Pro Evo Soccer (XBox 360)

If there’s any more sure evidence that FIFA 09 has sparked a new dawn in football videogames, it’s in returning to the former victor in this yearly two-horse race. Where once the benchmark was how your on-screen action compared to Match Of The Day, now it’s impossible not to notice the skeletons in Konami’s closet popping out unannounced. In a way, this isn’t a simulation of football any longer, it’s a simulation of Pro Evolution Soccer. The inexplicably halted forward runs, the fouls awarded for no apparent reason, ‘enhanced’ animations that only succeed in highlighting how stuttering and grid-based the whole thing is – just a handful of the many occasions you’ll be yelling ‘typical Pro Evo’ rather than cursing your own skill. In the past, we’d have been prepared to declare this acceptable – after all, those familiar to the series will know how to hold the ball up in order to cajole your 360 into creative action – but in a world where EA has shown us how to have our cake and eat it, this will no longer do.
Read More: http://www.360magazine.co.uk/games/pro_evo_2009/pro_evo_2009.html