Gooooooooooooal!
By Rockwaldo

Winning Eleven 10 (or, for the benefit of our uneducated editor, Pro Evolution Soccer 6) is the newest in Konami's long running football series for the PS2.

Pledge your allegiance to the new one lads.

This series is famous for causing arguments about which is the ‘best’ version. Everyone, it seems, has an opinion. There are still people out there who are convinced that WE8LE (PES4-and-a-bit) is the best, some will favour WE9 (PES5) and still others hold a candle for the relatively ancient WE6. Sick puppies.

Konami are not EA, a new release of Winning Eleven isn’t just a case of ‘update a few player names and stats and roll out a new version’. With each new version Konami try and improve the game wherever they can, even if it means radically changing the game in places. Fans of this series (and I certainly am, having adored it since the early days of Winning Eleven 3) have had to learn to live with the fear that - this year - they’re going to ruin it.

I have a theory about this. Konami don't actually improve anything with each version. What they do (probably through some magical doohicky while it’s loading) is allow you to suddenly start to see faults with the previous version that you had never even noticed before. With this process complete, the new version loads up - and fuck me if it hasn't fixed all of those problems you had with the last version. Of which there were loads. Weren't there? Yeah....must have been. Good old Konami.

Also, I must remember to buy the complete back catalogue of Castlevania games.

With this new found clarity, I realise that one of the things that I had most problem with in Winning Eleven 9 (Pro Evolution Soccer 5 remember - keep up Chris!) is that it just wasn't actually that much FUN. Quite a fundamental problem come to think of it, but the game did so much right you find yourself accommodating and even justifying it; football isn't always fun in real life after all (just watch Forest every week if you don't believe me). Also, it always struck me that the difference in skill and pace between players wasn't defined well enough. Many a time Henry would get the ball, run towards the box and yet be matched for pace by some unknown Saudi Arabian 87 year old defender. You control one of the fastest players in the world; you certainly want that to be reflected on screen. Without the skill differential between players, you would find that most teams ended up pretty much cancelling each other out, and you were as likely to lose against Brazil as you were to Scotland. Oh, and also - Oh, and also - Jesus, the referees were fussy! You were lucky to get a full 30 seconds of play before the ref blew up for another stupid foul when all you were trying to do was stand next to a guy and get the ball.

Now do you see what I mean? Winning Eleven 9 was rightly lauded as one of the greatest football games of all time, and I’ve just realised, with the aid of that special Konami magic, that it was a bit shit.

But never fear! Winning Eleven 10 has solutions to these problems, oh yes.

I have played about 30 or so games now, against both the computer and mates, and my god if it isn’t fun! Not just normal fun either, literal "Cry out in joy" fun. No longer do you spend 80% of the game trying to get the ball off of the awkward bastards. No more stupid fouls. No more skill and pace equality; the difference in pace when you control Henry is staggering and that ugly chump Rooney can't 'alf 'it 'em! Marvellous stuff.

The rest of the game is solid as well. The graphics are pretty much the same, the core game play is the same, all of the leagues and cups and master leagues are all present and correct. Improvement wise, the aging PS2 has done itself proud as the slowdown is all but eradicated and of course all new players and teams are updated (all of the smaller teams present in this years world cup have been added for example).

As you can see the older version looked very similar graphically.

There has been some criticism among the fanboys that the game has been made too easy - that while the old version was weighted too heavily on the defensive side, in Winning Eleven 10 it has gone too far the other way. Scoring is easier than before, and the game is quite a bit faster, defence too was a bit shit in the last version - simply holding down the X button would either result in a foul (bizarrely in an almost random fashion it could be given against either defender or attacker) or you would get the ball. Konami magic again. In the new version, this is no longer the case. More often that not, if you are not positioned well as a defender, the attacker will run past your block attempts without much trouble. Twin that with the fact that the Goalkeepers are now less mechanical and more realistically fallible; they are less likely to save a one on one with a decent striker and a goal ensues.

So, to conclude - is it worth buying? Most definitely.

Is it a vast improvement over Winning Eleven 9? I think so, if only for the fun level alone. If you are a complete Winning Eleven whore and found Winning Eleven 9 too easy even on 6* difficulty, then chances are it may be a little too easy for you and you have no joy in your soul. If however you want to enjoy a fantastically realised game of football, then I can’t recommend it highly enough.

Sven makes Rooney play on one leg in the World Cup

Is it worth buying on Import rather than wait for the European version on other formats? Frankly if you are the sort of person that imports this series you will have have already made that decision. For the rest of you, Pro Evolution 6 (or 2007 as it may be called) is going to be something special. I for one can't wait to see the Xbox360 version in all its HD glory.

June 2006

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