Welcome to the definitive Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 review. That’s right, you can now officially ignore every other PES08 review. Well, perhaps I’m getting a bit ahead of myself here. The reason for this, is not that my review is simply of superior quality to all the others. Indeed, most reviews were many months ago, so in that regards I’ve missed the boat. But what time has granted me though is something very important, updates 1.1 and 1.2. That's right, patches! Nothing quite like them to fix a broken game (not that PES 2008 is broken). Regardless, the latest update runs at over 130mb, takes a good while to download (especially when you just fancied a quick game of football), but as far as I’m concerned, significantly improves this game.
The game itself is the Pro Evo which we all know and love. Regardless of the different reviews, most agree that Pro Evo allows you to play a better game of football then the Fifa games do, I subscribe to this view. Fifa has improved in its latest outing, but still doesn’t match up to Pro Evo, especially in the realm of the all important gameplay. The game itself plays very similar to its previous incarnations, but believe me, that’s a good thing. Those experienced to the series will have no trouble just jumping straight in, for those new, the controls are easy enough to grasp. There are several new features that have been implemented, perhaps the biggest is the ability to copy many of your favourite, players and to take a dive. This ability however is generally used very rarely, the reason for this is that you are more likely to be punished and shown a yellow.
The master league mode is back and works a treat. This alone can keep you gripped for many hours and, to me at least, features that ‘just one more game’ mentality. There are also a variety of other tournaments and trophies to battle out for and to win, as well as a range of difficulty settings if you start finding all too easy. This shouldn’t happen as easily as it did in previous Pro Evo games however, as in this one the teams you play will change their tactics etc, to best counter your style of play. No longer can you find a formation that works and just rely on it throughout the whole season.
Multi-player is where this game really shines. Offline at least. Four player Pro Evo games have for a long time been a staple of my multi-player script. And is just as much fun as before, yelling at your two opposition players, as well as your team-mate, and acting like a child whenever a goal is scored. Online however, is a bit of a different story. Before the recent updates, lag was a significant issue online, with the ball randomly jumping around. If you want to play this game online then do not by this second hand. You have to enter a code in-order to register, however the code only works the once and you are in a stick situation if your code has already been used.
The graphics for this game are a mixed bag. The menus, players and stadiums all look good, suitably next gen. However their attempt to animate the crowd, while a commendable objective, did not go according to plan. They all move etc, but don’t actually look that good, and what’s more they contribute to some significant slowdown. Or at least it was significant before the patches. It occurred in single player, but even more frequently during multiplayer. Especially when you were in the box, here the frame rate would suffer. You could have helped this, by removing stadium effects, commentary etc, but you shouldn’t need to. The replays were, and to a lesser extent now, just unwatchable, some of the worst frame-rate issues I have ever seen, regardless to say these are skipped every time. The patches have helped on this, slow down in game is almost non-existent, pity I couldn’t say the same for the replays.
Also it’s a shame the patches could do nothing about the game's music. This has never been one of its strong points, but this year is particularly bad. It’s just a relief they only play the music while your at the menus and not actually during the game. The commentary, on the other hand, is well done, improved from previous versions in the quantity and quality of what is said.
There are a few extra little niggles, the lack of stadiums as well as some extra unlockables wouldn’t have gone a miss, neither would extra licensed teams. This game does give you the option of installing a few gigs of data on your hard drive, if I were you I would take it. It improves loading times and generally offers a smother experience. Despite the issues raised, this game still provides a great game of football, on your own or with mates, just make sure you're able to download the patches.
The epic fight between the two soccer giants Pro Evolution Soccer and FIFA has been going on for over 10 years now. Cynamite takes a look at the scores from both games and shows, at which point PES overtook the FIFA series.
PS1/PS2 - PES by far
360/PS3 - FIFA by far
I can't see that changing until the next generation of consoles.
Fifa 10 was good, but have you seen Fifa 11? NOt that much of a step up from 10. Pro Evo 2010 was not that good, but so far, what I've seen of Pro Evo 2011 blows anything and everything Fifa out of the water.
Pro Evo is back to reclaim the number 1 spot.
just because pes has improved alot over pes 10 dont mean much, its still the same robotic game it has been for a while. and if you have played fifa 10 then moved to 11 its improved on a lot on what was already a great game.
agreed, pes11 is an improvement on last yr but it still lags way behind fifa at this point.. all the same issues that make it bad are still their
pes was good till 2011
it's a fail - they tried to change the gameplay for good but they ruined it
It's a shame that people such as yourself are still stuck in the dark days, clinging onto the hope that PES will be what it once was.
I was a huge fan of PES back in the day - as big as you could get, really - and I still believe that PES 5 and 6 are the best football games of all time. But I played the PES 2011 demo and deleted it after two games, because it's just horrible. Passing is decent, but that's about it; the player movement still borders on robotic, shooting is way too floaty and the presentation is mediocre.
If you really believe that the 'King' is back, then you must have a very short memory. PES this generation has absolutely nothing on the old games, nor does it have anything on FIFA this gen either; its rival is superior in almost every way.
It's actually a step down, they ruined the Fifa 10 formula and this is coming from a Fifa player. Am not a PES fan so i really don't know if the new one is good or not. My angle is the fact that EA messed up Fifa 11, i have spoken to many diehard fifa fans that feel the same way. Some are considering to just stick with 10 and see what 12 is like.
FIFA 11 is superior to FIFA 10 in practically every way, without a doubt. I find it laughable that anyone could think any different.
FIFA 10 was a great game, but it had way too many flaws. FIFA 11 is a much more refined experience, and is all the better for it.
2000 - 2005 -> PES dominated since the PS1 days but then it came PES 2006 it was a major letdown
2006 - NOW -> Fifa started to show its quality on this current gen and it evolved year after year while PES was still way behind.
A shame that games like "This is football" just vanished during the PS2 days
pes2011 is much different from any next gen pes, this is really a huge improvement
Its funny to read or talk to the FIFA fanboy they cant accept the true and hate PES.
If you go to the FIFA forums they talk Bs. About pes and they hate it.
In the Pes forums they respect Fifa and many will be getting the two and we aré confidente that PES11 is better and the kind is back
Boomtown writes: "No rivalry in the world of gaming is fiercer than the one between competing football franchises. It almost mirrors the strength of feeling people have for their club. Crossing the divide to support another franchise is a relatively rare occurrence. There are two major derby matches in the football gaming calendar and they feature a bitter enmity which has built up over the last few years. The first is Pro Evolution versus FIFA and the second is Championship Manager versus Football Manager."
NoobTalk writes: Well I must say that if the game was called "Noob Evolution Soccer" it would have been way better for us, but, sadly, it ain't.
