PES 12: My Journey to Soccer Utopia - EvanRG's Blog

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EvanRG's Blog

PES 12: My Journey to Soccer Utopia

Posted on September 18, 2011 at 02:01 AM.

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The following is my opinion and my opinion only.

Fact: Pro Evolution Soccer 2012 will provide a more realistic game of soccer by having smarter A.I. and a stronger game engine. Despite its lack of professional licensing (which can be easily rectified with option files) or lack of graphical power (which is sorely overstated), PES 12 will continue to prove that it is a game that is made for the true soccer mind.

Though It's not as if PES 12 came out of nowhere.

Last year around Christmas time, several weeks after Fifa 11 had grown stale for me. I was perusing the Internet with no real aim or intention when I started to read -- of all things -- a blog posted by the mega-band COLDPLAY.

In this blog, one of the band members described a heated game of PES that they had just finished on their tour bus and that was all it took for my interest to be peaked. It was off to Youtube.

A couple hours later and I was enamored � to say the least. This game that I had heard so little about and had not played in almost four years looked semi-decent! The player models were different looking and the graphics were arguably sub-par, but the game seemed to flow so well.

Goals seemed so dynamic and different with every chance. And this was all it took. The next day, I was off to GameStop to pick up a copy of this game. I was desperate for something different.

People who know me, know that I like to take chances on games from time to time. Actually, they might say I do it quite frequently. I would say, �I�m definitely not going to pick it up� and the reply would be, �Sure, Evan. We�ll see about that.�
Normally, they would be right. I always hold by the standard that I can take a chance on a game and if it is horrible I can just sell it back (If you are asking if I have ever heard of renting, the answer is yes).

So when I took PES 11 home and started up a game I was quickly feeling like I had hit the soccer gaming jackpot of sorts. Even my brother who was pretty well steeped into Fifa 11 could not help but enjoy this fresh new take on the beautiful game.

Passing seemed so organic and goal-scoring opportunities were exciting and different with every chance. Heck, I barely played PES 11 that first day because my brother wound up playing several more games and I simply started discover Option Files (a way to get licensed teams/players into PES by downloading hex-edited saves). The next day, my brother would purchase PES 11 and we were now officially PES fans.

So why do I tell you all of this and what does this have to do with this year�s matchup of Fifa 12 vs PES 12? Well frankly, not much. No matter how much I enjoy PES, you may still enjoy the Fifa experience more. But there are misconceptions about Pro Evolution Soccer that can only be rectified if you give the game a chance.

Comments

# 1 RB10 @ Sep 18

The realism of those celebrations is pretty amazing. I haven't owned a soccer game since the World Cup game in 2010, but this is a great rivalry because they bring out the best in each other. Madden, NHL, and NBA 2k are virtually competition-less right now, not saying they don't improve, (just look at NBA 2k12!) but competition is great. The sky is the limit for these games.

# 2 Hjkflannel @ Sep 18

The magic of pes is how dynamic it is, when I first played it (pes3) I was blown away by the fact I couldn't score, simple laws of physics weren't ignored and player uniqueness and likeness were so prominent. Scoring feels rewarding and addictive because of this. FIFA has come along way and this years demo is great but it just doesn't represent what pes does. It feels manufactured and cold, like a mercedes where as pes is more like the lambourghini, lacking in some basic niceties like animation and graphics but just more alluring. It makes me happy when people find pes now and it not jut the ps2 crew singings it praises.