OK, I’ll be honest, I’ve never been fond of any sort of award shows. They all seem pre-planned, and usually having guarenteed winners based on everything besides what they should be based on.

But, this time it’s different. You see, everyone has been voting, and it’s clear to see who is getting votes and where they are placed throughout the period leading up to the show. And currently, FIFA Soccer Blog is ahead of WENB. Not happy.

So, it’s war. Winning the award isn’t a target, beating FSB is. So please, support the site and lets end up on top!

Vote for WENB here, and make sure you use the ‘gaming’ category.

If you do want to annoy me (I see you), feel free to vote for FSB (@FIFASoccerBlog) or even our gaming site Nextgen Gaming Blog (@Official_NGB). The last one has my blessing.

Thanks for your support!

We’ve been getting emails from many people who are having issues with having their account approved on the Kitana Media forums. After changing servers we’ve witnessed major issues with activation emails being sent out, and due to this are moving servers very soon to eradicate the problem.

In the mean time, we can help!

Drop Adam an email, and he’ll activate your account. So register as normal, and if you don’t receive the email asking you to confirm your account, email adam.bhatti@kitanamedia.com with your username. He’ll then activate it as soon as possible and let you know when it’s done.

Don’t forget, once activated a new user will have the first few of their posts needing approval, so you might not see them appear instantly. This helps us combat spammers! Nifty.

We’ll update you guys once the server issue has been rectified, in the mean time feel free to drop us an email.

Thanks.

Lets hope 2012 bring everything you want in football gaming, and of course your lives as a whole.

All the best!

Click here to view the embedded video.

While the sport is not really an exact science, there has been a meteoric rise in the use, and popularity, of stats in football. From how many passes Xavi does in a particular match to the amount of shots Manchester United have faced so far this season there now seems to be a recorded number for every aspect of the world’s number one sport.

Stats can often surprise us, like the fact that Swansea city made more passes away at Manchester City than their high spending counterparts. They can also often cement certain ideas we have about a particular player or team such as that 11 of Christoper Samba’s 15 goals for Blackburn Rovers have been headers.

Statistical analysis is something that has always been in the PES series. Shots, fouls, possession and corners are recorded stats that have always been viewable at both half and full time. However, with the advent of PES on current generation (multi-format) consoles Seabass and his team decided to take statistical analysis a little further giving players the option to track all their accumulated stats.

So I’ve decided to see if the stats collected in PES 2012 can be used in the same way as real life and see if Konami’s recorded stats reflect the PES player you think you are. I’ve also been keen to see if those stats can tell us anything about the how the game plays in comparison to real life.

What do your PES stats say about you?

The following stats were recorded playing the game on both Professional (around 30%) and Top Player (70%) difficulties. About half of the matches were played in exhibition mode while the other half were played in Master League and the cup competitions of Asia, America and Europe. I generally play against teams who are better than the team I’ve picked or are of similar ability such as Barcelona vs. Real Madrid or me as Udinese vs. Internazionale.

Here are mine….

70 – The amount of games I’ve played so far.

27/28/15 – The number of wins, losses and draws I’ve had. While it’s not a terrible record, given the fact that the majority of my matches have been played on Top Player which is brutally clinical at times, I’d like to think that my winning win ratio of 38.57% will be higher in another 70 match’s time.

92 – Is the amount of goals I’ve scored and conceded which gives me an average of 1.31 goals scored and conceded per match.

640 – The amount of shots I’ve had against the opposition meaning I’m having, on average, 9.14 shots per match. My 92 goals give me a 14.37% shot to goal conversion rate. While this rate is poor I’d like to think that it’s because it’s so difficult to master one of the hardest parts of the game – the shooting.

470 – The number of shots the COM has taken against which mean it takes only 6.71 shots per match. This gives it a much better conversion rate of 19.14% which is much better than my record but isn’t surprising. It also backs up the idea that Top Player is hard, maybe not in terms of possession – but when it comes to scoring goals it’s lethal. Hence I have a miserable rating of C when it comes to defending.

2 – How many penalties I’ve been awarded giving me a ratio of 0.02 per game. In 70 games this stat does seem low and probably is when compared to real life.

