PES 2018 BETA Discussion Thread

Does anyone have a copy of the beta that I could download? I don't own a PS4 or an Xbox, so can't download from the stores. I just want a copy so I can start digging through the CPKs.
Unfortunately, it's not possible to extract the files of the next-gen console versions, so we need to wait for the PC version.
 
Can someone help me understand what I'm missing. I play with no pass assistance, as I do in FIFA and the past PES games I've had, and the ball doesn't feel like it's going where I want, or with the power and pace that I thought I had put.

Also, I know many will like the pace of this beta as it lends itself to a higher skill ceiling, but it feels much to slow when compared to it's real life counterpart. I know it's a debate amongst all sports games communities (realism vs skill vs fun), but I tend to fall in the realism side of things.

I agree with you.
 
Couldn't disagree with you more about removing jockeying being a good thing. As is, there's no decent way defend a cross coming in when an attacking player reaches the byline.
Zee said R1+X, not R2+X. I agree with you that removing jockey-pressing was a mistake. It feels clumsy at times the way you have to waft your defender at the ball, rather than specifically and precisely place your player, in certain situations. Generally speaking I feel I can defend quite well, but only in scenarios where both players are jogging or running the same way. As soon as I'm in a position where I have to stand and wait, the precision goes. I think jockeying has to be a bit more agile, or at least it has to allow you to take much smaller steps than the big hops you see now. Even just bringing back the jockey press would be a big help in dealing with players out near the byline.
 
Last edited:
BEFORE WATCHING! It's only a beta - I'm sure this will be looked at (and it's only happened to me twice so far anyway). It's fine.

With that out of the way - anybody else had this shielding glitch happen? Seems to be the result of just letting go of your controller... I've seen it once after kick-off (and I don't think it was on purpose), and once in the guy's defensive third (where I think it probably WAS on purpose).

 
I love the weight of the game, but I can't help feeling there is a slight touch of unresponsiveness that may get irritating long term.

So far it seems that it's already looking a upgrade on the previous version, and finally online looks like it could be playable.
 
I give it a try this afternoon.
I read a lot of gameplay elements and only a few comments about online and that is where the beta is for.
 
Seems to be the result of just letting go of your controller... I've seen it once after kick-off (and I don't think it was on purpose), and once in the guy's defensive third (where I think it probably WAS on purpose).
Happened also to a teammate of mine in a 3 vs. 3 match. I also believe it happens when you put your controller down somehow, as he went away at the beginning of the second half and came back at like minute 60 or such.
Aaaand this brings me to another complaint (which I already know Konami can't do anything about unfortunately): PEOPLE.
3 vs. 3 matches are often spoiled by the silly 'take the ball with Griezmann and dribble like there's no tomorrow even if there are Lacazette and Giroud unmarked ready to shoot if you only knew how to pass the bloody ball' player.
And it's happening way too often for my liking. I mean, go play 1 vs. 1 if you want to dribble the entire team of your opponent twice and then shot from impossible angles: 3 vs. 3 matches should be about co-operation and teamwork, not about showing that one can dribble and execute the odd skill move from time to time.

Rant over, I'll have another 1 vs. 1 match if I manage to find an opponent. After all this beta has become quite addictive to me.
 
Unfortunately, it's not possible to extract the files of the next-gen console versions, so we need to wait for the PC version.
Really? Damn. I remember doing it with the PES17 demos. Konami being the stubborn lot that they are, they never change much internally. They always use CPKs to hold game data, I've seen it on PC, console and even their mobile port, they're just packed inside the main wrapper file for whatever platform it's on (apk, pkg, etc).
 
I dislike online intensely but this beta is showing me how great 2018 might be offline. I don't want to go into massive detail but the biggest thing for me is I've only felt frustrated through lag, not through the game doing stupid shit. It just feels so refined compared to both FIFA 17 and PES 2017.

I play 442 and I'm a little concerned 1-2s between the 2 strikers is a bit easy but could just be how teams are setting up against me. Haven't lost since using the formstion (Around 10 games).

A couple of things I love, lobbed through balls are fairly difficult to execute and players often have s heavy touch after them or miscontrol it totally.

Shooting is always too powerful from range but pretty inaccurate so a tweak can make that great.

Can't wait to play the demo against CPU
 
I give it a try this afternoon.
I read a lot of gameplay elements and only a few comments about online and that is where the beta is for.

My experience with online quality. Much better than Pes 2017 at launch. Played more than 10 matches, couple of 3vs3. There was just one match where lag was noticeable.
 
