After getting burned out on PES 2021, I fired up PES 2019 again today. A few matches in, the differences between the two games stood out immediately. Here’s how PES 2019 feels compared to PES 2021:

Gameplay is simply more fun.

Players feel more responsive, and without the constant ball‑shielding animations, everything moves more freely. I even like the dribbling controls better in PES 2019.

Defense is night‑and‑day better.

Without the heavy shielding, good defenders actually get to show their quality. They poke the ball away, intercept passes, and react naturally. The game also helps by switching you to the nearest defender when the opponent plays a long ball—and it does this while keeping your momentum intact.

Below is something that you would normally see in PES 2019, but not in PES 2021. As the opposing player receives the ball on the wing, my RB (in this case I think that's Nacho) closes in and manages to poke the ball away.

In PES 2019, most defenders with high enough defensive attributes, can poke the ball away from the offensive player as can be seen above. In PES 2021, this only happens if you've got a very good angle on the ball, otherwise the ball-shielding animation will kick-in and your defender will either have to shoulder-charge the opposing player to win the ball, or you'll end up having to fight against the ball-shielding animation. It may be a bit more realistic, but not as fun in a video game, and can downright be frustrating most of the time.

Also in PES 2021, auto‑switching is unreliable unless you force it manually, and even then it often picks the wrong player. Worse, it kills your momentum, which makes defending feel like a chore. PES 2019’s defensive flow is just more enjoyable.

Offense feels smoother and more predictable.

With my usual pass‑assist settings, PES 2019 sends the ball exactly where I intend most of the time. Dribbling is also more responsive and fun without the excessive shielding.

In PES 2021, even with the same settings, pass assist feels inconsistent. I’ve had so many misplaced passes that it gets frustrating.

Visuals: PES 2021 wins easily.

Even without Xbox Series X enhancements, PES 2021 is the best‑looking football game I’ve played. Player models, lighting, and animations are all a clear step up. That said, I still prefer the simpler, cleaner Master League menus in PES 2019.

Sound: slight edge to PES 2019.

Both games are similar overall, but I like PES 2019’s soundtrack more.

Tags: #GameLog #ProEvolutionSoccer2019 #ProEvolutionSoccer2021

Character Name: Edgewater Class: Soldier Playthrough: 1st

Uhm… we just got attacked by the Starborn. <See spoiler...> is dead. The Starborn Hunter attacked The Eye first, then came into The Lodge. We had to run away with the artifacts. The Hunter actually decided to let us go. We used the opportunity to try and help everyone at The Eye. Everyone survived except <See spoiler...>. I kinda feel like its my fault.

I should have stopped going on all those missions to get those artifacts. At first, I could get the artifacts with no opposition. But eventually, a Starborn would show up right in front of an artifact to try and fight us. A Starborn also started showing up after getting powers from those temples. I started feeling uneasy about going after more artifacts, but I also believe that was the only way to draw them out. Well, we did draw them out, and they hit us hard and now <See spoiler...> is dead.

I wonder if me deciding to defend The Lodge and the artifacts, instead of flying to The Eye to help them, is what got <See spoiler...> killed. I should have decided to defend The Eye isntead. We didn't do much defending of The Lodge anyway. All we did was run away and get people killed. And now a part of New Atlantis is destroyed in the process.

Flying to The Eye after the attack on New Atlantis...

On my next playthrough, I'm definitely going to The Eye to try and save <See spoiler...>

This has actually affected me more than I thought it would. I was trying to distance myself from <See spoiler...> because things were getting a little too cozy, and that character was starting to rely on me heavily. Turns out, that was the game developer's way of foreshadowing; something was going to happen to that companion, which explains the behavior. Anyway, now I definitely need to know what the Starborn are, what they are after, why they are doing what they are doing, and how to fight back. Can't lose any more people to them.

I went to the UC Security Office to talk to the Va'ruun prisoner to help find out more about this Unity thing. I ended up talking to Sergeant Yumi. Not sure if I wasn't supposed to, but this guy pretty much gave me no choice but to go with him.

Then I get interrogated by this Commander Ikande because “I committed some crimes”. This guy wants me to go undercover in the Crimson Fleet. Why? They didn't even tell me what crimes I've committed. I'm trying to find out more about the Starborn and Unity to stop other people in Constellation from getting killed, and here comes this commander who can't get his job done on his own, tries to blackmail me into going undercover so he can take the Crimson Fleet down. I refused because I was being coerced, as opposed to being asked for help. And I still don't know what crimes I committed to justify them blackmailing me like that.

