1) Controls

One of the biggest changes in controls in WE9 is the addition of an automatic side-step dribble. In the last two games this sidestep dribble was a complicated and skillful maneuver that required you to press L2 in tandem with a perpendicular movement when not sprinting. Now you just need a single d-pad (or analog) press perpendicular to the direction in which you’re dribbling (when you’re not sprinting). I discussed the significance of this change in my hands on impressions and I’ll reiterate that later in this review.

Another major addition to the controls comes in the form of an ‘Instep’ shot where you hold down R2 while the shooting powerbar is rising and this causes the player to strike the ball with his (yes, you guessed it) instep and add curl/swerve to the shot.

Free kicks have also been changed – now you press R1 or L1 to add sideways swerve to the ball and you press X or Triangle when the player runs up to the ball to add either backspin or topspin (respectively). Furthermore, to add another player to the set-piece you have to hold down L2 and in order to make that second player pass the ball off (to do a direct strike of a moving ball) you have to hold down L1 + X! Sounds complicated? Yeah, it is. Thankfully, KCET have now added a powerbar for ground (pressing X) passing though you still can’t rotate the camera 360 degrees so if you have a free kick in the 90th minute and are trying to waste time you can’t pass it directly backwards to a defender.

Throws, both in the form of throw-ins and Goalkeeper throws have also been changed and now you can finally have your GK attempt Peter Schmiechel-like long throws to the halfway line to spring a counter attack! When your keeper has the ball if you push a direction and tap X the keeper will throw the ball short to the nearest player in that direction (usually a defender). If you do the same but hold X down he’ll launch the ball overhand to the furthest player in that direction (usually a midfielder). This is a much needed and long overdue addition. Another such addition is that of a powerbar for throw-ins. Unfortunately, this is all but useless for those players that don’t have a Long-Throw special ability as you can’t get adequate gradation between distances with regular players. Furthermore, I don’t think the whole system of just controlling the thrower and not the receiver works. It’s really annoying, especially when you’re at the end of a match with time running out and you have to wait for the CPU to move a player to the area YOU want to throw the ball to. This definitely needs to be fixed.

Finally, there are even more spectacular dribbling moves that allow you to bust some showtime on poor unsuspecting defenders. These range from the player specific like the Elastico (performed only by Ronaldinho, Ibrahimovic and a select few others by triple tapping R2) to nutmegs and roulandes! Best of all though, is that none of these moves is a real game breaker or a ‘super deke’ – in the end they’re just party tricks that are useful in a few situations but still pale in comparison to the best special move of all – ‘the pass and move’ move. : )

2) Player Interactions and Fouls

As I mentioned in my hands-on impressions one of the biggest additions to the gameplay engine are the new player interactions and in particularly the changes to tackling and fouls. Now jostling for the ball is far more intricate. In WE 9 when an opposing player gets the ball with his back to you and you rush him from behind (steady on now!) he won’t just stumble forward under the weight of your challenge and give the ball up. Rather, now he can also shield the ball and hold you off, or you’ll foul him or he will perform the aforementioned stumble forward. This is a great addition because it means players that subscribe to the Headless Chicken School of Defending ™ (such as MYSELF!) and have the square button constantly pressed when on defense to bring a second tackler into the picture are in trouble. Now with that style of defending you give up A LOT of free kicks and/or expose a lot of space by double teaming the player with the ball. As such you have to play a more realistic style of defending and close down lanes/angles rather than rushing the player with the ball. That said, there now exists more subtlety with respect to jostling for the ball when you’re side to side with an opponent who has the ball. If the attacking player is slightly ahead of you, strategic and intermittent presses of the X can be used to slow him down/tug at his shirt. Of course, the success of this also dependant upon the specific players involved in the interaction (little Joe Cole can tug on Viera’s shirt all he wants and he won’t slow him down), as well as the bloke who’s refereeing the match – some let minor scuffles go, others blow the whistle all the time.

The actual ACT of tackling has also been refined and requires more skill. In prior games there was a certain degree of timing and skill required to pull off a blocking tackle without fouling your opponent, now you have to be even more precise. Congruent to this new approach is the fact that slide tackles have been almost COMPLETELY changed! Now they are far more realistic both in terms of distance covered (the distance you travel on the ground has been almost halved from previous games! You’ll be surprised the first time you try to lunge at a striker on a breakaway – you’ll likely miss him completely!) and also the motion/trajectory of the slide tackle which is far less linear and more of a hooking movement.

Speaking of tackling and fouls (and I’m not sure this goes in this section but whatever) one thing I did notice is that after fouls that don’t involve stoppages (i.e. no cards) you do have the option to take the kick QUICKLY (i.e. soon after the infraction takes place). You can tell you’re doing it quickly as defenders are still retreating into position and your teammates are moving into space. I think this is kinda neat and adds more randomness to the action – hopefully KCET can come up with a system by which you can take quick throw-ins as well.

Anyway, back to player interactions…..shielding of the ball is also done fantastically well, not just in terms of how it’s represented graphically (it looks great) but in terms of function as the ‘big men’ get more of a say in build up play and attacking movements whereas in previous Winning Eleven games they were best used for their aerial prowess. Playing as Chelsea you can hoof the ball upfield and use Diddier Drogba to shield the ball with his back to goal and hold off a defender or two for a second until support arrives.

