Winning Eleven 8 International is the newest version of the popular soccer series of Winning Eleven. Personally, I've played this series since Winning Eleven 4. I think that this is a great series and this new version just makes the series even better. This is like the soccer version of Madden NFL, dominating it's opponents. I've never really enjoyed FIFA's soccer games from EA for many reasons. Other soccer games, I didn't even bother with. The gameplay this year has been tweeked and for those who have played or have Winning Eleven 7 will pick up the changes quickly. Most notably, is the shoot button sensitivity. This year, the square button is a lot less sensitive compared to last year. In Winning Eleven 7, you cannot hold the shoot button down for more than 2 seconds or else you'll be shooting at the rafters. A light tap was usually enough get a good shot off. For this year, you tap the button, you get the shot rolling into the goaltender's arms. Basically, this year, you actually need to watch the power button. New move options have been added to help you beat ur defender. Besides the right analog stick like last year, the L and R buttons will give you the function called 'total control' of your player. This allows you to make a couple of juke side dribbles or push the ball further forward and pretty much the moves that allow you to beat your defender. I barely find the right analog stick buttons useful though. The ball also curves a lot better following your left analog stick this year which also links into your aim for the goal with the L-analog stick. The people very smoothy this year and the passes land in more realistic places. For all of the new moves and the new comers to the game, there is a new training mode where it is split into different types of training. The basic one teaches you about soccer and basically everything you need to know to answer any basic question about the sport. Then there's a training for the total control moves and theres training where it's just drills of shooting, passing, dribbling and ect. and lastly, of course there's the scrimage where you can put all that training into a big of non-competitive game pace action. Alright, for the heart and soul of this game... Master League mode. For those that have not played the Winning Eleven series before, take Master League as the Franchise Mode in this series. This year's franchise mode is probably the most different than any other aspect of the game I find. For this year's Master League, you have 3 options to start. You can either create your own team (which I did) and have a totally unknown bunch of guys on your roster, or you could choose a real team and have unknown guys... lastly you could also choose to stick with the current rosters. Last year, there wasn't an option, you pick one of the clubs and it gave you a unknown bunch of guys on your roster. What I like is the next part, you get to pick 3 players and pretty much customize your roster before you start your Master League career. It gives you a bit of a start to your career instead of having to try and win with the unknown roster. The guys are really, really average. So I suggest bring in a good goalie, a good foward and a good defender. The midfielders I lived with, they aren't bad. When creating a team, you get to customize just about everything. The name, choose the home stadium, choose the uniform styles, choose the flag, the elblem and ect. And what happens after that is basically you try and take your Divison 2 team to the WEFA championships and win it all. So what is new this year? Well first of all, there is something that you should do with your team before every match, something called Condition Regulation. Which is training, so that your players can be in even conditions for the next match.... so basically match preparation. All you gotta do is play a bit of a scrimage and your done. If you recall from last year, there is a list of negatiatable players that are in the category of "Growth". There is none anymore this year, because your players will get improve after matches. Some ages will increase, obviously the younger ones, and the elders will decrease of course. The more you play them, the more they touch the ball, the more they'll improve. The negotiating is also changed this year. It has been made more realstic there is player interest. This is shown by stars while you search for players, 3 stars mean the player is very interested and will pretty much accept the offer. And no stars means.. forget about it. This depends of where your team is or otherwise your team's reputation.. for example, high calibur players won't want to play on Divison 2 teams.The offseason has been revamped as well this year, different training drills will allow you to train your players stats up. Edit your team, player numbers which now are only available in the offseason. Other modes of the game include Cup and League mode. This is like the single season mode where you take a team to the cup or win the league title. Basically, this game is simply the best of the series. This is a must get for soccer fans and of course the people who have Winning Eleven 7. You'll be amazed at this game as I was. Enjoy everyone.
Other Helpful Reviews for World Soccer Winning Eleven 8
Este juego es uno de los mejores (si no es que el mejor de football que he haya jugado). Es increíble lo bueno que llega a ser cada vez World Soccer Winning Eleven, siempre se reitera como el mejor en cada nuevo título. ... Read Full Review
Gameplay - Plays like a real game of soccer 85-95% of the time: the moves and motions that the players execute look realistic. However, the computer players on your team can be stupid sometimes and the opposing computer ... Read Full Review