So refusing this commander's offer got me sent to a prison in Cydonia. Apparently I spent 5 days in prison and lost 500XP. I also am now an enemy of UC SysDef?! Like what the eff! I refused the offer because I didn't want to do it. How did that instantly make me an enemy of the UC SysDef department? It's crazy. If that's the case, I might as well join the Crimson Fleet if the UC SysDef is going to hunt me down.

So after getting out of jail, I go back to New Atlantis to talk to the Va'ruun prisoner. Sergeant Yumi is still there. I talk to him to ask if I can talk to the prisoner, but no such option exists. And the guy acts like he's never seen me at all. Freaking forgot he made me follow him without giving me any choice. This part of the game is broken.

Then I try to see how to talk to prisoner. There is a hallway that says “Security Staff Only”. Since no one was talking to me about the prisoner, I thought I'd walk in there, but I was fully expecting the security personel to get mad, because I am not “Security Staff”. But no, no one pays attention and I was able to walk by myself into the prison without anyone batting an eye. This part of the game seems broken too.

Tags: #GameLog #Starfield

Now to keep exploring the Flying Waters...

Goblu, who seems to be the final boss in the Flying Waters area, is resistant to ice, but weak to fire damage.

Note to self, the Shell buff that Maelle can grant to the party, is not the same as the Shield that enemies have. The Shield on enemies will completely negate a hit, while the Shell buff on my party members will only reduce damage by 20%.

Got out of Flying Waters now and into the Ancient Sanctuary area. Still in Act I.

Tags: #GameLog #ClairObscurExpedition33

But first, some random thoughts on videogames at the moment.

It feels pretty good to be an Xbox Gamepass subscriber right now. Not only did The Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion Remaster become available to play right after Bethesda shadow dropped the game, but Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was available on Gamepass one day after. I know everyone is talking about the Oblivion Remaster, but I will argue that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is the game to play.

Also Path of Exile 2 is a great game! I did not include gamelogs for it in this post, but will do so in my next post.

Also my brother let me borrow his unused Playstation 4. I finally got to play Gran Turismo 7 for the first time ever and oh man I've missed the feel of Gran Turismo games.

Now with that out of the way, here are the links to the gamelogs (in no particular order) included in this post:

• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
• Diablo III
• Guild Wars 2
• Elden Ring
• Skyrim
• Avowed
• Minecraft
• Octopath Traveler II
• Gran Turismo 7
• Fallout 4
• NBA 2K24

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

Need to travel east of the Expedition 68 flag. There’s a path out there in the open space, that goes up high. Need to explore it before continuing west of the Expedition 68 flag.

By the way this is a great game. Feels like playing a Final Fantasy game. From the character designs, to the character names, the cutscenes, the cinematography, the beauty of the world, down to the armor design and outfits, this game feels very much inspired by Final Fantasy games.

Lune and Gustave

I am very intrigued by the story.

It seems like the people are trapped in an island. Every year, people of a certain age, vanish, disappear, very similar to how people vanished when Thanos snapped his finger in Avengers Infinity War. This happens whenever a new year starts.

There is a big number that can be seen on the horizon that supposedly indicates the year since the fracture; the cataclysmic event that set things into motion. They call it a monolith calendar in the game. It basically indicates what year it is since the fracture, but it is counting down from 100. The game is titled Expedition 33, because the game starts right as the monolith calendar goes from 34 to 33, and the characters you play are part of the 33rd Expedition.

The people on the island choose to either live their lives until it’s their time to disappear, or they choose to join Expeditions.

Expeditions are basically a bunch of people going out in an attempt to find the Paintress; the one who paints the number on the horizon every time a new year starts. They think that if they are somehow able to stop the Paintress from painting a new number, they can stop people from vanishing.

Everyone thinks it’s the Paintress who is the bad guy, but after a couple of hours in the game, I’m starting to think she’s not the evil one in this game.

