Topic: Football Life 24 (PC only, free)

[Darren G]

 Football Life 24

 This has been out for about six months, but I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere and only came across it by chance myself, so thought that I'd post it here in case any other RAWkites were interested and/or ignorant of it's existence.

 So: what is it?: Basically it's a free, pre-modded version of PES 2021. Essentially that means proper teams across all competitions, accurate 2024 kits and squad rosters, competition broadcasting overlays and scoreboards, competition and team intro music, proper competition specific balls, fan chants ("I'm so glad, allez allez etc. for Liverpool), better broadcast camera et cetera, et cetera.

It comes with around 30 pre-installed stadiums but you can also download just about every other stadium in Europe from the site. I currently have well over 100. Player faces are not included in the initial download, but again, you can download all of the player faces on the site. Adding stadiums and faces is a very simple process.

 There are 3 gameplay modes that you can switch between: PES standard gameplay, FL24 and FL23 gameplay. You can also download additional gameplay files. The one I am currently using is (in my opinion) better than stock PES 21 gameplay, which is already a high bar (again, in my opinion).

I can't recommend this highly enough, so as I mentioned, thought that it may be good to share with my fellow reds on here.  It's completely free and by that I mean legitimately/legally free, not one of the "free" games that Voodoo and I generally enjoy *cough* torrents *cough*.

 Download site: https://www.pessmokepatch.com/2023/09/spfl24.html

[ToneLa]

tried this in the past and loved it, and PES2021 is the best footie game I've ever played

but bloody hell, what an annoying way to download - ten parts, ain't they ever heard of torrents?

[Darren G]

tried this in the past and loved it, and PES2021 is the best footie game I've ever played

but bloody hell, what an annoying way to download - ten parts, ain't they ever heard of torrents?

Yeah, not ideal, but they probably get revenue from the links and given the amount of work that's gone into it and that it's free it's still a massive net positive.  It's not really that much of a bother anyway.  You can download 5 or 6 parts at a time easily enough with the MediaFire links. I just started 5 parts downloading, went to bed and left it going overnight for 2 sessions.  It was either that or spend dozens of hours re-installing and then modding PES21 after I inadvertently deleted it some time ago like an utter tool. 

[ToneLa]

Got it installed now

It really is like a new PES.  Better in some ways, the AI seems less.. cheap (I feel like I could predict the AI very well in PES).

Some of the player models are odd - yeah, these aren't truly professional models, but I wonder why Mo is a cuatom model rather than being the one from 2021. Or maybe it's a licensing thing.. though it's lovely to have all the stadiums and logos.

Overall it's the best game of footie you can get. Had a few matches and it's PES 2021 on roids, and is bang up to date.

Cheers Daz

[Darren G]

Got it installed now

It really is like a new PES.  Better in some ways, the AI seems less.. cheap (I feel like I could predict the AI very well in PES).

Some of the player models are odd - yeah, these aren't truly professional models, but I wonder why Mo is a cuatom model rather than being the one from 2021. Or maybe it's a licensing thing.. though it's lovely to have all the stadiums and logos.

Overall it's the best game of footie you can get. Had a few matches and it's PES 2021 on roids, and is bang up to date.

Cheers Daz

Glad that you're enjoying it, but I'm a bit confused. So you've downloaded the face packs or you're using the shitty generic faces that come with the initial install? Because I'm pretty sure that the Salah in the face pack is the one from PES 2021.


If you've installed the face pack the players should look like this:

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/QDmoUZ1Ee2c" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/QDmoUZ1Ee2c</a>



If you don't like the Liverpool faces that come inside the face pack, alternatively you can use this one, which as you can see is pretty good:

 [<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/6HEa0Bp2pLo" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/6HEa0Bp2pLo</a>


 

[ToneLa]

Shitty generic faces

I tried to install the patch too but it didn't detect the game files! Pointing it at the same directory as the game exe

Ah well, more to do. Might try the facepack but it's not too jarring

.. I edited Mo's hair to be like his new look 

[Darren G]

Shitty generic faces

I tried to install the patch too but it didn't detect the game files! Pointing it at the same directory as the game exe

Ah well, more to do. Might try the facepack but it's not too jarring

.. I edited Mo's hair to be like his new look 

Your call, but my advice - if you want the best experience and assuming you can be arsed - is to download the face pack from the FL24 site (it's in the add-ons drop down menu) and then use the Liverpool one that I posted for Liverpool. Oh, and I've saved the best for last:
it's 24GB and 8 parts.  Seriously, if you can't be bothered downloading the facepack (which covers most teams in europe) then I'd at least download and install the Liverpool one as it'll take all of 5 minutes for that.

