Winning Eleven 7 International

My copy has arrived and it's excellent. Advantage rule is now perfect, handball calls rarer, crossing improved, ditto headers and the speed is just right. You can select both the language of the text and of the commentary (both are seperate options so you can have English text and French commentary for example). Sadly the teams are not 100% up to date, Solano is still at Newcastle and Reyes is not in the game. Very impressed overall, there's a few new animations thrown into the mix also.

Get this version instead of the US one (which is based on PES3). The western WEs always end up being worse than the Japanese versions despite coming out last (whilst not even getting the FEs).

What is PES3 and how is it different from winning eleven?

Pro Evolution Soccer is the European WE.

PES2 is based on WE6
PES3 is based on WE7

The problem is that after each PES, KCET release a new WE a few months after with even more additions. PES also differs from WE. PES3 is way too fast for example. WE7i is pure simulation, PES3 more arcadey basically. I don't play PES enough to go into any great detail but I much prefer WE.

"Best sports game ever"

I agree wholeheartedly. I played it a bit the other night with paleface and BobV. We had a blast and I feel this is the best thing since Tecmo Bowl. Just to clarify, I've hated sports games for years :)

Pa

Likewise, it's the only simulation sports game I can stand.

I almost died when Pires crossed in for Trezeguet on the left against AC Milan today, with David pulling off EXACTLY the same shot (an awesome volley with his leg at 90 degrees) he did that won France the european cup. Sadly it went slightly over the crossbar and my housemate got away :( So realistic but with all the excitement of real football. Awesome.

I'm kind of interested in this. I don't know the sport terribly well, other than that it's fun and a family member plays pro, but I hear nothing but good things about the game. I doubt my PS2 will be able to play imports for quite some time, though, so I might have to settle for trying the US version for now and this later...

what a lovely thread. i don't even know where to start...
so a person likes football (soccer, for the few that can't figure it out) and has a game system or 2. what games are available. (speaking strictly about the U.S. market) there is FIFA 2004; brand new, shiny and full of EA's high production values and also bearing the #1 scorer in the EPL (of course i am talking about Henry! Ruud is a has been, Shearer is getting old).
the game is good, but not as good as it could be, and every review compares it to WE. i can understand that. then Konami is nice enough to grace us with WE in the U.S. WE 6 was awesome, and now the newly released WE 7. so we at least have a choice in what football game to buy.
for years i looked forward to someday getting to play the WE games, and now that dream has become a reality. (i did not want to deal with importing a console and navigate Japanese menus just to play a decent game of footy; sorry) but now, thanks to the power of the internet as soon as the game is in my grasp, mr. "Adrian" can inform me that the game is rubbish and it's too fast and the one i really want is only out in Japan. damn.. where is the love.
i guess i will have to go back to playing FIFA on my 3DO, since the "Internet" tells me that's the only football game worth playing.
so to the rest of you, i say goodbye.

ps: sorry for the long rant, i looked forward to playing WE finally and not have to dick around with Japanese text, so that's why such an emotional response.

By all means enjoy the US WE7i, it will be a fantastic game but the Japanese version is a lot better that is all. No language barrier either, like I said you can select the language of both the commentary and the text.

so you played the US WE7i?

No, this is based on online reports. Do your own research.