Reviews// PES 2012

What it is effective for are set-pieces. Instead of lining up a free kick or corner, holding a button and hoping for the best, you can now flick the right stick to take control of any of your other team-mates, move him into position and either pass of lob the ball over to him. It's a fantastic system that opens up the possibilities of what you can do from a dead ball.

Realistic Fun
PES 2012 does an amazing job of recreating the beautiful game. This is largely down the way the ball moves around the pitch. It feels completely off rails, as though anything can happen, and it pretty much can.

The ball will ping off a player’s heels, spin back towards the goal after hitting the bar and even trickle through goalkeeper's legs. This makes for an exciting experience but at times a frustrating one.

One game sticks out in my mind as being almost wall-smashingly frustrating. After chipping away at my opponent’s defence, hitting the bar, having shots cleared off the line I found myself behind through no fault of my own. After a sluggish run he made a half-arsed attempt to shoot at goal from a good 30 yards out only for it to take a massive deflection and end up in my net.

The FIFA gamer in me would have been furious. There's nothing I could have done to have prevented it, and it goes down as a loss against my name; but it's something we see in football from time to time. A lucky deflection can win you a game, and as much as that doesn't make for a fantastic videogame, it does a better job of representing the real sport.

What to Do?
Fans of PES will know exactly what to expect in terms of game modes. Not much has been added. Master League is as fun and addictive as it has always been. Taking a team of unknowns and building on them to create a team of champions will never get old.

PES Life is Konami's equivalent to FIFA’s 'Be A Pro' and a vastly superior one. It also offers you the chance to 'Be A Boss' as you take the role of a chairman of a football club. It's an odd game mode, and one that will soon become dull when you realise how much text you have to sit through and how much pitch time you're missing out on.

Believe it or not the biggest improvements can be found in the training mode. Training is now fun, offering you mini games with awards to be earned. I spent a lot of time trying to unlock harder trophies and it's easy to take what you've learned from each mini game and apply it on field.

Online modes are the same as last year, with the return of ranked matches and online Master League being the ones you'll spend most of your time with. The online set-up is fantastic, with games running so smoothly that you'll question if you're genuinely playing someone online or not.

There may not be as many modes as its rival FIFA but there is still plenty here to get on with. You won’t feel as though the game is holding back on you as you'll pick a mode and stick with it for hours upon hours.

Conclusion
PES 2012 lacks that polish that FIFA 12 has. The gameplay doesn't feel refined and it still feels lacking when it comes to licensing and presentation. It is however immensely fun and fans of the series will be treated to the best PES game of this generation. For those who haven't clicked with FIFA 12's new defending system they now have a really solid alternative to jump ship to.

SPOnG Score: 85%