WE9 Impressions Thread

[Granatofan]

Anyone having trouble logging online with PS2 tonight. I keep getting stuck at the "testing network environment" screen.

I'm able to log on to other games fine.

Ted

[Jimmydeicide]

I have to laugh when I read the WE9 Xbox manual and see all the instructions for pressing X and BLACK at the same time. They make it sound so simple. Konami must realize this is almost impossible to do comfortably, but they just don't care, hehe.

Another impression I have of WE9 is that the manual is smaller and not as nicely laid out as the WE8I manual. There's less pictures, and more text crammed in to fewer pages. And both WE manuals are black and white unlike the full colour PES 5 manual for my PSP version of the game.

Dude! The manual ? seriously ? Even if that is the only gripe you have of the game its still got 10 times more info than other manuals lhave had lately.

[Inuyasha]

Anyone having trouble logging online with PS2 tonight. I keep getting stuck at the "testing network environment" screen.

I'm able to log on to other games fine.

Ted

You have to turn on your UDP settings on your router admin page. After that it should work.

[Feanor]

Dude! The manual ? seriously ? Even if that is the only gripe you have of the game its still got 10 times more info than other manuals lhave had lately.

Hehe, I know what you mean. But I think the crappy WE9 manual will make getting into the game harder for people new to the series. It's a lot easier to learn the menu screens if you have full color screenshots to look at.

[tjung0831]

A good night for me so far with WE9. I win my first online game 1-0 and then I win my first game against the cpu 1-0 on 3 stars!!! The online experience was flawless and is going to make WE9 one of the sweetest online gaming experiences ever!

[JRod]

Well I'm not loving my time with WE9. I don't think my skills have exceeded the CPU AI but I'm finding this game rather easy. If you take a poor team versus and good team you will get a good challange. Home field advantage with good teams provides a good challenge.

I just finished a Chelsea v Newcastle cup game where Chelsea had 13 SOGs and I had 8 and the scoreline was nil-nil. I'm having more nil nil games in this version than ever before in earlier versions. Now in past games as you progressed through CUP modes even good teams were inept in the early stages. But the CPU AI in my book is not as good as previous games. I made some stupid mistakes in my last game and the CPU couldn't do anything with it. If it wasn't for most of the games I'm playing I wouldn't be worried.

I don't know what's going on with this years' version but I do not feel threatened at all by the CPU AI.

[tjung0831]

Well I'm not loving my time with WE9. I don't think my skills have exceeded the CPU AI but I'm finding this game rather easy. If you take a poor team versus and good team you will get a good challange. Home field advantage with good teams provides a good challenge.

I just finished a Chelsea v Newcastle cup game where Chelsea had 13 SOGs and I had 8 and the scoreline was nil-nil. I'm having more nil nil games in this version than ever before in earlier versions. Now in past games as you progressed through CUP modes even good teams were inept in the early stages. But the CPU AI in my book is not as good as previous games. I made some stupid mistakes in my last game and the CPU couldn't do anything with it. If it wasn't for most of the games I'm playing I wouldn't be worried.

I don't know what's going on with this years' version but I do not feel threatened at all by the CPU AI.

Interesting because in my win a little while ago i was on the edge of my seat trying to protect a lead and get a win on 3 stars. The cpu had chances, plenty of them after i scored, but they just never could put it home but i sure thought that they were going to. I felt very threatened on the 3 star level but then again i'm not a WE master by any means.

[Granatofan]

Anyone having trouble logging online with PS2 tonight. I keep getting stuck at the "testing network environment" screen.

I'm able to log on to other games fine.

Ted

You have to turn on your UDP settings on your router admin page. After that it should work.

I'm not on a router. I'm straight into the dsl modem.

[RobVarak]

OK, I finally got some quality time. Played 5 games on 3* in an International Cup as England with a random field of competitors.

The good news is that I didn't lose a game. The bad news is that in the five games I scored 3 goals. OTOH, I didn't give up a single goal. Very odd. The game feels very, very different to me. The whistles are kind of ridiculous, I think...especially on tackles where you get ball and little if any man.

Have they taken penalties completely out of the game? I had two chances where I was one-on-one and had my legs cut out by a defender desperately diving from behind. Clear, slam dunk penatlies...and nothing. I wonder if they're overcompensating for the over abudance of them last year.

WTF is up with the pre-school graphics on the kit selection screen?

As others have said, the shooting is much more touchy this year. I had a couple of sitters that ended up getting launched into Row Z a la Djibril Cisse

Set pieces also seem more difficult, or at least different. Even with Beckham's touch I had a hard time with them, especially the formerly reliable indirect kicks.

All in all, I'm thrilled to have a new puzzle to unlock as I feel my way through the new system.

Looking forward to online as soon as I get my wireless problems solved.

Edit: A couple more things.

