great game all round!!

in the past, football computer games have got on your nerves for one of two reasons right?

they either make the players too difficult to control because they run in exact straight lines or they kick the ball directly in front of them in a particularly unforgiving manner just when you wanted them to swing one in the box (think david beckham soccer), or they seem to take over giving you no control over the players, curling the ball for no particular reason, making the all too smooth looking players perform fancy tricks when you simply want to pass the ball off quickly or more frustratingly, scoring from impossible angles against you while you furiously batter the buttons in a vain attempt to get rio ferdinand across to tackle (think fifa 2000).

pro evolution soccer however, strikes that all too fine equilibrium between the two. the game doesn't take your instructions too literally and is fairly forgiving (but not too much) yet at the same time you usually feel completely in control over what your team is doing. the only quibble i have with the control you have over the players is the amount of time that your players take to recover after tackles, but it is a minor fault with a game that is too good to be let down by this.

from what i can see, most of the people who criticise pro evo 2 tend to be those who simply aren't very good at it. i believe that this all boils down to one simple thing. in order to be good at the game you must have some sort of knowledge of football. there is no escaping the fact. pro evolution soccer 2 is probably the most accurate gaming realisation of football that has ever existed and this can sometimes conspire to disadvantage the game, because the idea of actually learning some techniques and using some knowledge can put some people off.

in older games, especially earlier versions of fifa, you felt like by trying to actually play the beautiful game you were being held back. you felt like the only way to be successful was to come up with a "scoring secret". However, in Pro Evo 2 no such a thing exists (or it does and I just haven't worked it out yet). No, here you must think of many different ways to approach the task of scoring a goal. Things that work on the real football field tend to work in a similar way on Pro Evo 2, so be creative. You can play to a particular style of play and the tactics system is intuitive enough to allow you to tailor your team to suit.

The only other minor problem for me was the intense difficulty I originally encountered in trying to score a free kick. However, with a bit of imagination (and a lot of practise), this can eventually be achieved with at least slight regularity.

The fact that most of the players and teams in the game have fake names due to them being unlicensed doesn't bother me in the slightest. I'd rather have a fully working and hugely playable gaming experience rather than the development team wasting resources on something that at the end of the day, has about as much effect on the game as the colour of Paul Scholes' hair.

Looking back on the first game, the graphics of the sequel are much crisper and many very minor bugs have been sorted. The master league seems to have been improved as well but this feature is not one of my favourite so I won't go into any detail. The edit function has also been included in this version as it was the first, and there are now more choices when it comes to things such as changing facial features etc. Not much of a big thing I know, but it does help to keep things fresh.

All in all, the game is a masterpiece. But is it worth shelling out £40 of your money if you already own the excellent original? The jury remains out.