Official Winning Eleven 8 Impressions - No Chatting!

[Ove Kindvall]

This is the first time I have played a game from the WE series.
So keep that in mind.

It's not to difficult to sort out the menu, I think that 80% is the same as in PES3, so if you played PES3 a lot then there's is no problem to start a match.
I find the menu's a bit boring and not so beautifull .

Personally I find the on the pitch graphics from PES3 a little bit better. The stadiums looking good, a little detail: I saw police with helmets and shields in the crowd, in Holland they called the mobile unit. The sound is not that good as PES3

But the most important, the gameplay: I like it!! It's a new game and you must get used to it. But the controls are much the same. With PES3 the throw ins always goes to a team mate, now you can throw in to depth. The freekicks are cool, the indirect free kick is hard. The feints aren't that different but when you're a fast player like Henry or Robben you notice the difference when you go around a defender. Shooting and passing is improved, I don't have trouble with the short passes, I like it when a ball is played hard.
And there are new animations and movements.

Some people are complaining about a jitter or slowing down in the gameplay. They also had that in PES3 but I never had and have expierenced that. What's true is that with a corner, throw in or shoot in from the keeper you're opponent is all organized again, so counter attacks or fast throw ins/corners to surprise your opponent is not possible. But I can live with that.

Overall I think WE8 is a great game, and the game gets better when the translations from players and menu's are in the game.

 

[zibexevious]

Racha means that you have won a lot of matches in row. Racha means thar you are playing very good latest matches, the same for the striker when they score in almost every match and keeping doing it. Greeting from Santiago, Chile.

 

[larsson]

I just don`t understand when people say passing is good. Well it is good and accurate but again: short passes are way TOO FAST and unrealistic

No. They´re slower than in WE7:I, but faster than in WE7. Which is very realistic, because the passes in WE7 were just to slow.

 

[diggi]

No. They´re slower than in WE7:I, but faster than in WE7. Which is very realistic, because the passes in WE7 were just to slow.

Mate, are you sure you`re playing WE8 ??

You simply cannot say that passes are perfect, there is tons of people complaining about this. You slightly touch :x: and the ball will go like a speeding bullet.

 

[Sumo]

Well i love the game so far,it has so many improvements,yes it has some slowdowns but i dont care they'll get fixed in the next edition,i love the fact i can play a serie A season with my own AS Roma and there are so many teams,plus i feel great players are really better than average ones and on and on...
FORZA ROMA

 

[larsson]

Mate, are you sure you`re playing WE8 ??

You simply cannot say that passes are perfect, there is tons of people complaining about this. You slightly touch :x: and the ball will go like a speeding bullet.

Yeah but I don´t care about that what other people say. There are tons of people who say FIFA is better than WE/PES. I simply disagree, the speed of the passes is just perfect for me. If it´s too fast for you I can soothe you, there will be tools which can reduce the pass-speed-ability for all players, without doing it manually for every player. I´ve done this in WE7:I, where the passes were a bit too fast for me, and it worked.

 

[pro evo is the bomb]

Here is Riot's full review:

http://ps2.ign.com/articles/534/534598p1.html

hi dannyboy20 , i recieved winning eleven 8 today and i cant believe how good it is , the way it plays , looks everything is improved and pes4 is bound to be improved even more , the only slight downside is a bit of slowdown when you cross near the goal but they are bound to sort that out for pes4 , what do you think of the game itself have you any downsides to it yourself ?

 

[Alberto Tomba]

Alberto has gotten the game. Original import running on a US PS2 with SwapMagic DVD boot disc and slide card. S-Video cable connection.
I will post my impressions very shortly. And more importantly I'll be comparing WE6:FE(GameCube Version) and WE7(US version) when making my comments.
But my main concern has been calmed.
Slowdown is NOT a problem.

 

[gillis9]

I m disapointed by We8 , I think the game is still too fast and unrealistc. The passing is worse than before. I hope it ll be changed for the Pes4 version.
Don t get me wrong, i love We, the best footie game ever, but it s going to the wrong way and it s becoming more and more arcadey

 

[larsson]

Have noticed a funny bug in WE8, which can be also seen on the Real-Valencia video which was released a week ago. If you select a Spanish team you only see the home team in the tunnel and at the presentation before the match. You see the line-up and formation of the away team, but the away team itself can be seen only after the presentation is over.
I don´t know if it´s necessary to choose 2 Spanish teams though or if one is enough.

