Pro Evolution Soccer 6

Pro Evolution Soccer 6 (Winning Eleven 10) was officially released in the UK on October 27, 2006 for the PS2,PSP,Xbox 360 and PC platforms and on February 9, 2007 for the Nintendo DS. The PC version does not utilize the Xbox 360 engine but is a conversion of the PS2 edition. The PSP version is similar in many ways to its PS2 brother, while the DS version has graphics and gameplay reminiscent of the older PES series on the Playstation.

A criticism of the previous version was that the game was too unforgiving and so suppressed fluid attacking football. Pro Evolution Soccer 6 was issued with more tricks and an overall more attacking mentality, but whether it does make it easier to take on defenders and get forward is debatable.

More licenses were added, including fully licensed international kits including the nations England,Spain,and Italy to name a few (as well as the ever present Japan license). The French Ligue1 is now included as fully licensed league, as well as the Spanish, Italian and Dutch leagues, plus several other individual clubs. However, the Chelsea FC. license from PES5 was removed and, due to a lawsuit, Konami were forced to drop the Bundesliga license. The only Bundesliga team to appear in the game is FC Bayern Munchen. The game had not updated Arsenal's venue to the Emirates stadium; the defunct Highbury is still present. The same applies for Bayern München, who, despite having moved to the Allianz Arena, are still represented in the game as playing at Munich's Olympic Stadium. Also, the recent extensions to Old Trafford are not included, while Serbia and Montenegro are still present despite the dissolution of the country in May 2006.

The Xbox360 version features next-generation, Hi-Definition graphics and more animations, but gameplay similar to the other console versions, according to a recent interview with Seabass. The Xbox 360 version also finally introduces the Pro Evolution series to widescreen gaming, a feature that was sorely missing from its PS2 and Xboxversions of the game. Much of the gameplay and editing options have been severely stripped down for the 360 release.

Pro Evolution Soccer 5

Pro Evolution Soccer 5 (Winning Eleven 9 in Japan and World Soccer Winning Eleven 9 in the US) was released in October 2005 and featured John Terry and Thierry Henry on the cover. The improvements are mainly tweaks to the gameplay engine, while online play finally made it to the PlayStation 2 version. The game was perceived as much harder by fans, with a very punishing defense AI making it harder to score. Some players have pointed out inconsistencies in the star difficulty rating, such as 3 star mode being harder to beat than 6 star due to its more defensive nature, but in general scoring is harder. Referees are very fussy over decisions, awarding free kicks for very negligible challenges. There are various new club licenses present, including Arsenal,Celtic,Chelsea,Rangers and a few other European clubs, as well as the full Dutch, Spanish and Italian Leagues. Pro Evolution Soccer 5 was victim of the infamous empty stadium glitch, in which when playing a game, no crowds are present in the stands although they are present during cut-scenes. There are fan-made mods which address this in the PC version, although no official patch was released. Official PlayStation 2 Magazine UK gave it a perfect 10/10 score.

Pro Evolution Soccer 5 was released for Xbox, Windows and PS2, all online enabled. A PSP version was released, but with stripped down features, such as no Master League, no commentary, only one stadium and limitations in the editor, and that's also because of the limitations to the UMD. The PSP version featured Wi-fi play, and the gameplay was faster and more “pin-ball like” in comparison to its console siblings, but it did not receive the same acclaim as the mainstream console/PC versions.

Pro Evolution Soccer 4

Pro Evolution Soccer 4 (Winning Eleven 8 in Japan and World Soccer Winning Eleven 8 in the US) was released in 2004; featuring referee Pierluigi Collina,Thierry Henry,and Francesco Totti on the cover. This is the first Pro Evolution Soccer game to feature full leagues, namely the English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, and Dutch top divisions, though with full league licenses only for the latter three. As a result, clubs in, for example, the English League, an unlicensed league, have ambiguous names like "West London Blue" and "Man Red" for Chelsea and Manchester United respectively, and their home grounds Stamford Bridge and Old Trafford are respectively named "Blue Bridge" and "Trad Brick Stadium".

The gameplay has improved from Pro Evolution Soccer 3, (though not as much of a significant leap as its predecessor) with improved AI, tweaked play-on advantages and better throughballs. Dribbling is tighter with the players (though at one-star difficulty, a player receiving the ball on either wing can dribble the ball down the length of the pitch relatively uncontested), plus free-kicks have been changed to allow lay-offs. The gameplay was criticized for its relatively easy scoring opportunities, as players can pass their way through opposing defenses, or hold on to the ball at the edge of the penalty area and simply wait for the opposing defenders to move away and thus give him space to shoot. A new 6-star difficulty was added as an unlockable in the shop, as well as the previous items, while the Master League included enhancements such as player development, so many players over 30 would see certain attributes decline as the game progresses. Conversely, players could improve upon their attributes up to the age of 24-25, though the improvement is most rapid and obvious in players aged 22 and under.