The game is a turn based RPG, however they've added some action elements to it, by having you react to certain events in battle. For instance, the game is paused while you decide what to do during a characters turn. However, if you decide to use a skill, the game gives you an option to press a button during the skill animation that will boost the effectiveness of your skill. In addition, and probably more important, is that during enemy attacks, you are allowed to dodge and parry the enemy attacks. So, no longer are you watching your character simply take a hit. Now even during the enemy's turn, you are still an active participant and need to defend your characters from enemy attacks. This is great, because it makes turn based games more viable. No longer do you have to stare at your character and feel helpless as they get hit. Now you can do something about it.

I don't know if this is the first game that implemented this, but I love this mechanic. It revolutionizes turn based RPGs.

I remember Square Enix saying that the reason they moved away from turn based combat in their newer games, is that the more life-like their characters get, the more absurd it is to watch them do battle in turn based combat. This fixes it. Now Square Enix can no longer use that excuse. With this combat system in place, it feels more like a real fight, even if it is still in a turn based combat system.

Current level as of 2025-04-26

#ClairObscurExpedition33

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered

Played this on Day One when Bethesda shadow dropped this game, thanks to Gamepass. The graphics are obviously, much better than the original, which came out 20 years ago. It is using Unreal Engine 5 and it is unsurprisingly running into performance issues. Still, it is a good looking game and looks much better than vanilla Skyrim, which is also an older game. The game's graphics actually remind me a lot of Avowed. But I will say the world in Avowed looked better, with much less performance issues than this Oblivion Remaster.

Finally out of the prison!

The combat in this remastered game is... okay. I feel like Avowed has now set a new standard for first person melee combat. Still it is okay, but the more I engaged in melee combat, the more I wished I had the Avowed combat system in this game. Maybe I'm too early in the game and it gets better as I level up my skills. I don't know, but this is simply my first impressions of the game.

#Oblivion

Diablo III

Finally finished Diablo III today (2025-03-15). Bonus was having my kids join me for the final fight against Malthael.

I have found that this is one of the best local co-op games to play with kids. Yes there is a lot of violence and blood in the game, however the game's graphics are “cartoony” enough that I don't think it's that big of a deal. And the story, dialogue and cutscenes are more PG oriented compared to the R rated ones from Diablo IV.

Anyway, you can play up to 4 players in local co-op mode. And it is so easy to join and leave a gaming session. The game will auto adjust the difficulty depending on how many players are playing the game, without even having to restart the mission. The game even lets you send other players a “gift”, which adds to the social nature of the game.

#DiabloIII

Guild Wars 2

Today (2025-03-08) was the first time ever that I got to play Guild Wars 2 with my eldest son. It was fun going back to Tyria doing the lowbie stuff. I even joined him for one of his story quests.

Just noting down that my current focus should be on completing an exotic armor set for my Thief character. He currently needs level 80 exotic chest and leg armor.

#GuildWars2

Elden Ring

After playing more of Elden Ring, I've come to realize that this is a game where you really need to be careful to avoid dying. This is because when your character dies, you lose runes (which is what you need to level up). You are given a chance to retrieve the runes after you resurrect. However, if you die again, those runes are gone. So with that in mind, and considering how I keep dying in this game, I have started to change the way I play. I now pay attention to how close I am to leveling up, and if I am, I pick and choose my fights so that if I end up dying, it happens in a place where it is easy for me to retrieve my runes.

At times, I would fight the same enemy over and over (by resting at a Site of Grace, which re-spawns the enemies), until I get enough runes to level up. After I level up, I then venture out farther to explore the world.

I also use this tactic before going into major boss fights. If I am close to leveling up, I will farm for runes and get myself leveled up before doing the boss fight. That way, even if I die in the boss fight, I'm not worried about losing all my runes.

I've also realized that by blindly following the direction the Sites of Grace markers point to, I end up in areas of the world where the enemies are stronger than me. Sure I kind of move the story forward this way, but I'm also dying all the time in these new areas, because the enemies are much stronger than me, not to mention they are have all new attack patterns I am not familiar with.

So I've actually gone back to the part of the map where I started (Limgrave), and started exploring there. I found a dungeon near the Church of Elleh that I didn't know was there. Ended up fighting this Beastman of Azula boss. That was a tough fight, until I finally got familiar with that enemy's attacks.

Going further east from Gatefront Ruins, I ended up finding Wayfront Ruins. This place had some kind of underground cellar that had a boss waiting for me, Mad Pumpkin Head. That fight wasn't that hard.

I noticed that going Northwest on the map, led to much tougher enemies, but going East, not so much. So I'll probably stay on this path and level up along the way.