 

[diggi]

Larsson..so can you just be honest and think which one is better: WE7IJ or WE8 (don`t include cut scenes and that crap0

cheers mate.

 

[larsson]

WE8
Haven´t touched WE7:I for months, mostly due to lack of time, not because I got bored of it, but I haven´t missed it.
I´d rate WE7:I 9/10 and WE8 9.5/10. Konami only disappointed me with PES2 and PES3.

 

[Gunplay]

I think WE8 is the best football game ever made at this current moment. The CPU is smarter and new special player movements are a gem for the likes of RVN, Cristiano Ronaldo , Ronaldo, Raul, Becks ( too real ), Henry, more that I haven't found out. What is also superb was the way when a foul near the box didn't go to the players favour he would look at the ref and wave his arms in a gesture like '' HEY REF DIDN'T YOU SEE THAT!'' whilst on the floor ( I first saw this when I fouled 'Cristiano' near the box it looked so realistic ). Also the slow-defender-catching-up-to-fast-striker problem in WE7Ijap has been solved, you can even try take defenders on ( I did this with Thierry and got past 3 Milan defenders ). The 2 player freekick system works smoothly and can be very effective once you learn how to use it. And new dribbling moves and passes have been included, such as flicking the ball behind you with the inside of your foot, being able to run at full speed and the stop dead whilst facing the defender ( Henry does this alot in real life to unbalance defenders ) and being able to run with the ball and suddenly shield it by quickly turning the opposite direction.
Tons of teams have been included such as River Plate, Boca, Beskitas, Latvia, Cruzeiro and more. The game is also fully licensed for Spanish, Italian and Dutch league teams.
Also Editing players is far more detailed now, you can actually make Ronaldo's belly slightly buldge out of his shirt which is cool. You have 3 types of player socks, one short like Totti's, the other normal ones and extra long ones like Theirry has. Their are so many Adidas boots I lost count and also Editable fake Total 90 III and Mercurial/Puma lookalikeees.
I can't say much about the gameplay atm because I haven't had a good feel of it but all I can say is that the gameplay is very smooth and much more improved from the previous release.

 

[Alberto Tomba]

