From Games Domain                                                                                                                    - Reviewer Mike Smith

The Games Domain family is a strange bunch when it comes to football. Most members have a dislike or at least, a lack of care, for The Beautiful Game, while the remaining few love it with the same abandon they would love a child of their own. So when a copy of Pro Evolution Soccer 2 belatedly turned up on the GD letter mat, the football freaks in the office treated it as if it were their first born returned from a long trip away to a far off land.

Konami's franchise has come back with more than just a few bristles on its chin and a world weary look in its eye. You know something has changed from the second Pro Evolution 2 has booted up properly. Gone is the generic opening soundtrack, replaced by the strains of Queen's We Will Rock You. The FMV captures some of the more memorable moments from World Cup 2002, providing a rousing start that's more powerful than the usual starting PES fodder.

As you cast an excited glance over the menu screens and team sheets, the improvements seem initially sparse. Not totally threadbare, but not the mass of extras that would have Electronic Arts' FIFA cowering in the stands. The basic number of competitions and their structure remains the same, with typical cups and leagues to enter, but at least the Master League has been expanded with numerous divisions and funds to fiddle and improve your team with. Now contracts, transfer fees and wages come into play, giving a more financial element to consider.

On top of that, there are more club teams and a greater spread of national squads to reflect the glories of former minnows Senegal and other squads that shone in the World Cup. Sadly, disappointment will probably take you here and provide a brutal savaging on your expectations. The name/team changes of PES 1 were bad enough, but at least they were recognisable. But now, many of the club teams have names that don't even make sense. Newcastle is now Highlands - huh?

It gets worse. The player names' accuracy aren't even consistent to just the European footballers, with jarring changes to the Welsh and Dutch squads (where in the latter, all the players are called Oranges, rather inexplicably), but some of the South American teams are untouched. It doesn't stop there. The teams aren't even up to date with early '02 season. Thankfully, nearly everything in this aspect can be changed, but it's a long and laborious process without the data discs that are available at extra cost. A pleasant glow comes when you've got the house in order, but Konami, a little more help next time, please? Gamers don't really want to spend days changing full names before they feel they can fully enjoy a game. And why do we still have to wait for fouls, goals and near misses before we can look at replays? Why can't we bring them up when we want?

Beyond this, the improvements luckily come at a faster rate. Weather during play is more unpredictable, with rain stopping and giving way to sunshine during play, and the crowd can be switched between home and away bias, as can the commentary of Peter Brackley and Trevor Brooking. There are also more stadiums, higher quality player models, greater animation and nicer facial detail, which allows your favourite million plus earner to be picked out with ease. It not only looks nicer, but also follows the authentic touches that litter football games, like the way Beckham swivels his foot taking free-kicks, or the little nudges and protestations after bookings. We have to say we're mildly disturbed by the constant thrusting animations whenever your score, though. Having about five of your squad pumping their groins in triumph is a fearsome sight. We'll excuse it this time, as Pro Evolution has never looked better.

However, there's a flip side which pales in comparison to FIFA's ever-slick offering, presentation wise. PES 2 can look bland at times compared to the competition of This is Football and EA's mainstay, with none of the Sky Sports-type gloss. The real culprit in this aspect is the audio. After the great use of Queen and surprisingly decent original tunes for the menus, the commentary is awful. Not as bad as PES 1, mind, just horribly inadequate. The hapless wonders try to keep up with the action, but often talk over each other or come out with the most random guff that will crease you up laughing more than help increase the excitement. Some of it doesn't even make grammatical sense, with the phrase "he's hit one /taken a shot! Oh, tell a lie, he's missed" used as often as "he's passed it. Passes the ball. 15 minutes has past" in sequence. After a particularly nice through ball we even heard a "hhrrgghhhnnnn nnnnhghhhhhh" sound come from one of the duo. Our reaction was sadly unprintable.

