This was the heart of PES 2012. The menus were slower than FIFA, but the depth was superior:
PES 2012’s goalkeepers were, to put it mildly, superhuman. Shot-stopping was spectacular, with keepers like Iker Casillas and Manuel Neuer performing impossible reflex saves. On one hand, it felt rewarding to finally beat a keeper. On the other hand, it could be infuriating. Low crosses and near-post shots were often swallowed whole, while long-range screamers had to be absolutely perfect to go in. PES 2012 - Pro Evolution Soccer
Conversely, the ball physics—while generally excellent—had a strange "rocket" characteristic. A driven pass or a cleanly struck volley would fly across the turf with a satisfying zip, but sometimes the ball felt too light, skidding unnaturally on wet pitches. It wasn’t the heavy, mud-soaked ball of PES 5, but a hyper-responsive missile. This was the heart of PES 2012
Subject: Technical & Design Analysis Platform: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC (Primary); PS2, PSP, Wii (Legacy) Developer: Konami Digital Entertainment (Production Team 1: "PES Productions") Release Date: October 2011 On one hand, it felt rewarding to finally beat a keeper
For the first time, you could manually control the runs of a second player off the ball. While clunky at first, this allowed for creative, Barcelona-style tiki-taka goals that felt purely organic.