The edit mode has been enhanced rapidly, with the options to add text and logos to shirts (essentially sponsors) and pixel logo editing as well as the traditional preset shapes, thus making it easier to replicate a team. The game also includes an "International Cup" and four regional Cups:

• The "European Cup" is remarkably inclusive, including almost every major European country, as well as smaller countries like Slovenia,Hungary,and Slovakia. However, countries like Israel and Iceland are not included. It also includes a Yugoslavia team; in real life, Yugoslavia no longer exists, having been dissolved and replaced by two new independent states, Serbia and Montenegro. The Czech Republic team is simply called "Czech".
• The "American Championship" is a merger of the CONCACAF Gold Cup and the Copa America. It includes most North, Central and South American countries.
• The "Asia-Oceania Cup" includes only five Asian countries, Japan,Saudi Arabia,Iran,China,South Korea plus Australia. Ironically, in real life, Australia has joined the Asian, and now competes in the AFC Asian Cup. South Korea is simply called "Korea".

Pro Evolution Soccer 3

Pro Evolution Soccer 3 (Winning Eleven 7 in Japan and World Soccer Winning Eleven 7 in the US) was released in 2003, and featured the Italian referee Pierluigi Collina on the cover (although bizarrely he is not present as an in-game referee). The most significant update was the overhaul in the graphics engine, with more life like players and much improved likeness. The gameplay was changed to accompany this, with more fast-paced action than that of PES2, a much better physics engine, additions such as the advantage rule improved passing and long-ball functions, while as per usual, more licenses (with the infamous Dutch Oranges removed, replaced with pseudonyms such as "Froibaad" in the place of Kluivert), more club teams and the Master League is now split into regional divisions, with competitions equivalent to the Champions League and the UEFA Cup and as Umbro was no longer revived, the company has been replaced by Adidas.

Pro Evolution Soccer 3 was the first in the series to be released for Microsoft Windows and was well received by the PC games magazines but criticized by fans for its lack of online mode and bloated system requirements at its time, particularly not supporting the common Geforce MX series. Its rival, FIFA 2004, had online functions and had more modest system requirements in comparison. The game was essentially a direct conversion of the PlayStation 2 code, albeit with sharper graphics and is easier to download fan made mods for the game.

Pro Evolution Soccer 2

Pro Evolution Soccer 2 (Winning Eleven 6 in Japan and World Soccer Winning Eleven 6 in the US) was released in October 2002 and some felt that it was a slight backwards step from the original Pro Evolution Soccer. Others argued that it had improved. The pace of gameplay was much faster than in the game's older sibling, with sharper turns and quicker reactions to tackles. It also included a training session mode. Extra clubs were added, with an extra Master League division. There were two new commentators, Peter Brackley and Trevor Brooking, but this aspect of the game was criticised for the commentators' inaccuracies and tendency to speak over each other. The licensing was much the same, but infamously all Dutch players were called ‘Oranges’, because Konami did not hold the rights from the Royal Netherland Football Association, for use from Dutch players. Also, unlike in the original game, the "unofficial" club names stopped using obvious city names (eg. Macnhester United was Manchester in PES1, Real Madrid was Madrid etc.), and instead used very ambiguous names (e.g. Manchester United were now Aragon, Liverpool became Europort and West Ham became Lake District). The edit mode included a club editor which offset this problem to some extent, with editable kits and logos as well as club and player names. The game notably included tracks from Queen: “We Will Rock You” and “We are the Champions”. A Playstation version was also released, which was again a minor update of its predecessor, and was the last Pro Evolution Soccer release for the original PlayStation.

Pro Evolution Soccer

The first game in the curren series of Pro Evolution Soccer games was released in October 2001 for both Sony PlayStation and PlayStation 2. It was released under the name, Winning Eleven 5 in Japan and North America

History

Every year, the new version of the game is released first as Winning Eleven in Japan, and after a few months a slightly modified version is released worldwide, in two different packages: World Soccer Winning Eleven for the Americans, and Pro Evolution Soccer for the rest of the world. Additionally, in Japan and Korea a localised version is released, featuring local leagues and teams including European ones. In 2007, the franchise began to use "Winning Eleven: Pro Evolution Soccer" for the American market, which transitioned to Pro Evolution Soccer in 2008, dropping the Winning Eleven moniker entirely for that region. This game is the number one game in the Middle East. Winning Eleven's popularity has grown over the years, and is currently one of the most popular football games world-wide, fiercely rivaling FIFA Series.The series has been produced under the guidance of Shingo "Seabass" Takatsuka.