I loved Winning Eleven 9, but I just couldn't get into this one. . .

User Rating: 7.5 | Winning Eleven: Pro Evolution Soccer 2007 X360
Winning Eleven 9 was an amazing soccer game. It's still the most realistic soccer video game I've ever played. Unfortunately, Pro Evolution Winning Eleven 2007 takes a few steps in the wrong direction.

Graphics: Graphics are actually pretty good. They're clear and coloful. Player faces still don't look much like the real thing, but in-game the players look and move pretty realistically.

Gameplay: Here's where the game has it's greatest strengths and weaknesses. The core gameplay is still a more realistic than even Fifa 08, in that players simply don't have perfect control of the ball, whether they're dribbling, shooting, passing. . . this is true in Fifa, but to a greater extrent in Pro evo. My biggest gripe with this game, which actually drove me to the point of returning Pro Evo. and buying Fifa 08, is the tackling system. If you played Fifa 07 you know what I mean. It is SOOO hard to steal the ball from an offensive player. If the offensive player gets any momentum the defense just get bumped aside like they're not even there. It may seem minor, but defense should be the easiest aspect of soccer, not the hardest, and a broken tackling system really ruined this game for me.
Another annoying occurence was my forwards getting shoved to the ground right as they shoot the ball. No call, and their shot gets completely messed up. I wouldn't mind this happening every now and then, but when it's every other run I can't stand it.

Sound: You can only get so exciting sound-wise with a soccer game, but this game's pretty bland. The announcers are very generic and extremely repetitive. The crowd sounds average.

I seriously tried to like this game. But a soccer game with a broken tackling system really is no fun. I picked up Fifa 08 and though it's not as realistic it's a lot more fun.