The new gameplay freedom means that position and player size are so important. Also players who are tough to knock off the ball are distinctly more useful than before, as the average ball handler really can't maintain possession under pressure. Great jostling and physicality in the game now.

There are some awesome new defender animations, especially clearances and a nice one where the defender sort of reaches his leg around the offensive player to clear. Also some cool goalie animations.

[JRod]

Anybody else getting a few DDEs. I'm having one about every other game. I haven't had this many problems with NCAA BB, Arena Football so I'm hoping its the disk not my Xbox.

[Slumberland]

Anybody else getting a few DDEs. I'm having one about every other game. I haven't had this many problems with NCAA BB, Arena Football so I'm hoping its the disk not my Xbox.

I am too... my current system never has these problems, but it took about five tries to get WE9 to load properly. I haven't taken it out since, and it's been fine, but we'll see what happens when I play something else and then go back to it.

[Zeppo]

The game feels very, very different to me. The whistles are kind of ridiculous, I think...especially on tackles where you get ball and little if any man.

I agree, the game as a whole feels very different, but in the area of fouls it doesn't seem too different from WE8 to me. What I don't like is that the advantage rule is very different. They seem to have compensated in the right direction, but too far, so that now if you just touch the ball once, the foul is waved off, even if you just touch it right to the other guy!

Have they taken penalties completely out of the game? I had two chances where I was one-on-one and had my legs cut out by a defender desperately diving from behind. Clear, slam dunk penatlies...and nothing. I wonder if they're overcompensating for the over abudance of them last year.

Seems to be about the same as WE8. I've had plenty of ticky-tack penalties called as well as the obvious ones. At least now they show you the foul in the highlight replays instead of just three angles of the PK alone. I like that alot!

WTF is up with the pre-school graphics on the kit selection screen?

That's so you can easily make the best combinations to clearly separate the teams on the field. If you hit the Y button, you can change each part of the uni individually, so you can make sure one team is wearing white shorts, or white socks . No 'almost but not quite different enough' situations anymore. They still haven't added the option to choose what the ref is wearing, though.

As others have said, the shooting is much more touchy this year. I had a couple of sitters that ended up getting launched into Row Z a la Djibril Cisse

It's ever more important to have the ball set up well, with a little black-button touch, or a nice lay-off pass. A badly set-up ball is far more likely to be way off target.

Set pieces also seem more difficult, or at least different. Even with Beckham's touch I had a hard time with them, especially the formerly reliable indirect kicks.

I've already had a couple scored on me online. Talk to Jimmy, he'll give you some pointers!

All in all, I'm thrilled to have a new puzzle to unlock as I feel my way through the new system.

Right on!

Looking forward to online as soon as I get my wireless problems solved.

Enough with the excuses. Get your sorry ass online!

[Inuyasha]

Is there a auto shoot option? Seems like when you aim to shoot, if you're moving your player up and to the right towards the goal and shoot, the ball goes up and towards the right. Any other way to shoot accurately?

[Diablo25]

Well, I just rented WE9. I'm not a soccer guy but the raves about this game give me reason to at least rent it. I'll give it a whirl later on today. Real quick...can you play the game in widescreen?

[Jimmydeicide]

Is there a auto shoot option? Seems like when you aim to shoot, if you're moving your player up and to the right towards the goal and shoot, the ball goes up and towards the right. Any other way to shoot accurately?

Yes thats right , it goes were you tell it to go seems logical to me but it is a tough one to master and i dont think anyone realy does (thats the beauty of it) But as the gauge is on you can aim another direction or release the direction as you shoot for another spot its hard as hell realy and i suck at finishing , i think my real life finish is better and thats saying something.
I dont realy know my self for sure so anyone else help out


And Zepp ,How the hell do you qoute everyone like that if i knew how i would extract that little thing that mentions me and say
"Just lay it off too RISSE!!!!!! KABOOM

[dbdynsty25]

And Zepp ,How the hell do you qoute everyone like that if i knew how i would extract that little thing that mentions me and say
"Just lay it off too RISSE!!!!!! KABOOM

He's more familiar with CTRL C and CTRL V than he is with his own penis.

[Zeppo]

Is there a auto shoot option? Seems like when you aim to shoot, if you're moving your player up and to the right towards the goal and shoot, the ball goes up and towards the right. Any other way to shoot accurately?

Best advice: get in the 'shoot' training area and mess around, experiment (choose 'Free Training' then go into the pause menu and to the 'training menu' and select 'Shoot'). I also love to use the 'play again' fucntion in free training to replay a shot many times once I've got a nice lay-off pass set up.

The first thing to try is to stop pushing the stick at all when shooting. This is the 'auto aim' you may be looking for. You don't need to be pushing the stick when you shoot, because the player is magnetically attracted to the ball, so there's no need to move the player with the stick; the stick alone with no button will actually detemine the direction you will trap the ball, or touch it away. Use the stick and the mini turbo (black button on Xbox) to touch it away a little further. Use the black-button and no stick to stop the ball and get the player behind it.