Before going back to the are where I started the game, I purchased a Spear from one of the merchants at the Roundtable Hold. The spear is great because of its quick attack and reach, however I did notice that my Block Counter attacks miss more often. This is because the spear attacks are in a straight line. And so if the enemy moves to your right or left, your Block Counter attack will miss. Contrast this to a Block Counter attack using a Broadsword, where the swing of your sword usually catches enemies even as they strafe to the side. The spear though does have a nice Skill, the Impaling Thrust, which is easy to use against enemies.

#EldenRing

Skyrim

So I am struggling to defeat Malkoran in Skyrim, in the Dawnbreaker quest. Apparently, the quest is meant for level 20 and up characters. My character is what, level 13 or 14? I toned down the difficulty, from Adept to Apprentice. I managed to kill Malkoran, but lost Lydia in the process. So I'm not satisfied with that. I'll drop it down to the easiest difficulty and hopefully get to defeat Malkoran while keeping Lydia alive. It sucks that the game didn't tell me at all how difficult the quest was going to be, but it could also be due to me being a Skyrim noob.

I bought Skyrim Anniversary Edition a few days ago (2025-03-02). I already had the game installed via the Skyrim available on Xbox Gamepass. After buying the Anniversary Edition and making sure it is installed, I found that I could not download any of the Creation Club content available in the Anniversary Edition. The solution I found on YouTube is to clear out your reserved space on your Xbox and restart the game. That will allow you to download the Anniversary Edition content.

Also started new playthrough, character is Alexio. I'm doing a survival mode playthrough in apprentice difficulty to get more cinematic finishers and mainly to avoid spongy enemies in melee combat. Probably not a popular way to play, but it is more fun for me.

Also, I am electing to play this without unlocking the random of appearance of dragons in the game. I am doing this by not retrieving the Dragonstone tablet in Bleak Barrow Falls. I already cleared that dungeon and retrieved the Golden Claw. But I specifically did not retrieve the Dragonstone tablet, which means I don't have anything to turn in to Farengar yet, which also means dragons will not randomly appear in the game yet.

#Skyrim

Avowed

Played Avowed for the first time yesterday (2025-02-19). While this is no replacement for Skyrim, the first person melee combat is so much more improved than vanilla Skyrim. It's actually fun to fight in melee range while using first person view. The addition of the dodge mechanic is a good one and it seamlessly blends into the combat. I am liking the combat system so far.

In this first playthrough, I'm doing a Sword and Shield type of character, though I just switched to a Mace before logging off. There's a variety of weapons to use and all are interesting in their own right. Even the Wands seem interesting, though I haven't really used them that much. I will try them out, along with the Bow, when I play a Spellcaster or Ranger type character.

Note to self, should explore the Pargrun Castle after I get back to the City of Paradis and things calm down for a bit.

In Avowed there is a quest to get “Fine” quality armor and weapons. For the armor, I forked up the money to buy one. After I bought the armor, I barely had any money left, and it was taking too long to acquire more. I noticed that one of my unique weapons, an axe that does frost damage, can be upgraded to “Fine” quality. I was only missing 2 pieces of Adra. I found these being sold at 625 each, which is cheaper than buying a “Fine” weapon. So, I bought those and ugpraded my unique weapon. That was enough to satisfy the quest requirements. So, there's no need to buy the items, upgrading might be a viable option if you already have most of the upgrade materials.

#Avowed

Minecraft

New idea for Minecraft, every home/outpost should have a 3x3 map wall. Maps should have a 2/4 zoom level. The map that contains the current home should be placed in the middle of this map wall. This would then allow me to view surrounding maps and plot where I want to go next.

Also, with each home having its own map wall, it should be easy to locate the home, as it should show up with a marker on the current map.

#Minecraft

Octopath Traveler II

Installed Octopath Traveler II yesterday (2025-02-11) and I am loving this game. I didn't think an old-school style JRPG would keep me interested in these days of modern RPG videogames, but this one has. I love the storytelling. The voice acting is top notch. I love the art design and the animations the characters do. Even if the characters are just rendered in 2-d, I can still feel their emotions because of the excellent use of emoticons and character animations. And I am loving the story so far. The writing, the character lines are great. It makes me want to just keep playing.

