Well this is definitely the first for Maccas Gaming – a book review! As far as I can tell Piggyback Interactive’s PES5 guide is only available in North America via Amazon.co.uk. Should you bother to import it? Well read on…

I received the package from Amazon a few weeks ago and the first thing that struck me is how heavy this thing is! It’s definitely heavier and more sturdy than most of those flimsy Bradygames guides you can buy for many non-sports games. The guide’s 217 laminated pages are really well polished and more professional looking than most other game-guides. Diagrams and charts are beautifully laid out and the book has, in addition to the traditional table of contents, mini-toc’s for Beginners, Intermediate, and Advanced Players. Another thing that struck me about the guide is just how much text makes up the pages – this isn’t a guide where the bulk of the pages are diagrams or screenshots, but there’s a lot of in-depth info about the game here.

The guide is split into the following sections;

While the entirety of the manual refers to the Playstation 2 controls (i.e. ‘press square’), what’s nice is that Piggyback have included a fold out controls overview on the reverse of the last page. As a result you can fold out the overlapping page and read the guide while referring to the fold out for the X-Box or PC controls.

As I said before, the guide isn’t just fluff and contains A LOT of useful information and, most impressively, information directly from the developers (including Shingo ‘Seabass’ Tekatsuka)!

The first few chapters of the guide read much like an in-depth version of the game’s instructional manual, but once you get to the Team Management chapter you really get a greater insight to the game. For example, the guide goes to lengths explaining how the fatigue engine and condition arrows work – did you know that stamina only affects a player’s abilities when its below 50%, then it starts to have adverse affects upon Top Speed, Acceleration, Dribble Speed and Response? Or that an upwards/red condition arrow increases that player’s acceleration by 12%? This section of the guide also explains each player attribute in depth (e.g. how response, agility and dribble accuracy affect a player on the ball) and explanations of each of the special ability stars. Speaking of statistics, the guide also points out that while PES4/WE8 had player abilities ranging in a linear system, PES5/WE9 attacking abilities of 95 and above signify a much greater leap in prowess with every point up to and including 99! Yet another of the of many tidbits of knowledge I learned from this guide.

The Coaching Manual chapter explains the tactical and strategic options in much more detail than any manual. This part of the guide also has a massive controls guide with every pass, shot, fake, tackle, header and dribbling move outlined! This is worth the price of the guide alone as it only describes how to do the maneuvers, but also when to do them! The guide also has an extensive set-piece section outlining corners and free-kicks.

The Team and Player Guide chapter is also pretty damn useful with each of the biggest club and international teams highlighted with respect to which players are important, what attributes they have, what’s the best formation to use, and how best to play AGAINST that team. While most hardcore Winning Eleven players will already have their own opinions on what formation a team like Italy should use, its nice to read some other intelligent opinions. This section also includes pages of player attribute tables.

The Extras section of the guide has a good explanation of the create-a-player mode (and just exactly how the CPU determines a created player’s Master League salary) as well as outlining the unlockables, and the guide ends with useful Glossary and Moves Index.

I thoroughly enjoyed this guide from start to finish and have referred back to it a number of times. Not only is the guide an ultimate FAQ for control moves, it also gives brilliant insight into the many complex aspects of the game engine – I really found the in-depth explanation of the fatigue and attribute models interesting and insightful. Now in closing, I would say you should definitely consider this as a fantastic Holiday gift for the Winning Eleven/Pro Evo fanatic in your life…..but lets not kid ourselves, your girlfriend/wife is NOT reading this! So instead, treat yourself to a Christmas/Hannukah/Kwanza/Festivus gift and pick up this guide – if you’re a Winning Eleven nut you’ll love it (and it makes fantastic bathroom reading when your PSP is charging……)!