Crowds also tend to the synthetic in their rumblings, rarely providing anything more than a basic atmosphere. And the bias is a little wonky, with boos coming long after a opposing team's shot goes wide - and as any footie fan can attest, when your hated rival team skies one into row Z you jeer them with "ahhhhhh" and whistles rather than boos. A small thing, yes, but Pro Evo is all about the microcosmic details of what makes football great and this sort of thing is jarring to the atmosphere created.

Thankfully, the meat of the game is what elevates it past the presentational qualms and this is where the real improvements shine. Because after the first few plays, PES 2's subtleties fully come out. The controls are far more responsive and lack that irritating delay when tackled which frustrated so often in the first game. As a reflection of the better control, the pace is faster and more playable than before, making transitions between passing and dribbling a lot easier, but conversely AI has been ramped up to cope with your probable desires to try and beat a whole team with one man, Maradona style.

The game is more rounded and flexible than before, with team play as important in the build up as in attacks. Here, player attributes and accuracy are vital, with poor passes stunting the receiver's ability to control the ball, added to the realistic physics and collisions detection that allows for nutmegs, deflections and stray bounces that add up to create a brilliant replication of the real thing. After a good few days of play, all the presentational qualms eventually melt away, and drift into a luscious platter of dreamy football, capturing the mere moments of what makes the sport so great. It may initially seem like an almost cheap update of the original, but try going back PES 1 after this, and you'll notice the difference within minutes. It's like playing with lead boots after trying on a fresh pair of Airs.

Pro Evolution Soccer 2 still isn't the perfect blend of footballing presentation and gameplay genius, as it's packing much more of the latter than it ever will of the former. But as long as it plays as well as it does, we'll forgive the daft player names, out of date teams and distracting, idiotic commentary. The superb multiplayer mode only adds to the pleasure, bringing out the competitive and co-operative spirit that's always associated with the best football games. In short, it's a magnificently playable title. Just a shame that without the presentational punch to carry it over FIFA et al, it takes a while to unearth the diamond from the rough.

Can you imagine large 18 wheeled trucks mixed with GTA?

Can’t imagine it well we can, and we’ve played it. Just think, you get to drive in a ‘big rig’, do missions and get chased by the police all to a kickass soundtrack (radio based like GTA)….it sounds great doesn’t it, in theory this would be a great game worthy of many gaming awards and accolades. But sadly this is not the case, this is far from the theory.

The set-up is very basic, you choose a trucker from a selection of only four then you can either take part in ‘Trial by Trucking’ or the ‘Mission Modes’. The mission modes involve driving into certain things, or to a certain place within a specific time, quite exciting buy very short.

The trial on the other hand is the game’s greatest bit, as you travel to and from several different cities buying and selling freight to any ‘sucker’ (good choice of words there lee .ed) who will buy it. You find out what to buy, by visiting the bars/cafes and seeing what’s in demand. You have 60 days to make as much money as possible can, but along the way you will run into several problems such as police, loan sharks and even bickers who will chase you if you accidentally hit them. You can also challenge other truckers to race for money between various cities. The police can chase you while in a race for ‘breaking the speed limit’ of all things (this definitely isn’t GTA .ed), and this can get very annoying. Picture it you are trying to get first place by going as fast as you, can but having to slow down when you see the police otherwise they chase you.

The best bit of the game has nothing to do with truckin’ it is a fruit machine that you can play, much more exciting than driving.

In real life one of the many dangers that long haul drivers face is falling asleep at the wheel, and this game portrays that brilliantly, because if you play this game for more than half an hour you’ll have to fight to stay awake! (and we’re not talking about the virtual driver falling asleep here .lee). I think this game is dull, for the most part you drive along boring (often straight for miles .lee) roads in a vehicle that handles, well like a truck and who really wants to drive a truck. They are not as fast or slick or exciting as driving an extremely fast, slick and exciting Toyota Supra in ‘Grand Turismo 3’. The only times you get to go anyway remotely fast is when you are travelling downhill and that’s only due to gravity!

This game could have been so much more, if they improved the gameplay and graphics which were very basic, and improved on the meagre amount of missions there were, which I’m afraid were very short, boring and repetitive.

All in all this game isn’t a complete disaster, its ok for a few hours but it could have been so much more.