New Review Posted: Winning Eleven 7

[Daniel Weissenberger]

Thom Moyles reviews Winning Eleven 7:

"Strategy and tactics are the lifeblood of this game at its higher levels and mistakes are quickly punished. Heck, there might be games where the player doesn’t make a real mistake, or games where the player does far more right than they do wrong. Odds are, if the player is playing at the higher difficulty levels, they’ll lose a fair amount of those games."

http://www.gamecritics.com/review/winning11/main.php

[LordFarid]

Excellent review! I havent played winning eleven seven which is pro evolution 3 here in europe i believe but i owned pro evolution one and some other iss games so i know how in sports, nothing beats konami's masterpiece.

The biggest downside for me with the newest winning eleven is that it doesnt have internet play. A 2 player games are much more exciting than the AI and konami should bring out an online version as soon as possible. Preferably, konami would bring to the market an xbox version but a ps2 version would make me finally buy the network adaptor for my ps2. Sony Europe must realise that to a lot of soccer fans all around the world, bringing this game would make them buy the network adapter and get online. For the european market, there must be pressure coming to konami to release the game online as soon as possible.

[videochile]

Pretty good review by Thom. Id have taken a point off for the controls. I think it gets in the way of the game to some degree and is made worse by the fact the computer players are that much smarter. So you have even less time to manipulate yr player for the desired outcome.

I agree about the complexity of the game though. Id rather have to be strategic in my approach than run around defenders. It makes the goals you *do* get that much more fulfilling.

Good job Thom

[GC_Thom]

Originally posted by videochile
Pretty good review by Thom. Id have taken a point off for the controls. I think it gets in the way of the game to some degree and is made worse by the fact the computer players are that much smarter. So you have even less time to manipulate yr player for the desired outcome.

I think the controls are really the biggest hurdle for a player new to the series. However, I feel like they're definitely possible for just about everybody to achieve a comfort level with them, meaning that the next achievement to reach is building up a good sense of tactical awareness, which takes a lot of time - I can't emphasize that enough, as it honestly does take usually months of practice before you can start to read and react to the high-level AI.

But it can be done - I know people who can win 80% of their games at 5-Star difficulty, which is pretty incredible. One thing that I think helps is practicing at a lower difficulty level with a weaker team - having limitations forces you to work around them and take what the CPU gives - doing this on something like 3-star with a mediocre-to-poor team does a lot for improving strategy that immediately pays off when playing with a stronger team, even at a higher difficulty.

[EnduroGamer]

Hey Thom, thought you'd be glad to know that Bill Harris gave your review a big plug in his thrice-weekly "Night Call" article at Gonegold.com. This is what he had to say:

WINNING ELEVEN 8 ANNOUNCED
The finest graphics-based sports sim ever, the Winning Eleven Series, has just been extended to another edition. This surprises absolutely no one, but the game is so outstanding that I thought it was worth mentioning. The initial announcement only covered a PS2 version in Japan with a fall release scheduled, but you know that other versions will be following shortly.

If you don't know what the fuss about the Winning Eleven series is all about, take a look at this review by Thom Moyles over at Game Critics. Thom is one of the most thoughtful young writers about games in the industry, as far as I'm concerned (see his True Crime review as an example).

[GC_Thom]

Originally Posted by EnduroGamer

Hey Thom, thought you'd be glad to know that Bill Harris gave your review a big plug in his thrice-weekly "Night Call" article at Gonegold.com. This is what he had to say:

I did see that - I actually had mentioned to Bill that if he liked my WE7 review, it would be awesome if he could link to it and he said that he would, so I was expecting that, but the bit about talking up my writing was a nice surprise.

[LordFarid]

Originally Posted by EnduroGamer

Hey Thom, thought you'd be glad to know that Bill Harris gave your review a big plug in his thrice-weekly "Night Call" article at Gonegold.com. This is what he had to say:

Quote:
WINNING ELEVEN 8 ANNOUNCED
The finest graphics-based sports sim ever, the Winning Eleven Series, has just been extended to another edition. This surprises absolutely no one, but the game is so outstanding that I thought it was worth mentioning. The initial announcement only covered a PS2 version in Japan with a fall release scheduled, but you know that other versions will be following shortly.

If you don't know what the fuss about the Winning Eleven series is all about, take a look at this review by Thom Moyles over at Game Critics. Thom is one of the most thoughtful young writers about games in the industry, as far as I'm concerned (see his True Crime review as an example). :

Where is the magic word? ONLINE!

This game online would make me finally buy a ps2 network adapter. Many of the weaknesses in the 1 player game simply get cancelled when you play against another human opponenent, and good online gameplay would make me buy a new version (currently i still own pro evolution 1 which is winning 11 5 or something).