35 – Is the amount of cards I’ve received, which when separated is 31 yellow and 4 red cards. I’m not an overly passive player, and I do like to put a good crunching tackle in on an opposing attacker, but like the number of penalties this stat is a little low compared to real life where you can expect to see 4 or 5 cards shown in any one match. In contrast I have a per game ratio of 0.44 for yellow cards and 0.05 for red cards, However, given the fact that this is a video game made to be enjoyed and not real life maybe it’s better if there are fewer cards. Plus there is also the fact that I currently have a rating of S for fairplay.

62% – This is the average amount of possession i’m having in match. While it is a Barcelona type possession stat and while possession is something I look to dominate (the lowest possession stat I’ve had being 51%) whether playing against the COM or a human, I feel it is a frustrating stat. Keeping hold of possession seems to be something the COM never does. Whether I am up against Barcelona, Stoke, Lyon or Ghana the COM always tries to get to goal quickly and effectively. While different teams do attack in different ways; for example Colombia will often try a long ball from defence for Falcao to win in the air and Lyon will try quick passes down the wings, they all seem too direct. Even teams who are know for their possession football play in to direct of a manner too. To sum up, my best ever possession stat for a half was 77%-23% which was Villarreal vs. Barcelona.

34 – The number of hours I’ve spent so far playing PES 2012.

Do you have a better winning ratio than me? Had more penalties? Or have an even better possession average? Tell us in the forums, get involved and let everybody see if your PES stats are the best out there and what they say about how you play the game.

Yep. It’s true. This is the last podcast of this series. It’s been a crazy 6 months, but we all have the game, and are either playing it or talking about it on forums.

A lot of things have been spoken about in the last few weeks, and myself and Alan get stuck in to the key topics. We also let off some steam, as we tell you guys how we really feel! From patches, to selfish gamers, to issues with individuality and even feedback, we really do go all out.

A great way to end this podcasting year, we hope you agree.

Enjoy, and thanks for your support!

NOTE: This podcast has Explicit Language. Nothing major, but more F bombs used than usual. Last show of the year, after all…

Download here.

The game is just over an hour old in the UK, and we have worked extremely hard to make sure we are here with a file for you all to enjoy.

We took a slightly different approach this year with the file, as we wanted to introduce you to the import and export function within edit mode. This gem allows users to choose separate teams, with updated kits and squads, and import them into your game, without the need to download entire option files!

Hence the base file WENB has now brought out. There is much work to do still to complete the OF, but by using the import feature, you will all be able to download individual teams nice and easily into your game!

Take the work being done by forum member Jaymez Hetfield. His thread in the editing section will be soon featuring a variety of downloads of Championship teams. So if you want to import someone like West Ham United, download the team pack, pop it into your PS3, boot the game up and import them via edit mode.

Yes as simple as that. And WENB will be supporting this OF throughout the year, with teams, leagues and players updated on a weekly basis :)

But to the OF we have now! It includes:

All competition logos imported, with correct names
All club teams with official logos and correct names (Bundesliga, Portuguese League, EPL etc)
EPL kits imported, apart from Norwich – Wolverhampton Wanderers.

We’ll be releasing a team pack to import into your game as soon as this weekend, but get the worst done by importing the base today!

Download the file here.

Indepth guide included, created by community legend @chaos_PES

Enjoy, and keep an eye on the team packs soon!

Quick install guide.

1) Make sure you have downloaded the latest Patch, and the DLC.

2) Download the file onto your PC. You should end up with a .rar file.

3) Right click the file and extract to desktop. You should have a folder called PS3.

4) Put that folder onto a USB stick, and then insert the USB stick into your PS3.

5) In the XMB (main screen when you start your PS3), go to the Game icon, and scroll to a folder called “Saved Data Utility (PS3)”.

6) Enter the folder. You should see an icon in the folder which says “USB Device (Storage Media)”. Select it.

7) All the files from the folder should appear. On each file press triangle, then select copy. Do this for every file.

8) Once done, remove the USB stick and start the game!

Watch the video below!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Game mode reveals have seen us publicly condemn actions of other sites, mainly because I feel it’s a responsibility of the people with access to be aware of what should be shown, and in what way so it doesn’t spoil the experience for everyone. It might seem a bit fresh coming from us here at WENB, who have been accused in the past of taking away the mystic of launch build-ups, but this year it’s different. This year we have something new, and in many ways something groundbreaking. But like every special experience, it’s nowhere near as impressive when you know what’s coming.

Football Life for me is a perfect example of this, where you being in the moment is 90% of its appeal and complete charm. And that’s why we haven’t commented on anything since the embargo ended, because I know the elements that blew me away won’t do the same for you if I listed everything. Because of this, I want to tiptoe around the mode details, and try to present just why it’s quite possibly the greatest single player experience out there.

