Steven Gerrard skips past two defenders after being supplied with the perfect throw. He then knocks the ball in front of him and slams a 30 yard screamer into the top right corner. The crowd is going wild and the commentator is screaming ‘GERRRRRARD!!’ … pure Pro Evolution Soccer right there!
Football games, or soccer games for our Americans readers, are few and far in between on the Xbox 360. PES 2008 and FIFA 2008 are the only football games available to 360 owners this year. You will notice FIFA ‘08 being mentioned several times during this review. Football fans will be buying one or the other, a small minority purchasing both, so we have formulated a comparison between these two distinct games to make the choice a little easier for those sitting on the fence. Pro Evolution ’08 is a mixed bag. It is a great game but has both major and minor flaws that hold it back from being in the category of a brilliant game. We will start with the flaws and get the bad news out of the way first but don’t worry, there is plenty of good news including massive improvements over last years PES 6.
Although the edit mode has been brought back for this seasons outing, it is lacking in areas and has been trimmed down for reasons only known by Konami. It is these eliminated features which are sorely missed. The ability to edit the teams’ kits, crests, and logos has been removed. So if you were like me, you would find yourself playing with a team that is unlicensed such as Liverpool (Merseyside Red in PES). Additionally, you are then stuck with, dare I say, a terrible default crest that PES gives you. Yes, you can edit both the team and player names in an attempt to make it appear to be licensed but in every game the scoreboard is just the crests of the teams. I grew weary of looking at a knock off crest of my beloved team in every match. The editing of kits has been removed as well but not entirely if you own the Vision Camera. Microsoft has included a handy little gimmick where you can take a picture of your teams’ kit and load it up on the screen. Why you can’t edit the kits manually is beyond me. A money swindle by Microsoft to ship more Vision Cameras is what comes to my mind.
The major flaw, or bug as it may be in PES ’08, is the online component. Every game I joined was a lag-fest which is putting it lightly. It seems no matter what the connection strength may be, PES’08 online is extremely laggy which is down right appalling. There are rumors of a patch coming out soon and to be honest, the rumors need to be true. Konami are lucky the single player modes in PES ’08 are top notch and it’s enough to hold most people over. Until a patch is released and online is playable, you are better off staying away.
Now onto the good news; we can safely say that PES ’08 is for all its flaws, still the best football game we have ever played. The improvements over PES 6 are immense and although PES 6 was really just a PlayStation 2 port in every sense of the word, it was still a great game nevertheless. Although a lot of people felt hard done by PES 6 due to ‘last-gen’ graphics and a lack of edit modes, I think PES ’08 will make up for that and bring all the hardcore PES fans back to Konami’s side.
The gameplay is nothing short of brilliant! The graphics are very good although the new ‘3D’ crowds do have a last gen look to them. The stadiums and stadium effects such as flares, flags, banners, et cetera, are lacking when compared to FIFA, however, the game in its entirety is beautiful. 95% of the time you will be viewing the pitch and a select number of players moving around the ball depending on camera preference and how close or far away you view this field of play. This is where PES ’08 really shines. The player animations are top-notch, the fluid movement of every player is brilliant, and the physics of the ball play is a beauty to watch. It is far better then the dull drab movement you tend to get in FIFA ’08. In FIFA the players seem to move against the controller in that you seem to pull them along the pitch but in PES ‘08 they move so freely it feels as if it takes no effort to have a top striker run the ball up the wing and take a shot from outside the box. It all just looks ‘right’. “The beautiful game” is a term used for football and a term that suits PES ’08 to a tee. It’s not just the ball play that is smooth, the tackles are a treat too! Watching a slide tackle from behind someone only to see the player fall and writhe in agony on the ground is so realistic you almost feel like you deserved the red card the referee just pulled out of his pocket. The new fake dive move in PES ’08 is also a joy to use. If you feel you’re close enough to the box to try for a penalty plea then just press the button and your player will attempt a fake dive. To see the player throw himself on the ground and look in the direction of the ref is comedic and it brings a grin to my face every time.
