What difficulty do you play on?

Benni

Benni

Banned
7 May 2012
I've been playing Superstar and can't win a match. I am thoroughly enjoying myself and playing some really nice posession football but cant win.

Should I drop it down to Top Player or persist with it?

What do you play on?
 
I think we reached a state where there should be just two difficulty levels, Amateur and Pro, and then realistic "layers" of difficulty depending of the team you're playing against and other conditions.

Superstar and Top Player have a bipolar disorder, sometimes you can dominate matches completely, other times they'll rape you in every imaginable way possible.

I have no doubt in my mind that there are scripts in the game that change the natural outcome of rebounds, and even if you'll win an interception or will magically "freeze" and let it go through you. If I wasn't so lazy I would show you a replay where two of my players, one after the other, with the ball going their way confortably, a couple of meters in front of the CPU player, magically let it slip past them.
 
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I am gonna drop down to Top Player I think. Superstar isn't realistic - I played Braga in a friendly and they were too dominant (I was Juventus).
 
There was a time in the series when the 6 star level (Superstar) was only available by unlocking in the PES Shop. That tells you a lot.

I'm convinced that the AI isn't as sophisticated as we would think before. The behaviour of the CPU won't be too different on Professional, Top Player and Superstar. I think the difference will be down to how much cheating, scripting and stat boosting you want in the mix. Let's not forget this is a video game, so it will be more like a challenge to beat the game, more than anything else.

I've been playing Top Player lately. I still didn't see it on competitions. But what I could witness so far, even in exhibition games, is some serious stat boosting in favour of the CPU team.
I had Alexis Sanchez chased down the wing by a CPU-controlled Pirlo as if he had his Top Speed in the 90's or something.

So it's all down to tastes and what sort of results you are achieving on Top Player. If it becomes easy, switch to Superstar - but beware, you're gonna smash a few controllers on the ground :D
 
Yep I'm trying not to come off the Top Player, but I'm on the verge of either smashing up my controller, the PS3 itself, the game or just going to trade it in as it's doing my box in.

The weird shit your players do on this level is just absurd. Also the computers through-balls are a joke, never offside, unlike your own team who constantly go off.

I was getting pumped silly with Portugal against Bosnia and some nobody Mesudja or some shit outpaced Ronaldo every single time.

It's actually not even enjoyable anymore, you have to play the perfect game and every perfect pass, no skill involved really. Also I think you have to buy free-kicks from the PSN store as the CPU never seems to give them away, but if you do, oh feck, be prepared if by some miracle your drawing near the end of the game be prepared for some nobody curling a free-kick into the top corner.


FD
 
Must admit I'm tempted to drop down to Professional at the moment, Master League on Top Player is feeling like an absolute grind, any good football I was playing has gone entirely out the window and been replaced by direct football in an attempt to outscore the opponent who inevitably will score at some point, somehow.
 
Professional, here.
I feel it well balanced and i'm able to build up my gameplay.
Full manual passes is giving me a lot of freedom and raise up the challenge.
 
Yeah I've gone back to Professional. Feels really nice for my level and I still managed to get destroyed in one game lol. Posession stats and build up play was fine from the AI and I had just enough time on the ball in certain areas without too much or too little.
 
I'm playing on Professional. My attempts at playing Top Player nearly resulted in a hernia. As everyone else has pointed out, it just isn't realistic when some nobody is outpacing C. Ronaldo!

Full manual controls on Pro are enough of a challenge for me.
 
I played both Professional and Top Player with the same teams last night, and although the scores were the same 2-1 to me, I enjoyed Professional more. There was only a 2% difference in Possession as well, which was less than I'd have previously thought.

It just feels more natural and balanced on Professional, and it works very well with Zero Assistance. The perfect marriage for me personally.
 
