For the un-initiated, first Konami release a Winning Eleven title in Japan. Then a few months later the European version, that brings us a slightly tweaked version of that game comes forth onto the shelves of our local gaming emporiums. It’s usually been these slight tweaks that have been to the games detriment however. But, this time not much has changed, and Pro Evolution Soccer 4 is all the better for it.

I’m not going to harp on about the gameplay too much, as everyone has rambled on long enough about how much this game needs to be adored and held in extremely high regard. But, just to repeat a little of what been said before, this is the only series of football games that really does feel like football. Passing the ball around feels right. The shooting feels right. The decision making feels right. The flow, the pace, the slightly niggly nature as a 0-0 draw inevitably gets towards the end of the 90 minutes, while a few over the top challenges fly in and it all becomes very tension filled. It’s all nigh on perfect.

However, what I will talk about are the areas of the game I’ve been able to truly sample due to finally having my hand on code I can read, after the lack of being to understand, well, any of Winning Eleven 8. First of all, training. There’s your basic training of course, which shows you the basic moves of the game. For those of you who’ve missed the game over the past few years, this is quite a great little feature, especially with the likes of the “cancel effect”. This little addition to the gameplay, much harped on about by PES veterans is difficult, but essential to the game if you really wish to be the best of the best. In the training method, you utilise this in order to cut off your players through ball run slightly early, giving you immediate control of the ball before the defender can reach it before you. Then there are the training challenges. Each type of training challenge (there’s shooting, ball possession, defending, and a fair few more to find) has five different levels. As you progress through the levels, its gets increasingly difficult to complete with a high score. The ultimate aim is obviously to gain full marks in all the separate areas. But trust me, that won’t be achieved without a fair amount of gaming time racked up.

Then there’s the master league. Now this area has been improved immensely once again. Another step has been taken towards giving PES fans a truly great managerial game on their Xbox. Players now improve with age, a bar showing you just how much they should be expected to improve. These improvements are shown after every game. It’s a slow and steady increase, but it does encourage you to build teams for the future. Especially as the older players stats can decrease at quite a rapid rate towards the end of their careers. Harsh maybe, but true to life. Cups now are introduced, with different cups breaking up the traditional league season at specific intervals. Giving you a much needed extra area to bolster your coffers with cash to loan in a star player not getting a game at another team. With wages to consider to, gone are the days you can bring Thierry Henry to your lowly division 2 side, as his wages would destroy your club entirely and end the game, even if you did manage to persuade him to make the drop. You can even quality for different European competitions, based on the true life Champions League and UEFA Cup competitions (though not in name obviously). Master league will take a huge amount of your time.    

Luckily, the game controls have been ported across quite masterfully from the PS2’s Duel Shock to the Xbox’s controller S. While obviously it takes a little getting used to, especially with the L2 and R2 buttons utilised on the black and white buttons on the face of the controller S and the confusion that causes, the controls even manage to feel slightly more intuitive thanks to the better quality of the Microsoft consoles analogue sticks.

The main selling point about this Xbox version of PES4 is the simple fact that you have the capability to play your fellow Live enabled pals online in one on one games. With the recent patch practically destroying the lag that was much abundant during the early days, and combating the quitters that disheartened many (now, anyone who quits midway through a game automatically forfeits the game 3-0) it’s getting close to what we truly want. There’s a huge room for improvement however. With no options for tournaments and leagues on show, there’s still room for PES5 to bring the Live enabled PES that we’d completely fall in love with.

Konami once again up the stakes in the gaming world, at least where football is concerned. The uncanny ability to create all the atmosphere, the tension, and the sheer joy that real football inflicts upon millions the world over once again takes another step up to the nigh on perfect. Every football fan, be it the fanatic who wants a game to play with his pals after a day out at a real world game and a trip to the pub, or even the more lonely type, who’ll end up playing long into the night, attempting to build up their mater league side into a real football giant will adore this game. The multiplayer feature is by far the most fun Live game so far. Plus, Konami seem to posses this astonishingly ability to improve on what we perceive as perfection year after year without fail. With how fantastic Pro Evolution Soccer 4 is, I honestly can’t wait to see how they manage to improve on this for next time.

Chris Pickering