I've just finished season 2019/20 in my Football Manager game.
Unlike my previous post regarding Football Manager, this season has been an unprecedented success. Not only did my Liverpool side win the Premiership (again) but I also managed to win the Champions League as well (I also won the Carling Cup but, does anyone care about that?). So what made 2019/20 such an "unprecedented success"?
Well for starters, the current win means that I have now won the Champions League for 3 seasons in a row. This is a new record for me as, despite all my years of playing this game in its many incarnations, I have never ever managed this before. In fact, in the past, I generally had trouble winning the Champions League at all - never mind winning it 3 times in a row!
A lot of the credit for my recent success goes to 1 player - Emiliano Rossi. At the end of 2015, one of my star strikers (Fernando Genro) decided that he would prefer to be a prima donna rather than a Liverpool player. So I sacked him. After he left, I had to rely on my other Brazilian superstar (Julio Cesar) to get most of my teams goals.
However, in 2017, I signed another prima donna (what can I say - I like taking risks!) - Emiliano Rossi. Rossi was an Italian whose contract was running out and I managed to sign him on a free transfer (gotta luv that guy Bosman!). Despite being a prima donna (early in his first season, he complained about the lack of games despite playing more games than any other striker!), he managed to settle down halfway through the first season - and when I say settle down, I mean he stopped complaining!
In terms of scoring goals, the guy scored on his debut and never stopped scoring. In his first season with us, he scored over 30 goals (Julio Cesar, my 30 year old Brazilian superstar scored more though!) and helped us win both the league and the Champions League. He followed up this magnificent debut season by scoring over 40 goals in his second season. By now, he was outscoring Julio Cesar and once again, my Liverpool side took top honors in both the league and the Champions League. Could he repeat in 2019/20?
In itself, the start of season 2019/20 was a new landmark for Liverpool. By now, Iker Casillas, my (very) old and reliable goalkeeper was 37 years old and too old to star in the first team every game. In fact, in 2018/19, he only played in half of the games and I had to rely on my backup goalkeeper a lot in order to keep Casillas in good shape that year. Luckily, my backup goalie was an English wonderkid (regen by the name of Dave Roberts) who I signed for megabucks and was now starting to show his worth.
I paid GBP30m for Casillas and considering how well he has played, he has proven to be worth every penny. However, he was now old and it was time for Dave Roberts to make the stepup to full time no. 1!
At the start of 2019/20, Dave didn't do very well. He made some silly mistakes which meant we got a couple of defeats and draws in the early part of the season. In fact, the only reason we didn't lose more matches was due to my superb strikeforce of Rossi and Cesar who continued to bang in the goals. After a couple of games, I started to put Casillas back in more often - things were that bad!
And then - 2 crucial injuries which helped to shape my season. Casillas picked up a long term injury! By now, the transfer window had closed and I had no choice but to put Dave into goal again. Luckily, this time, he was able to make the stepup to no.1 goalie. Although still prone to the occasional bad game, he managed to lift his performance and play like the goalie I knew he could be!
The second crucial long term injury was to Julio Cesar. My brazilian superstar was out for 3 months! The real killer blow about this injury though was the fact that even after Cesar returned to the first team, he just wasn't the same player anymore. He still scored goals - but nowhere near as many as he used to.
:(
It was now down to Rossi to pick up the slack. And he did this magnificently. In the current year, he managed to score 54 goals, 16 of which were in the Champions Cup. Fifty Four Goals!! And yes - this is a new record for me as well!
And the best part of winning the Champions League this year? Beating Betis in the final.
The last time my Liverpool team faced Betis was in the 2014/15 season where they beat me 1-0 in the Champions League final. At first, it looked like they were going to beat me again and repeat history. They scored an early goal against me and then their goalkeeper produced a marvelous display of drug induced goalkeeping to deny my strikers. However, in the end, Rossi was too much for him. Constant pressure from Rossi eventually paid dividends in the form of a late hat trick (all scored in the last 20 minutes) which gave us the game.
2019/20 was not a year for history to repeat itself. Too many records were being broken for that to happen!
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Rainbow Six: Vegas - coop
Looking back at last weeks post, I just realised that I sound pretty negative about R6:V. I guess its worthwhile reiterating that I do think the multiplayer is quite good. The problem is just that it doesn't feel very tactical - which, in my opinion, is the strength of the R6 series in the first place.
