I like FIFA 2004, but...

Only a couple of hours ago I finished writing my review of FIFA Soccer 2005 which, although I'm traditionally a fan of Konami's Winning Eleven series (Pro Evolution Soccer back in Europe), I must say I've enjoyed playing a great deal. The career mode leaves a lot to be desired in terms of its user-friendliness, but I still found myself spending hours with it - and not just because I was writing the review either. With sports games, one of the things I always consider when writing a review is whether or not I can see myself continuing to play the game once the review is out of the way, which is definitely the case with FIFA 2005, or at least it was until about 4 hours ago...

What happened 4 hours ago? My long-awaited promo copy of Pro Evolution Soccer 4 arrived from the UK, that's what.

The North American version of the game ( Winning Eleven 8 ) isn't scheduled for release until Q2 of next year, so getting hold of this game is a pretty big deal for me. I only have the PS2 version right now, so I doubt I'll be playing it online (I much prefer Xbox Live), but I love the series' Master League so much that I fear my FIFA career as the manager of Yeovil Town might be coming to an abrupt end very soon. It's conceivable, of course, that I'll be disappointed with Pro Evo 4, but I've spent enough time with various preview versions of the game to know that's extremely, very, highly unlikely.

So there you have it, no prizes for guessing what I'll be playing when I get home this evening. And if you keep your eye on this here journal, maybe I'll pop back with some informal impressions of the game in the near future.