When shooting, the stick direction is absolute, not relative to the camera angle, so if you push the stick to the left or right you will aim to the left or right of the goal as your player is looking at it. Up or down on the stick will determine the 'type' of shot; up will make it a harder, lower shot, give it a little extra power, while down will make it a looping, swerving shot, give it loft and more bend, less power. Note that these are imputs with the stick you want to be making when you hit the shoot button. That is, you hold the stick down and then hit the shoot button.

Once the shoot button is hit, the meter starts to fill. While the meter is up on the screen, then the stick changes its function to swerve control, and is no longer useful for aiming. I can only really handle this level of control on free-kicks, or the occasional long-ball B-button pass/cross. Sometimes on the really long shots where I've had a good run-up to the ball and have been holding the stick up to get 'on top of the ball' and give it more power, I can then slide the stick to the side after I've hit the shoot button, but on shorter shots, forget about it.

Obviously, the longer you hold the button, the less chance of the shot being on target, as you can very quickly run out of meter and send the ball up to row Z. However, what I've discovered is how important it is when you release the shoot button. I think it's far more important to the quality of contact you make on the ball than when you start holding the button down. You can really see this on volleys or half-volleys when the ball is coming down. If you release the shoot button just before the ball hits the ground, you can get that special 'Drive shot,' as they call it, where it will sort of knuckle and be really hard but dip.

For my money, the single most important factor for hitting a good shot is to set the ball up with a little black-button (mini-turbo) touch before shooting. You'll see this give your player the chance to set up his feet with lots of little mini-steps, and it also gives you a chance to change your brain and stick control from player movement mode into shot aiming mode. Aim simply, don't get too complicated. Shoot high (lots of meter) to the near post, low (not much meter) to the far post. The other thing about the little black-button touch is it can give you all the change in angle over the GK you need to shoot it right by him. You'll note that if you are one on one with the keeper and just shoot, he will often make the save. A little black-button mini turbo touch at an angle is all you need to make it easy as pie to put it past the keeper.

Once I figured this out, my goal scoring has come alive. It's hard to get enough space in a lot of situations to get that little black-button 'tee it up' touch, but it works wonders on the long shots. When you can get that space at the top of the box, look out! Also it can lead to a lot of fouls in dangerous spots.

Go into free training, and select 'shoot' mode. Try hitting it just off the one-two pass at first, but then try a little black-button touch at an angle before shooting and see the difference. Also check out the 'situation training' to get a primer on shooting. The 'drive shot' practice is pretty cool.

I hope this helps.

[Zeppo]

Lest I forget: there is the new, 'placement shot' mechanic where you hit the mini-turbo when the meter is up. This new mechanic is the one thing that is really tempting me to get a PS controller adapter. Or if it becomes back-compat on the 360 and works well, that would be good too.

You can also use the mini-turbo on a ball in the air to get the player to try a volley instead of a header, something I could never do very easily, but in WE9 they've made it happen more often just naturally, which makes a huge difference. But this new 'placement shot' mechanic intrigues me. . .

And db, it's 'command-C, command-V,' not control.

[dbdynsty25]

And db, it's 'command-C, command-V,' not control.

Command? Lame ass Macs...sheesh.

[Feanor]

"When shooting, the stick direction is absolute, not relative to the camera angle, so if you push the stick to the left or right you will aim to the left or right of the goal as your player is looking at it. Up or down on the stick will determine the 'type' of shot; up will make it a harder, lower shot, give it a little extra power, while down will make it a looping, swerving shot, give it loft and more bend, less power. Note that these are imputs with the stick you want to be making when you hit the shoot button. That is, you hold the stick down and then hit the shoot button."

Are you sure about this? I always play on Wide view and (going left to right like in Training) I press up to aim left of the goal and down to aim right of the goal. I'll have to go into training and really check this out.

Very informative post. The controlled shot looks beautiful when you pull it off. Scored two so far using my PS1 Dual Shock with a Dreambox converter.

[Zeppo]

Feanor:

I used to think it wasn't true as well, and resisted a long time! But further experimenting proved it to be true to me. Try it out in training!

[Granatofan]

Holding the stick up or down controls the power of the shot.

[RobVarak]

Well, all this Black Button mumbo jumbo explains it. See, I decided long ago to protest the stupidest placement of any button on any controller in videogame history by simply not using it.

Now, you could argue that I'm just hurting myself here. But really, to my 90-year old brain, this is a way to strike back at the Man

PS The best part of firing up the old Xbox is being reminded again of how shitty the Controller-S is compared to the 360. This is more than made up for by having to get off my ass to turn the bugger on and off LOL

[Feanor]

Holding the stick up or down controls the power of the shot.

I thought how long you pressed the button controlled the power of the shot. Well, I'm off to Training mode for a while.

[Diablo25]

Again...can you play the game in widescreen?