Now as Pes has gone into 1.03 patch and FirePatch group released a great patch, I think it's finally about time to look PES 12 as a final product and see how it plays out (without Jenkey) 
Started Master League Offline now with a friend. So there's 2players against CPU. Superstar, 1.03 patch and Firepatch as addon. No Jenkey.
First of all we had a blast as we created our manager to look exactly like MATLOCK
(For uncivilized kids = http://images.zap2it.com/images/tv-EP00002829/matlock-7.jpg).
I mean who wouldn't respect Matlock? And what kind of chairman could ever fire Matlock?
I have to link an image of our guy it's a spitting image ..anyway back to actual game!
ML Basics
Training
Is once again simplified, though not necessarily a bad thing as in PES2011 some skills were trainable more easy than others (like Power). In the old days you could see all players development skill point by skill point. Then no data was stored anymore, and now no data given at individual players only on team level.. Why? I guess I can get used to this.
Where has the skill card training gone? I wish players learn skill cards then like they learn new positions.
Formations
I have no Idea why Konami decided to remove from Quick toggle Strategies Long Ball and Quick Counter, and they moved them to "sliderwise chosen tactics"? Anyway offside trap is now easy to trigger with d-pad though = good.
Strikers seem to hold now further on the pitch, SMF:s behave a bit differently so it's experimenting and testing we need to find a perfect formation!
Players interraction
They keep coming to moan at my office with horrible grammary. It's a cool feature, a bit half-done with like usually by Konami. Maybe next year we either see this improved or removed (the Konami way)
Scouting players
Konami, What is going on? (Look my above comment about Konami removing functions they finally get working fine). Scouting was very well done on PES2011, where you could only get limited info of players if your scout sucked. And with time on scouting list, more info. Why on earth this has been removed? :realmad:
New stats system
Explosive power and Place kicking as terms always make me chuckle. :happy: Hard to find the player stats you want to see, especially from Set Formation screen. No gamebreaker though. I'm missing Shot Technique stat & Agility though, I can't see any reasonable reason for those removal. Probably they are integrated to some other stat like Ball control etc.
Verdict on ML Basics
All pieces seem to be on place and sticking barely together but still it rolls. On the other words, there's lots of changes in ML I don't like that much, but can probably live with them.
To the pitch - Gameplay where it matters
Shooting
Lots and lots of discussed in Pesgaming forum. To me it seems shooting is spot on, almost too powerful after PES2011 where you would always miss or shoot a crappy shot in a bad body position. Shooting now is closer to PES2010 where shooting rockets was a habit. We almost scored 3 screamers with Maqualao, twice hit the post. Anyway, shooting feels and seems good to me after patched to 1.03. Only negativity is that R2 + shot, doesn't behave at least yet as I'd like it.
Player weight, responsiveness
Also discussed a lot, is also spot on imo. Ball and players have weight After patching the game. No more mickey mouse speed turning. This as well is something between PES2011-2010 which is just great.
Players need a while to get into full speed. 180 turns really take a while which is just great as well, defending is very difficult because of this!
Feints & tricks
I admit, were simply overpowered in PES2011 it was so easy to do incredible things with all players. It was a lot of fun though! but not so realistic. Once again in PES2012 I feel Konami has got it right, usually wrong feint wrong time made me lose the ball, also the old tricks no longer work. A perfectly timed feint in perfect spot gives you JUST a bit of room needed for pass & shot. Incredible, loving it at the moment as the satisfaction on pulling a good feint is there.
Dribbling
Speed matters again! Great. My Sidebacks got constantly overran by AI SMF's, cool! Also I could run faster with Shimizu at some occasions, good as well!
Ball close control is better this year, and as players have WEIGHT again, you can in fact fool & go past AI players with simply subtle body movements. Incredible, good work Konami!
