An honest review (Pro Evolution Soccer (PS2))

Member Name: johnny8977

Product:	Pro Evolution Soccer (PS2)
Date:	08/03/02 (159 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Execllent gameplay, Good graphics, Mostly real players

Disadvantages: THE COMMENTARY, Dodgy refereeing, Not official team names

This is a great game. It does have its faults however. Overall if you like this football, you will like this game. The more you know about football in real life, the more you will appreciate this.

Ok, the goods bits. Everyone enjoys playing as real players. So Konami made the wise decision to license real player names. However, for whatever reason they could not do this for South American, Welsh and Irish players. But Konami got round this by adding an edit player name feature so if you want Giggs and Veron to play for the Scum, ahem, I mean Man Utd, you can change Revon and Greggs appropriately.
The game itself is quite hard and it is fairly difficult to score. You may say, but surely that's a bad thing? No. There's no fun in winning every match 10-0 and scoring with every shot. The difficulty of the game makes it more realistic and the adrenalin really gets going when you're put clean through in the last minute at the game 0-0, knowing you aren't guaranteed to score.
You cannot just give the ball to your star player and waltz around the opposition. You have to pass patiently until you get that one break through that could decide a match, and them make it count.
The graphics are as good if not better than any other football game and are really smooth.
The game offers the regular Cup modes, for both national and International teams, but its the Master League that really stands out. Here you control one of the club teams with a set of unknown players and set about building your ultimate dream team. You are awarded points for winning matches and scoring goals, and these can be put towards buying players. Beware though. Each player costs a certain amount each season in 'upkeep' points, and if the end of the season comes rounds and you cannot afford all your 'upkeep' points - game over. This way, you can't afford a team full of Zidanes and Figos and not win the majority of your matches.

Now the bad po
ints.
THE COMMENTARY. My God. This is just horrible. I turned it off after about 15 mins. It is the old England defender Terry Butcher with Chris James. Chris who I hear you cry? Exactly my point.
The refereeing. Some if it is ridiculous. Perhaps they play different in Japan but in Britain I don't except to get sent off for the first miss-timed tackle on the edge of the opponents area.
Limited Stadia with real names. There's only a few stadia in the game and these have made up names. For example the Nou Camp becomes Catalonia Stadium and Highbury, North East Stadium. They are faithfully recreated though.
No official team names. Clubs named after cities are OK, see Liverpool and Barcelona. However, there are no Real (just Madrid), Scum (just Manchester) and Juventus becomes Piezenze (sp?).
And the crowd graphics are as flat as pancakes.

But, football games aren't built on graphics and official names. They live and die on their gameplay - and Pro Evolution Soccer is the king. The actual sport of football with most, not all just yet, little touches and nuances is here on a CD. If you like football, you'll love this.

Summary: