In a country where football is a national treasure and pastime, you as a gamer would fall into one of three categories concerning this wonderful sport portrayed on the Xbox. You are either a FIFA fan, Pro Evo fan or one who just doesn’t care about football. Personally, I was a FIFA fan since I had never played a Pro Evo game before in any of its past efforts on other various consoles, so you could say I wasn’t expecting much even though I had heard how good this game was. I also heard how hard it was to control the players and these comments had kind of put me off, but how right or wrong were these comments could only be found out by playing the game, which was exactly what I did.

Diving straight into the game without reading the instructions is probably what 90% of gamers do including me. To get bogged down in senseless drivel is nothing compared to the rewards of playing the game and finding out for your self, so I decided to start with an “Exhibition Match”. There are International sides and several foreign leagues with every club represented, so you have plenty to choose from before facing your opposition on the pitch. Skipping past team formations, tactics and players (like I said, dive straight in), the whistle blows and away we go.

The game play is outstanding and I can see why many people say that Pro Evo is the best football game ever. Everything from dribbling to shooting is smooth with such free flowing movement that it is a joy to play as well as watch. The new dribbling system allows you to have much more control over the ball with first touch passing and through balls that are precise but not perfect which brings realism to the game unlike some other titles. As you can only control one player at a time, it is important that the other players on your team react to the surrounding action and with the help of the map you are able to pass to them with better accuracy. If that fails, than you can always use the strategy button to alert your players to how you want to proceed. Every player is an individual with their own characteristics meaning that you can’t just run up the length of the pitch with a defender hoping that when he reaches the penalty box at the far end of the pitch he would still have the strength to shoot with the quality of a striker. This individuality extends to how well the players move on and off the ball, control and passing, in other words, team play is essential to winning a match. For the first time ever on a pitch, a referee is present bringing further realism to the game and will allow advantage to be played for minor infringements to minimise stoppage and enhance the fluidity of the game.

Controlling the player is quite simple using all the buttons and triggers for passing, shooting and bursts of speed, but if you really want to unlock the true potential of the players than practice is required, hence you are giving the option in the main menu for “Training”. Here you can select the skill you want to practice as well as being shown what the combination of buttons and joystick direction is needed to pull of this movement or trick. As well as the ‘Exhibition’ and “Training” mode, there are three others to choose from – League, Cup and Master League. The “League” mode allows you to select from seven leagues as well as an International league and play a round robin tournament. If that doesn’t take your interest, than you can always play the “Cup” mode. Three cups to choose from – International, Regional & the Konami Cup. Both of these modes can be tweaked to allow several players to participate, adjust the difficulty and length of the match after each game. The last mode and probably the main feature of the game is the ‘Master League’. This is where you can create a team from scratch by searching for talent, training them and than entering them into a division. As you progress and start to win matches, you will receive money to buy new players and thus improve your team. You are able to edit the names, kits and personalise the teams with enough options to keep you busy for a long time, but if patience is not your virtue, you could always choose a pre-made team and dive straight in and hopefully win the championship.

If you thought that was it, than you are about to find out how big this game is. I mentioned earlier that you receive money / credits after each game in the master league but you also receive them after any match in any mode. These credits can than be used in the shop to purchase new stadiums, difficulty levels and several other features which opens up a whole new depth to this already massive game.

Graphics:

The graphics are of good quality with superb animation allowing fluid movement of the players during the game on and off the ball. Most of the players are easily recognisable but if you are comparing the graphics to FIFA than you will be disappointed. This game shows that game play can overcome graphics any day of the week. The opening scenes before each match resembles what you would normally see on television and the replays are of excellent standard allowing you to view from any angle and saving them for future viewing in case you want to show off to your friends.

Sound:

Commentary is of good standard and is fairly on the ball when it comes to describing the action. Of course this can get a bit repetitive but not enough to spoil the atmosphere generated by the sounds of the crowd.

Longevity:

The game is massive and with the inclusion of LIVE can only extend the life of this game until the next version comes out. Whether this will be in six months or 2 years, it does not matter as this is the best football game out there.

Round Up:

You can only be impressed by this game as to how much effort has gone into the development. Even if this game was not LIVE, it would be worth a purchase but with the inclusion makes this a must buy for any sport fan. I didn’t think it was possible to change the mind of one who has been playing FIFA for years to say that Pro Evo is better. If you want arcade football, choose FIFA but if you want to play football than it has to be Pro Evolution Soccer 4.