Also, the combat is turn based, which is to be expected with a 2-d old school style JRPG game like this, but man it is fun! The combat mechanics are new to me. Enemies have a shield, that you need to break to stun them. You deal more damage to the enemy when they are stunned, not to mention, the enemies lose a turn. Only attacks that exploit an enemy's weakness will lower their shield points. This makes combat a bit more strategic and fun. Sure you can probably keep using the skill that deals the most damage, but if it is not taking down the enemies shield points, then you are not fighting efficiently.

There's also a Boost mechanic, that allows your characters to attack multiple times in a single turn. If you use boost on an attack that exploits an enemy's weakness, you can pretty much keep an enemy stunned every other turn.

I started the game with Temenos, a Cleric. He's a bit weak but his Holy Light attack is pretty strong. I've struggled with keeping him alive during battle until I figured out how to keep enemies stunned. He has AOE healing skill, but at 15 SP per use, it is expensive. Holy Light only costs 6 SP, but with this skill being my best damage dealer, I needed to find a way to replenish my SP without having to use an item. Which is why the first skill I got for him was the Mighty Staff skill. This skill allows Temenos to get back 10% SP based on the damage dealt to the enemy. This skill also involves attacking with the Staff twice. So, if you had an enemy who had a weakness to Staves, using the Mighty Skill on them will reduce their shield points by 2 on every attack. And then if you combine the use of this skill with the Boost mechanic, you can do at most 8 attacks with your staff in a single turn. That's 8 shield points taken out of the enemy, all while replenishing your SP in the process. I'm loving the combat mechanics in this game.

I've just finished Chapter 1 with Temenos and am on my way to the 1st quest marker for Chapter 2.

#OctopathTravelerII

Gran Turismo 7

The 2017 Suzuki Swift Sport is a fun car to drive. Very agile and takes corners really nicely. This was what I used to unlock the first of the Honda Civic Type R (EK) 98 as part of the Japanese FF Sports Cars menu book.

That EK is pretty good too, especially the engine. It just loves to rev and rev.

#GranTurismo7

Fallout 4

Yesterday (2025-02-01) I reinstalled Fallout 4, because for some reason, I wanted to take another crack at Survival Mode after watching a video about it on Youtube. Due to not having enough space on the Xbox, had to remove Starfield to get it installed.

I am once again reminded why I cannot get through a survival mode playthrough: it just requires too much time on my end. I was on my way to Diamond City with my character, when I passed by Trudy's Diner. Of course I would stop, because there's a standoff between Trudy and Wolfgang. In previous playthroughs, I am able to persuade one of them to not go through with fighting and resolve it peacefully. This time, of course in survival mode, I failed to persuade Trudy. So I had to take out Wolfgang. I should have stayed inside the diner where I wasn't getting hit that much. But my dog was having trouble taking out Wolfgang's bodyguard, I felt like I needed to step out to get a good shot with my pistol. I managed to take out his bodyguard, but just seconds after, I get shot down by Wolfgang.

Okay, this is how survival mode should be. I deal more damage with my shots, I also receive more damage when I get shot. I don't have an issue with that. My issue is, since I cannot do a quick save before the fight, I had to start over from all the way back in Sanctuary after dying. And since there's no fast travel, which makes sense in a survival mode game, I would have to jog all the way from Sanctuary to the diner. This would have been fine if I had all the time in the world to play videogames. But as a dad who works full time as a software developer, I just don't feel like jogging all the way from Sanctuary to the diner to redo the fight.

Unfortunate but that's how it is right now. And this is why, I can never stick with a survival mode playthrough. Unfortunately, vanilla Fallout 4 just doesn't feel immersive anymore after trying out all the mechanics presented in survival mode, especially the food/hunger, thirst and sleep mechanics. I just wished there was a way to do quick saves or save without needing to sleep on a bed, or without resorting to mods to allow me to do quick saves.

Maybe I don't have a choice on this matter. It is a single player offline game. I don't need to brag to people about my achievements. Maybe I play the game with a mod only for saving the game... we'll see.

#Fallout4

NBA 2K24

Good explanation of jump shot release timing options

Team: Toroto Raptors Season: 1st Mode: Pseudo My Career using MyNBA Mode

Second game of the season with my pseudo “My Career” mode using MyNBA mode. Second game was against the Bucks. I struggled shooting the ball. I basically have Jaylen Brown's shooting animation and it feels too slow for me. I'm always releasing early, partly because I feel like the shot will get blocked. So, that probably also means I am taking bad shots. But still, I feel it's a slow jump shot animation.

