PlayStation 3

Pro Evolution Soccer 2008

Only time will tell how good Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 is. At present it feels like one of the worst games in the series to date, with issues such as slowdown and poor editing options hampering the experience. Yet it still has the potential to be without a doubt the greatest football game yet. If we can push past the issue of only being able to edit eight kits and get the full premiership looking decent, then brilliant. And if the patch from Konami solves the slowdown issue online as well as off then the gameplay will be absolutely faultless. Until then though, it'll have to make do with a nine out of ten and a scribbled note of "Must try harder!"

Pro Evolution Soccer ’08 is what every sports fan wanted from the inaugural batch of titles from a few years back. PES ’08 houses the same fluid and responsive gameplay that made Winning Eleven 9 one of the best football (American soccer) games ever made, only now it has some production values to match. The offering of modes may not have a standout or one feature that was obviously the focus of development, but it has more than enough to satiate the appetite of the many rabid football junkies of the world. For this year’s best virtual football and a return to form for one of the staples of our industry, look no further than Pro Evolution Soccer 2008. It won’t disappoint.

Unfortunately, visuals aren't keeping pace on the newer consoles - for examples, look no further than the lack of facial details on players, frequent frame rate stutters, and a crowd made up of blocky, pixelated faces. Up the ante on the production values, and this one could go for the Cup next year.

PES 2008's entertaining match improvements, exhilarating action and solid additions mean it just about scrapes another 8, though at no point does it come even close to flirting with higher scores. It's fast, fluid, fun and physical, an improved, revamped version of PES 6 if you like. If that's what you're looking for from the next iteration of the series, then you won't be disappointed. If not, then I think you can probably work the rest out for yourself...

Die Steuerung reagiert sehr direkt. Die Spielgeräusche sind prima. Die Kommentare der Moderatoren sind okay. Die Fankulisse klingt sehr monoton. Im grafischen Bereich liegen Stärken und Schwächen, Die Spielfiguren bewegen sich sehr geschmeidig, aber der Bildschirm ruckelt mitunter. Für Fußball-Fans aber allemal ein „guter“ Tipp – nicht nur zur Halbzeitpause.

With rival EA exploring new facets of the sport with its Be-A-Pro mode, I'd love to see Konami take notice and compete, but until it fixed some of it's legacy problems (such as catch-up AI, players taking the ball right out of bounds, etc.) and truly gives us a new game, I won't be convinced that the company is serious in moving the franchise forward.

La série des Pro Evolution Soccer ne décolle pas sur consoles nouvelle génération. Clairement, on prend beaucoup de plaisir à jouer à cette version que l'on considère tout de même comme bonne, notamment en multi, mais l'équipe de développement semble faire du surplace en choisissant de s'ouvrir à un public moins acharné. Si l'on y ajoute les soucis de contenu et des commentaires toujours très moyens, PES peut faire beaucoup mieux.

PES 2008 on PS3 is for a next-gen console but it is not a next-gen game. You cannot ignore the fact that, for whatever reason, this is a poor effort from Konami. PES executive producer Shingo 'Seabass' Takatsuka himself has said that he was "shocked" at the PS3 slowdown and that he doesn't have a clue why it's happening. Unfortunately this won't cut it for gamers who have forked out hundreds of pounds for a PS3, a platform that is supposed to be the most powerful console in the world. Slowdown and poor frame rates are so last gen. It's amazing to think that some scientists have replaced supercomputers with PS3s, and an experienced game developer can't get a football game to run without having a heart attack. It is with a heavy heart, a heart that has been in love with Konami's brilliant football series for longer than I can remember, that I cannot recommend PES 2008 on the PS3 over FIFA 08 on the same console.

Quand PES 6 sur Next Gen avait joué la carte de la sécurité en adaptant à quelques détails près le gameplay subtil de la version PS2, PES 2008 se perd en chemin. La physique de balle est toujours sans égale, mais il faut subir cette année des placements défensifs complètement à l'ouest et un rythme de jeu trop élevé, surtout quand on se la joue simu. Pire, le jeu en ligne sur console nouvelle génération se limite au duel. Bref, même si l'on gagne quelques ajouts dans les mouvements, dans l'habillage ou du côté de l'I.A., on peut difficilement se contenter d'une version à l'économie, surtout quand la concurrence met les bouchées doubles pour creuser l'écart.

After years of living up to the name of evolving the beautiful game, Konami's latest Pro Evolution Soccer effort is an embarrassment for a series that has served as the dominant title in the genre. Admittedly, the Teamvision AI and core gameplay are still intact and quite good, but there isn't a lot here to emphatically recommend an upgrade from last year's game. The edit mode, normally a staple of the PES experience, is neutered in comparison to the PS2 installment's, and the online multiplayer is a laggy embarrassment. If you've absolutely got to have the latest title, there's some fun to be had in Pro Evolution Soccer 2008's single-player and offline multiplayer, but the rest of the experience has serious problems. You'd be better off picking up the PS2 version.

Konami has created a soccer game that had all the potential to be a world class leader. If it were not for the slowdown issues that gripe this release, Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 would be the best edition of the game in the series. The gameplay has been finely tuned to perfection and it plays the 'beautiful game' sublimely, far better than EA Sports' and its soccer fest could even dream of. But with such a glaring technical hitch Konami could have a battle on their hands as they go up against the far smoother FIFA 08 this Christmas.

Ultimately, the success of Pro Evolution Soccer is a paradox for the game's designers. It's difficult to improve on the standard that was achieved with the fifth version of the game, but the designers could certainly start by introducing some next-generation features to the PlayStation 3. Although it's bad enough that it doesn't differ from its predecessor in any noteworthy way, the technical problems and laggy online mode combine to make cause serious gameplay issues. Hopefully some of the flaws will be fixed with future patches, but as it stands right now, PES 2008 is essentially an incomplete game.

Taking into account the design flaws, AI inconsistencies, the lack of progression and that the PS2 version is arguably a lot better (and cheaper) than the ‘next-gen’ versions yet again (albeit very little different to PES 6 save for some subtle differences), but also taking into account that for some people the frame-rate issues and online play aren’t as bad as they are for others, PES 2008 still just about manages to scrape a six.

But that's just the problem: They've been building on this foundation for a long time, and when the main structure is complete, all that's left to do is perform maintenance and splash on a new coat of paint. Little maintenance problems tend to go wrong (i.e., the A.I. issues), and Pro Evo for the current generation of powerful systems obviously needs some new paint. It seems that the development team did just enough to get by, hence the slightly above-average grade and the recommendation that if you absolutely must play a new soccer game this year, either try out FIFA 08, the cheaper PS2 version of Pro Evo 2008, or the intriguing new motion control scheme on Wii.