First of all, Americans are not big soccer fans. In fact, the only time most of us even see soccer is when we're channel surfing...or watching the Olympics. Oh sure, most of us played soccer when we were wee lil tikes, as most kids do - but unlike the rest of the world, most of us outgrow it by high school. Our American version of "football" is much more popular to us than the world's most popular sport. Second of all, virtually none of us like to play sports games on the PC. There's just something wrong with the "feel" of playing a fast paced sports game on a dinky monitor and a keyboard when you can play the same game on a goliath big screen TV with your console and gamepad.

With that said, a lot of what Winning Eleven 7 has to offer didn't mean much to us. There are numerous tactical game controls that can be tweaked (if you know the sport), none of which made a lick of difference in how much fun we had! Between the gorgeous graphics and the spot on game play, we really didn't care what formations we were using, or that we kept getting red carded for illegal slide tackles!

As the titles states, Winning Eleven 7 is the seventh rendition of this long standing sports franchise from Konami. For those of you who are truly novice soccer fans, the word "Eleven" in the title is for the number of players on a team. And if you're a bit confused as to why you've never seen the other editions... don't fret, except for WE6 (which only showed up on the PS2) the United States never got them. See, even the Europeans know we don't play soccer - er, "football" here!

Furthermore, WE7 is the first time this franchise has been ported to the PC - unfortunately I mean that quite literally. If there's anything wrong with this game it's the fact that it is a direct port from the console version. Harkening back to one of the reasons we think most sports game are neither fun nor successful on the PC: controls. Like any other PC sports game, in order to enjoy playing WE7 you need a gamepad. The mouse is useless and trying to get your players to run in the right directions with a keyboard is utterly worthless. When we went and plugged in a Logitech Wingman though, every control was backwards - left was right, right was left, etc. After several minutes of infuriating configuration later, we were ready to play; or so we thought.

Having never experienced any of the other versions before, we had no clue how to play. Luckily, WE7 includes a very comprehensive training tutorial that teaches you every facet of the game: how to make different types of passes, kicks, headshots, and our favorite... slide tackles! Once you think you've got a good grip on the fundamentals, you can enter Practice mode and try it all out with your fellow mates. A few words of warning: it will take you hours to become proficient enough to score even one goal - unless you're a virtual Pele. The learning curve for this game is absolutely insane. This is not your kid's arcade soccer match; this is a tried and true (perhaps the truest) soccer sim!

As mentioned earlier, there's a myriad of game options and management controls that will take many hours of gameplay hours to master - everything from using different formations and lineups, to substitutions, conditioning, and teammate cooperation. Case in point: when playing an exhibition match (a quick single game) not only can you choose from five difficulty settings, but from five different conditioning levels for both you and your opponent!

There are several modes of game play, including the previously mentioned Exhibition Match. Cup Mode is a 32-team round-robin tournament; Training League Mode presents a variety of soccer related challenges; and Master League Mode, which not only allows you to play games, manage your style and players but also allows you to trade players and train young and upcoming prospects!

Since there is no FIFA license (EA Sports FIFA Soccer - the "competition" in this genre - does however), there are no big name players or teams. To get around this little problem, Konami simply misspelled all the names. Additionally, you should be able to tell who the players are from their build and facial features. If you feel so inclined, there is an option that allows you to edit player and team names. Aside from the half-dozen real world club logos and names they were able to purchase (i.e., AC Milan and Juventus), you can choose from 60+ other "clubs" and 50+ international teams.

The graphics and presentation of the international soccer scene is where WE7 excels! The opening ceremonies of each match, complete with the pageantry, pomp and circumstance is faithfully recreated. All of the 20+ stadiums are remarkably rendered, each with their own unique quirks and atmosphere. Crowds are an absolute riot - the good kind - even if they don't look all that great. But because you're so busy playing you don't really notice how they look, but you will notice them! They wave flags and banners, sing and cheer, and toss streamers and confetti! In the commentary booth is the British team of Peter Brackley and ex-player Trevor Brooking, both of whom are well-known soccer commentators in Europe.

Lastly, you would think a game of this "international" nature would have Internet support. Nope. In order to have a "multiplayer" match you have to have your buddy sitting next to you - ala old school console matches. Simply unforgivable, even if this is the first PC version.

All in all, this is a great first (PC) effort from Konami. Based on how fantastic this version turned out, EA Sports better watch its back for Winning Eleven 8 (which just got announced for US release and will include the full FIFA license)... otherwise they're liable to get bicycle kicked up side the head and never see it coming!