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Pro Evolution Soccer 2008

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8.4 User Score:

Generally favorable reviews

Based on 7 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 20 votes
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Game Info

Publisher: Konami

Developer: Konami

Genre(s): Sports, Soccer

Players: 8

ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)

Release Date: October 26, 2007

Summary

PES 2008 features a brand new intelligence system, called Teamvision, that adapts and reacts to players own gameplay styles to ensure that the computer controlled opponents are always challenging and forcing the player to think and chance their style of play to avoid being out-thought by the game. It learns counter attacks that target your weaknesses and look to exploit any repetitive tactics players use. Defenders react better to danger, closing down the ball and charging at shots and the goalkeepers hold shots that are closer to them as well. Teammates make more intelligent runs into space and the close control has been sharpened to ensure quick and fluid passing and speedy attacks can be built. The next gen versions also feature extensive edit modes so players can completely customise their PES 2008 experience. [Konami]

Cheat Codes & Hints: Cheat Code Central

Also On The Web: Official Website

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Play (Poland)

The Polish league is missing, as is the Polish commentary and about nine out of ten players present in FIFA, but as long as the realism of play is concerned, Pro Evo rules the field. And, at long last, they did something with that awful graphics. It’s now smooth, detailed and wonderfully animated. [Dec 2007]

PC Zone UK

Despite the renewed openness of the play, it's still undeniably PES, boasting the robust controls that the series is renowned for. [Christmas 2007, p.64]

PC Gamer UK

The finest football action around. [Christmas 2007, p.94]

ActionTrip

On the whole, however, it's obvious that "FIFA 08" is a superior experience, with true next-gen quality and gameplay mechanics that proved to be a lot more enjoyable than this year's edition of Pro Evolution Soccer.

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PTGamers

With Pro Evolution Soccer 2008, Konami uses the points they believe having in advantage over their adversaries, and offers players a capable but flawed game.

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GameSpot

Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 looks sharp and plays well on the PC. However, the online mode is buggy and there's little in the way of new features.

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PC PowerPlay

If you have not picked up a Pro Evo title before and want the best in realistic soccer simulation, then 2008 is a fantastic purchase. [Feb 2008, p.63]

What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this game is 8.4 (out of 10) based on 20 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Teddy K. gave it a6:
I am really surprised by the amount of flaws in this game!... I mean this is about the 8th game in the series, and yet it has some really trivial flaws (some that we didn't encounter in earlier games of the series). The graphics are good, real good actually. The animation looks better than ever, and we finally got all next gen. whistles for once. Music is okay, nothing special though. But all that won't do any good if the gameplay is problematic, especially in a football game, and unfortunately PES2008 has its shares of gameplay problems. First of all the goal keepers are really weird in this game... fumbling easy balls is very common, which can be very annoying... although not as annoying as fumbling shots in their own net!... You and the CPU will score lots of goals that way thanks to poor goalkeeping. And speaking of goals, this game has arcade feeling all over it. You will quickly get used to huge score lines such as 5-4 or 7-3, especially when playing on highest difficulty setting. The AI is okay, however, the CPU is very lethal from corner kicks and free kicks. It is extremely silly that CPU will often score the exact same copy of goals from the corner (your poor keeper will even attempt the save in the exact same way), with nothing you can do about it no matter how you align your defenders. And if you play the game on highest difficulty, you will receive lots of silly goals from corner kicks. The referee is really bad in this game. He will issue his cards for almost any foul caused by a tackle, which really limits your defending ability. When attacking, you will miss really easy chances for no reason at all (especially in one-on-one situations), while scoring almost impossible goals, which severely detracts from the realism and enjoyment. Overall, this is a good (and really fun at times) football game that has PES name and some of PES feeling, but thanks to its primitive flaws, fail to reach the standard previously set by the series.

Andy W. gave it a7:
I haven't bought a footy game for at least 10 years, so I am coming at this from a different angle to most - can't compare it with FIFA or more recent PES versions. Now that I have the cash (comes with age), I have a monster PC (Dell XPS 710) so I anticipated being able to whack all graphics and resolutions up to their max settings. Despite a new PC which could probably run a moon landing mission, an HD screen and connection, PES 2008 still doesn't deliver....there is a horizontal screen glitch which appears about every 10 seconds...bloody annoying! Maybe it's because the machine's OS is Vista, but having read lots of online comment, it seems Konami's after sales support is poor so I am not holding my breath for any fixes, and I really don't want to have to reduce resolutions etc....what was the point of lashing so much money on a top end PC if you are going to do that? After reading the slating the game has received for online play I am not even going to bother with that. I'll stick to playing the AI. Music is woeful, but graphics are good (except glitch), playability is good and overall I am not too disappointed.

Brendan B. gave it a7:
A solid PES but for some reason the AI has gotten worse and it won't run on mid range pc's due to the next gen inclusion. Lack of stadiums especially in England (there are none) make this a okay but disappointing feature, get back to work konami, FIFA is closing fast!!!

Josias G. gave it a10:
PES 6 is amazing! I really like the teamvision thingie. I also like the fact that the players seem to be more intelligent.

Faz J gave it a5:
Worst PES ever. I played all the PES and WE series, and this is one of worst. The AI is just too crap, they will almost always get the ball first after getting tackles, but we will always lose the ball after getting tackles from the AI. And if I am using C.Ronaldo @ Lennon @ Dotan (or any other player with speed ability), I could almost always dribble the ball from my penalty area and score goals (therefore, sometimes it is a good idea to put them as a defender, as the real defenders are stupid anyway - in this game). Every cross and every corner will most probably result in a goal. Even though the AI defender is really stupid to let one player to dribble all the way from the opposite area to score goals, our (ie. the player) defenders are much worst, they can't seem to know how to get the ball off from the opponents feet, even when the opponents are running straight at them. Even though there are many reason why I hate this new PES release, there are some parts in this PES which makes me really happy. I am happy to see new interface rather than the old interface that they usually use in all the PES series. The quality of the pictures are also much better than all the previous one. But still, I wouldn't recommend people to buy this game. I also have PS2 at home, from what I could say, I prefer to play WE more than PES, the gameplay is very different, but some say otherwise, some people say that PES and WE is the same. But everyone have their own opinions.

PES FAN gave it a10:
It's obvious EA paid all reviewers to brag PES2008 and adore Fifa. I bought both and regret badly having bought Fifa, it's so boring it's unplayable. PES is more realistic now, it was very arcadish before, players faces are BETTER in the PES version as well. Or maybe those people who gave Fifa better reviews are the ones that call football soccer.

Il M. gave it a6:
Goalkeepers are just a disaster (too many rebounds), no important new additions (diving,longer replays and player statistics are the most important additions), still no licences for premier league and bundesliga, tackling=foul, the game suffers from slowdowns in the areas while graphics don't justify it. I have played the series since winning eleven 3 and I can tell this is the worst game of the series.

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Pro Evolution Soccer 2008

Game Info

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What The Critics Said

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