Winning Eleven 8 International Reviewed

I've spent most of my waking hours this past week playing the PS2 and Xbox versions of World Soccer Winning Eleven 8 International for today's full review. As a long-time fan of the series I figured I had a pretty good idea of what I could expect from the game before I loaded it up for the first time, but none of the time I spent with various preview builds prepared me for the all-consuming gameplay option that is this year's Master League mode...

In previous incarnations of Winning Eleven (which I knew as Pro Evolution Soccer at the time) the Master League mode was, for me anyway, essentially a fun way to assemble a dream team that I could stick on a memory card and pit against those of my friends. I can still do that with this year's game, of course, but by the time I've assembled my dream team the chances are that at least one or two of the players will have aged to the point that their attributes are starting to deteriorate. The 'My Best 11' option in the game allows you to freeze your squad at one moment in time for use against friends, but the great thing is that since players retire and are replaced by promising youngsters there's always the potential to improve upon your team, and the odds of you fielding an identical team to any of your friends is practically zero.

I could sit here singing the praises of Winning Eleven 8 all night, but I'd really just be repeating what I already said in the aforementioned review. If you haven't already, check it out.