''Pro Evolution Soccer 2012'' (''PES 2012'', known as ''World Soccer: Winning Eleven 2012'' in Asia) is a

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

which is the eleventh edition in the ''

Pro Evolution Soccer ''eFootball Pro Evolution Soccer'' (''eFootball PES''), known as in Japan, is a series of association football List of association football video games, simulation video games developed by Konami Digital Entertainment Co., Ltd. and published ...

'' series developed and published by

Konami , commonly known as Konami, , is a Japanese multinational entertainment company and video game developer and video game publisher, publisher headquartered in Chūō, Tokyo, Chūō, Tokyo. The company also produces and distributes trading card ...

Lionel Messi Lionel Andrés "Leo" Messi (; born 24 June 1987) is an Argentine professional Association football, footballer who plays as a forward (association football), forward for and Captain (association football), captains both Major League Soccer ...

, who was the cover star for the series since '' PES 2009'', was replaced by '' PES 2008'' cover star

Cristiano Ronaldo Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro (; born 5 February 1985) is a Portuguese professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Forward (association football), forward for and Captain (association football), captains both Saudi Pr ...

, while

Borussia Dortmund Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, often known simply as Borussia Dortmund () or by its initialism BVB (), or just Dortmund by International fans, is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is ...

player

Shinji Kagawa Shinji Kagawa (, ''Kagawa Shinji'' ; born 17 March 1989) is a Japanese professional footballer and football manager who plays as a midfielder. He is widely regarded as one of the best Japanese players of all time. Kagawa became the first midfie ...

replaces Messi as the cover star for the Japanese release. The US and Latin American cover features Santos player

Neymar Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior (; born 5 February 1992), also known as Neymar Júnior or simply Neymar, is a Brazilian professional Association football, footballer who plays as a left winger, attacking midfielder or Forward (association foo ...

and Cristiano Ronaldo. Like previous versions of the game, it was licensed by

UEFA The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...

to contain the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...

and

UEFA Super Cup The UEFA Super Cup is an annual super cup Association football, football match organised by UEFA and contested by the winners of the two main European club competitions: the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League. The competition's offic ...

competitions along with a license from

CONMEBOL CONMEBOL ( ) or CSF (; ; ), is the continental governing body of football in South America and it is one of FIFA's six continental confederations. The oldest continental confederation in the world, its headquarters are located in Luque, Parag ...

to feature the Copa Santander Libertadores. Referees' governing UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League and UEFA Super Cup matches will wear the official

uniforms, which is a first for the series.

Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (), also known as Liga Portugal Betclic for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Portugal and the highest level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga ...

were included for the first time in series with three licensed teams. On July 28, 2011, Konami confirmed that ''PES 2012'' was going to be released for

PlayStation 3 The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE). It is the successor to the PlayStation 2, and both are part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. The PS3 was first released on ...

Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the Xbox (console), original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox#Consoles, Xbox series. It was officially unveiled on MTV on May 12, 2005, with detail ...

and

Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

on October 14, 2011 in Europe and October 6, 2011 in Japan. At

Gamescom Gamescom (stylized as ''gamescom'') is a trade fair for video games held annually at the Koelnmesse in Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Gamescom is the world's largest gaming event, with 370,000 visitors and 1,037 exhibitors from 56 ...

2011 it was announced that the

PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October, in Europe on 24 Novembe ...

and

PlayStation Portable The PlayStation Portable (PSP) is a handheld game console developed and marketed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 12, 2004, in North America on March 24, 2005, and in PA ...

versions would follow on October 28, 2011 and the

Wii The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America, and in December 2006 for most other regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major home game console, f ...

on November 4, 2011. The publisher has also confirmed that versions for

Nintendo 3DS The is a foldable dual-screen handheld game console produced by Nintendo. Announced in March 2010 as the successor to the Nintendo DS, the console was released originally on February 26, 2011 and went through various revisions in its lifetime, ...

and

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

formats are also in development, with firm dates to follow. ''PES 2012'' was succeeded by ''

Pro Evolution Soccer 2013 ''Pro Evolution Soccer 2013'' (''PES 2013'', known as ''World Soccer: Winning Eleven 2013'' in Japan and South Korea) is an association football video game, developed and published by Konami. The game was announced by Konami on April 18, 2012. For ...

