Platform	PlayStation 2
Genre	Football
Publisher	Konami

Just in time. After a long and regrettably football-free summer the European season is set to kick off, and a new version of Winning Eleven has arrived. Though some criticise Konami for releasing a new version virtually every six months, it has to be said that Winning Eleven 7 contains more fundamental changes from last Decembera??s WE6 Final Evolution than any before it. Ita??s not a radical overhaul, but certainly a bigger jump than any Winning Eleven since the PSone days.

First, the basics. The focus here has turned from the International teams to European Club teams. National squads and tournaments are still present, but the number of clubs has been bumped up to 64 (including four fully licensed Italian clubs) and the Master League has been totally redesigned to accommodate the extra sides. I havena??t spent too much time with it yet, but a basic glimpse of the structure reveals the main Master League to be split into 4 divisions, equal in stature but divided by geography, with various cup competitions on offer (including the Champions League-esque WEFA Cup) to compete in.

What makes WE7 so different are the ball physics. Ita??s said that the original Genesis FIFA games evolved from EAa??s NHL Hockey technology, and you can almost see the remnants of that connection today even with Winning Eleven by the way players dribble the ball. Though the players do not a??glidea?? over the pitch like they once used to, the ball still does. In reality, pitches are not as perfect and as smooth as ice. They are uneven, and the ball frequently bobbles, bounces and spins as players dribble across it. That is now reflected in WE7, and as minor as it sounds, it changes the game entirely. Passing and running is not as easy and automatic as it once was; building-up attacks through long periods of possession is key, but in order to keep the ball you have to be very careful and cana??t blindly sling passes or run into dead ends as before. And pulling off perfect runs to slalom past defenders and jink your way through the box is also harder when youa??re fighting to stay in control of the ball. And when you hit it, should the ball bobble awkwardly before you strike it you can expect to miss. Badly.

If that sounds like ita??s made the game far more difficult, wella?| it has. Help is at hand, however, because to balance things out there are a lot of advantages. For a start, players are now much more adept at controlling bouncing balls, from trapping them to kill the bounce or even using the bounce to flick it backwards over your head. The best part, however, is shooting with a bouncing ball, because you can now volley. Traditionally a weak point of WE and all football games, the volley (hitting a ball before it drops to the floor) is one of footballa??s most spectacular shots and a key part of WE7. Whereas shooting with a waist-high ball in front of you before would either entail your striker attempting a ludicrous diving header or waiting until the ball sits on the floor before you can shoot, now you get a fluid and lifelike volley to thrash into the back of the net. Another factor to consider when shooting is your playera??s preferred foot. Though WE has always taken that into account (meaning a right-footed player shoots best with his right and flops with his left), now rather that simply being better on one side than the other the player actively prefers one over the other a?g so even if hitting it with the left foot seems better in the situation, a right-footed player will twist and try to wrap his right foot around the ball instead.

Other improvements include a change to the through-pass. Depending on the version you play, the through pass is either the most useful pass or utterly useless, as the developers get to grips with tuning it. Here, ita??s been shuffled around to give a greater variety in through passes. You can play balls that curve around the outside of the defender now, or lay-offs into the path of onrushing teammates (a feature present before, but much improved here). And speaking of curving the ball, now ita??s pretty much essential at any set-piece (corners, free-kicks) where you want someone to head it in. Direct (shooting) free-kicks have also been changed, with an overall reduction in velocity making it harder again to score. This isna??t one of the better alterations to the game, and ita??s rather perplexing at first because ita??s hard enough placing the free-kick on target without having to worry about the shot being too slow to beat the keeper.

There are more gameplay options still to delve into, but which I havena??t fully explored yet. There are new a??trick movesa?? now, such as a Zidane-esque 360 degree spin. Therea??s a a??Libero Grandea?? mode, where you take control of just one player for the whole match (hence the reference to the Namco PSone game). There are a variety of new options to influence the game like crowd and referee bias for the home or away team, though they are indecipherable to non-Japanese speakers (or readers, in this case). And therea??s apparently a new set of manual goalkeeper controls, but again Ia??m unsure how to actually use it.

Of course, nothing is perfect and there are a few problems. The most serious ones are graphical. If your PS2a??s DVD drive is a well-worn one, the game takes much longer to load (sometimes a good ten seconds between menus) and youa??ll see plenty of stuttering during the game itself, as well as nasty bouts of screen tearing. How bad the problem is really depends on the state of your PS2. It could be a rare enough occurrence that the game may only stutter briefly once every so often, or you could see it happen any time more than 8 players appear on-screen together. There are also apparently reports from Japan of certain PS2s not being able to play the game at all, though therea??s nothing more concrete than that. The problem is also worse with CD-R copies of the game (leading to a flurry of complaints on the Internet), but it still exists with the original version.

There are also some niggles with gameplay. The game is far less forgiving than it used to be. Though the series never really was of the pick-up-and-play variety, ita??s now slipped deeper into the realm of the sim and thus will provide newcomers with a stiff challenge. And though theya??ve definitely taken shooting a giant step forward with the inclusion of volleys, headers are proving a weak spot. Ita??s certainly possible to score from crosses, but it is far more difficult than it once was a?g perhaps too much so, though ita??s hard to say without more play and learning the new crossing system (which emphasizes open space and slowing down rather than just running and thumping the ball into a crowded penalty area).

Also, it should be said that while the summer has been filled with a flurry of high-profile transfers, none are actually in the game. So David Beckham still plays for Manchester United. Though it had to be expected that that game would be missing transfers a?g the transfer window opened July 1st and the game came out August 7th a?g ita??s still disappointing to see even the biggest transfer missing. On the other hand, there is a solution for those with enough dedication and time on their hands, and it doesna??t involve patching. Konami has finally listened to fans and included a transfer option in the series, so if you want you can shift players around to mimic real-life transfersa?| or just build your own Real Madrid.

Additional much-requested features finally making their WE debut include a club-versus-country option, the ability to switch controllers and reassign teams in mid-match (in case someone joins halfway througha?| or in case someone forgets to pick the right team), as well as assigning names to players a?g so instead of a floating P1 icon, youa??ll see your own name (a precursor to online play?). Therea??s finally also an action replay to watch (and save) at any point during the game. You can even unlock new options to double the speed of the game or change the ball through the new WE Shop. For every match you play, you get points (dubbed WEN), and when you get enough you can a??spenda?? them at the WE Shop for bonuses. Hardly innovative, but it does build in a little more incentive and replay value, as well as making the game a little more open-ended (the a??tricka?? to unlocking certain classic teams was the same for the last four games!). And arguably the two coolest new features come from the referee, who now allows play to continue if he sees an advantage to the team that got fouled, and also calls handballs.

Ita??s those changes that really make WE7 stand out. Ita??s still a WE game at the core, but alongside a set of innovative features that have yet to be implemented in any other game, therea??s also a different and fresh dynamic present that gets the realism factor up and increases the fun in the game. Therea??s absolutely nothing like taking the real Japan squad to victory by snatching a ball out of the air with your right foot and volleying it before it hits the ground with your left to win the Asian Cup in the last minute. Nothing.


- Ravi Hiranand