So, I switched to using Vince Carter's jump shot animation. There's no particular reason I chose Vince Carter's jump shot animation, it's just that he's next closest player while browsing the list of jump shot animations. VC seems to have a much quicker release and visually, it seems easier to see when he is “pushing” the ball, which should help me time my releases. We'll see how I fare on my game.

That said, even with a bad shooting night, I still had the most points and rebounds in the team at 17 pts/14 rebounds after stats and minutes were simulated. I am liking how, I can just change animations when I want.

Also, for more “my career” type of feel, I specifically turned on Adaptive Coach Engine in the coach settings. I also set timeouts, substitutions and play-calling to auto. Basically, I don't want to do any coaching in the game. I won't make my own substitutions, I won't call my own timeouts, I'll leave that to the AI coach to decide. I don't even modify the gameplan or change any defensive assignments. Again I'm just a player here, and I'll let the AI coach decide if he wants to play me, or bench me, or run some plays for me. I think it makes it more immersive this way.

I tried using real player % for my pseudo MyNBA character and I struggled hitting any jump shots. It turns out, I take bad shots, and using real player % causes me to miss more than make shots. After I switched back to user timing for jump shots, I made a lot more shots, even those that were contested.

On the layup front, well my character is no Kyrie Irving. I was enamored by all the layups I could do with Kyrie. But when I tried the same kind of plays with my character, well he struggled to make his layups. I also have an issue with my character being too slow to react. I would catch the ball near the rim, and instead of jumping right away to dunk or do a layup, he takes too long to gather the ball and get off a shot. By the time he does, a defender has recovered and smothered his shot.

Unfortunately, I am not having fun with this game too. I thought layups would be better, and sometimes it is, but it really depends on the opposing team it seems. Some have good defenders and shot blockers and they just give me a very hard time.

Either way I have learned that real player % on jump shots is not for me. I still think I will use it for layups, but jump shots has to be user timing for me.

#NBA2K24

If you've made all the way here, thanks for reading and I hope you have a wonderful day!

Series: #Gamelog

After I was satisfied with my ability to clear the Gatefront Ruins, I then moved on to fighting these enemies on horseback to the east of Gatefront Ruins. I died multiple times as well, until I realized that the weakness of these enemies, is that they are slow to attack. They are also vulnerable to attack while they're trying to turn their horse around. If you charge ahead and hit their horse, you can take down the horse or knock them off their horse, which will cause the enemy to fall down, giving you a chance to perform a critical hit. If you somehow miss this chance, the fight is still easier then on because it is now a 1v1 on the ground.

This first video shows how effective chasing down the enemy is, as opposed to just standing there blocking with the shield.

This second video is another fight against the same mounted enemy at a different time. This one turned into a 1v1 fight. Also note how effective the Square Off skill can be if you time it right. I managed to connect with it while the enemy was between swings.

Lastly, this video shows what it looks like after I've gotten good at fighting mounted enemies. Barely broke a sweat in this one.

Tags: #GameLog #EldenRing

I'm thoroughly enjoying the start of this 2nd playthrough. It is weird that even after finishing this game, I was still getting frisson when I went through the early game cutscenes. The story in this game, the premise, the motivation to playing as the protagonist, all of it is still really good.

I am also taking my time enjoying the game in this 2nd playthrough. I'm walking more, instead of running and I'm trying to soak it all in. This is a beautiful living game world that Massive Entertainment/Ubisoft created. The game world in The Division 2, even if its a newer game, just cannot compare to how immersive and atmospheric New York city is in this game. I just love walking around and taking it all in.

Going through a snow storm is a surreal experience in this game. One that I feel is uniquely tied to this game.

On this 2nd playthrough, I'm also going for a cinematic movie like experience. I am slowly turning off more and more HUD elements. I'm trying to get the least amount of HUD data on the screen, while still being able to play effectively. I just turned off the minimap/radar. So, to get around, I'll figure out where to go by relying on the map. It will be like old fashioned navigation. Check where you are on the map and figure out how to get to your destination.

This is my new character for the 2nd playthrough. Note how she has custom looking pants that shouldn't be available to a Level 4 character. That's because the clothing I unlocked on my first character, is also available to all new characters I create for the game.

