipple piercing and head tattoo, I will simply stand back and hope that in time you realise what I was telling you all along.

Enjoy PES 2017 and remember that FIFA will always be here to welcome you back with open arms, it shall not hold against you your once mean words, it shall not withold its licenced glorious gameplay and online game modes that tantalise the tastebuds of gamers worldwide. FIFA forgives, FIFA loves. One day my child we shall meet in the football heavens that is FIFA 20....

What's really odd was that I was on your side as little as 2 years back. I think you're confusing me with someone else here. We did have some disagreements about sports games moving to a freemium model and whether that is the way of the future or not, yet ironically it's been Konami who first dipped their toes into that pool. 

15 minutes ago, David said:

I'm not biting, your maggot doesn't look appetising at all!

I will say this tho, it's not an attack of the inferior football game that is PES, AI in any game genre is terrible to me.

I only get enjoyment from games that I can play against other humans, I need a leaderboard, people to compete against. Sat in a room playing against robots pretty much is so so dull.

Different people have different tastes. 

FIFA is the inferior football game again, it comes in cycles. What FIFA does have though is a solid market for Ultimate Team, which would keep playing it regardless of how bad the FIFA series gets in comparison. 

Played the FIFA demo, better than FIFA 16, but no enough to justify actually dropping money on it. FIFA 16 was garbage, FIFA 17 if it stays at the level of the demo is will be mediocre. They've not sorted the AI, thrown in some fluff mode that will be interesting for one play through or so, and yet still not given a proper response to what they're doing about things like the chemistry glitch for Ultimate Team. 

Been playing PES 2017 for the last week though, and it's actually excellent, possibly even the best football game I've ever played. The AI is interesting to play against, the Master League changes have given it a lot more depth to fiddle with, and editing large numbers of teams has been made much easier. Oddly enough the player graphics are actually better than FIFA 17's as well. 

7 minutes ago, SaintRam said:

The trouble I have is that playing solo standard (and generally changing both teammates every game) I find it really hard to read their playstyle. So until I do so, I play really passively. Had too many games where a teammates gone for something I wasn't expecting them to, more than once, and then been more focused on being bitchy about it than playing.

Had a 4 games in a row over the weekend in solo standard with the same teammates and it was lovely. Won 2-1, 4-1, 6-2, 8-0

Then the game split us up  

It's an issue, and one of those aspects of solo standard that is hard to deal with. Generally when I'm unsure I just try to defend and use that to put the opposition on the backfoot, though that can go very wrong with another play who typesets themselves as a keeper. 

You can try and build a team with people you play well with on steam (if you're on PC) and move to standard. 

To be honest, I'd be happy to play some games, but let's be honest here, Australian internet is awful even with Australians. I wouldn't inflict Australian internet on our glorious colonial overlords. 

Good ol' Rocket League. Brilliant game. 

At the end of the day though the key to success is trusting your teammates, and building their confidence in themselves and in you in match. Not always easy, particularly when they're awful. I'm very defencively minded though, so it's not a major issue generally, make up for the mistakes, make the chances with solid clearances. 

PES 2016's Euro update is pretty damn good. All the players for the tournament are real, which is already a step up on EA's last attempt, and they've added around 200 new faces and such. They've done it as one of their datapacks as well, rather than as a paid DLC too. 

It does lack modes like a qualification tournament and such though, it's basically just got a mode for playing the Euros, and only 15 of 24 teams have their real kits (though you can fix that with editing). They've only got one licenced stadium for it. Keogh and Hendrick have had their faces added for the update too. 

Overall though it's actually quite impressive for a free update. 

9 hours ago, RicME85 said:

Wow. Having grown up playing Pro Evo, hell ISS before that, I know what to expect.

General play is better yes but I dont buy the comments on keepers, you can ping all sorts at them and they just dont GAF.

"Having grown up with" isn't exactly an argument. I've grown up with PES (back to the ISS days) and FIFA, I've seen the ups and downs of the series as well. That doesn't make a solid argument on it's own. 

Playing the game, I have plenty of games where my or the opposition keeper is literally keeping a side in it (i.e. in my Master League my keeper kept me in the Champions League during the quarter final against Barcelona, pulling off about 4 incredible saves, and numerous others). I've had other games where the keepers don't have such stellar performances either. The keepers in general though are simply realistic, rather than the unbalanced unrealistic mess that FIFA's are these days. 

If you have any videos of matches you've played that you feel the keepers simply weren't good enough, then post it up with the difficulty you were playing, the tactics screen with both squad harmony and player ratings and we can have a look at it and try and ascertain whether what you're seeing is an issue with the game, or your expectations based on older football games where they're used as a bandaid for defensive AI issue from close range. 

On 1/4/2016 at 08:05, RicME85 said:

Yeah as the PES keepers will save 1 in 10. Can be long range shots, inside the area side foots, anything, they are pi$$ poor

To add to the point, a lot of the complaints have come from people who picked up the game expecting it to be a less rubbish version of FIFA, rather than a different game. They immediately jump in with a terrible keeper, 50 or less squad harmony, and don't know how to defend in the slightest and whinge when their keeper isn't saving them from their own incompetence, demanding that they be capable of saving shots under zero pressure from the penalty spot 4-5 times a game. 

If you actually look at the kind of examples people post as "terrible PES keeping" then compare to any weekend of football, you'll see similar goals. The problem is that it's not what some players expect having come from FIFA where, as above, they are used as a bandaid for defensive AI issues. 

Then FIFA has all the problems with it's physics engine being broken seemingly beyond repair, but that's a whole other problem.