What better way to warm a man's heart in the autumn of 2007 than present him with the greatest football series ever in the guise of the new Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (PES 2008)?

Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 introduces Teamvision, a clever new artificial intelligence system that recognises a gamer's particular style of play and therefore creates a more balanced and strategic football match. Teamvision pro-actively monitors the human player's movement onscreen and responds accordingly, forcing ... more >>

What better way to warm a man's heart in the autumn of 2007 than present him with the greatest football series ever in the guise of the new Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (PES 2008)?

Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 introduces Teamvision, a clever new artificial intelligence system that recognises a gamer's particular style of play and therefore creates a more balanced and strategic football match. Teamvision pro-actively monitors the human player's movement onscreen and responds accordingly, forcing constant revision of strategy during the course of a match. Trying to play the same way over and over will not work for you if you go solo, so you better think of some new gameplans. Take a leaf out of Rafa Benitez's book.

PES 2008 also boasts more familiar player faces and names. Look! There's lank-haired midfield marvel Stephen Hunt of the Berkshire Blues! And if you're not entirely happy with the club names, PES2008 enables you to create your own in the Edit mode. You can even upload your own picture to the game and register yourself as a player!

PES 2008 now boasts more licenses than before, with Portugal, Brazil, Greece, Scotland and Ireland among the new officially licensed national teams on offer. Of course, the list of licensed club teams has also been appended, with Newcastle United, RSC Anderlecht, HJK Helsinki, IFK Goteborg, Panathinaikos, Spartak Moscow, Fenerbahce, NK Dinamo Zagreb, FC Basel and the 'manager-less at the time of release' Tottenham Hotspur amongst those added to those you can choose or choose to conquer. These new teams combine to ensure PES 2008 now has over 3000 licensed players replicated within the game from over 250 teams.

With the Pro Evolution Soccer series renowned for its fluid, realistic gameplay, the new game builds on the implementation of Teamvision with additional key advances. As with previous releases since its inception in 1996, the ball is again treated as a separate entity, with the timing of shots entirely down to the player, while the new AI ensures that defenders work to close down space and block efforts on goal. Similarly, distribution of passes works along the same lines, with players using the space available to them to switch the ball. Close control has also been enhanced with more control when dribbling the ball, and a number of subtle moves added to bypass defenders and move the ball into space.

Working in conjunction with the Teamvision system, every aspect of Pro Evolution Soccer 2008’s on-field play has been reworked and fine-tuned to create the balanced and strategic play of a high stakes match. Set-pieces have been improved, with full control given over the number of players and the position of the defensive wall. A wider range of set piece options are also available to make use of specific talents within the team. << less