Where TIF and FIFA have made substantial changes (the lacktustre, though online-enabled TIF 2004 was released in Winter; TIF 2005 the new improved release) Pro Evolution Soccer has continued to evolve like the name suggests. We recently declared FIFA 2005 the best football package ever, and while the forthcoming Xbox or PC releases could yet see Konami retain its traditional position at the forefront of soccer video games, to our mind the absence of online features for PS2, whomever you may blame for that, is a big deal.

PlayStation 2 is PES' native format. It's also a hardcore type game and we all know the hardcore like to play online. Of course the hardcore also own PCs and Xboxes and GameCubes but the game has always played best with the DualShock 2 (even while ignoring its ability to simulate analogue functions). Will it make the transition to Controller S? Here's hoping, but one wonders how those single triggers might work, a thought both tantalising and concerning.

Besides eight-player single-screen multiplayer, PES4 has that time-consuming Master League and without online play its usefulness is significant. The league mode allows you to create your own team from scratch, and as usual all teams can be edited where the relevant license hasn't been included in the game.

The training mode is extended with new tutorials but the moves themselves remain more or less as they were for PES3. The running speeds have again been fiddled with and your basic options are your normal pace, dashing and stop-start moves, mostly via the shoulder buttons. You can still do the usual dribbling techniques and as always it's in the combination that you can truly play brilliant football but experience in rubbing shoulders with opponents pays well and such hustling will usually allow you further up the field than flash footwork.

PES veterans might not like the on-field referee, but besides mistaken identity (he does run rather like someone waiting for a through ball) his presence and proximity to incidents do seem to increase the likelihood of a whistle or card. There are, as always, plenty of erroneous calls, and the game still won't let you replay moments before the dead ball to prove your injustices, but the realism has its own sweetness even in moments of disadvantage.

Manual replays are essentially unchanged, and while taking up too much memory as they are, it's about time their brevity were extended. Often the highlight of a play occurs before your replay starts and considering the raw nature of replays as they are, it's an area where even a little evolution would have been a big help.

The thrill of scoring is still one of the reasons PES is such an addictive experience and in a way the difference in replays compared to FIFA 2005 raises an interesting point. PES doesn't provide the most realistic animation, and it's not a pretty game to look at. Moreover, there isn't the same scope of goal keeper reactions, or the same variety of results after the ball contacts the keeper or posts. But as far as the live action goes, it's the spontaneous ability for PES to produce a result that feels absolutely right, even in a panicked scenario, that makes it so beloved.

FIFA 2005 does offer the better package, but on the field it's down to personal preference and PES4, while being very different, is at least as valid and overall has an edge in terms of the familiarity of the controls and the degree to which that familiarity allows its true depth to be expored over the next year.