CHARGE, PUYOL!

Remember Fernando Torres' first goal in this year's World Cup finals? We do. Spain's captain-in-chief Carles Puyol bombing forward from central defence like a floppy-haired Alan Hansen on speed, marauding through a bemused Ukrainian midfield, pirouetting up to their defensive line, playing a slick one-two, and heading the ball down for Atletico Madrid's star striker to half-volley home. It's one of our favourite moments from the entire tournament, and just the type of goal we've been trying to emulate in Konami's latest Pro Evolution Soccer.

And Puyol really is the perfect embodiment of Pro Evo 6's take on the beautiful game. Sure, John Terry may be on the box in this country, but Barcelona's all-action talisman embodies the virtues of its new high-energy physical approach, far more so than the Chelsea's (admittedly classy) skipper ever could.

Like Puyol, PES6 favours building from the back. Initially, it's a slower, more patient passing game this time around, but one more akin to an Arsenal, or indeed, Barcelona philosophy than a negative Sven Goran Ericsson-like approach. Passing ability really matters here; less cultured players will trickle the ball to their team mates while the Xabi Alonzos and Andre Pirlos of the world will hit peerless passes of crisp, perfectly paced precision. Defenders like Barcelona's Jonathan Creek doppelganger, who can effortlessly provide their playmakers with the ball from the defensive third, are at a premium in Pro Evo 6.

Also like Puyol, PES6 plays a demanding, high-concentration game relying equally on both skill and strength. Whether you favour the analogue stick or D-pad, dribbling now requires true dexterity. In the offensive third you'll be working to roll defenders, shimmy and slink your way into the area and place the ball low in the corner of the goal - holding the right trigger (R2 on PS2) to keep the shot from ballooning over the bar with the game's new shooting system.

In defence and midfield, however, you'll be working tirelessly to close down your opposition, Pressing continuously (which barely ever registers a foul now - quite a turnaround from PES5) to dispossess attackers, and instigating swift counter-attacks with the improved through-ball. Eat your heart out Arsene Wenger.

Another Puyol-esque quality, Pro Evo plays an efficient, mostly minimalist game which belies an extraordinary level of quality. Lacking the fancy flicks, comprehensive licences and studio-style presentation of its rival FIFA, Konami's game nonetheless boasts a more convincing approximation of real-life football on the pitch - and for true football fans, that's where it counts.

'But is it fun?', we hear you say… well, it is, but it's undoubtedly difficult to get into - even more-so than PES5, which admittedly wasn't the most pick-up-and-play footy game we'd ever seen. Indeed, this is the one on-the-pitch area where FIFA remains noticeably ahead of Pro Evo; EA's game is a faster, more approachable arcade kickabout that will appeal to the more casual, post-pub player, while PES6 doesn't do itself any favours, remaining the province of the hardcore football game devotee.

This has a particular impact on the multiplayer game; get two players of equal skill and practice and you're laughing, but play an unevenly matched ninety minutes, be it against a more experienced player, or just simply with mismatched teams, and you're likely to find yourself on the end of a 5-1 walloping from which you'll glean only a limited amount of enjoyment.

So that's one position in which the gap between Pro Evo and FIFA has closed. Unfortunately for Konami, there are others - especially on the Xbox 360, which lacks a scandalous number of modes and functions that both the PS2 and PC releases include as standard. Most damaging is the Edit mode, which on the P's offers the full range of character creation, player edits and transfers, but on 360 offers only the second of those - and along with them loses the all-important PES shop mode. No more unlockables which added such longevity to previous PES releases.

The other cutbacks to the 360 version prove equally annoying. Some are more cosmetic - most noticeably the 33 stadiums in the established formats, versus 8 on the next-gen platform - while others still border between bemusing and almost unacceptable. Of these, the lack of Random Match and International Challenge modes on 360 grates highly, but not as much as the lack of something as expected as a Replay Save function - especially laughable when the manual itself claims it to be included. We, however, were particularly irked at the lack of a quick-scroll to the top and bottom of your squad on the team selection screen - for such a basic quirk to be overlooked is an annoying oversight indeed.

And, in spite of Microsoft's far superior Xbox Live service offering voice chat as standard, the cutbacks continue online too. On PS2, for instance, players can play matches of up to 4v4 online, whereas Xbox 360 gamers are limited to 1v1. Likewise, Lobby's are a fundamental tenet of the PS2 experience which Konami have somehow conspired to leave out on 360. If you want to play against a particular friend on Xbox Live, you'll have to ask him to make a game, and hope your auto-search finds it - which at the time of writing is none too reliable. It's all very disappointing, and not a little lazy.

Thankfully, there is a genuine widescreen mode on Xbox 360, so gamers will no longer be stuck with playing with stretched, out of proportion players. In fact, visually the 360 release is an understandable cut above the PS2 one, though there is a distinct feeling they've essentially thrown a few more polygons and textures at the current-gen graphics engine instead of optimising it for the hardware. The same can be said for both commentary and music, which, though both slightly reworked, are still as awfully over-familiar as ever. Essentially, then, this is still aesthetically Pro Evo - maybe the best looking and sounding yet, but it certainly won't compete with FIFA until Konami move the franchise exclusively to next-gen development.

What it comes down to with PES6, then, is how much of a hardcore football gamer you really are, with a rather large secondary consideration of which formats you own. If you've played PES5 to death and loved every fantastic footballing minute, you'll certainly be ready to take the step up, and won't mind losing your social life to the game's fresh idiosyncrasies and returning Master League mode. If, on the other hand, you've always been put off by Pro Evo's immensely multilayered gameplay, or just want a fun arcade kickabout, this year's FIFA might just be the way to go.

