Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (Xbox 360)

Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 has hit the Xbox 360 and is one of the most popular games today in the industry, PES as people call it is a great game which is fun for all the family. PES went from an original football game to become one of the most high profile games today.

PES 2008 features many great teams and players, the graphic design for the game is top notch for the game itself, the game features many challenges and leagues, e.g. Master League, Friendly, Penalties, World Cups, Training and so much more including create your own player to play for your favourite team. However, even though PES is a fantastic game to play it does have its down side.

PES has let itself down in a couple of features on the game take for instance, the teams. As usual they don’t have their proper names, Manchester City is known on PES as Man Blue, and Manchester Utd is known as Man Red (although they’re probably an improvement on what the fans call their rivals!), a real let down and one which can get you confused about who is who. PES have had this problem ever since the beginning when the first ever Pro Evolution Soccer game came out, and PES 1 was worst because even when it had the names of the teams wrong they had the players name wrong as well, take for instance, Ryan Giggs from Manchester Utd was known as Greggs (the bakers?), but we have to give it to PES they have sorted out the player names but the team names will always be a let down until they actually decide to go and get the Licenses. Konami have released 7 PES games so far and you’d think by now that they would have got this sorted out, obviously not, lets hope the next PES gives us the right team names, or once again it will be a big let down (maybe not as big as Euro 2008).

But apart from that PES is a tremendous game and having to compete against the likes of Fifa 08 and such other football games they are battling their way through to get to the top spot. Fans are spilt between PES and Fifa, but PES does have the ability to go all the way, the graphics on the game are spectacular, for instance, when the main menu loads up its not just a simple list of League, matches etc, it is a Digital Board that goes around the pitch and it moves up and down to pick your match etc, and also when the game is loading up if you look at the bottom right hand corner you can see little blue bubbles falling to the ground, a brilliant effect to the game.

PES also features unlockables, such as costumes for the players when you’re playing a match, you can unlock penguin suits, Dinosaurs and many more, which gives it a funny side of the game, because the player running around in costumes just makes you laugh (although we don’t have a clown suit yet for Paul Robinson).

Pro Evolution Soccer also features online play allowing you to play online with your mates or anyone else; it is great way to challenge your mates to a match even though you live miles apart. The controls for PES on the Xbox 360, depending on how big your control is, are easy, if you have a small controller for the game you will get through fine with no problems but if you have a bigger controller then you may find yourself struggling at times, so best to play this game with a smaller controller. The controls for the game are quite similar to the Playstation controls, basically in the same area apart from the back buttons obviously, you also have the choice of either using the Analogue or the Directions buttons either way they are the same. The controls are easy and you can get used to them within a matter of minutes. Alternatively you can have hands like Andre the Giant.

PES is certainly one of the top games in the gaming world today and is played by millions all over the world, PES can climb to the top of the mountain, and if their next game feature much better teams with up to date stats and teams, PES can certainly take Fifa’s spot of the best football game in the Gaming World.

- Review by BigJay