Alberto is Happy

I remember when this game's release was like a month away. We were all salivating over anything we could feast our eyes on. Screenshots,gameplay and license information etc. Videos I remember were really what we wanted to see. We wanted to see the game in action. We wanted to see what we were going to be playing.Well now after everything we're playing it and more importantly I'M playing it . I've gone through alot trying to play soccer/football games here in United States. My only game console at first was a Gamecube which I played mostly Fifa games on. It wasn't until Konami decided to port it's WE6:FE to the Cube that I saw what a soccer game could be and even more so what a sport game could be. I have to tell you I was in awe of it. Everything about screamed Japanese quality. It's like they put their strong belief in discipline and respect into the game. You could tell it was handled with extreme care and craftmanship. It was artistically beautiful and wreaked of polish. The amount of animations that game had at the time really made it stand out as a stellar sport game and almost made it compete with the best games ever made in general. The Gamecube was the perfect fit for the title. It was a more arcade type of feel as far as player models (short and stocky) and to this day I'd still build a cabinet for it, paint the header "Winning Eleven" on the top as a header and make it my living room staple for "all the gang" to come over and play. It's gameplay made me look at Fifa in disgust the next couple of years with Fifa 2003,2004,and the newly released Euro 2004. I go back to WE6:FE a lot. Even with everything the US version of WE7 did right to improve on the series in general it never would outdo WE6:FE for me. But again this is because overall the Gamecube handled the medium brilliantly. Though the controls paled in comparison (the GC controller doesn't have enough buttons nor the proper control for most sports games in general) it made itself standout in it's simplicity,which made it one heck of a cabinet game . Anyway I got WE8 by UPS truck today. It works with swap magic dvd boot disc first off and I didn't have to use anything else. The insert disc screen popped up and I slid the sucker in and achieved blue border status. I'll act as if I knew nothing for this past month while I writing my impression of the game. There was too much to discuss these past few weeks. License this, trick that and to tell you the truth it made me so antsy that I only got about 5 hrs of sleep per day. That said, I'll say that I played about 10 games so far and that my impressions of the game are on gameplay mechanics based off of what I played in previous WE's. You know WE's just have this look to them. They look good when your playing them and their look never tires me. I must have played hundreds of WE6:FE and WE7 games on my PS2 and Gamecube respectively and if I know one thing is that I know how these games run. They run off the premise that you can score from anywhere anytime. Games like Fifa predetermine where you can actually shoot. You could be far out on two seperate occasions, different wings and the kick and goalie save animations look the same. WE has always tried to make it more spontaneuous and authentic in it's presentation of the kick/shoot and save/score. don't what to say now then about WE8. it's almost like i'm playing WE6;FE again. The arcade feel is slightly back, yet I like that. What isn't back is the arcade models of players which I most definitely like. WE8 look and presentaion has NOT been talked about enough. I play the game on a 27 inch regular tube with S-Video connection. Playing WE7 only my tv I have shimmering effects that are on the player models and stadiums in general. As well as some pitches that sometimes looked like they were detached from the players so badly that I skipped those all together. again in WE6:FE due in part to the GameCubes hardware these "old hardware" effects were never there and made one beautifully ported game. looking at WE8 I must say, just like in ESPN's new NFL 2k5 the graphics are incredible for the PS2. For what the WE style is it's all here in full glory. A true testament that Konami have a grasp for the PS2 like no other developer (check out games like MGS2 and Zone of Enders 2nd runner for examples of their exemplemary work). It's like they took WE7, looked at it and said "make it smooth, make it more flowing' because i can only describe it that way myself. it looks great, better than WE6:FE and much much better than WE7. The shimmeriness is gone form the WE7 version, the pitches have been ALL corrected and the lighting is just right. it all make for a superb atmosphere to play in. What I'm playing is by far more player-controlled, more animated and more fun than ever. It's like they poured more sugar into the game and made something sweeter (like Splenda ) . Players look more life-like, players move more life-like and they animate even more realstically then ever before. That means that pretty much ANY situation can be pulled off in the game. Either defensively or offensively this game has never been more unpredicatble. Playing on higher star difficulty is really nail-biting at times. I mean it's like every player is antsy to get the ball and take it down to the box. It's really something when i saw the "recognizably famous" players act like..well themselves? Weird but it's really something to watch. It feels like it's been tweaked just right in my opinion. Passes can be crisp or lazy. Runs can be abrupt or slow. Skilled or stupid, get my point. it's really going to be fun getting to know the game in and out once again for this new number in the series. There have been other tweaks as well menu's, editing and gameplay modes. But if your like me you learn to involve yourslef in those aspects of the game as a side thing. I play friendlies, I play whatever whenever and WE8 will allow that. So to somehow sum it all up and maybe make this whole thing conclude I'll end it by saying this. Get the game because you love the progression of the series, because that's exactly what it is. It borrows things from itself and makes this years WE even more amazing then the last's.

 

[Ove Kindvall]

The longer I play this games the more I love it. I don't know if this was in other WE games, but in the left upper corner there appears icons. For example: if the freekick is indirect there is an icon with a goalmouth and a bar through the goalmouth, if it's a direct freekick then there's only a goalmouth.
And a very big wow: normally when a player was injured and carried away on a stretcher he was of, so I replaced him immediatly. But in this game your player get carried away and after a few seconds there appears a icon in the left upper corner with an ambulance(then it's game over) or an icon with a dokter and a return signal.

And I have noticed that the recovery from tired players takes longer then 1 game.

When players from the start line-up get injured or suspended then you must replace them. In PES3 when the player was again available he automaticly gets back in the start line-up. In WE8 they don't so you must check your line-up every game.

And the cut scene's are cool: when the ref gives a penalty a few players protest against it, sometimes a player who tackles you give you a hand to help you up, when there is a foul the ref give the player a warning and a tab on the shoulder, when the ref gives advantage(yellow icon in the upper left corner with a ref) after a foul and you can't get the advantage he still blows for the foul.

So the game is:

 

[BazHilder]

No it wasn't in before, it's a great addition. It makes it all the more realistic, I haven't seen a red injury yet.

