Pro Evolution Soccer 08 Review(pc)

Tusky

I wasnt gonna post a review but seeing so many peoples posting negative opinions I feel I should. This is more my first impressions rather than a review as I have only played about 10-15 games.

Before I start theres a few points I should make. Firstly, EVERY single time a new pro evo is released theres hordes of people saying 'RIP pro evo' and claiming that its 'the worst in the series' or 'konami have shot themselves in the foot with this one'. I'm amazed that people don't realise that it ALWAYS takes a few weeks to get into each new installment and you shouldnt judge too hastily. Go search for some other reviews on this very forum for pro evo 6 or 5 and you will see exactly what I'm talking about. Although not sure if this forum stretchs as far back as 5...

Secondly - I've been playing the game since its first release on the PS2 and even further back before the name change. I have always felt (after a little playing time) that the series has for the most part progressed with each new title although somestimes not by much. i've played it across different platforms, PS2, X360 & PC. Pro Evolution 6 on the xbox was a really lazy installment of the game and I feel 08 is really the game that Pro 6 should have been.

p.s I play on top player (or whatever 5 stars is).

First Impressions.

Pro Evo has never been one to impress with presentation and not much has changed. It is a little better than past attempts though, but not much. It's gone for a slightly more stylish menu system with black menus instead of brightly colored ones as before. Newcastle & Spurs are the licenced teams for the premier league, but we all knew that a long time ago. I HATE not having real jerseys and team names and I feel it really takes away from the game. I can't wait for the patch to solve this.

The game plays at a faster pace than Pro Evo 6 which will take a while to get used to but I think I will end up liking it. Passing feels slicker and has definitely been tweaked for the better. It feels like you have more control. Shooting requires you to press the button down for slightly longer than before but Ive found that the shots feel meatier and more powerful which is nice.

Player collisions have definitely been tweaked as well. If you run into someone off the ball there will be a colision and one of the players will fall over, you will also often hear them shouting at the ref which is a nice touch. There is a big improvement in animation all round both in colisions, controling the ball, passing, shooting etc. There just seems to be more varities of animation in general.

Graphically, it is definitely an improvement but it could be much much better. It plays with no slow down on max resolution and high detail. My pc is getting the best out of it and while its prettier than 6, it could be better. However, I am really impressed by the replays and closeups. The graphics shine in these areas. Most of the player likenesses are pretty damn good. Players like Aurelio, Arbeloa, Pennant, Mascherano etc who previously just had default faces now actually resemble their counterparts.

The crowd look alot better too with lots of movement and variety. The camera will sometimes switch to a close up of the crowds reaction after a foul or chance on goal which is fairly cool. There was also an incident were I crossed the ball and Voronin jumped for it but was challenged by a defender. After the keeper caught it the camera went to a close up of Voronin and the defender pushing and mouthing off at each other so theres more off the ball action in general. Another example - the camera will something switch to the bench and show the manager shouting orders. When you pause there is a box up the top right which shows the manager and bench...nice feature, although the managers are all generic. Liverpool had some skinny guy with grey hair. Would it be THAT hard to add the likeness of the managers faces ? Reeks of the Konami laziness that we have come to expect and takes away from a nice feature which could have put them 1 up on Fifa..who havent added this yet.

The commentry is better than before but Mark Lawrenson is TERRIBLE. He sounds wooden and you can tell so easily that he is reading it off a page. The other guy does a very good job. I havent played enough to get annoyed at the repetition just yet.

There are 15 stadiums which look quite pretty, a couple have the correct names but most do not. My question : Why cant Konami model MORE than 15 stadiums ? Surely they have most of the work done from peo evo 6 which would just need a graphics update. Would it be too much to ask to have all the stadiums for each team ? Look at the ammount of tracks for example, in a racing game. Why can't Konami model all the stadiums ? Lazyness. Same story with the ammount of leagues available. Fifa 08 has the Irish league, Scottish, German, Cezch!!!! and many more. The only thing stopping Konami increasing the ammount of leagues, stadiums etc is lazyness.


In regards to the Master League - You can pick default players, match mode players or create your own team (on a budget). They seem to have tried to impoved the master league in a fairly half arsed way. For example, on the master league 'home screen' when I started there was a picture of Gerrard and it said under 'Gerrard talks about the new season'...but thats it, theres no animation or seemingly, point to this. When you play well you earn points. These points allow you to go up levels as a team and earn more supporters which you can visually see at the bottom of the screen which I thought was a nice touch....and FINALLY you can check total top scorer & leading assister. (i.e for league, champions league and FA cup combined). That was something that always used to annoy me.

The AI has improved but I havent played enough to talk too much on it. I also havent tried to dive yet because I don't know how. (anyone care to enlighten me?).

There is a hell of a lot of advertising in the game. Its done really badly. For example at the end of a game when its displaying the match stats it will have an IGN logo badly pasted underneath. There are various logos all over the game.

I havent played online yet or any sort of multiplayer but so far its definitely a step up although not a massive one. As always they have tweaked here and there but havent made any massive changes. Final word : I like it!


