Much harder than previous versions so prepare to be frustrated!
The game play isn't much dissimilar from last year, it seems a little more polished and doesn't seem to suffer from that dreaded lag, which often occurred around the penalty box during a corner.
One thing that did stand out is the changes to computer AI, you now get much less time on the ball and scoring is much harder. I personally think they may have gone a little far this time as it's removed some of the fun from the game.
The Champions league tournament is a great addition to PES 09, its just a shame they haven't included all the teams, which seems crazy but typical of Pro Evo.
Be a legend, is a total waste of time. As you spend 99% of the time training and 1% playing games. This mode allows you to create your own player, you can decide position, height, weight etc..!. Once you've setup your player you next play a friendly game which scouts attend, and judging on your debut performance you get offered a respective contract at a club. In my case I got offered a place at Man City, I immediately thought great i'm a striker so I should score plenty.....err yeah right! At this point I should point out that you only get control of you and not the whole team which i think is madness. The in game camera angle defaults on player cam, which I find very hard to use as you spend half your time looking around trying to follow the ball, you can adjust the camera to the usual wide cam although you miss half the game when the balls down the other end of the pitch. To be honest though it dosen't matter which camera angle you have because nobody passes you the ball anyway. I've being playing this mode for around 5 hours now and have only played two games. Maybe its me being rubbish or maybe this modes just a complete waste of time, see for yourselves, but im sure many will agree its the later.
Lastly, and for me the most important, is the licensing or lack of it. I honestly cannot understand why they still cant get the rights for all the teams within the game. I mean i recently bought a footy game for my mobile which managed to include more official Premier League team names and players. Cmon Pro Evo this license joke has gone on long enough! Also it's very frustrating when you discover a player which moved clubs in the summer, but has been missed in the game. Its probably a deadline issue but one which continues to affect Pro Evo but not Fifa.
Generally this game is good, and is improved greatly with the addition of the champions league mode but it just let's itself down with the be a legend feature and the continued lack of licensing. I think Konami could do much better.