GS AU Hands-On: Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 Be A Legend mode

Pro Evolution Soccer has long been seen as the technically superior of the two major football franchises out there, although Pro Evo 08's average presentation and lackluster gameplay left many fans disappointed last year. Konami is hoping to claw back lost ground in the 2009 edition of the revered football sim, pledging to fix gameplay annoyances, introduce new modes, and significantly improve the overall look of the game.

In this preview, we're going to focus on the major new gameplay addition in Pro Evo 09, the Be A Legend mode. Be A Legend puts you in control of one player as opposed to an entire team (as you do in Pro Evo's returning Master League mode), with the goal being to put in enough good performances to be recruited to the best clubs and be selected in your national squad. Similar to FIFA 08's Be-A-Pro mode (although Konami claims they thought of the idea first with the Winning Eleven series in Japan), Be A Legend matches aim to simulate the experience of being a real player in a football team, with gamers having to play their chosen positions well in order to improve their skills and be noticed by recruitment scouts from other clubs.

You'll begin by creating your player, with the creation tools from last year's Pro Evo game looking to have made a direct translation into the 2009 offering. Just like in last year's game, you'll be able to take a picture of your own face (using an attached PS3 or 360 camera accessory) and paste it on your created player for that extra eerie touch of realism. You'll also have to choose your nationality, which will affect how many internationals you'll get to play down the track (if any at all, if you pick an outcast like North Korea, for example). Others things you'll have to determine for your virtual player include how injury prone they are, which feet is dominant, and most importantly what position they play. The choices available include centre forward, second striker, wing forward, attacking midfielder, side midfielder, centre midfielder, wing back, and defensive midfielder.

Your first port of call will be a struggling low division club, but even there you'll have to play several training matches to be even considered for the starting 16 in an actual inter-club match. During an actual match in Be A Legend mode, you'll be graded on how well you perform in your chosen position, with your overall rating being based on how many passes, intercepts, tackles, assists, goals, and more that you do. Veterans of Pro Evo will probably find playing as only one player a little off-putting, as the tendency to follow the ball at all times--as opposed to sticking to specific areas as dictated by your position--can be a little hard to initially shake. In our preview play time, we played as an attacking midfielder, and we found ourselves inadvertently chasing the ball no matter where it was on the field (and thus being caught well out of position on many occasions). Be A Legend truly forces you to try and play as part of a team, making space for yourself so that your team mates feel comfortable in passing the ball to you. Thankfully, pressing and holding the L1 button will automatically move your player to the area of the pitch they should be at, which is extremely helpful if you're not sure of where exactly your player needs to be.

The camera angle for Be A Legend matches defaults to a wide view of the pitch, with your chosen player centre of screen at all times. You can also choose to view the match in any of the other angles available in normal Pro Evo matches, but we found the default to be the easiest to follow. Controls are quite tight, and it seems the team at Konami have so far made good on their promise to make physics in this edition of Pro Evo even better. The ball moves quite realistically, and player animations are top notch again. The game's also had a significant visual upgrade from last year--player likenesses are quite good in both close-ups and match views.

Pro Evo 09 looks much sharper than last year's offering.

Be A Legend mode is shaping up to be a nice addition to Pro Evo 09's arsenal, and certainly looks to be a fairly serious simulation. In our testing, it took us six practice matches to be even considered for the starting 16 of our side. Even then, for the next few matches we were relegated to sitting on the bench, and were only called out into the game on a few occasions. It was actually a little frustrating sitting on the bench, as the game forces you to watch the game in progress (although you could watch it in fast-forward). Of course, that's probably the point, as this frustration is what a real-world player would feel. Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 will be out on the PS3 , Xbox 360 , PC , Wii , PS2 , and PSP in Q4 this year.