I'm looking forward to having a chance to shoot from an indirect free-kick. I want to see what happens when you score one (if possible).

 

[diggi]

Here`s my story:

I got my WE8 on August 4th, and I`ve played about 5 to 6 matches (all together) because I was very busy this week. Those 5 or 6 matches there was stuff that I liked and disliked. I didn`t like the short passing because I thought it was too damn fast but after last night I have changed my mind about WE8.

The night before I thought WE8 was good, but WE7IJ was better. So here`s how I tested both of them:

First I watched a real life match for about 20 mins (Germany vs Checz at Euro 2004 recorded) and after I finished watching the game, I started playing WE7IJ (patched with WEFantasy X-PATCH) I played 20min match on star 5* I was Czech playing vs Germany. The score ended 0 - 0. Then I booted WE8, and played the same match with same teams. And here`s my answer: " Winning Eleven 8 is not a video-game anymore that people play, WE8 is a videogame that ended up with humans inside that you control. Truly, KONAMI couldn`t improve this game anymore. Everything that we wanted is in there: the refs, the cut-scenes, the free-kicks, licensed teams, EVERYTHING but not online play which I really don`t care about. With this said, WE8 is the best football game I ever owned./played. I was playing France vs England and my father came in my room, and he sat down started to watch the game, he didn`t even realise that I`m playing the game. Even he said at first glance I would never guessed that it was a game. The more I play this game the more I apreciate football. I don`t even need a satelite anymore. Just have a patch between CPU vs CPU and watch.

Now, if you want the best way to get rid out of slowdown (not completely though) play on Olimpiastadion, angle 9 at night, camera intermediate or wide.

I think camera intermediate on angle 9 is the camera used for EURO 2004. Camera TV3 is really different from previous versions. Arsenal FC uses TV3 when playing at home.

 

[Obi]

Ok, had about 14 hours on the game now and am very dissapointed.

The ball in the midfield acts like a balloon, when you try and take a shot with no matter how much power it is like a brick, no matter how many times I try and place the ball it seems to go straight forward to the keeper.

Outside the box it takes that long to do the animation for a shot that the defender has time to block the shot, otherwise, it goes tamely straight to the keeper.

One on ones with the keeper are a joke, with the keeper mostly coming out on top, if you want to beet the keeper the best option is the chip shot, almost guaranteed to work.

I was impressed when i first played the game because it seemed so different from WE7I, alot more animations, but upon further play these new animations seems to hinder the game.

The long pass is also annoying, if i want to change the play I push in the direction of the opposite wing, this will then be passed to the full back and not the winger, if i try and change the direction this will then target my striker.

It seems unresponsive, taking forever to do an animation to pass the ball, by that time I am disposessed.

The fouls are a joke, brush a player and its a foul, way too picky, its like non contact.

I have scored 3 types of goals, diving header, header and chip shot, sometimes i get the odd rebound.

The pace is not there when you break clear of the defence, i am using R1 and trying to push on but its just not there, the only burst of pace i can do is when i do a step over while holding R1.

I hate to be critical because I spent £50 on the game and want to love it, but it just does not get me excited like the others did.

It feels like an ISS game and if somebody told me it was I would believe them.

 

[diggi]

Obi, I thought the same thing mate but after doing number of tests to see which one is the best + with life-like realism I found out it`s WE8. Just go back and play PES3 or WE7 even WE7IJ they are nothing like WE8. See, WE8 feels like a new game, with alot of improvements especialy the gameplay. The reason why you feel the ball is like a balloon is because it`s heavier and it bounces much better. In WE7IJ no matter what you do the ball is always with you, in WE8 you can easily lose the ball if you don`t know how to use it properly. Passing is good, you can have fast/slow pass, you can have good curling crosses, also shots to the goal are the best thing. You can have the ball going in the air, midair, anywhere simply briliant.

I know KONAMI would never try to disapoint us.

 

[dannyboy20]

Obi - I thought exactly the same as you after a few games. I loved it at first because it was so different. Then I got really irritated and didn't like it.

But then I didn't try and play the game like I did in WE7 and PES3. It's a different game, different controls. You need to learn to play this game from scratch. THEN you will start to enjoy the game, trust me