It's not an exaggeration to say that with Pro Evolution Soccer 2010, Konami had reached last chance saloon. After building up the goodwill of critics and gamers alike with a succession of quality titles, the series has suffered under the weight of three releases that wiped out all the good work preceding them.

While Seabass and his team of developers stalled, bitter rival FIFA has gone from strength to strength to finally match its always outrageous sales figures with the kudos it had long sought from critics. Such was the creative malaise gripping the PES franchise that the last two entries were released with a completely broken online element, something which has seen fans desert the series in droves and left the developers facing a crossroads.

Against this backdrop of increased scrutiny, Konami thrust their latest effort onto the market in the knowledge that it needs to buck the recent trend of mediocrity, and we're delighted to report (to borrow a footballing term) that the series seems to have finally turned the corner with probably the best Pro Evolution Soccer yet released on the current generation of systems. It's taken four years, but it finally appears as though Pro Evolution Soccer has found it's feet again.

Every single area of the game has been improved dramatically since the last outing, and if online play can stand up to the test of thousands of games then it's a match for FIFA 10. Konami have laid down a marker with this release and if they can build on this statement of intent next year they will once again be the undisputed kings of console football. For now though we'll call this one a draw.

Read more in Click Magazine Issue 6