Ironically, however, if you do opt for Konami's offering, it will be the lower-spec PS2 version which offers your best bet - with the Xbox 360 release really only recommended for those in dire need of better visuals, or those unable or unwilling to brave Sony's online service. Either way you kick it, though, and despite a fair degree of negativity in this review, it's still the game that football fans will covet above all others; retaining a flair, footballing nous and sheer sporting passion on the pitch that's enough to guarantee its success.

A lot like Carlos Puyol himself.

GAME's Verdict

• Still the best pure football game around
• Slicker animation, more responsive movement, nicer shooting system and generally more control than PES5
• When it works, playing online is fantastic fun

• Some major oversights on 360, and not a giant leap forward in modes on PS2 or PC
• Less pick-up and play than FIFA or any PES before it
• Still lacking in the presentation department

Review by: Mark Scott
Version Tested: Xbox 360
Review Published: 26.10.06

Mark's first impressions on the final build of Konami's latest soccer starlet...

Note to self: When requesting review copies from games companies, avoid typos at all costs. It may be an honest-to-God mistake, of course, but requesting Pre Evolution Soccer, even by accident, tends to be something they frown upon.

Having sat at my desk for half a week wondering if I was about to receive the world's first caveman soccer sim through the post, I was delighted, and not a little relieved, to unwrap yesterday's package and find the latest in Konami's more renowned contemporary football franchise sitting snugly in the bubble wrap. After popping a few of the bubbles (well, who can resist?), setting up the Xbox 360, and musing as to how much the control pad's Guide Button looks like a single, rather large, bubble (don't you think?), it was time to once-again go hands-on with another new version of PES.

First thing's first: turning. In every Pro Evolution up to and including #4, players would, when asked to move through 90 degrees, turn to face their left or right, and continue running in that direction, whilst holding the skill button and doing the same would make them sidestep instead. PES5, however, inverted this, taking a strange new direction (sorry!) for the series' control scheme by making side-stepping the movement of choice, and turning a slow, ungainly novelty. This had the effect of emphasising straight-line sprinting with minimal turns, and encouraged players to play a direct style of football through opponents, rather than a more skilful precision dribble-and-pass game. It did admittedly improve over PES4 in other crucial areas, but the punt-and-run football which resulted from this fundamental change did indeed take some getting used to.

Well, prepare to get used to things the way they used to be, folks: PES6 makes a thankful return to the stick-wiggling sharp turn footy we'd all come to love since the days of ISS Pro 98.

And it works immensely well, thanks in turn to other improvements in A.I. and animation. In the attacking third, the emphasis is now placed on passing into a striker's feet and rolling defenders, who themselves are no slouches. Even the Pascal Cygan's of the world will offer a considerable challenge at first, such is the advancement in opposition intelligence. On the other hand, unlike PES5, in which a player's high stats didn't always seem to reflect their on-field performance, the very best players on the planet now boast more noticeable quality - so the star players in each squad really do stand out from the more bread and butter squad players. The difference between, say, a Wayne Rooney and a Wayne Routledge is now far more pronounced.

As too, I'm pleased to say, is the referee's understanding of the game. Konami seem to have realised that football is a contact sport, so no longer will Pressing bring about an instant foul, which was perhaps the most frustratingly ongoing aspect of PES5. Meanwhile, another quirk which caused much annoyance has also been fixed: being fouled by the last defender when you've a clear run on goal will now bring an instantaneous red card, and not a booking, in all-but the most rare of circumstances - an issue which also extends to keepers, discouraging over-use of the keeper button and preventing players from using their goalie as a makeshift sweeper, as was commonplace in PES5.

Beating the keepers has also been made more tricky, but more intuitive with it, by way of a revamped shooting system. Again, animation helps in this regard, with Konami continuing the good work they started in PES5 by once again improving the accessibility of crosses, headers and volleys. Playing as Spain in one game, I saw Valencia's David Villa position himself on the edge of the box and watch an incoming Michael Salgado cross right onto his boot, pulling off a stunning volleyed strike into the bottom corner.

Indeed, this would also seem to be the game's new sweet spot. Whereas running 45 degrees towards the goal and curling a ball Henry-style into the far corner with your player's inside foot would regularly result in a goal on Pro Evo 5, PES6 appears kinder on attackers if you run directly towards the net and shoot across your body with your outside foot. Ironically, this was actually one of the more difficult ways to score in the last two Pro Evo's so Konami have showed clear intent on rewriting fan's expectations with the latest in the series.

They've done a good job of making the game feel more realistic, too. Little touches like the option to take quick free kicks, removing the icon which showed when an advantage was being played, speeding up throw-ins to make man-marking harder, and placing the sprint button chip-shot at a fine medium between the overly powerful iteration of PES4 and the barely useful one of PES5, all help give the sense that you've far more control this time around. Indeed, instigating a passing move akin to 1970's Brazil with even your basic Master League players feels something to be proud of - perhaps more so for me, having lost my opening three games of the season. Helpful hint: playing a friendly as Liverpool in the Easy setting may see you win by three of four, but playing as a less star-studded outfit on the next difficulty up has an altogether more challenging learning curve. You have been warned.

My time with the newest Pro Evolution Soccer has extended to all of a day in its company, but already that familiar feeling that Konami have once again listened to fans and done the business is present and correct. Reports of slowdown aren't entirely untrue, but haven't really hampered enjoyment so far, and the online code has yet to be sampled, but I'm more than satisfied with my initial playtest. Like its forebears, PES6 effortlessly manages to instigate those 'oooh' and 'ahh' reactions when you shave the bar with a 35 yard screamer or bring down an opponent in a dangerous position, and that's enough for me to be as happy with PES6 as a schoolboy with bubble wrap.

Review by: Mark Scott
Version Tested: Xbox 360
Review Published: 18.10.06