Customer Reviews
Simply Amazing - By: Jack Gash, 22 Dec 2008 
This game is brilliant - absolutely stunning graphics & the gameplay is second to none. All the players have excellently defined buttocks, just asin real life, & the referees are pretty well chosen too. Hand gestures can be mapped to a second controller if necessary for dual player action.
Grass seems to be properly 3D rendered rather than a texture, & players can stain multiple areas of clothing rather than just the shorts. Some of the hand-to-hand combat can be a bit unrealistic at times, but it is possiblein this version of the game to break off chairs from the grandstands to throw at other players.
I would say the game has only one major downside: it no longer has the excellent bonus drink-drive simulator that PES 2006 & 2007 had.
Worst Pro Evolution game ever - By: Ulster Confederate, 09 Aug 2008 
First off let me say ive always been a massive fan of the Pro Evolution series & I have owned every one ever right from the first on the Playstation called ISS Pro I still play Pro Evo 4 on the PS2 & Pro Evo 6 on my pc but as far as my Xbox 360 is concerned there has yet to be anything like a next generation game.
Pro evolution 08 on Xbox360 is dreadful for a start the gameplay is too fast. Gone are the great hard fought 1-0 wins now its likely to be a 5-5 drawin 10 minutes. It has become a pinball speed type arcade game with some players running like Olympic sprinters on steroids. The graphics are poor & the editor is next to useless. I just hope Pro Evo 09 will be good but so far on the next generation consoles Konami have failed to produce the goods.
Get it right next time - spend some development money - By: M. A. Kelly, 17 Jul 2008 
I've always been a fan of this franchise having played it through most of it's previous platforms & having bought an Xbox 360 couldn't wait to get my hands on it.
However Konami really need to "up" their game next time around as little tweaks here & there is not improvement enough & are letting FIFA backin with a shout for most realistic simulation.
Whilst tweaking the gameplay a little the game really dissapoints when playedin one player mode against the computer where the computer seems to simply "cheat" if it wants to win - you can be 1-0 up with a minute to go & the opposition get on the ball & you just "know" they'll score.
The computer achieves this by taking away the power of running from your own players, or your normally sure handed keeper will drop onein - or my personal favorite Sammy Hyppia or some equally renowned clodhopper will pick the ball up on the edge of his own area - beat all eleven outfield players easily & drive the ball into the net as your two centre halves open a gap not unlike the red sea parting for Moses.
Very frustrating indeed & a real game killer & the funny thing is as soon as you start to play you get a feel for whether the computer will let you win or not.
The game has also been cheapened by the lack of a true system of kit design where you can no longer redisign kit badges & logos which has been done as a sot to the licencees for the FIFA franchise.
If the gane does not bring that back or improve the gameplay next time around then the ever improving FIFA which has gone from being miles apart on game play to almost as good , will romp home next time round & Sami Hyppia will not be able to save Konami then.
The laziest programming from a major software house - By: casual gamer, 11 Jul 2008 Konami have decided not to improve the game at all. Rather than just fixing the existing bugs & adding improvements to the game, they have gone backwardsin terms of trying to improve on an existing franchise - the PES series. Examples of poor "work" (if they can call this work) include straight shots from the opposition teams going straight through the goalkeeper as well as overall poor game AI.
The online capability is a joke as ALL online matches are laggy - one second you go for a standing tackle, a second later the opposition has the ball & is a mile behind your last defenders for an easy goal. These are catastrophic bugs that konami have introduced into the game as well as not having the intelligence to fix the bugsin the previous game (still exist today). Clearly, Konami cannot be bothered to make an effort to make a decent football title (almost like they are trying reduce the functionality of 2008 & make you pay more money to have them backin the 2009 version).
Overall this is an insult to loyal hardcore PES fans who own the previous versions. There is a mistakein the raing of this game - it should be a MINUS 5 stars. My suggestion is to either buy pes 6 back & play that or get the PS2 version of 2008 as its a whole lot better than this. Never thought about buying FIFAin a million years, until now...
; )
wow! big improvement!! - By: JamesW92, 07 Jul 2008 
i bought pes 6 a few weeks ago, & thought it was pretty good. So i saw this for 20 quid & thought, hell, wotever! i stuck it straightin to my 'box & started it up. I wont bore you with the small details, so here is an ovrveiw
graphics
big improvement from pes6, still not amazing, but definitely next gen!! 8/10
sound
wow! they have real music!!! except that sh*t that gts played over & overin creation mode 4/10 (i give it four, just because it has proper music, but i dont like the said music, so it gets 4, no higher...its all club & dance, except what i assume to be the kaiser cheifs...)
playability
amazing!! you can just pick this up whenever, & play it, & you will be on it for at least an hour or so, but you wont ever get bored of it!!! im only gonna trade itin when PES2009 arrives! 10/10
customisation
perfect! you can create your own player, teams, strips, whatever! only you cant edit or make emblems, which sucks... 8/10 (purely cus you need a vision ca to make the most of it!)
other stuff
they havent made the team names true to life!! or half the strips!! but then again, it is konami!! but the players look really true to life!! 5/10
overall
great game for footy noobs (like me) if you dont like footy, or have never played a footy game before, get this! or if you arent sure you want to spend 20 quid, get PES6 which is about 3 quid preownedin GAME stores! you will be a bit dissapointed by the graphics, but the gameplay is just as good!! Defo goes into m fav games list!! overall score, 9/10!!
good job konami, make pes2009 even better!!
