Beginning with the visuals, WE 8 is not jaw dropping, but it is the best-looking soccer game on the market to date. The presentation gives you a TV broadcast atmosphere that really draws you into the game. You will be able to witness each tackle and shot attempt in stylish replays and highlight reels. Every big name star in soccer has been recreated from head to toe in WE 8, so you can easily tell your favorite star from another schmoe who has tried to hard tackle you. The pitch looks terrific as well, even though I would still like to see noticeable wear and tear, the different stadiums are at least represented with splendid detail. Lastly, the weather effects not only look very good, but also you will notice that it will effect game play, as some players will loose footing when things get slippery. Neither version supports any real HDTV support, but the game does not suffer much for owners of such setups.

Audio is your typical lackluster fodder. Decent, yet repetitive commentary, and very little in the way of sound effect really keep the noise to a deafening silence compared to other sports game of its kind. Granted it does keep the game at a realistic atmosphere when pertaining to sounds, but that still does not help the fact that your surround speakers will not be getting a workout from this title.

Audio and visuals do not mean a thing to soccer fans though…well at least audio. Thankfully, what draws fans into this series is the take no prisoners, true to life, kick you in the groin kind of difficulty and game play. The enhanced A.I., while being slightly tweaked on lower levels for newbies, still offers a stiff challenge from the get go. The greatest compliment to the series is how the A.I. realistically reacts to you and the ball, not just play books. Thankfully, for you new guys to the series, there is a nice training mode that will help you get your footing before taking on tournaments or the career mode. Even though the A.I. is tough as nails, the controls are so precise, that with enough practice, you can make the higher difficulty settings bow down to your greatness after you have mastered the game play. With easy enough to pick up and play gameplay, to plenty of moves to learn to become a master, WE 8 will challenge even the best soccer fan to the best of their ability.

Winning Eleven 8 disappoints just a hair when it comes to the lack of online play. I mean, for neither the Xbox nor the PS2 will you be able to experience beyond the CPU’s intelligence, unless you bring a friend over for a bout or two. I have not received the PC version to review at the time of this review, so it is uncertain if it will offer online play or not, but even so, the core audience for this series is the consoles and this omission hurts it when compared to FIFA. Everything else in the game blows FIFA out of the water. More than 136 club teams, 57 national teams, and more than 4500 of the best soccer players are at your disposal. What’s more, you have complete team controls, from transfers, to color of the uniforms, to even stat management, which makes WE 8 the deepest of the soccer titles to date. Even the Master League mode (career) has been expanded to where you can track individual player performances and development. There will be no doubt that fans will have plenty to control and play in WE 8, even with the absence of the online play.

Soccer fans lace up those cleats, get to your nearest store, and pick up this game. It is without a doubt the best soccer game created, with or without online play. If you are new to soccer games, and have heard all the rumblings about this series, I urge you to train and train a lot, so you will not become discouraged early on. This game will show you no mercy from the moment you turn it on, until you are a veteran a year from now. That is what makes this game so compelling. Let us all hope that next season we can show our skills online against other Winning Eleven fans.