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SIMPLY AWFUL BY KAMAL BAJPAI | | kamal bajpai from Kanpur , India says (11/Aug/2002): | As Winning Eleven 5 hasn’t strayed too far away from our office PS2 since it was released five months ago, we were awaiting the PAL code like a ravenous tiger awaits its prey – foaming at the mouth and, frankly, gagging for it. Hell, even English names with everything else unchanged from the Japanese code would have been enough but no, Konami made us wait for all these months, starving for our footie fix. There had better be a bloody good reason for that!
Sure enough, upon loading Pro Evolution Soccer for the first time, a wealth of stunning new enhancements come to light that instantly solidify this as the most fantastic football game ever. All is forgiven. The options on offer may be almost identical to last year’s PSone epic, ISS Pro Evolution 2 – boasting identical cup and league competitions – but the upgrade in processing power means that the presentation has been enhanced to such a degree that the only way you can tell you aren’t really watching England is the fact that you can actually string two passes together in this game. With more frames of animation and a whole host of new tricks to master, these players are more lifelike than ever, so much so that you can even piss your pants laughing when Andy Cole comically swipes at thin air, missing the ball completely. Yes, even stinking rich professionals make heinous mistakes, and this game doesn’t portray them otherwise.
The most significant new addition to the control system is that there are two extra sprinting moves. To compensate for the straight forward dash that has been the sole means of injecting pace into matches in previous games, there is a new move which actually allows you to turn, cut inside and size up a shot all in one breathtaking move. The addition of this move means that you can at last make devastating solo runs and create chances out of nothing. The other sprint variant is when you actually slow down to a snail’s pace and tentatively nudge the ball forward. This seemingly serves no real purpose, but if you combine it with the other sprint moves then you can bomb down the wing, slow to a grind and draw the defenders out, often causing them to commit to a rash challenge before speeding up again and darting into the area. Another useful move is the jump. By pressing R3 at the exact moment a defender comes lunging in, you’ll merrily skip over the danger and break for goal. Getting the timing right is hard, but if you pull one off, much to the delight of the crowd, it beats any between the sheets shenanigans hands down!
Elsewhere, the one-two passing move has been unnecessarily complicated – possibly because it was just too damn effective in previous games and the feint and shimmy moves actually work now.
Knowing that all eyes would be on this game after Konami’s previous PS2 football outing took the ISS name in vein and delivered a game which was a far cry from the sexy football we have grown dependant on, KCET has gone to great lengths to address all of the past problems. Take the AI of your players. Many argued before that they just didn’t react quickly enough to tackles and lucky deflections, but now each player is ranked out of 100 in 20 different attributes – reaction being one of them. This means that every player is much more individual and utilising them in their best positions is essential for getting anything out of the games, for the results tend to be much closer now.
In terms of gameplay, nothing comes close to recreating every essence of football as this game. It’s perfect. Everything that’s in the game is, well, in the game. Stringing together a flurry of passes that culminates in a bulging sack is sheer unbridled bliss and you can experience every wave of emotion going as you battle to break down the opposition’s back line before whacking one in… only to have it ruled out for offside.
Only the commentary and restricted FIFpro licence, which means only European players have the correct names, tarnish the overall splendour. But this matters not, because KCET has produced a football game which defies belief. Choose FIFA over this and you deserve to be shot!
| better than its ps 1 version but could have been better. KAMAL BAJPAI | | Kamal bajpai from kanpur India says (1/Aug/2002): | i was very exicted to have this new soccer drug on ps2 it consists of a single game mode a cup mode representing the world cup a u 23 cup and a scenario mode with some great games from times gone by. there are 6 diffculty levels 1 to 61 b eing the easiest 6 the toughest the teams listed are great hardly any one missed out but the players are wierd the names are as strange as they can belike there is one Rivasco in brazil playing as no 10 have to wonder what happened to rivaldo
well the names and players can be edited the commentry and the sound effects are great but the players could be better may be that will be kept in mind for the next version the controling is good overall but like we had in ps2 following a player is diffcult as there is no 'press' function any way these things ought to be replacced
the celebration after winning a tournament are also nil when we work hard to win we must also get to rejoice.
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