Gamer 2.0 PC - Winning Eleven 9 Review

OUR RATING:

9.4

EXCELLENT

About our ratings

TANGIBLES:

Gameplay:		10
Visuals:		9
Audio:		8
Value:		9
Quality:		10

Why you should buy it: It's the absolute best soccer game ever. If you love the 'beautiful game' then you should be on your way to purchase this game right NOW!

Why you should rent it: If you don't already love soccer, this won't do much to draw you in. Too realistic for some people. Some licensing issues still remain for Konami.

UNIQUE RATING:

9.4

SUGGESTION:

Buy It

Winning Eleven 9

Written by: Chris Barrett | Tags: Winning Eleven 9, PC, Konami

February 13,2006 -

The Winning Eleven series of soccer titles have always been highly acclaimed, and for good reason. No other soccer title has been able to capture the realism of the sport quite like Winning Eleven. With the release of Winning Eleven 9, Konami hopes to keep its stranglehold on the video soccer world with the most compelling football experience ever.

Anyone who has played Winning Eleven in the past will feel at home quickly in WE9. The menus have not changed much, and finding your way around is never difficult. The options consist of your usual fare: quick match (a.k.a. Friendly), the master league career mode, custom league and cup competitions, online play, training, and edit mode. The menus are easy to navigate, and once you get into one of these varied modes, you will be engrossed in detail.

The meat of the game is in the master league mode. This is basically a “dynasty mode” for your soccer club. You start out by picking a team from the long list of squads available. However, there are still licensing issues with FIFA and Konami so you get a mixed bag of real squads, like Chelsea and Arsenal, and fictional squads, like Man Red (which is Manchester United). You have the same issues with players. You get some players that have their actual names, like Ruud Van Nistelrooy, and others with fictional names like Dotan (which is supposed to be Landon Donovan).

Thanks to the nifty edit mode you can easily remedy any licensing issues, given you want to put in the time and effort. You can utilize the edit mode to change the kits (uniforms). The options are deep and varied, so recreating your favorite team’s kit or creating a completely original one is never a far stretch.

When the master league begins, you are asked if you want to start with a stock team with real players, or a team of hacks that you must build into champions. Of course, choosing the stock team is easier, but keeping the team afloat longer proves to be difficult since there are more marquee players on those squads.

The star players will eat away your budget, and having no money is the quickest way to see a “game over” screen. Even though you have to keep a close eye on your finances, money is not the key aspect. The players are the most important thing in your league. You have pages and pages of reports and lineups for your players. You can see individual levels of happiness and fatigue. There are also pages that notify you when a player is retiring, suspended, or just being summoned to play for his national team. Between matches, you can view past match performances that show passing and shooting patterns of you and your opponents. The level of detail is quite impressive and it will keep the most hardcore soccer fan busy for a long time.

The level of realism in the master league menu spills over into the actual gameplay as well. The action on the field is as realistic as ever. Passing and shooting require precision timing and good positioning. The touches of the ball are great also. Players dribble the ball better than ever, and the special moves are actually useful when used in the right situation. Free kicks are also improved. Bending the ball around the defense and into the twine behind the keeper has never been more fun. All this realism is fantastic, but for a casual player, frustration will probably ensue. If you do not know the fundamental strategies of soccer, you will find it difficult to win games. Casual fans may also be turned off by the fact that some computer opponents will play a possession game (that means you will be on defense most of the time). However, if you are a hardcore soccer fan you will love every aspect of WE9.