14 DAY TRIAL // 
What to do? A question that I had to answer while playing Winning Eleven Pro Evolution Soccer 2007. I was dealing with a game that seemed to be the identical twin of the Pro Evolution Soccer 6 title. It had the same menus, the same options, it even dared to have the same cutscene in the introduction. I was under the impression that I had inserted the wrong DVD... Browsing through the main menu, I saw a change, it was the licensed sponsor of this production: Puma, that took over Reebok's place. If that was all, I'd be tossing the game aside and would have given it a big fat 3. However, getting to play the game, I felt a couple of changes in the gameplay and a very little bit in the game's graphics. Failure or another hit from Konami? Stay tuned as it's not even half time!
Kickoff (Concept) I'm not the type of guy that repeats things twice so if you've read the other review, you should know about 70% of this game's features. Konami could have at least changed the first cutscene, or at least the menu or the menu colors. If this game was created for the PC, I'm sure it would have been just another add-on or pack to raise PES 6's replay value.
Taking up the same amount of space on the memory card as the sixth installment did, PES 2007 sure has a lot of data to load and save. Licensed content? Not here and Konami is cheap and you'll only see Manchester United and Arsenal in Premier League. There were previous installments where Chelsea was present, but now they're called North London. Don't know why they're not in the game, since they're one of the best teams in Great Britain and the winners of the 2005-2006 season.
Choose the AI level right from the start and proceed to what should be a great football experience. You can tell the difference between the Amateur AI or the Regular one, let alone the Top Player. Select a uniform for home or away matches and setup your match's configuration by messing with options that refer to penalties, match length, entrance scene or the max number of substitutions. If you want a more realistic approach try setting the injuries on and you'll know what the British tackling is all about: broken bones and punches in the face. Choose a season, setup the weather, the time of day or choose the stadium you want to play on. Licensed stadiums? Guess again, this is PES and stuff like unlicensed content don't change when they've become a trademark of the series.
You'll be given a chance to take on the coach's seat and change the formation settings, by choosing the arrangements that we, soccer fans like to talk about while watching the game in a pub. Pick a 4-4-2, an aggressive 3-5-2 with 2 offensive midfielders or the attack-minded 3-4-3 that will surely bring tons of goals (scored or conceded). Also you'll be able to select what players you need to mark, the set piece takers, a captain or the activation of the offside trap. In PES 6, the points you got from playing official or friendly games were called PES points, now they're called WE points and you'll use them in the WE Museum or WE Shop to unlock all sorts of hidden stuff. It may be stadiums, unlicensed ones of course, it may be players or new game modes, it may just be a new tournament. My kingdom for licensed content...that's all I can say. PS2 hasn't forgotten its younger relative, the PSP and there's a PSP link option in the menu that will be useful in case you want to go to school and check out your team's progress during the breaks.
We've come to the editing and customizing part and this is very much like making your own pizza: you have all the ingredients and the skills, so if you fail and get indigestion, it's entirely your fault. Edit the already existing teams (a good opportunity to change the team and player names to real ones) or create your own team and take it through any of the competitions you fancy. Choose one of the hundreds of emblems and logos, create your own T-Shirt and choose a proper stadium. If you're new to PES, I suggest you try the Training mode, because it's very useful to get a grip of the many combinations and the weird controls. I say "weird" because it's odd to tackle with the shoot button you've used your whole life while playing FIFA. Select one of the leagues from around the globe and complete a season to improve your ranking and get more WE points. There's also a "Master League" option that allows you to start from the bottom and build your own little team, by selecting a budget, stadium and the players you'd like to have. Also, you'll be able to watch those guys develop throughout the seasons and check out the transfer lists or maybe unlock hidden players, especially if they're classics.
Half Time (Gameplay) Gameplay is the only thing that's been really changed in this title and since PES 6 was pretty good, you might have wondered what's better than that. First of all, players act more naturally, they struggle for every ball and you won't see any of them just watching an attacker pass by. The keepers have more moves and they take more chances by dashing towards the attackers. That's not quite a good thing and I always hated those AI-controlled keepers that made me lose important matches. The analog stick is the master of the controls yet again and you'll use the left stick to change the player's direction and the right analog stick to do dribbles and other stunts. Speaking of stunts there are some neat tricks to be performed, stuff that even FIFA Street 2 doesn't have in its combo list. 180 degrees spins, dribbles, scissor kicks, plunging, all in all just a normal day "at the office" for players like Ronaldinho. It will be easily noticed that average players can't steal balls from top stars and if Thiery Henry or Adriano are alone with the keeper it's pretty much a goal. Free kicks and penalties are done in a very intuitive way much like FIFA's system, with the same loading bar placed on-screen, near the player's name.
