Xbox 360

Pro Evolution Soccer 2008

Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 is the best football game on the market in our opinion. However whether we recommend FIFA or PES 2008 to you depends on one thing - do you want the most realistic football simulation around or are you happy with high paced action with lots of goal mouth action? The choice is yours but we pick Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 any day of the week.

But PES 2008's gameplay is a big improvement on last year's effort. PES fans can forgive the poor graphics, the God-awful music, the embarrassing presentation and lack of licensed teams because the core of the game is so mind-bogglingly brilliant. Some gamers have called for a complete overhaul of the game, as legendary PES executive producer Shingo 'Seabass' Takatsuka has confirmed will be in place for 2009's game. But for me, I love PES's gameplay the way it is. The feeling of satisfaction you get from scoring a goal in PES, be it a tap-in at the end of an Arsenal-esque 20-pass move or a Frank Lampard scorcher, is unlike anything in gaming. It's about as close as us mortals are going to get to that uncontrollable burst of emotion professional footballers experience week in, week out. The most important thing is that in PES 2008 you can still get that beautiful feeling.

All in all, PES 2008 adds significant depth and realism to the in-game experience. Seeing as this is what appeals most to the average PES gamer, we can state quite confidently that this year's game is a resounding success.

In summation, PES ’08 is a great game that has the feel and look of the old PES titles with the visuals of a true next-gen game. There are some flaws but with an online patch in the works all that is left at fault is the edit mode which is by no means a game breaker. Its PlayStation 3 counter-part has problems with frame rate drops in single player games which we luckily do not have and it provides yet another reason to buy this game on the Xbox 360. PES has finally hit the next-gen scene with a bang. It’s intelligent and definitely a great game. Any football fan would be mad to miss out and I urge any FIFA fan to make this their first PES game. They won’t regret the decision and will never look back once they have purchased Pro Evolution Soccer 2008.

Zusammenfassend bleibt uns nur ein Schluss übrig: Spielerisch überzeugt Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 fast 100%ig. Die weiter angestiegene Anzahl an Kombinations- sowie Strategiemöglichkeiten und die stark verbesserte KI begeistern Profis sowie Fans der Serie sofort und man fühlt sich direkt heimisch. Anfänger werden durch den einfachen Einstieg und die schnelle Lernkurve auch ihren Spaß auf dem Rasen finden.

Pro Evolution Soccer 08 ist auch in diesem Jahr die beste erhältliche Fußballsimulation. Spielerisch macht der Titel fast alles richtig und begeistert durch viel Tiefgang und eine verbesserte künstliche Intelligenz. Die Spielmechanik lässt über das Fehlen von Lizenzen und neuen Spielmodi hinwegsehen, wobei es Konami endlich schaffen muss an dieser Stelle für Besserung zu sorgen. Gleiches gilt für die schwache Präsentation. Darüberhinaus gilt es so schnell wie möglich den unspielbaren Online-Modus von Lags und Verzögerungen mittels Patch zu befreien. Fußballfans kommen in diesem Jahr nur an PES 08 vorbei, um Konami ein Zeichen zu geben, endlich auch an alten wohlbekannten Schwächen zu arbeiten.

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 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.

The simple fact of the matter is Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 should have been released last year. PES 6 for Xbox 360 was a gimped version of PES 6 for Playstation 2. This year we get the full game, and it's still PES, but that works for and against it. Yes, it's still got the awesome soccer feel. Yes, it's controller breakingly frustrating to play at times. Yes, it's got the ability to edit teams and players now. But still, it feels a bit like we're getting the same game over and over. Like the Tony Hawk series, it's beginning to feel stale. There's nothing extraordinarily different in terms of the actual gameplay despite the ‘TeamVision', and he flaws it does have - the slow down in replays, the terrible online play, indicate that maybe Konami are starting to rest on their laurels slightly.

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.

While the majority of this review has been focusing on the negative, it's only because I now expect so much from the PES series. PES 2008 is a very good football game, especially so when sitting on the sofa with three other mates, but I'd also like to be able to get those mates together quickly for a game online, and we all know that it's technically possible. For playing offline with mates the game is a blast, and enough is different to just about justify the purchase cost over PES 6. If you must have all the Premier League teams though, or if you're only interested in playing offline, then it's probably best to look elsewhere.

It is defiantly more end to end arcade than true simulation and the ever poor presentation is frankly beyond a joke now, however, to end on a positive note, it does what it does very well indeed providing a version of football that while not hugely realistic plays the kind of fast exciting all action game you wish you watched week in week out on the terraces. Put it this way, my England vs. Croatia game this morning ended 7 - 1 (4-4-2, Beckham on from the start and no untested young keeper), hands up who'd have rather watched that on Wednesday night...