Another thing before I forget. The money and contents of the Stash from my first playthrough, is available to my agent in this 2nd playthrough. This means that if you stashed cool gear from your first playthrough, you could pass it off to your other agents when you start a new game. I wish I did that. All the items in my Stash are for a level 30 player, so my new agent cannot use any of it. But, at least she will get access to those once she does she reach the max level of 30.

This was the first character I created for this game. Funny I only realized after looking at this screenshot, that I spent 98+ hours playing the game with this character.

I'm ending the post here. If you wanted to check the game's photo gallery, you can find it here. I'll be adding more screenshots to it as I play more.

Tags: #GameLog #TheDivision

After a break (2021) from playing PES 2021, I started playing again a few days ago (2022), and I found myself struggling to get a win. Every game was a struggle to not concede a goal. I was getting really frustrated with the game. I eventually still won the English Premier League. Barely though, just by 1 point. Had some help from the CPU with Liverpool inexplicably not winning against a lesser team. But the biggest surprise to me, was that I was actually playing in Super Star difficulty. No wonder I was struggling so bad. It was bad enough that I took a break from the game. It was a shock to get back and find the CPU playing so well against my team.

I am more than 20 games in while playing in Super Star difficulty. I've finally managed to stop conceding goals. One of the major changes I made is to change my team's formation back to a 4-4-2, where the LMF and RMF are actively involved in defense. In fact, I think they work just as hard as the midfielders do in defense. This helped tremendously in defense as it stopped the opponents from overwhelming the back line and my center midfielders. Most of the time, my LMF and LB/RMF and RB players will work together to stop the opposing players from being able to attack through the flanks. At times, I have my RMF (who is a Box-to-Box) player drift into the center to help with defense. It actually made me realize how hard I work my LMF and RMF players in this formation.

The drawback of course is that I have much less players up the field for attacks. That's because my two wingers (LWF and RWF) were basically converted to LMF and RMF positions respectively. To offset this, I went back to having two strikers up front supported by an AMF. So while in the previous formation I had 4 players on the attack (1 CF, 2 Wingers and 1 AMF), I now have 3 players on the attack, which is only 1 player less. I wouldn't say it has helped me produce as much goals as before, but it is enough that my team can score enough goals to win the game. The biggest benefit though is that my team has stopped conceding goals. So even if we only score 1 goal per game, if the opposing team doesn't score against us, we win. In fact, this is why I'm at the top of the leaderboard in the league, because of conceding so few goals (as of this writing, we only conceded 3 goals).

Also, a few days ago, I learned that you can only have a max of 40 players active in your squad. Which means, if I keep letting players in my youth team go out on loans, which I did, I will run it out of space to sign good players when they become available.

That said, loaning out players seem to be a good way to make transfer money, especially since I'm overflowing in the salary budget department.

Because of the physicality and shielding of the ball in PES 2021, it seems harder to break down the defenders with chipped through passes. What seems to work for me are well timed through passes that go in between defenders. I've already scored a few goals and got behind defenses this way. I'm going to keep using it then since that is what works.

I'm starting to get burned out with PES 2021. I think it has to do with playing in Super Star difficulty. Playing in Super Star difficulty is a taxing way to play, sometimes exhausting. It feels good when I win. But when I lose or concede a goal, most of the time I feel lost. At times, I feel like I cannot stop the CPU from scoring against me no matter how hard I try. Like if the CPU determines it needs to score a goal, it will score a goal regardless of what I do. Even when I play against lower ranking teams, with weaker players, there can be times when I feel like I'm playing against an elite level team. My defenders cannot seem to stop those teams from scoring. It's frustrating because it takes away from the beauty of the game-play. It's annoying when no matter how well you play it, the CPU will simply score when it wants to.

Maybe I need to set the difficulty back down to Top Player, or go back to PES 2019?

Tags: #GameLog #ProEvolutionSoccer2021

Must be noted, these game logs were written back in 2021. The game itself is old and can no longer be purchased today. Still, I think it is still a great game and this is a fun way to track my progress in the game. Plus, sharing it might help somebody new to the game. So, anyway, let's pick up where I left off shall we...

While trying to improve my game, I decided to try swapping the positions for Pogba and Van De Beek on the field. Instead of letting Pogba play CMF, I played him as my AMF and had Van De Beek at CMF. On offense, I think this was a better setup because Pogba is a much bigger threat at AMF. Van De Beek on the other hand, is much better at covering the defense because of his speed and aggression. So playing him as my CMF also worked out well.