''. Online services for the game were shut down on January 28, 2013 due to focusing to newer ''PES'' games.

Gameplay

''PES 2012s gameplay is primarily a refinement of ''PES 2011'', with many improvements and changes in areas such as

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...

, speed, animation, and physics. Among the new features is the Teammate Control system, where a secondary player may be controlled, either during play, or at a set piece or throw-in. This allows players to be placed precisely, make runs, and shake off markers before calling for the ball. Manual and assisted versions of the feature are available for varying degrees of difficulty and control. Refereeing has been improved and includes a full implementation of the advantage rule, with the referee pulling back play for bookings after the ball goes out of play. The "catch-up bug", where defenders would catch dribbling attackers too easily, regardless of the attacker's pace, will be addressed. Gameplay is more fluid, with better response when controlling the ball, and goalkeepers have been improved with new animations and generally more reliable goalkeeping performances. Artificial intelligence has been improved over previous ''PES'' games, for example AI players will play more thoughtfully when defending rather than simply applying pressure, and AI teammates will make more intelligent movement decisions.

Content

Thanks to an exclusive deal with

and

, the

and the Copa Santander Libertadores are fully licensed. The tournaments are integrated into the new mode, Football Life, which features a Master League mode and a Become a Legend mode, and for the first time, a Club Boss mode. The Football Life mode also includes a Master League Online mode, however, fan favourite 2V2 Ranked Matches have been removed from the Xbox 360 version due to "internal decisions". Like previous versions, there is also a separate two leagues with 18 empty teams (PES League and D2 League), each of which can be edited fully. All the teams are entirely fictional. The UEFA Europa League, the UEFA Super Cup and the PES and D2 Leagues are features not included in the PSP version of the game.

Stadiums

''PES 2012'' contains 30 stadiums, 17 licensed, 12 unlicensed, and 1 that is entirely fictional. There is also a Stadium Editor which allows stadiums to be created and added to the selection.

Reception

The game was met with positive to mixed reception.

GameRankings GameRankings was a video gaming review aggregator that was founded in 1999 and owned by CBS Interactive. It indexed over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 video games. GameRankings was discontinued in December 2019, with its staff bei ...

and

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

gave it a score of 79.75% and 79 out of 100 for the Wii version; 79.70% and 80 out of 100 for the PlayStation 3 version; 78.04% and 78 out of 100 for the Xbox 360 version; 77% and 77 out of 100 for the PC version; 75 out of 100 for the PlayStation 2 version; 74 out of 100 for the PSP version; 74.60% and 73 out of 100 for the 3DS version; and 65% and 61 out of 100 for the iOS version.

Digital Spy Digital Spy (DS) is a British-based entertainment, television and film website and brand and is the largest digital property at Hearst UK. Since its initial launch in 1999, Digital Spy has focused on entertainment news related to television pro ...

gave the PS3 version a score of four stars out of five, saying that, "For all of its drawbacks, when the whistle blows and the game kicks off, ''PES 2012'' offers a satisfying, unpredictable and utterly enjoyable game of virtual football." ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

'' gave the X360 version three-and-a-half stars out of five and stated, "The improvements in AI and excellent online modes are a solid basis to continue re-building ''PES'' to its former glory, but the weird physics and newfound lack of weight are a concern. It still feels like ''PES'' just isn't 100% sure where it should be going." ''The Digital Fix'' also gave the same version seven out of ten. 411Mania gave said version 6.5 out of 10 and called it "a fun game that keeps pace with its competitors. Generally the game is good, but many of its flaws really hurt the game. I felt that many of the issues could have been fixed and would have made this a much better game. Maybe next year this game will finally be the top game in the genre of Soccer games." ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' gave the same version three stars out of five and said, "The frantic and occasional flawed action on the pitch harks back to older ''PES'' games. ''Fifa 12'' 'sic''is the more complete football experience but ''PES 2012'' can still deliver in short hectic doses."

References

External links

* {{Authority control PlayStation 2 games PlayStation 3 games PlayStation Portable games Windows games Windows Phone games Video games set in 2012 Xbox 360 games IOS games Android (operating system) games

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

Wii games Nintendo 3DS games Nintendo Network games 2011 video games J.League licensed video games La Liga licensed video games Video games developed in Japan Sports video games with career mode Multiplayer and single-player video games