Soccer video games have always been an interesting sport because the camera needs to be so far away from the field that player models have never really been graphically all that good (compared to some other sports titles). 989 Sports introduces this year's World Tour Soccer, and it takes advantage of some of the PS2's potential. Player models look as nice as the field itself. The crowd doesn't appear as nice, but that's understandable considering soccer is the biggest sport in the world.

The crowd's importance is not visually anyway, but instead it is their intensity that fills the arena with noise. The audio quality of WTS2002 is nothing out of the ordinary. Your typical fútbol noises are all present. The announcer commentary will help you out with the play-by-play, but it's very static and non-eventful. It would be great to have heard commentary like you'd really hear on the boob tube. Overall, there's nothing special here, so don't expect some breathtaking breakthrough in audio quality.

Once again, all of the standard modes of play are included in a sports game. World Tour Soccer 2002 includes a Quick Game or Exhibition for the one-stop-shop player, while the hardcore gamer will be able to bust out one of the many competitions. The regular, National Season, mode is just like the real world. All of your favorite players (over 5000 of them) are present, within your favorite teams (over 300 of them).

There are also six Special Competitions, including a Custom League. Other competitions include the ability to play all-star type games using each of the continents as teams, a league of all-time greatest teams, a school playground league, a Timewarp Cup, and a Custom Cup. Whichever you choose, you'll be in for the same great gameplay using any of the many custom settings.

World Tour Soccer 2002 offers great gameplay in the form of fairly easy-to-use basic controls that not only do what you want them to do, but allows you to do it without much thought (which is especially nice for those days you just want to veg-out). If you do feel like putting a little thought process into your gaming experience, WTS2002 will also allow you to create custom teams and players. And what good would a team be without a country to represent them? That's right. You also get to custom build your own team's flag.

Once you break onto the fútbol scene with your brand new team, you may want to think twice about home field advantage. I didn't really notice any differences when on your home turf. One sure thing about soccer games throughout the world, and that is that the crowd plays an important role in pumping up the players they root for. It's unfortunate that the crowd didn't play as much of a role in this game, which maybe would have been nice, considering the difficulty of WTS2002.

Controlling your players is actually quite simple and easy to jump into. However, if you think you're going to score major goals in the opening minutes, you're very mistaken. Getting down the field is not much of a problem (for the most part), but scoring is another thing. Even harder still is that the computer seems to almost score at will sometimes. This combination will make for a tough game. Like all sports games, however, I'm sure that with some practice, you'll be able to compete with the best of them. And like all sports games, World Tour Soccer 2002 is even better when played with friends.

Here's the deal. World Tour Soccer 2002 is a very well put together game. The controls are very usable and the menu system is as good as any. If you're into soccer or sports games in general, I'm sure that you'll like WTS2002. If you're more into fast-paced sporting titles, though, you may find this game a bit slow or even boring. But given a chance, World Tour Soccer 2002 would make a good addition to anyone's gaming collection.