Pro Evolution Soccer 4 (PS2)

- More master league teams; 138 teams
- A total of more than 200 club and national teams
- Fully licensed leagues from Holland, Spain and Italy
- More elements added to the development/retirement of master league players
- Free Kicks can be changed quickly after player presses shoot button. EG Player shoots but before he reaches the ball, the dummy taker kicks the ball to someone else.
- New modes for through pass and centering allowing more control to the player
- New feint turn and ball control techniques
- New soccer rules and game control help screens
- User-friendly pause menu with quick control view
- Referees will be seen on pitch during the game
- According to the pitch conditions, wear and tear/dirt will be see on the player's uniforms
- Editable trophy and league names
- JFA licenced Japan A team and Japan under 23 team
- Game will be on DVD-Rom
- Almost all club team players will have their real names
- Zico will be the leading PR figure
- New stadiums will be added
- Adidas Roteiro ball will feature in the game
- No online play
- High through-pass ( + ) now has a power bar
- Post-tackle brawl animation in which the referee gets involved
- Linesman animation seen after a player is given offside
- 5 new abilities: Keep Dribble, Line Positioning, Side Player, Centre Player, Sliding
- New passing system. You can now choose the distance of the pass and more accuratley select the player you want to pass too
- More dribbling movements
- New types of Penalty and Free Kicks
- Increase in the AI of the CPU
- The referee will not issue a yellow card for the first 'average' tackle, but if a player continues to commit 'average' fouls, a card will be given
- Winning a game in Master League will raise the abilities of your players
- Indicator displaying the amount of Injury Time
- Default Master League players (Huygens, Valery etc.) can be turned off
- Ball physics are now affected by the stadium in which the game is being played. In stadium "A" the ball may only have a small amount of bounce, but in stadium "B" a ball may be seen to bounce more freely.
- 6 star difficulty can be unlocked in WEN-Shop
- MVP award for best player of the year in ML, with that award you can update your player.
- 3 types of ML; Default ML Team, Real Team Members and Original Team (Default ML Team + the abilty to swap three default players for three real life players)
- Feints are completely enhanced - There will be a slow feint and
and a faster feint of (Pushing L1 contiously) Feint, and will be more
effective to fake the opponent.
- New fakes will be used - Beside those there will be a left-right
fake, player is going to fake as he is going right, and then he will rapidly
drag the the ball to the left.
- Special actions for MANY specific players:
- New Ball Control : in other WE series, player first holds and touches the ball and then turn. Only by pressing L1+R1 freely you can do some tricks. But in WE8, player with a high technique will controll a pass with a minimum touch on the ball, and turn his body to the direction that you want him to go.
- Pace and Accelaration Difference will be clearly seen. It
says, even a player has a slow pace and accelaration, it was easy to go from
wing and make a cross was easy. Especially computer used players with slow
paces, can make great distances with ball wihout losing. In we8, differences
between attributes (especially pace and accelaration) will be seen very
clear.
- AI is improved alot, Sidebacks will be more
affective thoroughout the game, and player logic and decission making
is completely enhanced. Especially shooting decisions are tuned a lot. It
says
- 5 star leveled match will be a real challenging and realistic match
with WE8'
- 5 new Stadiums:
*Stade Velodrome (Marseille)
*Parc Des Princes (PSG)
*Råsundastadion. (AIK)
*Westfalenstadion (Dortmund)
*St. James Park (Newcastle)
- Direct pass using chest (like Jan Koller does)
- Knee-height volley shoot while turning round
- Many outside kick motions - This means lower weak foot frequency players almost always use his main foot.
- Improved turn motions in dribbling
- 20% More Soccer Actions
- First-person perspective added.
- Flexible Dribble; you can control to which direction the ball heads while bypassing the others with it. Do a reverse pass and trick your opponents!
- Players do not just stop dead after reaching full speed and stopping. It takes a while for them to stop
- New effects (fire works,smoke)
- New animations of supporters.
- New banners/flags in stadiums.
- Many star players will have their own body/-shape/-movement.
- By pressing the dashbutton (sprint) more times, the player will go faster than by pressing and holding the dashbutton, but the handling of the ball will be worse then.
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The shooting system feels more accurate too. You can round the goalie (leaving him lying on the floor helpless as you tap the ball in from 1 whole yard!) Also you can stretch your leg and poke the ball past the on rushing keeper and centre half too.

And finally - something I find myself always being critical towards and that is Goalkeepers themselves. I either find that they pull of near impossible saves or let a snail paced rolling ball pass them from 60 yards - not any more - they rush out full stretched to block a one on one - they come for crosses and on occasions spill the ball (not quite to David James' level) the one handed saves are special.

The license still isn't quite right but it is getting there. Quite a few club teams now have sponsors on their kits and real names too.
And one feature that I found annoying on PES3 was swapping players between clubs. Now it is a simple click of a button.

All in all this is a quality game of football. Pro evolution regulars will be happy with the new more realistic engine and first time players will have a treat.