Master league has always been the heartbeat of every PES game, and is what I feel the majority of the fans play. We saw changes to its presentation last year, including many elements from FIFA’s Career Mode. This year adds something similar still, with the calendar and day to day ticker shown and progressing similarly to EA’s game. But that’s where it ends, as what Konami have tried to achieve is a type of meta game within PES. After customising your manager, you are welcomed to a presentation cutscene. From here on in, you get the impression the focus for the mode was to bring everything that’s often seen as the periphery to the forefront, and making it important. This is enhanced when you first see the setting menu in the mode, where you can go the next game/week, or edit your team. The background is no longer a static screen, it’s now a living breathing world – the world you are in. During the week when no games are available you’ll see your persona (manager) putting your team through their paces in training. All animated. Some weeks you’ll see ground staff walking around sorting out the turf. And on match day the background changes to the actual stadium you’re playing in, all true to the weather and time of day – something you can see before you even select your team.

The basis of this is to engross you, to make you believe you are the manager, and this season is something you’re living in every moment. Seeing your manager in cut scenes when scoring, or even getting a tough decision against you is a nice touch, and provides further immersion. It raises the bar even further when you are seeing varied, and sometimes jaw dropping, new player presentations to the press. Add in players who come to you office discontent with being dropped, transfer listed, played out of position etc, or even happy they are being picked or how well the team is performing. Gone are the days of still pictures, we’re talking fully animated sequences, that you must respond to with a variety of answers in a bid to keep the squad united.

BAL is no different, with cutscenes littered throughout to build this world around you. You have an agent who tries to gives you advice before and after a game, and now directions from the manager are given to you in the dressing room fully motioned.

Outside the fresh new moments, Konami have made some welcomed changes to the mode in general. Fatigue has been toned to a more realistic level, with players being able to play games comfortably back to back on a weekly basis without needing rest. No more goalkeeper resting! The only time you’ll need to be wary is when mid-week games appear, and those pesky internationals come around! You’ll also find the majority of league games being played during the day, which is a perfect complement to those amazing European nights – if you make it in!

What makes Football Life that new benchmark however isn’t just the presentation. It’s about how it plays out on the pitch. Varied team styles, different strengths and danger men in teams keeps everything engaging and poignant game to game, always giving you something fresh and new. Each team needs to be considered as a separate entity, with no simple winning ideology when moving up the difficulty levels. This is dwelt on before every game from your coaching assistant, who details teams playing style and danger men in a cutscene before every game. Again, fully animated.

This links heavily with the AI in the game, which (in a bid not to repeat what we’ve said a million times) again proves itself to be quite a gamechanger.

I do have issues with the game though, and perhaps these elements will stop the game becoming the classic it deserve to be. The keepers don’t scale well for me, with the lesser skilled ones parrying far too much. Then there’s the uneasy feeling I have with the difficulty. Top Player and Superstar seems to be for the people wanting a tougher challenge, rather than a purist experience. Teams play more potently, which is welcome, but accuracy in passing and finishing is also ramped up across the board, giving the lesser teams far too much strength than they warrant. This is where the new tackling system can frustrate too, as low skilled dribblers channel Messi and go on a slalom run. Dropping down to Professional is where it’s at, and I feel it’s probably Top Player in previous years.

We also have a game that requires extensive use of supercancel (R1 and R2 on PS3), rather than an option. Lofted throughballs for and against require resetting your player to get the most out of the situations, otherwise you’ll be the victim of some frustrating situations. Freedom is key in any game, and while you can amend the outcome yourself, it’s hardly ideal.

Then there are the visuals. It’s not just about animations, but simply not being satisfied with the overall look of the game in gameplay cam. Stadiums and pitches look great, but the players lose quality a bit too much, and fails miserably in any side by side comparisons with the competitor. It is something that keeps me wanting more, and never truly happy with graphics.

But this is not a review, more a final thought before we do settle down and start to think about scoring the game. Alan Curdie will be doing the WENB review like last year, and me and Suffwan will be on a review podcast once we’re allowed to talk more conclusively.

But rest assured, I’m completely in love with PES 2012. It’s a game that has gripped me in a way unlike in previous years, and hasn’t made me wish I was playing another football game.

Enjoy demo 2, and let’s look forward to a special year!

Click here to view the embedded video.