Anyway, despite any perceived problems with the multiplayer, the coop in R6:V is excellent with just one proviso which I'll go into momentarily.
The great thing about coop gameplay is that it really does cater to R6's strengths. Just like in the singleplayer, you get rooms full of tango's which you and your squadmates can breach and clear to your hearts content. As I said, the key strength of the R6 series is the tactical nature of the combat and coop captures this beautifully.
At least it does, if you get the right team together (here's that proviso I mentioned!). While I have been in some good games, I've also been in some games with kids. And the problem with kids is that they just want to run around and shoot things. At this point, the game just turns into a run n gun FPS which kinda defeats the purpose. Having said that, you can't really blame the game for this.
When done properly, the feeling of you get from a good coop session is awesome and I'll try and capture it with a gameplay example below.
There were three of us in the group. Before the game started, we had discussed what ordinance each of us would be taking. Some of us had breaching charges (so we could blow in doors), some of us had smoke grenades (to provide cover), some of us had flashbangs and some of us had frags (I had the smoke and flashbangs). All in all, we had a fair mix of ordinance to play around with.
We start the game and by this time, we are already in Vegas. We get to a room with two doors and split into 2 teams - me on my own and the other two guys in the other team. Both of us snake cam each door and spot several tangos waiting inside and we quickly devise a plan of attack.
The guy with the breaching charge sets up the charge on my door before rejoining his teammate. We all setup shop by the side of the door and wait.
The team leader checks everybodys position before counting down. "1 .. 2 .. 3 .. Go go go!!"
The breaching charge by my door sets off and blows away the door. The guy standing behind the door is killed immediately and the rest of the room erupts into bedlam as the tangos dive behind cover. They immediately target my door as evidenced by the hail of bullets pouring through.
However, while the tango's are focusing on my door, the team leader has opened the second door. The third teammate pops out from behind the second door and starts to get some easy kills as all the tango's are focused on my door. The room erupts into chaos for a second time as the tangos shift cover and start firing at my teammate by the second door.
This is the perfect opportunity for me to pop out from behind the first door and take out the remaining bad guys. Perfectly planned. Perfectly executed.
Anyway, despite any perceived problems with the multiplayer, the coop in R6:V is excellent with just one proviso which I'll go into momentarily.
The great thing about coop gameplay is that it really does cater to R6's strengths. Just like in the singleplayer, you get rooms full of tango's which you and your squadmates can breach and clear to your hearts content. As I said, the key strength of the R6 series is the tactical nature of the combat and coop captures this beautifully.
At least it does, if you get the right team together (here's that proviso I mentioned!). While I have been in some good games, I've also been in some games with kids. And the problem with kids is that they just want to run around and shoot things. At this point, the game just turns into a run n gun FPS which kinda defeats the purpose. Having said that, you can't really blame the game for this.
When done properly, the feeling of you get from a good coop session is awesome and I'll try and capture it with a gameplay example below.
There were three of us in the group. Before the game started, we had discussed what ordinance each of us would be taking. Some of us had breaching charges (so we could blow in doors), some of us had smoke grenades (to provide cover), some of us had flashbangs and some of us had frags (I had the smoke and flashbangs). All in all, we had a fair mix of ordinance to play around with.
We start the game and by this time, we are already in Vegas. We get to a room with two doors and split into 2 teams - me on my own and the other two guys in the other team. Both of us snake cam each door and spot several tangos waiting inside and we quickly devise a plan of attack.
The guy with the breaching charge sets up the charge on my door before rejoining his teammate. We all setup shop by the side of the door and wait.
The team leader checks everybodys position before counting down. "1 .. 2 .. 3 .. Go go go!!"
The breaching charge by my door sets off and blows away the door. The guy standing behind the door is killed immediately and the rest of the room erupts into bedlam as the tangos dive behind cover. They immediately target my door as evidenced by the hail of bullets pouring through.
However, while the tango's are focusing on my door, the team leader has opened the second door. The third teammate pops out from behind the second door and starts to get some easy kills as all the tango's are focused on my door. The room erupts into chaos for a second time as the tangos shift cover and start firing at my teammate by the second door.
This is the perfect opportunity for me to pop out from behind the first door and take out the remaining bad guys. Perfectly planned. Perfectly executed.
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