Well I sure most of the PES community have a view on Adam and his way of doing things...cough cough...but maybe I should be more positive along the lines of this perhaps?
There’s no doubting many of you will have skimmed to the bottom to see that I gave the game 8/10. The difficulty of reviewing PES 2008 his year more than any other is to justify why I didn’t give the game a 9 or even 10. How you find PES 2008 is going to be how you approach the game. Expect the same addictive gameplay that will have you hooked until next year’s version, then you won’t be disappointed.
The most recent version on the PS2 gave Konami a fantastic starting block for the new next-gen era. To their credit they’ve developed the core gameplay from that version and evolved it into the most complete PES yet. One thing you will notice when you get onto the pitch is the feel of the game. It’s much more considered and heavy, with the ball and players carry much more weight to them. Besides this initial adjustment time needed, the game is the same as it ever was. You’ll be passing the ball about like a pro and stringing together some inspiring moves in no time. This similarity may be a sign of not much ambition shown by the developers, but to many it’s a case of ‘if it aint broke…’ etc etc. You can agree to both points, but you can’t get away with the fact that Seabass and his team have created a special game engine.
Everyone who picks up the game will be very satisfied with their experiences. And it’s on the pitch where the game still shines. As mentioned passing is still as crisp, with nice new animations to go with each distribution. The same goes for shooting, although you’ll need to give yourself some time to adjust to the slight change in its mechanics. In previous versions the outcome of your shot would depend on various situations (player skill, opposition pressing etc), and it’s much more integral now. This goes hand in hand with the goal keepers, who now are more skillful. They anticipate where you are going to shoot much better, while covering all angles amazingly well. This leads to an even more satisfying feeling when you do score, if that’s possible. The ‘keepers animations also have been given a boost, making them look incredibly realistic when making those ‘for the camera’ saves.
Perfect player representation has always been a factor in the series since it first emerged many years ago both visually and how everyone plays. And it’s visually where the game can, at times, look very much next-gen. Zoom into any of the well known player faces and you’ll witness an incredible attention to detail. Players like Michael Owen and Kaka are photo realistic, as are (unfortunately) the handsome Man Utd striking partnership of Tevez and Rooney.
For me the slowdown factor became less of an issue. After the initial shock of it being there, I started to enjoy the game for what it was. There been much talk about the core being too similar to its PS2 roots, but these roots actually save the game in the end. For all its flaws the same addictive PES gameplay is there underneath the underwhelming front end. Surely, you can’t ask for much more than that?
Gameplay: 8
Graphics: 7
Longevity: 9
Overall: 8
Reviewed by Adam Bhatti Alexander
This that the type of positivity required? Personally I call it BS.
And as for Konami taking on board the views of WENB posters - I can't believe how naive someone would have to be to really think that. A few more PR handouts/effort mean nothing. After all WENB was boasting Konami sold 8million units of PES - and given that fact are they are really going to take on board the mostly half-baked ideas of 200 sycophantic fanboys??? Laugh I nearly pissed myself.
you need to look at more PR from 99% of media companies....lying is a standard practice...fanboyism will never die....
