We waited a long time for this last gen version and received almost the same, but this is not necessarily bad.
The referee plays a more important role since he and his staff really indicates who has the possession of the ball after a foul or when the ball leaves the field; this might seem a simple change, but this little details gives a much nicer eviroment to the game.
It is clear to me that the intention of the developers was to give us a more realistic gameplay experience, but we can't just ignore that this Winning Eleven looks quite familiar with the FIFA series... familiar, but better.
Another cool change is that now is not that usual to see a player with low form (blue or gray arrows), then you can really have a starting 11 squad. This was pretty annoying in the previous versions because you couldn't have stability, making the use of your default starting 11 a rare event.
Not much to say about the graphics. They are well suited for a last gen console and that's it. Nor spectacular, nor disappointing.
I liked the sound effects. It feels more like a live game in a real stadium and the spectators are there to support the home team with cheers and to put some pressure to the visiting team with boooos!. However, I was expecting some commentators add ons (there are a few, but only a few), but I must admit that this time the commentators are more accurate. Adding some fans canticles instead of taking them away wouldn't harm anybody, though. The sound effects might deserve a 9, but i'll take away 1 point because most of them are almost the same we've been hearing in the previous versions and I'll take away 1 more point because they took away the fans canticles, leaving it as a 7. The new stuff stops right there. We have to deal with the same Master League we had on the previous versions, with small differences. For example, the experience points gained in a game are a little bit more realistic; now you can get a 17 yo player for your team and it is going to take a while to make him a shooting star (this was already implemented in the previous version, but this time seems more fitted to the way it is in the real life). In a few words: the Master League remains almost the same, but this is not necessarily a bad thing. Why change something that already works fine? The Master League format, specially the transfermarket system, is the most enjoyable part of the game.
But, of course, not everything is happiness and somebody will have to explain why they considerely reduced the editing options and why in the world they took away the possibility of save our best goals!
Winning Eleven: Pro Evolution Soccer 2007 leaves a lot of stuff almost as we knew it on the previous versions, but gives us a new gameplay with last gen graphics, and that's a good excuse to dive again into the management of your own soccer franchise.
Enjoy it and see you on Xbox Live!