LONDON--As part of the London Games Festival, UK gamers got a sneak preview and the chance to play the hotly anticipated Pro Evolution Soccer 6--known as Winning Eleven: Pro Evolution Soccer 2007 in the US--for the Xbox 360 at HMV's Oxford Street store this week. A small crowd of gamers had gathered at the flagship location to play the game in a tournament, many of them hardcore PES fans.

　　West Ham's Bobby Zamora showing off his ball skills at the event.

　　"The only game I play is PES," said Sam Martin, a 30-year-old student. "It's the best football series ever," said 18-year-old Matthew Van Den Elst. "I've owned every version and I bought an Xbox 360 for this game," John Evans, a 31-year-old sales manager, told us.

　　All the boys (and yes, they were all boys) who had a chance to play the game were pleased with it. "The ball doesn't stick to the feet in this version. I'm definitely going to buy it," said Asim Tanvir, a 22-year-old student. "It was a bit slower than the last version," said Evans. "But the graphics were superb." Hallet was also impressed by the look and feel of the game: "It looks really good and it's great to see that they have all the licensed kits now," he explained.

　　However, the gamers all expressed a general lack of interest in other London Games Festival events. "I only heard that the festival was going on from GameSpot," said Tanvir. "I was thinking about going to the careers fair as well, but in the end I didn’t have time." Evans added: "I know about it but I'm not interested in any of the other events." Van Den Elst added: "I didn't know that this week was the London Games Festival. I might have gone to other events if I'd known about them."

　　Footballer Bobby Zamora, who plays for East London Premiership side West Ham, was at HMV to test out the game too. Surrounded by a crowd of press and fans, Zamora seemed to be enjoying the game.

　　Zamora told GameSpot that he was an avid gamer off the pitch too, and his favourite game was Tiger Woods 07, and of course the Pro Evolution Soccer series.

　　Pro Evolution Soccer 6 will be released in the UK on 27 October.