Thumbs up :

Player Likenesses
New animations
Smooth passing
Commentary ( no more "CAN HE MAKE A CHANCE?"
Mini cut scenes
Player collisions

Thumbs down :

Commentary (Wooden Lawrenson)
Could be making bigger strides forward with the series
Presentation and general layout
Licences (teams, jerseys, stadiums)
Lack of leagues and stadiums

whiskeyman

Tusky wrote: »

Thumbs down :

Commentary (Wooden Lawrenson)
Could be making bigger strides forward with the series
Presentation and general layout
Licences (teams, jerseys, stadiums)
Lack of leagues and stadiums

Thanks for the review Tusky.
Firstly, on the above bad points, I believe the PC version can overcome these thanks to kitserver, patches etc... so PC is always the option for me. Think we expect most of these every year on PES compared to FIFA.
Where'd you get your mitts on the PC version??

Diving is L1, L2 and R1 I think... something like that. Always ended up in yellow most of the time though.

Quick question - are the goals themselves (posts / nets) the same in each stadium?
I really hate the new goal model with the white bricks as net supports at the bottom. Much prefered the 'square' goals in PES6.

Happy playing!

Tusky

whiskeyman wrote: »

Thanks for the review Tusky.
Firstly, on the above bad points, I believe the PC version can overcome these thanks to kitserver, patches etc... so PC is always the option for me. Think we expect most of these every year on PES compared to FIFA.
Where'd you get your mitts on the PC version??

Diving is L1, L2 and R1 I think... something like that. Always ended up in yellow most of the time though.

Quick question - are the goals themselves (posts / nets) the same in each stadium?
I really hate the new goal model with the white bricks as net supports at the bottom. Much prefered the 'square' goals in PES6.

Happy playing!

Yeah thats I go for PC version as well but konami should be doing it, not the fans of the series! Any idea how long it takes for the patches to come out after release ?

I actually noticed the new nets that you're talking about. The back of the net kind of goes in a bit and isnt as stretched and perfect looking as before, that what you mean ?

I think its like that for every stadium but not 100%, will have to check again.

p.s THATS MY AVATAR!

Aedh Baclamh

Would the manual not say how to dive?

whiskeyman

some patches are already up on evo-web.co.uk I think... well, mostly for setting adjustments. I've seen screens of a way to quickly edit the option file to allow proper club crests and sponsors. I doubt we'll have to wait to long for new patches to fly up!

Yeah, not a fan of the new nets at all. Guess I'm picky

Oh yeah, where'd you get your copy for the PC then??

Tusky

whiskeyman wrote: »

Oh yeah, where'd you get your copy for the PC then??

Less said about that the better. *cough cough*

whiskeyman

Tusky wrote: »

Less said about that the better. *cough cough*

Come on... you can tell a fellow cookie monster!!

Mossy Monk

I expect he would get a torrent of abuse if he told you where he got it.

Aedh Baclamh

Yeah it's quite obvious where he got it from. The manual would have been a great help, eh?

KdjaCL

Reviewing downloaded copies of games, anyone else think that defeats the point?

No Manual, No online, no update coming for you today at 1?

Kensutz and Tusky are cooler than us :rolleyes:


kdjac

Vokes

Tusky, have you had opportunities yet with one-one-ones with goalies - specifically is it any easier now to chip the goalie with a good success rate (it's too hard in PES6 )

Also, are you finding the long range shooting easier at all ? (it seemed this way to me in the demo - a bad sign i think).

Mossy Monk wrote: »

I expect he would get a torrent of abuse if he told you where he got it.

CountryWise

Chipping definitely wasnt too hard in PES6 i could do it with a good player quite alot, the problem i would have had with it is that you had to be in a certain position for it to happen,well for me anyway, obviously better players might have had more luck

Tusky

KdjaCL wrote: »

Reviewing downloaded copies of games, anyone else think that defeats the point?

No Manual, No online, no update coming for you today at 1?

Kensutz and Tusky are cooler than us :rolleyes:


kdjac

I did state it was just my first impressions. I play pro evo for multiplayer so I will be biuying it in the shops like a good boy when its released.

Tusky

SofaKing wrote: »

Tusky, have you had opportunities yet with one-one-ones with goalies - specifically is it any easier now to chip the goalie with a good success rate (it's too hard in PES6 )

Also, are you finding the long range shooting easier at all ? (it seemed this way to me in the demo - a bad sign i think).

I havent scored a chip yet but it does seem a little easier. Not as easy as pro evo 5 and not as hard as 6. Havent scored too many from long range, I have been playing on the hardest difficulty so its not that easy.

brianon

KdjaCL wrote: »

No Manual, No online, no update coming for you today at 1?
kdjac

An update at 1 today ? Whats this then ? Is there a patch being released so soon ?

KdjaCL

brianon wrote: »

An update at 1 today ? Whats this then ? Is there a patch being released so soon ?

If you have legit version insert disc got to autorun and check verison an update should be available.


kdjac

kensutz

Kensutz had the legit version and still has. Downloaded the PC version to see what it's like.

Tusky

KdjaCL wrote: »

If you have legit version insert disc got to autorun and check verison an update should be available.


kdjac

Whats in the update ?

brianon

Tusky wrote: »

Whats in the update ?

A very good question. Anyone ?