World Soccer Winning Eleven 8 International

On screen, the game has very fluid animation and it looks and feels like the real thing. What sets Winning Eleven part is the control. The sheer variety of controls is almost overwhelming. There is little you can't do with your players. What's great, though, is that you can have a good time playing with simple pass, shoot, and dribble controls if you are a more casual fan. For those willing to invest the time, though, there is a lot of depth to be had here. You will spend a lot of time playing and practicing to master the various games. The game assists this through its well implemented training and challenge modes, which will teach you how to do all of those fancy tricks.

Winning Eleven provides the opportunity to play Exhibition games, but also a variety of League and Tournament formats. The real standout is the Master League, which also puts management tools into your hands. You can draft and develop players in a League format.

There are a few weaknesses in Winning Eleven. The sound and music are fine, but not spectacular. Although this edition has better licenses than previous incarnations of the game, Winning Eleven still lags behind the FIFA series in this respect. But I still give the game five stars because of the sheer quality and depth of the gameplay. It can be played casually, but will reward serious effort.

A couple of notes for PC users. I found the game installed and ran flawlessly, but there are a few things to note. First, the game only comes on a DVD-ROM. If your computer doesn't have one, you simply won't be able to install it. Given the low cost of DVD-ROM drives these days, you really should have one, but if you don't you should be aware that you won't be able to install the game. Second, I think a gamepad is pretty much essential for this game. The manual lists keyboard controls, but they're clunky and somewhat difficult to use. Ideally, you would want a gamepad that is a PC version of a PS2 controller, since the controls are designed a PS2 in mind (and the on-screen prompts use PS2 symbols for the buttons). My gamepad isn't a PS2 version and it works fine, but it is sometimes difficult to try to remember which button on my pad corresponds with the square on the PS2. But any gamepad would be an improvement over the keyboard.

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