World Soccer Winning Eleven 8 International review:5 stars (Better Than FIFA) - I am from England where ever loves FIFA but now there is a new footy game on the market and everyone is turning. In the UK its called Pro Evolution Soccer 4 and i have had ever single one of them sice Pro Evo 1. They all better than FIFA because it has better game play and is much fast than FIFA which is slow and boring not like the beautiful game of football but the only thing FIFA has over Pro Evo is that it has better graphics and has the real names, which is made up for in gameplay. This is a great game playing against your mates because the pace of the game is gets much faster. This is much better than FIFA and the more people that buy it the more real kits and names there will be on the game SO BUY IT.5 stars (Best of the Winning Eleven series to date) - I have played all of the North American W.E. games since WE 6 and I have to say that I am impressed with the consistent improvements that Konami has done with this series. Below is my review based off the PS2 version:

The Winning Eleven games have all had one thing in common: tremendous and realistic gameplay. Not only does WE 8 continue this tradition, but the game also adds on welcomed new features that compensate for the lack of online play and club licenses that is synonymous with the FIFA series:

- On the pitch referee
When fouls are committed, you'll witness a referee run up to the play to either warn the player or toss out a yellow card. What makes this neat is that you have the option to select which referee will be the decision maker for your game. One ref that is not made available is Pierluigi Collina, who is heralded as being the best ref in the sport. That's a bit of a bummer but doesn't really do much to affect the game

- Free kicks now involve two kickers
Yep, that's right. By using the select button (on the PS2), you have the option of using two kickers from the spot. This now only adds to realism, but strategy as well since you have more than one person at getting around the wall during free kicks.

- Advanced moves
In previous versions of W.E. you had to be real adept in using the buttons to get around your opponent. Although you still need to be pretty skillful in maneuvering your man, you can use the R2 button to perform stutter steps and more fakes to get around the defender. Playing against the computer on the highest difficulty will show you how hard covering the AI has really gotten.

- Improved AI
As great as WE 6 was, the AI wasn't overly difficult. WE7 was better at working on this but now, WE 8 has really added to this department. You'll find that if you play the same two teams 3 times, you'd be pressed to win all 3 games in a row. The defense of the AI has hard to get around unless you really are adept in passing well. As I said earlier, offensive AI is hard in its own right in that the addition of trick moves makes it hard to cover your opponents one on one, especially if the opposing player is a star such as Ronaldo, Zidane, Henry, etc. You'll also never score the same goal twice (unless it's a penalty kick). The AI is just too good in this game.

- Improved graphics
This is easily the best looking WE game in the series. Although FIFA has been renowned for their graphics, I really think WE is not that far behind anymore. You can easily make out players such as Beckham, Schevchenko, Figo, etc. Heck, you can even witness Cristiano Ronaldo of Manchester United along with his huge earrings. Animations are numerous in this game as well. Players complaining, goal keepers trying to motivate teammates, players pushing each other after a hard foul was committed all add to the fun factor in this game. You'll even see dirt stains on players' jerseys after a few minutes have passed in the game.

- Deeper Master's League
Although I have yet to try this part of the game, I have been told that this is the bread and butter of the game. Basically this is the part of the game where you take a team over the course of several seasons and try to build a dynastry (similar to franchise mode on other games like Madden). You can keep track of your players during the course of a season with player ratings fluctuating. Old players will retire at season's end and young players, with added playing time, will improve right before your very eyes. Previous W.E. Master League's have kept me busy so I'm expecting this year's iteration to do the same to me once I get to it.

Here are the few cons I found (PS2)
- Commentary/Sound
Not horrible, but not great. However, once youre knee deep in games (which will happen once you play the hardest level), you won't be concentraing on the sound as much.

- A bit of slowdown
If you have several players in the box, there's occasional slowdown but not bad enough to take away from the gameplay.

- No online play. Probably the most "glaring" deficit of this game according to some. True, online play adds fun to games, but I always felt that playing a sports game with more than one person is best when you play your friends directly instead of over a broadband connection.



Overall, this is probably one of the best sports games I have ever played (Madden 2003, NBA 2K series, and SSX I think are on this level). Even if you're not a soccer fan you'll enjoy how much of a challenge this game will provide for you. If you are a soccer fan like myself, you'll be blown away by the realism this game serves up. And if you're a Winning Eleven fan, you'll be flat out impressed with the new features this game adds over previous editions. 4 stars (No frills... addictive gameplay) - This is definitely a no frills soccer game. The menus are crap. The music sounds like it was ripped from some 80's action flick. The graphics are pretty good but it looks like we've hit the wall with this generation of consoles, so you feel like your looking at every other soccer game around. The manner in which you save games and highlights is clumsy. And I'm sure there's more stuff but I've only owned it for about 24hrs.

What stood out is the game play and physics. There must be hundreds of player animations, all extremely realistic, that tie together seemlessly. Players stumble, trip up, dive, roll over and over like Klinsman back in the day, get pushed aside, throw up their arms in dismay when they miss an easy chance (and sometimes cover their faces and drop to their knees), dispute throw-ins and fouls with the ref, reel from a powerful shot, and so on. It's all these manerisms that you take for granted when you watch live soccer on the TV, but appreciate so much in this game because it's obvious that the designers cared about making it as realistic as possible. It's all in the details. The game play itself is smooth and intuitive. If you've played FIFA for donkey's years because it's the only soccer game of note in North America, then you can dive into this one very quickly. Once you get up to speed you will find that games flow nicely and are very challenging. The opposition AI makes for a tough game at higher difficulty levels and goals won't come easily. Stadiums are varied, more so than in FIFA. The way the grass has been cut, the quality of the pitch, the type of netting used in the goal, the closeness of the crowd to the pitch, all vary as they should. I love the way the ball behaves in wet weather, stopping up short and kicking up sprays of water every time it hits the turf. The way the netting responds to the ball hitting it at different angles and speeds is a thing of beauty. I look for all of these small details in a soccer game, and I was pleasantly surprised here.

Overall it's a bare bones package with high quality game play and incredible attention to detail. As far as licenses go you get the Spanish and Italian leagues and maybe a couple more, but the others are all fictional with some real names thrown in. Giggs plays for Man Red apparently. There seem to be plenty of other features like training, cup competitions, editing capabilities, etc. that I don't really care about. I just want an entertaining and realistic soccer experience and this game delivers.

World Soccer Winning Eleven 8 International Features:
Video Games
Xbox (x box)
Microsoft
Action
Adventure
Sports
Outdoors
XBox
ESRB Rating: RP (Rating Pending)
Sports/Soccer

World Soccer Winning Eleven 8 International is the Video Game version. The full version can be purchased by clicking on the "CLICK HERE TO ORDER" button below for around 39.88USD.