I never register on forums, and give feedback about games. Never. But this time I had to say something.
I have played PES since it first came out on the Playstation 1. Never missed one installment.I was a PES "fanboy" since I was 7 or 8. There were some worse and better ones, but PES 2012 is the biggest piece of garbage in the history of the series.
I tried to like this game, and I tried to become good at it. Played tons, and thought I'd become better, but no, that hasnt happened. Why? Because its not my playing, its the game.
I play online, and its all fine and dandy, I win a bunch of matches, lose one or two- everything is fine there.
However the AI, and all matches against it are ridiculous. I always start out on top player. In every PES, and do great. I thought it would be the same here. But no.
You cant score goals from situations that you carefully craft. It seems that all the goals you make are due to chance, and luck. Its usually corners, close Free kicks, or a big mess in which someone puts their leg in and scores. The Triangle (through ball) doesn't work anymore). Dribbling is impossible and players you use always get pushed over and lose the ball (however when the AI attacks its almost impossible to get the ball from a half decent player). I cant even dribble past Rubin Kazan defenders using Robinho FFS.
Defending is garbage. You cant steal balls from even a mediocre dribbler (on top player) and taking it from Messi, Nani or Krasic etc is impossible. I use all the tricks in the book. R2, square, and X, use marking, but nothing works. Your defenders always act like idiots, and often run the opposite direction, or stop marking players when not controlled by you.
Free Kicks. Fun? Yeah. Its a lottery, however sometimes you get a nice rewarding shot straight under the post. But, then the AI gets to shoot, it gets ridiculous. Anything under 30 meters is a goal. I played a game against Man Utd in which Nani (not really a great FK artist) scored a hat trick with 3 free kicks, with basically 3 perfect FLAWLESS shots. The goalkeeper had no chance.
Shooting. Something that was the best part of the series. I remember some of the bombs I used to score with Zidane, Seedorf or Recoba in the older series. The shots felt powerful, looked skillful, and brought great entertainment. However this too is gone. Now shooting feels like kicking a balloon. The ball floats like a plastic bag blown by the wind. They are extremely weak, inaccurate, and unrewarding. The fact that instead of running up to the ball and kicking it when you press shot early, the players decide to fall on the grass and slide doesn't help either.
If you make creating dangerous situations so hard, shouldnt scoring a 1 v 1, or shooting from inside the box easier, and more accurate? I watch football and I see that when a player gets to those positions (and getting there is the challenge) he usually scores with ease. But here I have Ibrahimovic or Robinho getting a good situation once or twice a game (a 20 minute game) and usually wasting it in a idiotic fashion. As I said, I played this game since I was 8, and Im 22 now, and I know how to use all the controls, I know how to chip, or how to dribble the keeper, however in this game all this is useless and doesnt work. The only way you get a goal is through luck or a random cross in the penalty area.
The feints are useless. You cant get past a defender using them. Even shoot+pass which used to be my go to trick doesn't work on keepers or defenders, as they just stand there and wait to take the ball while you attempt to run past them.
The off the ball controls are shit. There is no other way to say this. In older games the players on your team used to support you, try to keep up with the action , and get into good positions. Here they don't. They act like idiots who don't want to be there. The off the ball controls make the guy run forward like a headless chicken,- he doesn't even try to run into a good position, he just runs forward. Its useless during throw ins, and its useless during corners. Its just shit.
Players don't support you during counters. They slowly walk forward, and you end up trying to get past 5 players with 2.
The "grade" system for stats is stupid. Why didn't you keep the old "spider web"? I used to be able to look at that and see if a player was good or not, now I look at a guy and see a bunch of B's and C's, later to find out that he's actually pretty good. I don't want to go through 3 sub screens to see those stats, I want them right in my face.
I am not able to enjoy this game. Its just not fun to me. I tried playing it on Pro and Regular, but its the same. While its easier, its still not fun.
I loved this series, and faithfully got every single game that came out for the Playstation 1, 2 and 3. But this is too much. the series has been going downhill for a long time, and it culminated in this piece of shit.
I used to laugh at FIFA being a game for kids, and I never played it. My friends did the same. Now all of them moved to FIFA, and they say its great. I never thought it would come to this, but I'm going to trade my copy in, and get FIFA 12 too.
Konami, you have f#@$ed this series so bad its not even funny. Soon PES will fade into oblivion. Good job.
Good one, i agree on everything you said.
I hate AI cheating they have put in game, so matches would not be predictable when you play, but its pure crap.
I especially hate when you play and you make same thing with 2 different resaults each time, especialy power of passing, shooting or through balls, i make 3 passes with full power, and my nest pass when i really need full power is fail, player acts like dieing old man, and i play with Chelsea mostly, so i dont think Lampard or Mata have problems with passing, they dont have low skills, which are also crap.
Every year Konami is saying we are making something so great it will be new revolution, and they give shit, just big talk, and power over clients using marketing tricks, they can fix everyting but they wont cause who will buy next title when they promise they will fix things.
Well good luck cause i think more and more players who know something about reall soccer/footbal hate this game, those geeks who say "you just didnt master the game" are another thing, they play cause its a game and for them game is enough, but this would sopose to be a SIMULATION!!!!!