Goalkeepers
Discussed yearly. I don't see problems here neither. My goalie is Iarchenov & Fatecha, so they let in really easy goals. Fine by me, I admit they suck. Before goalies would save anything which was able to be saved, now they let in reasonable shots like low shots near their body. This is only realistic, it's hard for goalie to get down quick. Also it's good as before even crappy goalkeepers did good saves. I've also seen few good saves which really gives a good feeling to pat your goalie to the back. Good work on goalies Konami!
Ai and "Scripting"
Then to everyones favorite subject
the AI. Superstar AI really is a monster though, we managed to score about 4 goals in 10 matches. Lost 4-0 to Reading etc. But also won Wigan in CUP 1-0 which was super-satisfactory.
I understand the statement on AI cheating, AI on superstar really does it all to be as jackass as possible. Defends incredibly well, gives no space to you, and when he gets the ball, holds it just great and when leading, parks the bus.
Anyway I don't see MUCH AI cheating here, to me it seems that AI simply plays incredibly well. Especially on holding the ball with individual players. It's a bit dumb that AI can hold the ball with crappy players so well, BUT I don't see why I couldn't hold the ball equally well if I was just skilled enough yet so no cheating, just AI "Skill".
Slightly annoying is that AI plays sometimes incredibly quick passes which could be defined as "magic". But never seems to pull off "mega-shots" from ackward body positions = good.
The ONLY and the most annoying thing clearly is AI scoring goals on all the free kicks from decent distance from goal. This pisses off as most of the time the fouls are also quite soft. This could be tuned down to PES2011 level, where it was spot on imo.
In overall I understand that a "SuperStar" AI has to be capable of scoring somehow and the cheating isn't in anyway too obvious here, if not counting the free kicks. After all in PES2010 keeping clean sheets was as easy as beating a kid with a stick and almost the same in PES2011. It's refreshing to finally concede some goals!
Our next step is to learn to keep clean sheets :happy:
Small complaints
As playing with 2 players the 1-2 passing doesn't work. The player passing doesn't start running UNLESS he quickly changes to other player after pass. In PES2011 player would start running even when it was player controlled which was good.
Final verdict:
Konami has got multiple things just right on the field where it matters. Feints, dribbling, control, shooting, passing all have been improved from last year.
Loving it thus far, Learning it slowly.
Could maybe tune down difficulty a bit to check how AI behaves.
Started Master League Offline now with a friend. So there's 2players against CPU. Superstar, 1.03 patch and Firepatch as addon. No Jenkey.
First of all we had a blast as we created our manager to look exactly like MATLOCK
I mean who wouldn't respect Matlock? And what kind of chairman could ever fire Matlock?
ML Basics
Training
Is once again simplified, though not necessarily a bad thing as in PES2011 some skills were trainable more easy than others (like Power). In the old days you could see all players development skill point by skill point. Then no data was stored anymore, and now no data given at individual players only on team level.. Why? I guess I can get used to this.
Where has the skill card training gone? I wish players learn skill cards then like they learn new positions.
Formations
I have no Idea why Konami decided to remove from Quick toggle Strategies Long Ball and Quick Counter, and they moved them to "sliderwise chosen tactics"? Anyway offside trap is now easy to trigger with d-pad though = good.
Strikers seem to hold now further on the pitch, SMF:s behave a bit differently so it's experimenting and testing we need to find a perfect formation!
Players interraction
They keep coming to moan at my office with horrible grammary. It's a cool feature, a bit half-done with like usually by Konami. Maybe next year we either see this improved or removed (the Konami way)
Scouting players
Konami, What is going on? (Look my above comment about Konami removing functions they finally get working fine). Scouting was very well done on PES2011, where you could only get limited info of players if your scout sucked. And with time on scouting list, more info. Why on earth this has been removed? :realmad:
New stats system
Explosive power and Place kicking as terms always make me chuckle. :happy: Hard to find the player stats you want to see, especially from Set Formation screen. No gamebreaker though. I'm missing Shot Technique stat & Agility though, I can't see any reasonable reason for those removal. Probably they are integrated to some other stat like Ball control etc.
