| Pro Evolution Soccer The giant endorsement killer is back to (you guessed it) reclaim it's crown and destroy any new pretenders in its path, with it's closest rival heading more towards falling flat on the field with more faith lost in it every year, Pro Evolution remains good and solid, with FIFA still being hugely popular, mainly because it has a flashy licence, but what it doesn't have is concrete stats to prove a full field full of realistic acting players, PES doesn't disappoint here, and these stats aren't just stats they come via Sport's Interactive's championship Manager, arguably the most realistic player stats in the world!!!! The greatest football game in the world? Blows away the opposition in every aspect, so now I have said that, you may read further, but isn't that all you wanted to know? Well I thought it was an early question that needed answered, and I'll probably be calling it the greatest football game ever made a few more times in this review, but the new question is what makes this so good? Easy enough to answer with room enough to explain read on gamers!!! If you have played anymore of the series, you'll know what to expect.......need I say more? Ok, floating passes, magnificent through balls, satisfying goals, enough said.......play the same? It certainly does, but that's no bad thing, as the ball physics prove the most realistic, nothing else matters. The cheekily named This Is Football doesn't play a game of football anywhere near as good as PES, This is where you play football, this is football. The beauty of the game is the way it plays, which destroys every other aspect of the game, the passes are perfectly weighted and have the physics you want a footie game to have, it's also a game of tricks, with plenty of them to unleash from the players, greatly configured and great to use with the Dual Shock......If you see a striker run forward a quick tap of the Triangle button will prove a very satisfying move if the striker gets through on to the ball instead of in front of it, and if successful run on, and hopefully score a beauty, although due to the stats of the players the through ball is without a doubt best to use passing to a fast striker (Michael Owen, Ronaldo for example), as the defence needs to be won in the frantic race to the box. Crossing from the 2 wings in to the box, can be difficult but if you find the required space, then you'll be laughing, either scoring from a nicely placed header, volleys or the excellent slide shot. Even the greatest football game in the world has its flaws, and that includes in the gameplay, the most serious being the fact that it's hard to score, and this isn't due to world class keepers (although they are decent), it's all because the game is about realism and due to this realism the game can get kind of stuck at times, in other words boring. In ways this flaw is about the AI which is excellent, but this is what causes the flaw, all the players act so realistically with the defence moving up in to position with every attack, the ball has to be used to it's full potential by working to score, instead of just passing and hoping, you have to watch how the players move and time your passes and shots until perfection arrives hopefully, it is a flaw and possibly the most serious one out of the few, but it still remains excellent the gameplay, and really speaking, can you call the latter a flaw? Or a challenge? I'd go with challenge as every match is a different game, and errors from each team proves costly, just like the game in reality, working to score can get boring if the game is stuck in midfield, but when you can get going the game is great, greatest ever to be exact! As said earlier the other aspects of the game are almost completely overshadowed by the realistic nature of the game, but without these aspects the game still wouldn't exist, these aspects I'm talking about mainly meaning the graphics and sound. The graphics are excellent despite a few minor flaws which is found mainly in the shadowing, in parts or certain pitch textures perhaps, the shadows just sometimes resemble big black ugly blocks, and PES could have done without such a graphical flaw, the players look great but a lot of them in no way resemble there real life counterparts, I mean, since when did Michael Owen get ginger hair? The physics are here anyways, and that is what the players are disregarding the appearances, the stadiums on the other hand are greatly designed, and with the pitch being spacey the graphics are smooth and best viewed from a height. The sound is atrocious, well in a main aspect, which is the commentary, Terry Butcher and Chris (who!) James are back in the commentary box, and in no way am I pleased to see them back, always a flaw of the series, this really needs to be sorted out, "The sun is shining" and it's dull and raining, yes it's like they are watching different matches, with them responding to a button press in a certain way, press the triangle button, and Mr James will say, he's through, even if he's not, just responding to the through ball button....Page 2 |