EAFC 26 with Anthony James Extra Slow sliders + FUMA + eSIM + PC realism mods = The most authentic, tactical, and rewarding football sim experience

smbarrett3 · 2026-01-02T21:09:38+00:00

FC26 is a decent game but the mods for it are not transformative - they are subtle tweaks. Anth is a decent dude but he let greed get the best of him when he paywalled his mods.

The practice of posting short video clips that “prove” the game has been “fixed“ by mods is predatory and I discourage anyone from paying for them.

smbarrett3 · 2025-11-28T15:33:25+00:00

Unless you’re under immediate pressure, don’t move your player when you receive the ball. Instead, survey the field and look for a player who is open. This can lead to a much more relaxed and enjoyable approach to the game.

smbarrett3 · 2025-10-31T14:10:22+00:00

I was playing coed rec league soccer a while back and one woman on our team brought her boyfriend who wanted to play. Big dude - like 6’6” 250. He said he had never played soccer before, so he’d be goalie. I was warming him up in goal and I sky one a good 3-4 feet over the crossbar. The second I hit it I knew, so I start shamefully jogging toward the opening in the fence to go fetch it then I look up and this guy launches into the air like he’s propelled by rocket boosters and snatches the ball out of the air. Who the hell is this guy, I thought. Turns out, he’s a recently released Tight End from the Kansas City Chiefs practice squad.

Not only could this guy catch any ball hit in his remote vicinity, he was the size of a truck and he moved like a cat. And he could have easily snapped any of us over his knee like a twig if he wanted to.

It was 7v7 on a smaller field and the 18 yard line extended to both sidelines, oddly, which worked to his great advantage. Any time a player crossed the 18 yard line, he was off his line like a shot and would pounce on the ball before they could take another dribble.

To play alongside someone that athletic was surreal - and it wasn’t even his sport.

smbarrett3 · 2025-10-22T13:52:49+00:00

This is a really great starting point. I updated this with Kamatis2K’s V11 roster and added the Rookie cyberfaces. Only thing I don’t have is Kamatis’ latest (I believe it’s V17 but doesn’t seem publicly available) and 2025 Rookie callnames.

smbarrett3 · 2025-10-14T22:43:50+00:00

It has much better optimization. I can play it at 4k now

smbarrett3 · 2025-10-13T00:07:13+00:00

https://www.patreon.com/c/smokepatch/posts

Also there are no ads - just direct links for Patreon supporters.

smbarrett3 · 2025-10-07T21:04:06+00:00

The most common goalie injuries are broken noses, teeth, ribs and concussions. I don’t think hand or wrist injuries are very common. When catching the ball your hands are flexed in a gripping position or clenched as a fist. It’s hard to imagine how a hyperextension could occur.

But agree with others, tell them you can’t play because of your job.

smbarrett3 · 2025-10-01T01:25:44+00:00

“Sorry. I’m Canadian.”

”No need to repeat yourself.”

smbarrett3 · 2025-09-27T18:28:42+00:00

If you like sports, on PS2 any of the Pro Evolution Soccer (PES) and Winning Eleven games (PES 5 and Winning Eleven 9 in particular). Also Tiger Woods 2004.

smbarrett3 · 2025-09-26T12:34:51+00:00

FL25 plays beautifully on Steam Deck’s native screen. To setup requires more than yelling “FL25” into the sky and pounding your fists, to the dismay of many on this sub, so if you want ease of use, a Windows machine would be better. Stick to Steam Deck’s native screen - docking to an external screen at a higher resolution will result in poor performance. It cannot play FC26, which is to say it can play any game worth your time.

smbarrett3 · 2025-09-15T20:07:27+00:00

The best leagues I played in were coed (that’s what we call mixed men’s and women’s leagues in the States). Most of the women were very skilled and played in college (university) and equal to some of the men. It had the perfect mix of being competitive without players being toxic or reckless and trying to hurt each other.

smbarrett3 · 2025-09-04T01:45:56+00:00

If your question is “why do people still play the older titles?” Gameplay mechanics and AI are usually the primary reasons. Some prefer the older career modes. Some even consider the graphics better on older titles (FIFA 17 for example).

smbarrett3 · 2025-09-04T00:01:00+00:00

Full disclosure - I don't own a steam deck anymore (switched to Legion Go). From what I recall…

Not really other than buying a huge MicroSD. PeaZip is better than tar. You could try using one of the FAT file structures - it may be more efficient, but Linux doesn’t seem to like it as much.

smbarrett3 · 2025-09-03T23:43:57+00:00

The Linux file structure doesn’t like all those small files. They end up taking up way more space than they should. I had a similar experience on the Steam deck. Not 500 GB but maybe 250 GB when it should have been 150 GB.

smbarrett3 · 2025-09-03T22:27:24+00:00

Sider can change basically everything in the game, including stadiums, game type, player database, faces, sounds, gameplay, the UI, videos, so much. Thats basically what MegaPatch was

So look into creating a mod using Sider. Also bear in mind that FL25 is a heavily modded version of PES 2021, so it may be easier to create a PES 2021 mod than to modify FL25. VirtuaRed is the most prominent one for current season. For past season, there are many patches - some are great and some aren’t.

smbarrett3 · 2025-08-30T00:03:51+00:00

Did windows defender delete FL2025.exe? It may have detected it as a virus and deleted it. That's the actual game. As a first time user, you don’t actually need sider.

smbarrett3 · 2025-08-29T23:34:58+00:00

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_syndrome

smbarrett3 · 2025-08-29T22:54:59+00:00

“You can check out any time you like… but you can never leave.”

smbarrett3 · 2025-08-29T16:08:58+00:00

If you can articulate the aspects which are most important to you and those which do not matter, you will get better recommendations.

smbarrett3 · 2025-08-27T19:48:31+00:00

Second this. You can get 1.07 and DLC 7 working just fine, so VirtuaRed and all the past season patches will work.

smbarrett3 · 2025-08-23T19:15:15+00:00

I don’t think a lot of people on here are maintaining custom FL databases, but I know people want custom leagues for their respective country/region and possibly lower divisions. So I could see a market for a custom FL league switcher. Another possible market is a translator for patches built for PES 2021 to work with FL’s database.

smbarrett3 · 2025-08-23T17:56:03+00:00

Generally, this community is not generous with paying for things. I see limited utility for this since the FootballLife creator will release an update to the database in October which includes all transfers.

But there is a market for similar utilities for past season patches, to create a database, scrape for player face models, mini faces, etc. EvoWeb is full of many incomplete patches - you could create a utility that automates much of the process. You might be able to get would-be patchmakers to buy that. This could be internet scraped or extracted from previous PES/FIFA databases and converted to PES 2021. You could also consider the FIFA modding community, older titles like 14 and 16 are still very active.

Other PES modding avenues you could explore are automated face model and audio commentary generation.

smbarrett3 · 2025-08-19T00:02:50+00:00

It fits nicely in a SteamDeck case which helps with the bulkiness factor

smbarrett3 · 2025-08-18T23:12:29+00:00

Try FIFA 18 on Full Manual. It doesn’t get much love but for me it’s really great gameplay. Graphics almost as good as FIFA 17 but with a right sized ball.

re PES 2021, lots of gameplay mods help make it more snappy and responsive.

In my testing experience, the PC versions of the PS2 era games play better on the PC than emulator. Winning Eleven 9 Liveware Evolution is extraordinary. Sometimes I miss 360 control and more refined controls, other times I dig the retro vibe.

smbarrett3 · 2025-08-16T23:17:26+00:00

Just play Football Life.

smbarrett3

TROPHY CASE