You'll use so many buttons to do the required actions that the fighting games will seem like a walk in the park after playing PES 2007. The number of tricks you can do with the ball surpasses the one in FIFA 2007 clearly and they are more difficult to perform too. However, they may look good, but the tricks can't make you score if you're playing with Reading against Barcelona, in fact any other team against the mighty Barca. The referee is very strict like in the other PES titles and you can either get a red card or no warning at all. There will be a lot of offsides in the game, since the default tactics involve having the defenders trigger the offside trap instead of blocking the attackers' paths. Also, players take more damage now and if they are fouled really badly you'll see them carried away with a stretcher. Most of the times, you'll have to replace them and wait minutes that seem an eternity till the game is stopped and you bring the new guy in.
Passes are more precise, I'm talking about the normal ones, not the through passes that are as inaccurate as ever in the PES series. I liked the human factor a lot, because you'll see player making mistakes, like missing the ball slipping on the wet grass or falling after a lengthy sprint. The weather condition will be crucial during the match, just in real life. If it's a rainy weather you'll see stupid goals that happen because the ball slipped out of the keeper's hand. Play on snow and witness a low-scoring game with frozen players that had their skills frozen as well and attackers that miss a lot. In the past, PES games scoring from a long distance seemed sci-fi, but now it's something that will happen if you have a too bold keeper or a bad defense. This is not FIFA 2000 with those goals scored from the midfield area, but it's pretty nice to see some other animation than the classic pass-pass in the penalty area and the boring shoot and score.
Video Maybe this will sound childish, but I really like the fact that players are bigger and their details appear to be clearer than in the previous installment. The faces are the best eye candy you'll ever get from a PES game and those football stars look so much like their real counterparts that you'll watch the replays and entrances lots of times, feeling the vibe of a real match. You'll see so many types of fouls or even players that pretend they suffered some violent contact only to get a free kick. You can see the stadium's shadow on the grass, the sun setting and feel the intensity of a touch match on a frozen pitch.
The snow and rain effects look particularly good and there are points in the game, when the rain can stop and the sun shines again. Players look good and you can pretty much tell who's who, even if they don't have their original names. Fouls or foul simulations are a bit over-dramatic and especially the Italian players sure like rolling on the pitch. Players look nice and there won't be any nasty pixels to disturb your sight, so legs will look like legs and the athletes' bodies will move like in real life. Well, maybe except for Ronaldo that plays like a God in PES and is called "fattie" by the Real Madrid Fans. Check out the banners of the crowd and the few licensed kits and gear. At least the stuff with the Puma logo on looks nice.
Sound Nothing compares to a match played on Brazil's National Stadium and the crowd chanting their traditional "Olee!" with every pass you do. Everyone will go wild when a goal is scored and you'll hear the folks cheering for you. If you're playing badly you'll be encouraged at first, but if you really suck and concede 3 goals in a row, they'll start boo-ing you with no remorse whatsoever.
The crowd expects a lot from their favorite team and they'll start whistling and boo-ing if you have a one-goal lead and start passing the ball around. That won't be the case since in this game you don't play for goalless draws that qualify you and the show is your main objective while playing such a fun football sim. While watching the replays or when you're browsing the same golden menu that PES 6 had, you can listen to some rock or techno tunes, of course no licensed songs included.
Multiplayer You can play this online or choose the classical two-player battle, perhaps even go the multi-tap way and gather up to 8 players for a pretty complicated match. You can enter an online lobby and join cups or create your own, maybe even make it to the hall of fame. PES has an advantage when compared to FIFA, because of its short loading times and fluid gameplay while in the multiplayer mode. There's also an option that allows the PS2 owners to play against gamers that have PES on their PCs and it's lag-free and extremely enjoyable. Who'll win, the keyboard or the joystick?
Final Whistle The producers have stated that this is the official new name of the formerly PES game: Winning Eleven Pro Evolution Soccer. Konami chose the long name because they unified the US version (Winning Eleven) with the European version (Pro Evolution Soccer). When gamers start wondering if you've provided the same game with a little retouch, you clearly have a problem. There's only one thing I can say: this is Pro Evolution Soccer 6 with a new face and added gameplay features. It's a shame that such a successful franchise can turn into a product that mocks the gamers' intelligence, being called "a new game".