I played a lot of guys last night using France who's main tactic is to get the ball to Greizmann and dribble past everybody and curl it in . .plan B is to lay it off to Pogba for a rocket shot . .. . long shots are way too easy to score, I had two goals outside the box that went straight at Lloris but still went in over his head .. .defending is easy not many seem to score against me. . .it's definitely geared towards using the most skilful players to dribble and score a "wonder" goal. . . .team play being used up to a point then pass it to the Superstar and the more players they can dribble past the better they think the goal is.

Good post. I've been quite negative about the defending but you're dead right that it's only problematic against the superstars. Griezmann dribble-curlers happened fairly often and I've idea how the opponent gets satisfaction out of scoring the same goal every time.
 
Good post. I've been quite negative about the defending but you're dead right that it's only problematic against the superstars. Griezmann dribble-curlers happened fairly often and I've idea how the opponent gets satisfaction out of scoring the same goal every time.

Ive found using second man pressure helps a lot with defending good dribblers. They'll often beat the pressure man but I'll be lurking to moo up and time the challenge
 
Just out of curiosity: are you guys using auto-feint ON or OFF? And why?!
Off, for me. I don't see a reason why the game should decide for me which feint my player is going to perform (and when, most likely), and I usually don't do many skill moves myself... I'm not really a skill move guy.
 
Ive found using second man pressure helps a lot with defending good dribblers. They'll often beat the pressure man but I'll be lurking to moo up and time the challenge

Yeah me too. As cheap as it sounds, double-pressing is very important. I tend to hold the defender I'm controlling back and let the CPU control the aggressive one.
 
Yeah me too. As cheap as it sounds, double-pressing is very important. I tend to hold the defender I'm controlling back and let the CPU control the aggressive one.

I think it's only cheap if you make no effort to defend yourself. Used as a valid tactic and doubling up and a skillful player is what it's there for.
 
Ive found using second man pressure helps a lot with defending good dribblers. They'll often beat the pressure man but I'll be lurking to moo up and time the challenge

This. I haven't totally perfected it or anything, but I find this works pretty well, so long as I keep the right distance. In this game more than any other my focus has been on defensive shape and positioning more than it has been on the ball carrier. I'm also finding, or certainly found in my last couple of games earlier this morning, that the double tap X tackle works pretty well.

Found myself really confusing two opponents last night who were France and wanted it to be the Griezmann show. When I go Brazil, I stick Casemiro as a man-marker on him but I don't go wading in with him if the ball gets played to Griezmann and he is in close vicinity to him, at least not instinctively. I've also used the option that allows you to select players to not join attack and did that with Casemiro, and also used the Wing-Back tactic too. That does mean I am leaving a lot for the more advanced players to do in attack, but Tiki Taka helps there.

Serious question: how many folk set marking assignments before kick-off? Change them throughout a match too? I use it all the time and try a few different things there. I've even set marking on Casemiro when facing Brazil a few times. Did that against another guy who was using manual passing as I could tell early doors he liked to slow it down (perhaps too much) and pick very deliberate passes, so assigning someone on Casemiro meant I could upset his game a wee bit. I like doing that as well but honestly, and I say this with absolute sincerity: there is nothing wrong with "ping-pong" passing, in the right context, as it absolutely 100% exists in the real sport, and I'm not talking Barcelona either. I attended a ridiculous amount of lower division Scottish matches last season when helping my mate with his player agent business, which meant we both missed some Thistle games, and ping-pong passing exists at all levels in the sport. I don't want error for the sake of error. I want to take ownership of error, not some code arbitrarily deciding error needs to happen when I play a perfectly simple 10-15yard pass, or a string of ping-pong 5-10 yard passes when my player is playing in the direction he is facing and has time.
 
I think it's only cheap if you make no effort to defend yourself. Used as a valid tactic and doubling up and a skillful player is what it's there for.

Yeah, I don't think using that tactic is cheap at all. Team game and all that.
 
This. I haven't totally perfected it or anything, but I find this works pretty well, so long as I keep the right distance. In this game more than any other my focus has been on defensive shape and positioning more than it has been on the ball carrier. I'm also finding, or certainly found in my last couple of games earlier this morning, that the double tap X tackle works pretty well.

