The Day Pro Evo Died

Today I sold my copy of Pro Evo 2009 on ebay. I'd only played it twice.

There was a time was when I would get each yearly update on day of release (and often before thanks to the Choices massive) and it wouldn't leave my PS2 for pretty much the year round till the next one came out. For my mind Pro Evolution Soccer 5 and a Max Drive update to get round those pesky licensing issues equalled the greatest sports game released ever on any console.

Part of the problem lies there, as aside for the odd graphical spruce up here and there, the game hasn't changed at all at all, making the flaws all the more apparent year after year.

Now with Pro Evo 2009 on the 360, the gaudy menus and awful music which I used to forgive now started to annoy, plus the sound that I can only compare to a bomb going off when a player made any pass made my blood boil. Also not being able to edit the kits with risky fudging up my 360 didn't help - it may have been part of the charm of Sensible Soccer, but on tent pole releases like Pro Evo, its just shoddy and takes away from the immersive experience.

If this was a one off I could convince myself it will be okay again and wait for next years release, but this has happened for 4 years now and I've been paying £30 quid for pretty much the same game each year. Perhaps next year's should have Ashley Cole on the cover, if Konami are going to keep cheating us like this.