Customer Reviews

Pro Evolution Soccer 2008

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am a PES die hard fan since winning eleven 6, but PES 08's online play is really very absolutely HORRIBLE, how can Konami makes this one's online play worse than PES 07. If you enjoy offline play, this is the one for you, but if you prefer online play, AVOID it and save your $ for PES 09 (hopefully they will make next one better). Despite online play, this game will be worth 4.5 star.

This is a excelent game toplay with 4 or 8 or 2 friends... have amazing really tricks moves, for me better than FIFA08, playbility it awesome and very fastest game, maybe 4x more fast than FIFA08, i have both... to me this is better game.

The only thing that i don't like to much is in XBOX LIVE, you can only play with other person in a single game, this means one to one (1vs1) this game doesn't come with play pro like FIFA, but it still my prefer game...

Thnx, and sorry about my english, I'm venezuelan

Keep in touch...

After reading numerous reviews on the UK/AUS version over the past few months I was skeptical about this year's Winning Eleven/Pro Evo game. After playing it I can see where the criticism comes from. While the gameplay is still top notch, the replays are fairly choppy. I can't understand how they didn't fix this problem, seeing as how its not a internet connection dependent problem such as online play (which has also been barely playable at best on a cable internet connection). Hopefully updates will fix these problems but for the time being I'll just have to deal with it. I'd still recommend buying the game if you enjoy the PES/WE series, but might wait to see if they can resolve issues with choppiness.

I've been playing winning11 since 4 years ago on PS2 and it's by far the best soccer game out there. I've tried playing the newer versions of Fifa and they hav improved a lot since the old Fifa days but it's still no match for PES/WE11.

In PES2008, you can expect the same buttons, gameplay, shots, passes, goalkeeping (still easy to score if u do lob shot) and dribbling. There are a few more "tricks" you can do with dribbling but they are not changing the overall aspect of the game. The gameplay is still nicely linked and does not feel much different from older versions.

The biggest issues with PES2008 is the frame rate issues on the replay which is one of my fav. parts of older vers of PES/WE11. But now the replays are choppy and impossible to enjoy after you score a goal.

Playing on Live is horrible. The lag is unbearable and you can't play a game without balls disappearing left and right. Online playing is just not possible and fun at this point.

my friend let me borrow this game a while ago and it was pretty fun. after playing fifa 11, this game seems kinda crappy. PES is really good(the newer ones) and i like them. so if you want to buy PES, get the new ones. Its a good game.

very good gameplay, more realistic than the others, the sad thing is that this version doesnt have too many license for clubs, but the gameplay recompense it, and if you ever wanted to play the champions league with the pes format, this is an amazing option.

I don't usually play sports games. Take that however you want. However, soccer is easily my favorite sport, and really the only one that I enjoy watching. I picked this game up because I heard about the control system and though it sounded really intuitive and fun. Turns out: it is! Absolutely love the controls. Point in the direction you want your player to dribble, point and click on a player to pass to him; It just makes sense. Haven't played the Wii in months, but dusted it back off for this and was pleasantly surprised. The only complaint I have here is that the graphics are PS2 quality, at best, but hey, that's my complaint with the Wii in general. That, and the fact that the commentators repeat themselves quite frequently. I've only played a couple matches and one cup and I think I've heard everything they have to say already. Luckily the fun of the gameplay here makes up for the muddy visuals. Good times.

This review is for the XBOX360 US version of the game.

Pro Evolution Soccer is the game formerly known as Winning Eleven in the US. This year the reviews are worse than usual and that made me think something went wrong with the game. But I liked the gameplay from the XBOX Live demo and after buying the full game, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that it is a significant step forward for the series. I think what might have happened is that the European version, which was released earlier, had more glitches that have been fixed by the time of the later US release.

If you're new to this series, what you can expect to find is the richest game of football there is. If what you're looking for in a sports game is gameplay, then this is the game for you - the responsiveness of players leads to situations that will still have the potential of surprising you after tens of hours of play, and that is what matters for a sports simulation. Graphically, the game looks very good (but not exceptional) and I have not encountered any framerate issues in over 30 hrs of play so far.

If you've been playing Winning Eleven before, here are the highlights for this version:

- it's really the first next-gen version for XBOX 360 - the previous version was just a port with higher resolution graphics, widescreen support, and missing features (couldn't save replays, restricted editing, etc.)
- player models have been upgraded and look more realistic than before
- there are significant AI changes - players hold formation differently than before and they learned some new tricks
- players are a bit more responsive and can be controlled earlier - you can now avoid missing a pass because your player was waiting for the ball
- shooting controls are not as sensitive as they used to be - this is good, because in previous versions any harder button press would result in a ball way over the goal
- the missing features have been all added back, so this is now as complete a package as it was on the old-gen consoles (not as many stadiums as before, but there are some new ones)

This may not sound like much on paper, but if you have played the game before, you'll notice all these changes and their positive impact once you start playing the game a little.

Gameplay is criticized by some as being too fast. That is probably true, but it's easy to get used to the speed and once you get used to it and with what it allows you to do, you'll find anything else sluggish in comparison.

What is missing? I would like to see more AI improvements so that my team mates would be more proactive at pressuring the opponent. The auto cursor switch could also be improved - this has always been a nagging point with all football games I played - I wish someone would really nail this - today I play with manual cursor switch.

A note on the online play - I only tried this once and that time was horrendous. I didn't try it again, so if online play is important for you, look for more opinions on that.

For those hesitating between FIFA and PES: I gave up on the FIFA games a few years back because FIFA games place a larger emphasis on longer animations at the detriment of player responsiveness. Moving between FIFA and PES, what I always noticed is that in PES there is more action per square foot than in FIFA. Also, in terms of animation, PES is much richer - just look at what happens when players bump into each other in PES vs their behavior in FIFA. Of course, YMMV, so my suggestion is to download both game demos from XBOX Live and give them a serious try. Play them for extended periods of time (several hours) and see which one provides you with more fun.

[UPDATE 06/04/2008] Forgot to mention two improvements:

- there is a new commentary track - this was long overdue
- there is now much better music as well

the gameplay is what PES is known for, and by my account it is still great, the only real letdown is the lack of detail, the commentary gets very repetitive and is not really geared for first and second half difference (it says the game is almost over when its merely almost halftime) other than these little quirks, the game is great. It would be great for Konami to make sure the game is more polished.

I'd heard plenty of criticism from the British and Australian/New Zealand gamers about this game when it came out back in late October. After playing this year's version of PES 2008, it became clear to me what the real issues with this game were. While the gameplay and game mechanics are still top notch, they also went slightly downhill this year. I was just fine with the presentation, but some of the finer details in the game make it more obvious how lazy Konami are. They haven't released an effective patch to fix the replays, and they haven't added anything new to the game in awhile. Online is where 90% of the complaints for PES 2008 come from, as it is completely unplayable. The truth is that PES is still king when it comes to offline play, but Konami are resting on their laurels at the moment and don't impress me. While I love this game, this might also be the last PES I buy as it's obvious this series isn't improving at all.