Found myself really confusing two opponents last night who were France and wanted it to be the Griezmann show. When I go Brazil, I stick Casemiro as a man-marker on him but I don't go wading in with him if the ball gets played to Griezmann and he is in close vicinity to him, at least not instinctively. I've also used the option that allows you to select players to not join attack and did that with Casemiro, and also used the Wing-Back tactic too. That does mean I am leaving a lot for the more advanced players to do in attack, but Tiki Taka helps there.

Serious question: how many folk set marking assignments before kick-off? Change them throughout a match too? I use it all the time and try a few different things there. I've even set marking on Casemiro when facing Brazil a few times. Did that against another guy who was using manual passing as I could tell early doors he liked to slow it down (perhaps too much) and pick very deliberate passes, so assigning someone on Casemiro meant I could upset his game a wee bit. I like doing that as well but honestly, and I say this with absolute sincerity: there is nothing wrong with "ping-pong" passing, in the right context, as it absolutely 100% exists in the real sport, and I'm not talking Barcelona either. I attended a ridiculous amount of lower division Scottish matches last season when helping my mate with his player agent business, which meant we both missed some Thistle games, and ping-pong passing exists at all levels in the sport. I don't want error for the sake of error. I want to take ownership of error, not some code arbitrarily deciding error needs to happen when I play a perfectly simple 10-15yard pass, or a string of ping-pong 5-10 yard passes when my player is playing in the direction he is facing and has time.

The Numbers Game, the book about statistical analysis in football, had a very interesting conclusion drawn when looking at possession and passing.

Being good at passing is not the same as being good at possession. All sides within a league pass pretty much equally well when it comes to the sort of passing needed for good ball retention - the difference is in how good players are at moving into spaces to provide easy passing options, how good they are at keeping hold of the ball if put under pressure. If your side's formation and general training sets them up to create easy passing lanes, to identify where they need to position themselves, and to think two or three moves ahead, then they will be as good at stringing passes together as most sides.

To be clear, it should be the difficult passes, or the passes under pressure, where lesser sides struggle more. And it should be more common for better sides to be skilled in possession play. When people complain about ping pong passing or passing accuracy I take it with a pinch of salt because some people are against the idea of regular 1 touch play, devoid of context.
 
Last edited:
BEFORE WATCHING! It's only a beta - I'm sure this will be looked at (and it's only happened to me twice so far anyway). It's fine.

With that out of the way - anybody else had this shielding glitch happen? Seems to be the result of just letting go of your controller... I've seen it once after kick-off (and I don't think it was on purpose), and once in the guy's defensive third (where I think it probably WAS on purpose).



Yeah, Adam talked about that like a week or so ago. Fixed already.
 
The Numbers Game, the book about statistical analysis in football, had a very interesting conclusion drawn when looking at possession and passing.

Being good at passing is not the same as being good at possession. All sides within a league pass pretty much equally well when it comes to the sort of passing needed for good ball retention - the difference is in how good players are at moving into spaces to provide easy passing options, how good they are at keeping hold of the ball if put under pressure. If your side's formation and general training sets them up to create easy passing lanes, to identify where they need to position themselves, and to think two or three moves ahead, then they will be as good at stringing passes together as most sides.

To be clear, it should be the difficult passes, or the passes under pressure, where lesser sides struggle more. And it should be more common for better sides to be skilled in possession play. When people complain about ping pong passing or passing accuracy I take it with a pinch of salt because some people are against the idea of regular 1 touch play, devoid of context.

Thanks for the indirect book recommendation, dude. Might pick that up.

Yeah, have to agree with what you say in the last paragraph there. Even though the two teams in the beta are on the better side, anything I am playing in which I am not playing in the direction I am facing has a sense of risk/difficulty to it, and most certainly when using manual passing when under pressure, but I still can play to engineer one-touch situations in the short game.

Don't think I have found myself using the R2 + circle variant for playing short passes and layoffs like I have recently with this beta. Was it Bergkamp who said that there is plenty space, more space, to work with above the keeper and that is why he liked to chip them? I'm trying to apply that to some of my short passing game. Some of the little patterns you can weave are impressive, as well as how you can really mix up the tempo. For the first time in a few years I am enjoying playing as Brazil.

How you finding it all anyway, mate?
 
I'll be the first one to say that the game is growing on me heavily. This really could be the best soccer game ever made. It takes time to really see what this master piece is all about. I was wrong anout it. I just hope they don't ruin the final release. Like Someone mentioned earlier if the catch up bug is back I will not buy the game. They need to keep the final release exactly the same, maybe just tweak the shooting and make shots more "heavy". But for some reason Konami are known to mess up the final code.
 
Back
Top Bottom