I seem to be one of the few who still likes the game speed option it seems. Lots of people for example seem to enjoy speed '0' for example, which is way too fast for my liking. If the game was set to speed zero with no option to change it, I wouldn't bother playing it because it's like some footballing version of the Benny Hill show on zero or higher.
That said I'm a total convert now. I might just back up the patch data onto another HDD and keep it there just in case the next patch screws the game up again. At least then I'd be able to roll it back to 1.02, otherwise once people download 1.03 (whenever it comes out) then 1.02 will be lost. There'll be no rolling it back, we'll have the option of deleting the patch and playing back on 1.00, or re-downloading 1.03 when it's available.
I had still been playing PES2011 up until this week as an alternative, but to be honest I played it today, then turned it off and put PES2012 straight on, and the difference in gameplay is huge. On this patch at any rate, there's no way I can go back to 2011 now, this version of 2012 flows so well, and so many tiny adjustments have been made. It's a bit easier now, and that helps anyone with their frustrations at the game I suppose, but it's more balanced. Tackling is far more successful, you can use the new jockey system and it actually holds up the CPU and forces them to play in a more considered manner rather than out and out counter attack etc. There's more space in the penalty area when attacking, it's so much better IMO of course.
I did actually notice that the way the AI plays is really no different to PES2011. Sure, some of the passing moves are a bit better, but the basic way they set their stall out is identical. 2011 still had the same number of players back, and bombed attackers forward once they got the ball like a huge charge up the pitch. I guess that's just an issue with the PES engine now being old and limited, hopefully big changes will come around with the next gen games. Hopefully. But for now, well, I for one enjoyed 2011's ML immensely by just learning to ignore this side of the AI and accept the game's limitations, and treat it as a fun football game. I think I'll do the same with 2012 then, because until the tech is updated then it's never going to be any different.
Oh, and as for shooting, I don't think it's broken, but aiming has been tweaked. Whereas in past games, aiming say diagonally down would place it in the left hand corner (running right to left), you now need to do this in much more of a pronounced way. I scored a goal from outside the box earlier, from a central position, and pretty much just pushed down for a short period of time. Maybe also pushing in the direction of the goal now somehow centres the shot a bit more. Just an idea.
Pes animations are acceptable. Some of them are really nice but some of them are ugly. Average is acceptable. People make one big mistake. They mix animations and technically aspect of the game with pure game play.
