The gameplay options are decent – you can just from a quick match, a cup, a master league game, which is kind of like a full franchise mode, a regular league game, a cup mode, Xbox Live, or a training mode. My advice is to start with the training mode if you ever think you’ll compete via online multiplayer.

The master league is probably where you’ll spend the most time. The sim aspects aren’t bad and there is a manage-only mode, which some fans may find helpful. The drawback here is that once again I expected more depth – basically this is the same mode we’ve been playing for years. When compared to FIFA the number of leagues available is appallingly small; in fact I’d rather they made fake leagues to compete with FIFA. The number of Cup tournaments is also small.

Xbox Gamerscore points are obtainable quite easily by dumbing down the difficulty as there is no restriction on what level you can win the leagues on. Xbox Live functionality mirrors that of the original system in that there are no online leagues available.

In conclusion, maybe I had very high expectations because Konami has set the bar so high in previous games. When compared to even the PlayStation 2 version, this game doesn’t have all of the features it should have. This game just feels like it was rushed to the next generation console and better time could have been spent upgrading the visuals and adding a team editor. The gameplay itself is still quite fun and addicting, but you’ll really have to be a soccer fan to appreciate the subtleties of this game.