World Soccer: Winning Eleven 8 International

The Good
It took me some time to realise that gamepad can actually be much easier to navigate with than the keyboard, not to mention there is no two-key collapsing or need to release certain key in order for other one to function properly. Yes, there are gamepads for PC, but somehow it all is made quicker and easier on PS2. There are many new additions to make this one step above PES3, such include minor enhancements in graphics, some neat touch in details, and some simply go to better coding. It's pretty cool to see players wearing gloves (although a bit bizarre during summertime), injured players having bandages, and now you can see player changes entering/exiting the field (not always, but randomly though). There are some cool new tackles I don't remember seeing on previous installment of the franchise, but that may as well prove little to nothing worthwile as situations and timing to use them may not be at your disposal, 'cos after all, this is no live football where players drag and think of their next move, here you gotta think couple of steps ahead and think fast if you want to win a match. Also there are some new cool features like two-player league (that wasn't available in previous game afaik) and pretty cool master league with lots of correct names of the players, even though partial due to string limit (not like in FIFA games, alas).

The Bad
Game doesn't seem much different than previous one, it has new and improved opening cinematic, same style and minor enhancement whether they be visual or binary. However, this game seems to have some bugs which are rather intolerable assuming you cannot update PS2 game. For example, one of the coolest addition is that two players can play league against the computer teams (two players, each with their own team, in previous game only one team could play league, afaik). However, there is a big cheating on score board, for example, you win against some team 1:0 and then play the next match and see your score from previous match changed to 1:1... like what the heck!?!? I mean, that sort of cheating I would not expect to see in a game, ever. And you cannot even say judges were bribed because the match was already done and score established.

On the master league, there is pretty silly to see two same players in the same match, one with licensed name and one with randomly similar one, that should not have been available because it ruins all the fun. I mean, you can see Davids and Darit on the same match, even part of the same team, or Nedved and Netret, really silly for such a house like Konami.

As for the big advertisement of having over 3,000 licensed names, think again. Most of them you can only find in master league but rarely few national teams have them, although there is ability to rewrite each of the palyer's name which is cool, except there is also a character limit so one may be forced to partially initializes it. But it's cool to see resemblance with character mesh and actual player, I can only imagine how will PES6 for the PS3 be like.

Also, the music seemed much more appropriate on the PES3, this one sounds a bit more forced. When the trophies are handed in certain finale, there is so much noise you can't even hear the fanfare you could in previous installment. Also, the game drags here and there in certain occasions or when the goal is scored which didn't seem to be the case in previous installment, but even more and more games drag nowadays on PS2 so this one is not much of an exception. And AI doesn't seem to be so much improved, your players still seem to be running away from the ball and keeper sometimes stays still even if you force him to go on the ball.

One of the main things that would be cool with ability to turn off is the noise of a huge mass of fans on the stadium, it's just as loud as the commentator and gives you none of the actual feeling. For TV feeling commentator is louder while you can barely hear the mass, hopefully they'll allow this to be piped down a bit.

The Bottom Line
This is the ultimate football/soccer game to date no matter it may have some troubles on its own, I don't think EA can match Konami on this field, they obviously got a lot stronger and surpassed EA in the long run.