My personal review on PES 2008
I had played the game for 5 straight days, spent for about sixteen
hours in total, attempted for an exact 50 exhibition matches on the
hardest difficulty, got 16 wins-18 loses-16 draws, scored 51 goals and
conceded 49. Frankly I feel more towards stress rather than delight of
playing the most reputable football game. Thus I'm taking a break from
PES gaming, to regain enthusiasm as well as contemplating when to
resume playing PES 2008.
Gameplay: The very first kick-off made me wonder why the ball moves
like that. It rolled too slow for short passes and felt heavy like not
enough air inside. This heightened the risk of losing possession. The
players those on my side were very annoying, tired and in a great need
to lose some weight. Their running speed, whether or not R1 held down,
was really unacceptable. The com players on the other hand were
noticeably faster and subtly had a boost on their stats. Furthermore
when I had the ball, I noticed the nearest teammates stood too close
and did not make any effort to get some distance for a safe short pass.
Next: the through passes. Back then, I enjoyed very much using the
triangle button in PES6. It was very effective virtually on every area
of the pitch. For example, to make the receiving players (CF, WF, CMF,
or even CB) to move forward and continuing the attacking flow. But in
PES 2008, it will look like an idiot if I were ever to use that move.
Konami had modified the through pass, and the result: it moved
frustratingly faster plus at a bad angle approaching the opposing team
players. So far I had only found one way to safely execute the through
ball is by passing the ball to a winger for him to make a dull cross.
Next : the cursor-changing speed and accuracy. It also happened when I
played PES6 and other previous PES. This may be a fault on my part if
not on the developer, though. It mostly (but not always) occurs after
the ball passed the midfield line. E.g. When I was passing the ball
between the midfielders (CMF), the cursor suddenly changed to another
player like AMF right when the ball was rolling. This made the CMF just
staring at the ball, the AMF desperately backtracked and I lost the
possession. I had tried various cursor settings but the problem still
unsolved. Maybe someone could recommend to me the solutions.
Commentary: The commentary section finally gets the new pundits. I was
quite relieved to listening to new voices rather than the same fellas
from previous PES. But it was still not a thorough replacement when
Konami had both new commentators read most of the lines used in the
previous PES. Maybe Seabass and his team were too busy focusing on the
Teamvision AI and next-gen PES 2008 rather than spending time to
acquire brand-new scripts. I also had tried Master League to listen to
the commentary and sadly it was also the exact same lines. My verdict
is, if thats the case; why not let Peter Brackley redo the commentary
with different voice tones, accents or maybe when he comes down with a
cold.
--- Ok, enough with the complaints although there are several more
issues (the absence of new diving and shirt-pulling tricks, PES6
graphic, PES6 cinematic) that demand the attention of PS2 owners who
yet to buy a PS3. A reviewer at Gamefaqs.com said "a polite way of
telling owners to upgrade, maybe?" but I'd say "it was an insult to PS2
hardware" Will the game become unplayable on PS2 if Konami include the
new diving trick?
--- Lastly, any review on PES games will not be proper without praising
the developer's success to deliver a lifelike experience of football
matches. Personally I considered the gameplay presentation in the game
were as beautiful and memorable as the real football matches in the TV.
Thats why Pro Evo is still my favourite footie game no matter how bad
it enraged me for the past five days. I'm more than optimistic knowing
someone out there says "Time makes PES games better"
Score: PES6 > PES2008 > FeeFaa
