Still the most addictive football game out when it comes to the actual game, but PES 2008 has other problems...
I have sticked with Konami's series over EA's since Pro Evo 4 came out, and I realised how much better that game was than any I have played in the FIFA series. The difference in style of gameplay is the main thing - FIFA has always been more of an arcade game whilst Pro Evolution was always the true soccer sim. Right up until now have the PES games kept that title, including Pro Evolution Soccer 2008.
The game seems to be getting worse and worse at maintaining licensed teams. I was so disappointed to see that Man U have changed back to Man Red and that the two English teams that are licensed (Newcastle and Spurs) are not even title contenders like they had in the previous games. They still haven't got the Bundesliga back and they seem to be having trouble with the National teams. The amount of stadiums available is ridiculous - why would a struggling Spanish side ever play their home games in the Nou Camp? It is annoying, but that's the way it's always been for a long time now, although I swear they had more stadiums in the other games.
A lot of people probably bought this game to take a look at the new Master League - I know I did. When screenshots of players being interviewed appeared under the Pro Evo section on Gamespot, I got kind of excited and thought that this will be a real next gen game. What they actually did with that picture was pointless - it was just part of the news section of the Master League with a dumb caption like "Rooney talks about the secret behind his brilliant form this season". One nice addition to the game was that they have added two extra teams to each top division of the Master League to make the leagues have a more accurate table of 20 teams. But this should have happened in the first place anyway. Although it seems that PES have just given you extra in the Master League, they have taken away little things from the previous games, which frustrated me, such as the statistics of the players after every match - I love knowing the distance travelled by an individual player and seeing how many successful passes they made. You are also unable to obtain the information that tells you how many appearances your player has made for the club and how many goals they have scored with the tap of a button.
Pro 2008 has kept the same six trophies available to win in the Master League - D2 League and Cup, D1 League and Cup and European Masters Cup and Champions Cup, but they haven't added anything new. One thing I do look out for is to see if certain players have improved since the last game based on the performances of the last real season. Players such as Carlos Tevez. A lot of their stats were raised, but Carlos Tevez stayed the same even though he is a very special player. This is the same for a lot of other players in the Master League. I like the fact that you can now choose whether to have 'classic' players available to you or not because the classic players used to dominate the big teams in the previous games, which got old fast, and I would find myslef restarting my Master League to try and perfect it this time.
I think that this is the first time that PES have used a Network mode, so I will forgive them for making it so badly this time. You can't find your friends on the game unless you search for hours and there are so many bugs in it that it is almost unplayable. I find myself playing against an Italian or something that has a 20% winning average, but with a terrible connection, and losing 5-0 because it just takes one flash and the ball somehow ends up in my net. It really gets to me when someone so bad thinks they are better than me enters 'hahahahaha' every time the ball goes in using some crappy demo chat thing. Yes, the glitches are that bad and if you are thinking of getting this game because of the online features, don't. It hurts to say it, but FIFA probably have the upper hand on this one.
The actual gameplay of Pro 2008 is still amazing and addictive as ever. There are some slight improvements on PES 6, such as the shooting technique has now been perfected and the long balls are so, so, so much better! The movement of the players is so realistic and the control you have over them is fantastic! And if the game has been slowed down, I no longer notice. However, the new AI system is a big letdown. I find the game easier than ever. My most common victory against the computer is probably 5-0 on top player and it doesn't seem that they have added an extra difficulty like in the previous games. An example of the computers' stupidity would be when the ball goes anywhere near their touchline, they hoof it out for a corner that I didn't deserve. Do they want me to win?
The graphics is the worst aspect of the game. They are definitely recycled from Pro 6. Sure, the players shirts and faces look a little more realistic and the crowd have new banners, but that is nothing. FIFA looks a lot more polished and are overall the more superior when it comes to graphics.
The sound has been improved. The crowd now have different chants and noises, such as when in England and someone scores, they all scream 'YES!' and in Spain, when a ball falls into the net they shout 'GOAL!'. The commentary has improved, but not much. A lot of phrases are constantly repeated, such as 'A quickfire double!' and 'A good manager is an active manager.' It is also very annoying when they never mention the player's name in general sentences, they always refer to the player as 'This player...' I am sick to death of the terrible commentary on PES games, why can't they study the way that FIFA do it? There is also a PES original soundtrack, which goes with the game quite well, but you will get bored of hearing the same songs over and over again.
The game is definitely good value for money, I have played it for well over 100 hours, and I guess that's what makes me disagree with some of the terrible reviews. It has lots of replay value like all PES games. Overall, I agree that this is one of the worst games in the series, but it is as addictive as ever. This game can act like an experimental game to get ready for Pro 2009, and I will definitely get that when it comes out.
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