The New Year brings forth a new wave of annually updated sports titles and among the first to see the light of day on the calendar year is the world's beloved football - or for us United States oddballs, soccer. Stepping up for another go at the goal, Konami's lone U.S. sports simulator makes the jump to the Xbox 360 and provides some great foot action although it lacks in presentation for the hex-checkered fanatics.

Dropping the series number and adopting the European title, Winning Eleven Pro Evolution Soccer 2007 entered new territory this year by not only appearing on the Playstation 2 and PSP but also the 360 and Nintendo DS. With Winning Eleven playing on the Playstation 2 so long, it's unfortunate the long-running series doesn't carry over its full potential as it fails to support some of the features it's well-known for on the 360.

Thankfully, the most important element of the title, it's game play, carries over in its full tightly controlled, intricate glory. While the game is unlicensed and features a host of imaginary teams and players, the meat and potatoes of the game play is what allows the series to truly compete with EA's fully-featured FIFA series - and, debatably, it often outshines that said series.

Unfortunately, that potential nips WE 2007's Xbox 360 debut as the title fails to utilize the hardware. Given the presentation and appearance of the game, it seems the newest entry appears to be another long-running franchise developed with the Playstation 2 in mind and granted a quick port-over to the 360.

This is most evident graphically as the players and environments fail to feature a true "next-gen" look, especially if the game is not played in high definition. While the action takes place with a wide-panned camera perspective, the character models look and move quite well, but the zoomed-in views of instant replays and cut scenes show the aged look and occasionally jerky animations of the players. The crowd does little to add to the plain playing fields and stadiums, which also don't seem to have any punch graphically.

While the close-ups show a little luster, they are still deliciously appealing and do sport some attention to detail. I can't tell you how many times I re-watched the time I beat the goalkeeper to the ball, kicked the ball between his legs as he bent over to pick it up and swished the top corner of the goal.