PRO EVOLUTION SOCCER 12 Review [XBox 360]
For all it's faults it still represents a good purchase for those put off by the monotony of FIFA, and certainly goes someway to putting it back on track.
rating: 3.5
Pro Evolution Soccer is that old girlfriend you used to love, but as you matured you realised what attracted you to her in the first place wasn't there any more, no longer were her good looks enough to mask the fact that she simply couldn't pronounce the name of your favourite football team. Time is a great healer however, and little things start to remind you of happier times The browning of the leaves in autumn, a faint smell of roses, or her ability to play a more expansive, pacier version of football than her rivals. The point is, Pro Evolution Soccer 2012 is a return to the old formula of slick, attacking football that excites in a variety of ways, only to let itself down massively by a number of problems that get the basics so very wrong. Before I begin, there appears to be a growing trend from developers to release games unfinished knowing that they can rectify issues with a downloadable patch a later date. For certain franchises this is almost risk-free thanks to a large user-base. For Pro Evo however, this is a franchise that is struggling to keep up with it's rival, and so any imperfections could be the final nail in the coffin when it comes to decision making next year. So...Why when trying to win back followers do you release a game that prevents the player from sprinting for more than 10 yards. This bug is only present in the single player modes and doesn't occur when using the d-pad. It's more of an annoyance than a major fault but it leaves question marks over the production process and the decision to release the game. I'm neither a programmer or involved in the business of releasing games but this could have done more damage than good. When trying to persuade people to buy your game instead of another, the words, but it'll work in November can't be a selling point. *The patch has been confirmed for November and the bug is only present in the Xbox360 version.
Moving on to the game itself... At it's heart Pro Evo is what it used to be - it's ability to recreate football at it's best with attacking football the focal point. Whereas FIFA is a juggernaut of a game, polished so much that many games can sometimes feel like exact clones of each other with neither team scoring in some kind of Italian wet dream. Pro Evo has always had a more open, free flowing game thanks in part to superior AI. In PES 2012 you'll find your players making runs off the ball whether it's the full-backs bombing forward or the attacking midfielder moving beyond the front men, the off-the-ball movement both offensively and positioning defensively is good. Which makes it an odd choice for them to promote their new Teammate Control that allows you to control the runs of players that aren't in possession. Why focus their efforts on something which complicates the game when it's attempting to rectify a problem that isn't there, and when bigger problems remain? Problems such as the defending that resembles playground football as you aimlessly chase after the ball until they miss - Missing as a result of an awful shooting mechanic that feels like 'Penny Floater' sponsored the game - If you tap shoot it goes along the ground, hold it down for more power and that ball's hitting row Z, aiming it is the least of your worries. Goalkeepers are...horrendous. Only catching it when you have tapped it to keep it down, but then when it's travelling at somewhere close to 0mph they should be catching it. I've already mentioned the Sprint bug, but when it does work (either online or with the D-pad) the ball seems to be attached to a bit of string which in turn makes tackling as difficult as it is. 
The commentary in Pro Evo games has always been poor to average. The days of, there's a fight for aerial domination are long gone from ISS, but these days we have crazy Jon Champion dishing out about 6 lines of dialogue without any awareness of what's just happened, he seems genuinely excited about everything whether it's the first minute or the last. I accept that commentary in sports games can struggle to adapt to the ever-changing game that's taking place but the example of the NBA 2K series is one that Konami need to take a long hard look at. Years ago 2K sold at a cheaper price point than EA hoping to gain supporters not drugged into buying through costly advertising campaigns. It worked to a point where becoming established allowed them to take the game forward. Konami on the other hand were on top, but decisions made have possibly ruined any competition from here on in. FIFA has innovated but maintained it's production quality and I look forward to next year's as they iron-out the boredom. It seems the Pro Evo team are stuck between re-making their classic and going head-to-head with EA. The problem they've created for themselves is that on the surface Pro Evo is a broken game, proving they lack the militant production quality of FIFA, so stop trying to innovate and get back to basics. Football is a simple game, get that right and you might find people coming back. The lack of a license has always been an argument against for those more fond of FIFA, but the quality of gameplay always rose above that. Without that quality the fictional names become secondary in the arguments against, and this year the fact that Swansea are represented by a team called Swearcle and your coach in Master League (or Football Life as it's now known) goes by the name Dzerpinski. Outstanding nonsense throughout right there. But the football life mode is different from previous years. Take your fictional heroes into battle as your manager appears in separate scenarios - Your first press conference? He's there saying scripted babble and your first team coach thinks it went better than expected...Screw you Dzerpinksi. These interludes are intriguing for future versions as it does help in creating the fun unrealistic side of the Master League, which it should still be called. Football Life is a new entity which has the Master League at it's core. Why change the name of something that was loved when the scripted cinematic elements are laughable, and when the mode itself still works well in creating 'Your' team using their excellent performance related budget system. 
The ball physics go from the wonderful to the ridiculous as at times it will run free from a collision and help in creating the Pro Evo random flow, and other times it will ricochet of a player and go hurtling into next week. This issue is made all the more apparent when comparing the natural movement of the ball in flight, to the moment it lands at the players feet and becomes glued. Graphically the game compares favourably to it's rival and it's major high point is the lighting of matches and matches look great thanks to a far more realistic environment. Stadiums are impressive as a result and even if you choose the Guiseppe Meazza or the San Siro (seriously, they are listed as two separate stadiums) they look impressive. I've considered the demise of Pro Evo to be a generation thing. At the height of the PS2 Pro Evo was King, people played sitting next to each other and beer was drunk. But this generation of consoles is very different, those from the PS2 era are a little bit older, with less free-time on their hands and therefore they want a more accessible game for their football fix and the full official license plays a part. Part of the beauty of Pro Evo was the Master League and the investment you spent in building your team, now many people don't have that time and so they want to play with their favourite team. The younger generation that are coming into this current console life-cycle want a fix similar to what they see on television, the glossy Premier League remade in all it's commercial glory. And so this possibly leaves Pro Evo stranded for those football die-hards with too much spare-time on their hands that can cultivate a Master League team in their own form. Of course, the fact that Pro Evo has been shit for at least the last 3 years might prove this an over-analysed pile of bollocks. 
But with all it's faults Pro Evo at times is incredibly fun thanks to the furious pace at which it's played, the movement of your players in around the box far, far, far surpasses that of FIFA, and the variety of goals is something EA have never got right. But it's these positives that make the negatives so huge. What they have are the elements of what everyone enjoys about the game in real-life, yet they've skewed this through this by getting other fundamentals wrong. I personally don't think the Champions League is anything to brag about when you have 'Man Blue' turning up having played 'West Midland Stripes' the game before. It's this confusion of trying to compete with FIFA in licensing when that's never been their strong point. Simple, fun, exciting football is where it won the battle, but trying to evolve it forgot the simple things, and football as we know, is a simple game. 
Pro Evolution Soccer 12 is out now on PS3, Xbox 360 and other platforms now.