3) Dribbling & Ball Physics

As mentioned before one of the biggest fundamental changes to the dribbling is the automatic sidestep when you press the d-pad perpendicular to the direction you’re dribbling. I think one of the good things about this change is the fact that you can no longer do those tight controlled ‘stop-on-a-dime’ 90 degree turns that you could do in previous games. This makes for a much more realistic looking dribbling model. At this point you’re probably asking yourself – “but what about regular 90 degree turns with the ball”? And my response is how often do you ever see anyone dribble with the ball and then make a COMPLETE 90 degree turn with NO forward movement? Rarely ever, rather the player dribbling will first make a diagonal turn then complete the turn to move in the perpendicular direction – this is what you now get with the change in dribbling in WE9! Furthermore, the fact remains that you can only do this side-step dribble when you’re not sprinting so you don’t see ridiculous things like someone sprinting with the ball at full pelt and then instantly moving into a sidestep with the ball.

The one-touch controls that were implemented in WE8:LE have been further refined and it’s now very easy to knock a pass forward on the dribble which helps to open up more space and make the game flow more smoothly. This also adds new possibilities to scoring chances as you can knock the ball forward a few steps (ideal for a long distance shot run-up) and control the ball in the same movement. The player movement without touching the ball (by holding down R1/Sprint and pushing a direction when the ball is approaching) also helps to keep the game moving realistically.

As with any Winning Eleven game the ball physics have been improved but not so much with respect to the ball bouncing realistically, but rather how the physics affect passing and dribbling. The turning arcs of players when dribbling has been reduced and is more proportional to the dribbling skill of the player with the ball. As a result the jinking and juking is even more realistic and the higher skilled players are more pronounced with their dribbling skills. Secondly, because of the reduced turning arc with the ball at your feet it means that those blind, acute angled passes are the realm of only the most skilled players (and I mean the very top galacticos). This means that you have to position your players more realistically to have an accurate pass – in other words, for a highly accurate pass with an average player you have to have your body/torso in a straight line to direction you’re passing. Combine this with the player shielding and you have orgasm-inducing (well, maybe only for me) situations when you play a ball into your big burly forward with his back to goal, he controls it while holding off the defender behind him, turns slightly and then dishes off a perfect pass into the path of on incoming attacking player. The improved animations make situations and interactions like these look phenomenally realistic.

Overall, the improvement in dribbling and ball control/physics from Winning Eleven 8 is remarkable. I mean in Winning Eleven 9 you can have your player do step-overs, side steps, flick the ball up, chest the ball and flick it backward, nutmeg a player, drag the ball backwards, fake a shot, double fake a shot, perform the elastico and all on command! That’s pretty damn impressive considering Fifa’s the game that’s known for spectacular dribbling – the difference being that in Winning Eleven these moves require SKILL and in Fifa they require a flick of the ‘Trick Stick’.

4) Shooting

I love the ‘instep’ shot! As mentioned before, you perform this shot by pressing R2 when the powerbar is rising and it adds curl/swerve to the ball. However, it’s not that simple as a single button press rather, you have to have to be controlling a player that has a decent Curling attribute rating, have to have the ball on his preferred foot and have to get your angles right. When you do get all of this lined up the results are just gorgeous as the instep shot adds curve in the direction opposite to the kicking foot (in other words the ball moves outward and then curves BACK IN towards goal)! There is nothing like the feeling of jinking your way around the edge of the opposition’s penalty box with someone like Del Piero, gaining a yard of space and then sending a curler into the far top corner!

The long-distance shooting is another area that has been improved with the addition of the ‘Middle Shot’ special ability – players who possess this skill can unleash shots from 25-30 yards out that are noticeably more powerful and accurate. Of course, this is balanced by the fact that you still have to gain that yard or two of space in the midfield to make that shot – so goals from distance aren’t any more common, they’re just more common with players that shoot from distance in real-life.

Another change to the shooting is that shots, in-general, are a bit less accurate than previous versions especially when in close. Now when you have a 1vs1 with the keeper it’s less of a certain goal as the players are less deadly with their accuracy and shooting with preferred foot is a must.

5) AI

The AI in WE9 has also been improved and the game is even more tactical than before. Now the CPU will sit on a lead and change formations and personnel even more frequently. This makes the game more cerebral and while in previous versions I wouldn’t often need to change my formation to break down a difficult opponent (instead relying on raw skill) now I’m forced into making much more frequent tactical changes even when playing an inferior opponent!

Build-up play by the CPU is now even more varied and you’ll see teams play everything from a balanced attack, to a counter attacking game (helped immensely by the long goalkeeper throws!), funneling their attacks down the wings, attacking predominantly down the middle, and anywhere in between. Of course, the variation in play between INDIVIDUAL CPU-controlled players is spot on and the moment someone like Cristano Ronaldo gets the ball on the wing you’ll be shitting your pants in fear of the moves he’ll busting out on your defenders. Conversely, when Salif Diao gets the ball you can go to sleep as it’ll be only a few seconds before he gives it away……

As aware as the AI is, however, I’d like to see even more awareness – sure the CPU will do all the necessary things to sit on a lead or to get an equalizer (such as appropriately change formation, tactics and personnel) but it would nice to see things like ACTIVE time wasting by CPU players (like taking the ball to the corner flag) or the CPU actively going after your best player with rough play.

6) Problems

Winning Eleven 9’s gameplay is by no means perfect and no better is this illustrated than in the ASININE new free kick controls! Hey, you want to lay the ball off for Roberto Carlos to hit? Easy, just press L1 + X, followed instantly by pressing Up on the d-pad + Square then, instantly pressing Triangle, and then either L1 or R1 to add curl. Got all that? Speaking of free kicks, KCET really need to increase the CPU’s scoring success rate – when I concede a free kick in shooting distance I’m more worried because of the CPU’s territorial advantage than I am of them scoring directly – this needs to change. The throw-ins also need to be changed as they’re currently all but useless, as is the penalty kick system which is still random and still requires no skill!