Simply amazing (Pro Evolution Soccer (PS2))

Member Name: sheel33

Product:	Pro Evolution Soccer (PS2)
Date:	08/12/01 (156 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Excellent gameplay, good graphics, you can save your replays

Disadvantages: Poor commentary, don’t say real player names

Being a Fifa fan since I bought Fifa 98, it felt strange going into Virgin Megastore to buy Fifa 2002 and coming out of Virgin Megastore with Pro Evolution Soccer! I picked up Fifa, which was at number 8 in the PlayStation 2 charts, and took it to the till. The man at the till asked if I was a football fan and I answered, "Yeah, obviously!" He then asked if I had even played Pro Evolution Soccer and I said no. He then showed me a copy and said it was the best game he had ever played in the world! So, taking this man’s advice, I decided to try out Pro Evolution Soccer – my plan was to take it back and exchange it for Fifa 2002 if it wasn’t very good, but that hasn’t happened. Pro Evolution Soccer is the best game I have ever played and Fifa 2002 doesn’t stand a chance against it.

<-GRAPHICS->
Graphic-wise, Pro Evolution Soccer is an excellent game. The colour tones in each players shirt make them very realistic. However, they hardly ever look like the real players they are meant to represent, unlike Fifa 2002 – on Fifa 2002, you can tell who each and every player is by just their face. The pitch looks very good as well – unfortunately no games are yet realistic enough to show the grass looking real – in terms of showing each and every piece of grass. The kits are not as realistic as Fifa either, because they are not the exact details as real life.
GRAPHICS – 8/10

<-GAMEPLAY->
The gameplay in this game is astonishing. Lierally. Much better than any other football game in the world at this moment, Pro Evolution Soccer brings so much realism into the black box they call PlayStation 2 it’s amazing what they can put into one small disc.

PASSING
The passing is superb – you control which direction the ball goes and pass. The way the players control the ball is very good – their first touch is all about luck, because you cannot control it, but
they players don’t just pause for a moment before they pass, like in Fifa.

SHOOTING
Shooting takes some getting used to, because it has a power bar at the bottom of the screen. This bar represents how hard you will hit the ball when you shoot – this originally appeared in Virtua Striker by Sega. The longer you hold down the shoot button, the further this bar will go up. However, when you shoot, you must make sure that you press the “down” button at the same time because if you don’t, the ball is likely to go about 3 times over the height of the goal! When shooting with your head, you must position your player into the exact position of the ball’s landing for you to hit it – this is different to passing it with your head because it is not automatic. This can get annoying because I have only scored about 5 header out of hundreds of crosses even when it is a one-on-one chance because it is do difficult.

TACKLING
Tackling is not as good as Fifa. This is because when you run into the opposition player who holds possession of the ball, then you automatically tackle them, even if you don’t press anything. This is annoying because when you are running towards them from behind, your player will stick out their foot and foul the opposition. The slide tackling however, is quite good, and very realistic.

FREE KICKS/CORNERS
Although I still find it difficult to score from free kicks in this game, it is possible to do a “Bekcham” and curl it over the wall. I don’t actually know how, but this proves my point that free kicks take some time to getting used to. Corners, however are very simple, because you just hold down the crossing button until the power bar gets about 2/3 up, so the ball gets crossed into the middle of the box.

OTHER GAMEPLAY FEATURES
There are lots of other football skills you can do on this game – one of them being the good old one-two. You
pass the ball to your team-mate and he will automatically pass it back to you whilst you are running – this is very good for situations when there is one defender and you are one of 2 attackers.
Another feature is lobbing the keeper – if you double tap the shoot button when you have a one-on-one with the keeper, you chip the ball over his head! Impressive!
OVERALL GAMEPLAY: 10/10

<-COMMENTARY->
Unfortunately, the commentary in this game is very poor. It is very repetitious and boring and Fifa beats it hands down. Because the game has not got the rights to say the real player names (they modify them eg. Lopez becomes Polez…) the commentators do not say the player’s names, and this doesn’t give a realistic feel with the volume on.
COMMENTARY:5/10

<-GAMEPLAY OPTIONS->
On this game, you can play cup tournaments or create your own tournament, in which you call the shots (eg. Amount of teams etc.) There is also a league option, which you can save onto your memory card and continue another time. You can also practice your skills in the practice mode – free kicks, corners, kick about , one-two’s etc.
GAMEPLAY OPTIONS:9/10

<-OVERALL->
Overall, Pro Evolution Soccer is an excellent game and I am glad that the man at the counter recommended it to me! It is very realistic and although there are some minor downsides (repetitious commentary, no instant replay option) it is easily the best football game I have ever played and beats Fifa 2002 hands-down. It’s definitely worth the £40!

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