After the rigmarole of picking a team (mostly unlicensed, so you get the real Manchester United, but Aston Villa are West Midlands Village) you're on the pitch, ready to guide your team to victory.

Attacking players have more of a pulse this year. Instead of tottering level with the ball carrier waiting to be marked out, they're far more inclined to take a run behind enemy lines, dashing down the wings and even making the odd slanted run in the middle of the pitch. Gone are the days when you'd stand outside the opposition's box with one foot on the ball, shouting at your men to sodding do something, only to be knee-capped by the sliding boot of a defender moments later. If your men are starting to loiter, you can command one to start running with a quick point and click of the right stick (play with a joypad, people!). It's an essential move that bypasses occasional Al lethargy and gives you much more precise control.

But all that new attacking movement can leave defenders stuck in the mud. For the most part they're sensible, but their refusal to dive in for a necessary crunching tackle means that a pressing team can get away with too much.

Most improved
No surprise, then, that matches in PES 2012 game tend to be high-scoring affairs, but it's forgivable given how much better the football feels this time around. Everything is faster and more precise. While FIFA's trick stick has players performing ever more convoluted manoeuvres, PES game is about passing and team movement. Matches have become are far more lively and competitives as a result.

It would be wrong to point to one big factor as the reason behind PES's revival game. It's the result of a number of incremental improvements on the pitch. Players are more responsive on the ball, a tricky attacker feels different to a lumbering defender, the animations are more convincing, the crowds noisier and attacking play is enormously improved.

PES game still struggles to offer anything its monolithic competitor FIFA can't do with more polish, but PES 2012 is an incisive diagonal run in the right direction. If only the defenders were a little braver.

Vital Statistics
Price $47
Developer Konami
Publisher Konami
Multiplayer 4-players online
Genre Footie
DRM CD Key

Needs 2.4GHz CPU, 1GB RAM, 128MD 3D card
Wants Dual core CPU, 2GB RAM, 512MB 3D card