Verdict on ML Basics
All pieces seem to be on place and sticking barely together but still it rolls. On the other words, there's lots of changes in ML I don't like that much, but can probably live with them.
To the pitch - Gameplay where it matters
Shooting
Lots and lots of discussed in Pesgaming forum. To me it seems shooting is spot on, almost too powerful after PES2011 where you would always miss or shoot a crappy shot in a bad body position. Shooting now is closer to PES2010 where shooting rockets was a habit. We almost scored 3 screamers with Maqualao, twice hit the post. Anyway, shooting feels and seems good to me after patched to 1.03. Only negativity is that R2 + shot, doesn't behave at least yet as I'd like it.
Player weight, responsiveness
Also discussed a lot, is also spot on imo. Ball and players have weight After patching the game. No more mickey mouse speed turning. This as well is something between PES2011-2010 which is just great.
Players need a while to get into full speed. 180 turns really take a while which is just great as well, defending is very difficult because of this!
Feints & tricks
I admit, were simply overpowered in PES2011 it was so easy to do incredible things with all players. It was a lot of fun though! but not so realistic. Once again in PES2012 I feel Konami has got it right, usually wrong feint wrong time made me lose the ball, also the old tricks no longer work. A perfectly timed feint in perfect spot gives you JUST a bit of room needed for pass & shot. Incredible, loving it at the moment as the satisfaction on pulling a good feint is there.
Dribbling
Speed matters again! Great. My Sidebacks got constantly overran by AI SMF's, cool! Also I could run faster with Shimizu at some occasions, good as well!
Ball close control is better this year, and as players have WEIGHT again, you can in fact fool & go past AI players with simply subtle body movements. Incredible, good work Konami!
Goalkeepers
Discussed yearly. I don't see problems here neither. My goalie is Iarchenov & Fatecha, so they let in really easy goals. Fine by me, I admit they suck. Before goalies would save anything which was able to be saved, now they let in reasonable shots like low shots near their body. This is only realistic, it's hard for goalie to get down quick. Also it's good as before even crappy goalkeepers did good saves. I've also seen few good saves which really gives a good feeling to pat your goalie to the back. Good work on goalies Konami!
Ai and "Scripting"
Then to everyones favorite subject
I understand the statement on AI cheating, AI on superstar really does it all to be as jackass as possible. Defends incredibly well, gives no space to you, and when he gets the ball, holds it just great and when leading, parks the bus.
Anyway I don't see MUCH AI cheating here, to me it seems that AI simply plays incredibly well. Especially on holding the ball with individual players. It's a bit dumb that AI can hold the ball with crappy players so well, BUT I don't see why I couldn't hold the ball equally well if I was just skilled enough yet so no cheating, just AI "Skill".
Slightly annoying is that AI plays sometimes incredibly quick passes which could be defined as "magic". But never seems to pull off "mega-shots" from ackward body positions = good.
The ONLY and the most annoying thing clearly is AI scoring goals on all the free kicks from decent distance from goal. This pisses off as most of the time the fouls are also quite soft. This could be tuned down to PES2011 level, where it was spot on imo.
In overall I understand that a "SuperStar" AI has to be capable of scoring somehow and the cheating isn't in anyway too obvious here, if not counting the free kicks. After all in PES2010 keeping clean sheets was as easy as beating a kid with a stick and almost the same in PES2011. It's refreshing to finally concede some goals!
Our next step is to learn to keep clean sheets :happy:
Small complaints
As playing with 2 players the 1-2 passing doesn't work. The player passing doesn't start running UNLESS he quickly changes to other player after pass. In PES2011 player would start running even when it was player controlled which was good.
Final verdict:
Konami has got multiple things just right on the field where it matters. Feints, dribbling, control, shooting, passing all have been improved from last year.
Loving it thus far, Learning it slowly.
Could maybe tune down difficulty a bit to check how AI behaves.