World Soccer Winning Eleven 8 International

• The world's biggest soccer stars are brought to life, through photorealistic graphics and features & individual playing styles.

Review ------ This series has collected accolades as the best soccer game out there, and I don't dispute that. As an almost haughty acknowledgement of the near-perfect action on the field, there isn't much that's different for this year's installment. Instead, Konami has turned its attention to solidifying some of the sim aspects of its franchise. It's not a quantum leap, but it's the kind of adjustments that will only endear the faithful to this already beloved series even more. Gameplay wise, it's very hard to see much that's different from last year. That sounds like laziness on Konami's part, but it already runs as smooth as the bald head of "Kojak" Collina. Positioning is very important in this iteration, as players jostle and interact better when it comes to dribbling and steals. I also like how teams play with different strategies, making you adjust your offense and defense accordingly. Although Winning Eleven's coup of getting to feature the Italian, Spanish, and Dutch leagues is cool in the face of EA's ownership of the FIFA license, the real allure of this new game is the revamping done to the Master League. Players will now age and retire. Their myriad attribute stats will decline as they get older. Moreover, everyone's skills will fluctuate from match to match, and each player is built based upon one of three attribute curves. Some will find their talents blossom early, while others might be able to be at their peak for most of their career. This close attention paid to the players means you have to be more aware of substitutions, spreading the ball around so everyone gets a touch (thereby keeping their skills up), and taking care of transfers and the Negotiations phase of the Master League. There is also a mid-week training option. However it's pretty boring, though I'd enjoy it if it were more like Madden's training camp. I doubt that the new additions to this Winning Eleven are going to convince anyone who hasn't already taken the plunge to buy this game (nor is the conspicuous lack of online), but its small steps forward are more than baby steps to the many fans it has around the world. Concept: The franchise bolsters itself behind the scenes to its continued betterment Graphics: It looks crisp as always, and all your favorite players are recognizable Sound: If the commentary has changed any, I certainly haven't noticed Playability: As always, the franchise gives you the freedom to attack the goal in many ways Entertainment: Master League improvements make the game stronger, but on the field it's basically the same Replay: oderately High Rated: 8.75 out of 10 Editor: Matthew Kato Issue: March 2005 2nd Opinion: One word comes to mind with the new Winning Eleven – definitive. This is the quintessential adaptation of the world's biggest game. Boasting an exhaustive set of controls that gives you unprecedented control over the actions of your players, it's hard to fault anything but the learning curve in the gameplay department. There could still be a few improvements in the graphics, selection of announcer sound bites, and variety of music, even if those elements on the whole are quite excellent. If you like to watch soccer, by all means go play the gorgeous fields of FIFA's popular franchise. But to play a real game of football, the better choice by far is Winning Eleven. Rated: 8.75 out of 10 Editor: Matt Miller Subscribe to Game Informer ( /exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000AN45D/ ) -- .com