Die Pixel-Kicker bewegen sich geschmeidig, wirken aber nicht hundertprozentig realistisch. Die Steuerung könnte auch direkter reagieren. Auch die fantasievolle Namensgebung irritiert ein wenig. Dennoch dürften sich Fußball-Fans mit dem Konsolen-Kick-Erlebnis „gut“ unterhalten fühlen.

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.

PES2008 rings nothing new to the table. It’s the same old gameplay (which isn’t a bad thing), with subpar visuals and just passable sound. There’s nothing to keep you from sticking with PES6. It’s still good enough to play and enjoy, but not even having a reasonable online game is pathetic. While this is a problem that’s getting a patch in the future, PES2008 is a good game, but by no means great. The good news is that all we know at this moment in time is next year’s version is set to have new features, so hopefully it will be a much more enjoyable experience with no lag online. PES2008 is still a worthy purchase for those who are new to the series, but this season PES2008 seems to have slipped behind FIFA and Konami won’t be happy about that. Hopefully next season we’ll see a better effort.

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.

We’ve discussed how Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 does little to strengthen its position via licensing, new control features, graphics or online; sounds like a recipe for a sub 50% score, doesn’t it? But the fact of the matter is that the foundation upon which Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 was built–realistic, organic-feeling football gameplay– still makes it a competent title for all intents and purposes. We advise a rent if you already own Winning Eleven: Pro Evolution Soccer 2007, as little has, er, evolved since last year. New fans will want to pick up this version of the franchise, however. While it’s not what we were hoping for in terms of stout competition for EACA’s SKU’s, Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 still represents the pinnacle of Konami’s franchise, at least on Microsoft-branded consoles.

Despite the shiny graphics, catchy music and long-awaited additions and tweaks, PES is showing its age as it's flogged again for another year. It's a great experience, the best we've got so far in fact, but is more of a small step than the giant leap we were once again really hoping for.

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-gen features to the Xbox 360. Konami has tried to make subtle changes to the gameplay, some of which are successful and some of which are not. However, what the game really needs is new modes, features, and online offerings to warrant the upgrade, as well as bring it in-line with other Xbox 360 sports offerings. It will be quite a task, but next year's game needs to deliver all this and more if it's to retain its massive fan base.

I enjoy playing sports titles, but in order to keep my interest over a long period of time they need features. PES 2008 is a fun game, but it has too many incomplete areas for me to truly enjoy it. The lack of Germany and the US national teams really killed offline multiplayer sessions for my group of friends. I don’t mind that all of the leagues aren’t included and could easily ignore the missing leagues and teams if every International roster was fully licensed in the game. The online offerings feel extremely dated, and the editing features are negated by the difficulty of getting community updates without being banned from Xbox Live or spending countless hours doing it yourself. The Master League is deep and entertaining, but I personally prefer realistic settings more than fantasy settings so the appeal was lost after a few weeks of playtime. Overall, the game isn’t bad, but it certainly needs more licenses, online features, and modes to justify recommending it.

Redeeming the game from utter disgrace is the inclusion of an Edit mode, the ability to save goals onto the hard drive and an expanded (and lengthened) Master League mode. These are minor plus points for a fundamentally flawed game. Its unforgivable misplacing of trust from the fans and it feels like Konami just couldn’t be bothered. Therefore the fans can’t be bothered and they have a lot of make-up in front of them before we purchase another PES.

"Pro Evolution Soccer 2008" (PES 08) doesn't really live up to the competition this year. The game mode still offers endless hours of gameplay and the player models and animation is brilliant, but the visuals are starting to look dated, The online is a mess with numerous glitches and it offers nothing new in single player from PES 6. If you're a big PES or football fan this is still a good game to have in your collection, but for other gamers I would give it a rent and decide from there.

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.

If you're a PES fan then you've already gone and bought the game so our words are meaningless, but hopefully PES 2008 will convince you to hold onto your hard earned before making the purchase next year. The PES brand is currently sinking into shark infested waters and it seems that no matter how loud people shout the problems that have plagued the series since the beginning still aren't being addressed. Konami must try harder because you only have to look at the various message boards across the internet to see that fans are starting to revolt. Even with the faster, more fluid gameplay it still can't detract from the faults that surround it. We can only hope that next year is the true return to form.

Ultimately, Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 is a disappointment. It's better off with its small gameplay tweaks, but it isn't a great change from the previous instalment. The state of the online play is, quite frankly, disgraceful. Konami has built in PES a series known for its constantly evolving and improving gameplay, but if PES2008 is anything to go by, they're abusing this reputation. It's comparable to the thirty-something footballer in the twilight of his career; once a magician on the field, but now a fallen star who is content to sit on the bench for his massive pay cheque. PES needs to be the teenage upstart who's making his way in the game; eager to learn, determined to succeed, and playing with passion.