Shooting - for me anyway - is the most satisfying part of a football game. If it feels right I can overlook other, less satisfactory components of the gameplay (within reason). Fifa12, for instance, gets shooting right. It's not perfect but it has a good, weighty, believable feel to it, and the ball generally goes where you aim for. The actual act of scoring goals in that game (taking build-up play out of the equation) provides a good feeling, more akin to PS2 generation PES.
PES2012 on the other hand is just terrible. Shooting is horribly vague, usually lacking in power and often random in direction. I don't know if it's even down to statistics or scripting, more the whole shooting mechanic feels wrong. The last PES that felt satisfying to score goals was PES2010 in my opinion. It was one thing that game got right.
That's true.
I actually altered a few things around (pc mods) and somehow managed to get a really weighty feel on the ball. The ball physics act more like Fifa's than i initially thought possible. They're great and have that weight on them.
The problem is that it messes up the gameplay and goalkeepers end up being unable to react a large amount of the time to the new physics. It feels like they're reacting to something else that should be happening in the script. It doesn't happen all the time but it happens enough to see it clearly as an issue.
I also recently went into the training mode to try out the physics, what i discovered was completely what everybody else had been saying about shooting straight at the keeper. I also knew it was there i just hadn't tested it. It's clear when you try 1 v 1s inside the box with no CPU players except the opposition GK. There seems to be no logic in the aiming whatsoever and most shots, despite my valiant efforts of pushing the stick as hard as i can diagonally left or right, just end up going straight down the middle.
Personally i don't mind seeing that many long shots going down the middle, especially ones that fly through the air. Usually they do in real life, not as often as PES portrays but i can suspend my disbelief. Like a lot of PES, the end result if justifiable even if it is through unrealistic measures. If i had to guess often in real life a player's focus with long shots is getting it on target rather than aiming for the corner. The best chances of getting it on target means they will put it down the middle more often than not, whether that's intended or sub-conscious. Usually the ones that go towards the top corners, with the power you'd get like with any given long shot on PES, are pretty hard to save.
Today i scored a screamer with de rossi: too bad i actually aimed right and the screamer went left. I did not celebrate actually, it felt like cheating with the game deciding itself everything.
Happens all the time, seriously 1/3 goals i score will come from something stupid happening. Either the computer doing something ridiculous and making it all too easy for me or me scoring in a way i didn't mean to at all as you describe. Another 1/3 goals will make be ooze with delight, even vocally celebrating, and the remaining 1/3 times will be something like a header from a cross or a simple through ball and i won't be moved either way, especially with crosses as i just feel they're horribly easy to whip in. It's a pretty inconsistent experience which is annoying. As Jamezinho says shooting, and ergo scoring, is the most satisfying part of any football game and as such it being incredibly inconsistent, honestly it just feels random and out of your control a lot of the time, makes the game far less enjoyable than it should be.