As for the patch not working, if you mean the base game's 1.10 update, then possibly good old windows defender has quarantined something, so you might want to check your quarantine and restore anything needed. Because it works similar to a cracked exe and runs batch files, windows sometimes thinks it's a trojan. You've probaably experienced similar if you've ever used trainers for games.  Alternatively, running the patch exe as administrator might help.

[ToneLa]

[Darren G]

Yeah, you need a turf mod too. 

[Zlen]

Lucky PC bastards...
I'm stuck on my vanilla, unmoddable PES 2021 on Xbox - can't even update kits and teams.
Even bought a Steam Deck recently to play PES and mod it - but it struggled to output graphics that looked ok to the TV - so off it went.

It's really a sad state of affairs that people are resorting to playing a four year old game just to get a kick of digital footy, but that's what EA and Konami have done. EA I understand, they never understood the sport that made them billions. But Konami, I have no idea how they screwed it up so bad after 2021 version. Years later, their eFootball offering still looks like a demo game, it's horrible.

Saw this rumour today, here is hoping things might change soon.
https://infinityfc.net/2k-have-reportedly-secured-the-fifa-video-game-license/

2K isn't much better in terms of predatory developer behaviour, but at least the actual gameplay of any of their sports games is rock-solid.

[Darren G]

Yeah, I really don't understand what Konami were thinking. All they had to do was import and slightly update the gameplay with the new engine. Instead we got somehow inferior graphics and gameplay and all of the other limitations that came with the mess that was eFootball 2022. As you say, EA is EA and will continue to do 'EA things', so there's little hope there. Gave up on that series long ago. Like yourself, I am hopeful that 2K will produce something good.

That said, I don't feel that I am currently missing out on too much. Football Life has updated the gameplay of PES 2021 and it plays a great game of footy, so it's more than just a cosmetic change. In addition there are multiple good gameplay files to download for variety or whatever should one get bored and with the mods the graphics don't really look dated.  As such, I never feel that I am playing a four year old game.  I can understand the frustration for console players like yourself though.  My only major frustration is that after a long time away from football games I'm absolutely crap, so my controller periodically gets launched across the room from hissy fits born of my own incompetence. 

[Zlen]

Highest praise I can give PES 2021 is that even after years of playing it, out of the box, no updates or mods - it is still fun to play. I still manage to score (and concede) goals I’ve not seen before, still experimenting with tactics and they actually make a difference on the pitch. It’s just great - FL24 is probably even better with updates.

Maybe this is all we need forever? 😁

[Darren G]

24/25 kit:

 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/Z3VXa2WvDRQ" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/Z3VXa2WvDRQ</a>

[Mark Walters]

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/QDmoUZ1Ee2c" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/QDmoUZ1Ee2c</a>

Was going to say that this wasn't realistic because the Ethiad was full but then I saw the foul that was given against us at 16:09 in the video and wow, I'm not even sure how City are able to pay off refs in football simulation!

[Darren G]

Yeah, it's pretty realistic. You'll also see the home technical area getting progressively wetter throughout the game from Guardiola constantly spitting.

[ToneLa]

It's great hearing some of our chants

[Darren G]

Yeah, it really adds to the immersion and atmosphere. Even playing as other clubs it's cool. I'm currently playing as Porto (wanted to get good again before going Liverpool) and the songs really make it feel like a European stadium, obviously in this case the Dragão. On the subject of atmosphere, you might want to have a look at the fog add-on mod. Link and demo here if you're interested:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7bM2w7XrFk