Not about difficulty but sorta related when u play crap teams with low rated keepers are they shcoking on pro?
I was playing copa america troruney thing and was playing some unkown team to me I ws flumimese...Everytime i shot even from 30-35 yrds my shots would go straight at the ekeeper but still went in...not played many game so hope it was result of a crap keeper not me being ace at shooting as the shots werent een in the corners....was shocking tbh
 
I have fall in love with Top Player and will stay on this difficulty. Pro a little too easy, Superstar unrealistic and CPU makes no errors.

I played all other PES games on Top Player (or the old FIVE STAR difficulty as it was then IIRC)
 
Jimmy G-Force said:
I played both Professional and Top Player with the same teams last night, and although the scores were the same 2-1 to me, I enjoyed Professional more. There was only a 2% difference in Possession as well, which was less than I'd have previously thought.

It just feels more natural and balanced on Professional, and it works very well with Zero Assistance. The perfect marriage for me personally.
Click to expand...

This illustrates what I said before: AI sophistication stops at Professional. From there on, it's a question of how much cheating you want to make it more of a challenge to you.

The problem for me is that it feels a bit easy on Professional and Top Player is unreasonably difficult because of blatant cheating. Plus, it seems that Top Player can be divided in two levels: Exhibitions/group stages of competitions or Knockout stages of competitions, where the CPU transforms itself completely.

I'm kinda on a limbo :(
I played a Copa Libertadores with Fluminense and topped my group with ease, not exactly destroying anybody, but winning 5 and drawing 1. It was fairly easy, as I felt I kept opposition at arms length and defended a lead quite comfortably.
But when I hit the group stages, the CPU was a beast on beserk mode. And I gotta tell you, this felt exactly the same as PES2012. I got defeated 3 or 4 times and if I insist it just feels like I'm trying to beat an arcade game, which is not the feeling one looks for in PES.
 
I think it also depends what level of teams your playing with. Using a lesser team on Pro and Zero, against the better sides, certainly feels the most realistic to me so far.

I also prefer the word bias to scripting or cheating. I don't ever feel 'cheated' because by definition, that is suggesting the results of the matches are already preordained. Which I certainly don't believe to be the case. As for 'scripting', the game is designed around that, and that isn't a bad thing, as it's what determines the relevance of players stats. Getting the fundamentals in place and smashing one in the top corner from 30 yards with a player like Rooney is what seperates him from a player like Schmooney. If you get my drift. Artisitic license, a means to an end.

It's the same as defenders missing the path of the ball so the strikers gain an advantage. It's scripted to ensure either the passers stats are relevant or the strikers movement stats come to the fore. It really is no different to seeing a defender misjudge an interception in real-life and the striker getting in behind him. It's what happens. The problem is we dont like it as video game players because we feel like we are being cheated. I don't, that's how football works. And I personally feel Konami do a great job of replicating statistics, no matter which way they pull it off.
 
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One thing they need to fix though is the clipping. I used supercancel to move my defender side by side with the striker who was just approaching the 18 yard box. Instead of making him stumble - the defender passed through his body. I checked the replay and it wasn't pretty lol.
 
I've been playing in Professional level, 0 bar and 20 min with Barcelona and so far it has been quie easy, I won all matchs in group stage and the match after the group stage against Undinese, in the first leg, I won by 5x0. But I'm playing with Barça tho.

I think playing with lesser teams like Valencia must be fun in professional.
 
Professional, on 0 Assist, 10 min games, -1 Speed.
It's slower but the players feel so free, stats matter and the games flow so much better. I think/feel the CPU also plays differently on -1 speed, it's all less tedious and more random with the CPU making mistakes. I enjoy every game.

On higher difficulties i feel you're forced to play the game in a certain way.. which i don't like and don't really care for anymore.

*Default speed isn't fast or anything btw, but as you gain speed in ML you'll see the game change drastically for the worse imo. -1 Speed balances the gameplay out at all times even with 95+ speed stats.
 
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It's very interesting, because camera options also make impact on game speed , in other words i like more wide camera, which is slower pace than long and pitch side. Game speed -1 make some moves slugish and ball speed is not so real. Professional is better somehow, gameplay seems more real, with CPU mistakes, not so fast play. But top player is not too bad also. :)
 
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