I'm on my 2nd Master League season and I'm struggling in PES 2021. I keep conceding goals. Even with Manolas in the game, I still concede. I even signed up Elvedi to increase the availability of quality CBs in every game. I'm still conceding. And it always seems to happen in the first half too. They just break down my defense in the central areas. Not sure how to stop it. Even when I went with 2 deep CMFs, I still conceded.

I probably should change the defensive containment area to wide. Also, I keep losing the ball in the wings. I need to get better at counter attacking and keeping possession of the ball.

^ This was because I was trying to dribble past defenders but didn't really know how to do so. During this time, I had not learned how to use shielding, finesse dribble and the proper use of the dash dribble. This is due to years worth of habit from playing older PES games. These games were simply easier to play and did not have the ball shielding mechanics that were added in PES 2021.

Fast forward a couple of weeks of play...

Now that I have an offer for Pogba in my 2nd Master League season, and now that I have a replacement for him, now he proves invaluable in the games I play him in. It's giving me pause on whether to let him go and get Marquinhos, who is way better defensively, but not as good on the offense.

^ This is a continuation of my struggles and attempt to improve my team's midfield. Pogba is really good on offense, capable of unleashing some great passes. However, he struggles with getting the ball back in defense. Which is why I was looking into swapping him for Marquinhos.

I'm also having trouble finding playing time for Kostic and Elvedi. As a result, their affection for the team is really low.

Fast forward a couple of weeks of play...

I am overflowing with RWF players in my Master League team. I need to get some of them out on loan or transferred. It's unfortunate to let them sit there and not have any playing time. I can barely play all of them at this point.

Players I need to play more:

• Elvedi
• Tuanzebe
• Amad

^ Looking back on this, seemed like I was also having trouble finding playing time for my CBs.

Tags: #GameLog #ProEvolutionSoccer2021

Level 18 now in Starfield. I had to reload a save to avoid getting the Rank 2 Weapon Engineering skill. I initially got it because I wanted to be able to craft suppressor mods for my weapons. However, after unlocking it, I found that I still needed to do more Research Projects before I can actually craft a suppressor. On top of that, I was missing materials for the Research Projects. So I unlocked the skill, but couldn’t make use of it right away. In hindsight, I don’t think it was worth it getting it at this point in the game.

So yeah, I reloaded an older save file, and this time I decided to max out my Ballistics weapon skill. The difference here is that this skill upgrade takes effect immediately.

I then decided to roam around outside the Lodge and didn’t realize how much I was missing. I found a store called Centaurion Arsenal that sells really nice modified weapons. I found an Assassin’s Beowulf, which means a Beowulf rifle that already has a suppressor and a medium scope on it. This was what I wanted to be able craft via the weapon engineering skill. But in this case, I could simply buy the weapon and use it right away. I don't even have to worry about finding materials for my research projects and all that tedious stuff.

So what I’m realizing is, early on in the game, you’ll most likely benefit from taking skills that have an immediate effec (ie. Combat/Weapon skills), as opposed to one that requires more hoops to jump through before you can actually make use of it. Also, enemies always drop weapons. If none of the enemies drop the kind of modified weapon you’re looking for, then you will most likely be able to find it at a vendor.

Assassin's Beowulf

I’m loving the Assassin's Beowulf. It is now my preferred sniper rifle in the game. I previously used a Suppressed Lawgiver as my sniper rifle, but the Assassin's Beowulf is superior in a number of ways:

• The mag capacity is bigger. This means you can take a lot more shots before needing to reload. The Lawgiver is limited to just 6 shots before needing a reload.
• Because you can take more shots before reloading, it is easier to take down a moving target.
• The base damage is slightly higher on the Beowulf vs the Lawgiver.
• The Beowulf uses 7.77mm ammo, which seems to be the most readily available ammo in the game.
• Aside from a bigger mag capacity, you also get the benefit of a faster fire rate. Again this makes taking down moving targets a lot easier.

Tags: #GameLog #Starfield

The photo below shows the location of the entrance to the hideout in the city of Insomnia. At one time, I was roaming both ends of the map trying to get back to the hideout. This should save you some time.

And the video below will show you where to find the underpass master key in the city of Insomnia. You need this key to unlock an important part of the map.

Tags: #GameLog #FinalFantasyXV