Review: Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (PS3 (version played), Xbox 360, PC, PS2, PSP, DS, Wii. KCET, Konami.)

So, the quintessential soccer game finally makes its proper next-gen debut, complete with graphical overhaul, gimmicky AI-Teamvision feature and a brand new commentary team. Do any of these changes make for a better game of football? Read on.

From playing a short demo of FIFA 08 a little while ago, we speculated that EA might be on the right track towards playing catch-up with Pro Evo in offering unparalleled pick-up-and-play football excellence. And while this is undoubtedly true-there's no denying that EA have outdone themselves with this years instalment-Pro Evo still manages to play a superior game. But only just: this year, more than ever, the gap between the two titles is closing. FIFA continues to deliver the most comprehensive set of licenses whilst PES still lags behind in terms of providing the same level of authenticity. However, PES has taken some positive steps in the right direction with the majority of names and kits accurately represented in the game. Yet the complete set of Premiership teams remains conspicuously absent with only Newcastle and Tottenham blessed with proper apparel. Best of all though, is the new commentary from Jon Champion and Match Of The Day stalwart Mark Lawrenson. Still awful when compared to the seamless match analysis featured in any EA or 2K sports title you'd care to mention, it's a vast improvement over the woeful, notoriously bad, nonsensical ravings from past PES outings.

There's also a far slicker, TV-style presentation implemented in PES 2008, which places the game ever nearer the real thing. Sadly, the replays are absolutely, irrevocably terrible. Serious issues with the game's frame-rate mar the usual celebration of great goals by transforming them into farcical, comic snippets that wouldn't look out of place in a Benny Hill show. Apparently, this problem only affects the PS3 version and Konami are supposedly beavering away on a patch to fix the appalling stuttering that plagues the replays.

Thankfully, the in-game frame-rate remains stable for the most part, only invading the proceedings when things get hectic. The only thing that you need to know about PES 2008 is that it still plays relatively smooth and intuitive with goal scoring remaining blissfully rewarding as ever. Still, there's the slight nagging feeling that for all its newly implemented features, such as the new adaptive Teamvision AI, shirt tugging and diving, this is still the same old PES only with added High Definition graphical sheen. While in the case of PES one could apply the old adage, 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it', here you can't help but feel that the game could have benefited from some extra development time as the finished product feels exactly the opposite. PES 2008 possesses an indefinable 'scrappy' unfinished quality exacerbated by the stuttering animation and the atmosphere-shattering bitmap crowds that cheer in mechanical unison. Visually, PES remains stellar despite noticeable issues. Player likenesses remain eerily lifelike, yet old graphical issues from last-gen PES titles such as occasional clipping and dodgy collision detection persist, but luckily don't conspire to break the game.

Despite a number of annoying niggles that could be fixed with a simple, downloadable update, PES remains the king of football games. Accessible, fun and great with friends, it's also a somewhat disappointing update as we've come to expect better from the series. Still sublime then, just not as sublime as past triumphs. A bit like Maradona then, except without the overeating and the drug abuse.

Score: 8/10

As a post-script, special mention should be made of the game's abhorrent soundtrack comprised of amateurish songs and instrumentals that should be locked in a vault and jettisoned into the deepest recesses of space. Turn off the BGM before you even think about playing the game: it's that bad.

The Shed is in attendance at the London Game Career Fair.

October 23rd-24th saw the Whitechapel area of London pay host to the annual London Game Career Fair, so we went along to have a look. Trudging off the busy tube to briskly walk along the streets, we were on our way, our senses assaulted by a heady mix of smells and the constant cacophonous racket of traffic. Once inside, The Old Truman Brewery on Brick Lane where the event was held proved to be an adequate size for the twenty odd boothes and jostling crowds competing to have their questions answered, ideas picked over and CVs read by the big industry bods.

Our unique angle? Writing of course, and we spoke to every one of the industry's representatives to see if we could find our way into writing for games. As it turns out, it's not that easy and the majority of reps we asked were either stumped or offered up QA and design as possible avenues.

EA, Ubisoft, Sega, Team17, Lucasarts, Kuju, Juice, Realtime Worlds, Rare, NCSoft, Freestyle, Other Ocean, Escape and Blitz were among the many developers with booths showing off their latest IPs. Being the intrepid reporter types that we are, we asked them whether there were any new hot IPs on the horizon. Lamentably, we were met with a firm "sorry, I can't say" from all comers. We even attempted to get some info on the upcoming collaboration between Free Radical and Luasarts' but were met with the same response. Hey, we tried.

Nevertheless, there were still a host of games on show, albeit current titles such as Viva Pinata, Sega Rally and Tiger Woods PGA 08, which was available to play on the four Nintendo Wii pods provided by EA.

In addition to the prescence of developers and publishers, attendees could take part in sessions focused on specific aspects of working in the games industry. They provided added insight beyond the advice and help being given by the booth residents.

However, the occassion could have used a boost from a gaming celebrity. On the walls near the bar area, were pictures of famous studio figure-heads, which looked like our wish list of who we would have liked to meet at this event. Hideo Kojima, Kaz Hirai, Gabe Newell. We could only imagine how amazing the fair could have been with the presence of just one of these guys.

Press presence was minimal, covered by the nice chaps at Imagine Publishing who were selling discounted issues of their fine award winning mag, gamesTM. Happily, they were also happy to dispense helpful advice and The Shed walked away with an invaluable email address.

So all in all, the London Games Career was a productive, if somewhat slow-paced day. Frankly, we would have liked to have seen far more games beyond the paltry offering of a few Wii's, but I guess you can't have it all. Oh, and the coffee was a tad too bitter. Next year then, more games, smoother coffee please.

Capcom announce Street Fighter IV!! Fanboys everywhere rejoice!

We never thought it would happen but Capcom have recently announced a new Street Fighter game accompanied by a flashy debut trailer. The trailer (cast thine eyes south) shows old favourites and long time sparring partners Ryu and Ken having a right old punch-up, complete with instantly recognisable - nay, iconic - moves making a comeback. Classic moves like the Hadoken fireball and Sho-ryu-ken Dragon Punch are depicted in all their glory, erupting in lovely watercolour brush strokes, instantly rekindling fond memories of misspent youth rolling pocket money into SF coin-ops, albeit in an arty way that looks rather nice. All of this eye-catching tussle between the two stalwarts takes place on a painterly battlefield, not unlike the canvas employed by Capcom stablemate Okami. Is the trailer possibly indicative of a bold new visual style for the old school beat 'em up or just a dramatic way of re-introducing everyones favourite fighting game in a typically overblown way? We're not sure whether the hardcore SF fanboys will accept an artsy-fartsy new direction for Ryu and co. so our guess will be with the latter.
Watch this space to see more from the grandaddy of brawlers and find out if this old pugilist can recapture the glory from its bygone days. Meanwhile, enjoy the trailer...


Trailer courtesy of GameTrailers.com

We reckon Street Fighter IV will be Hurricane Kicking onto a console near you around this time next year...don't quote us on that though.

We're tired of waiting for the PS3 to get the games it deserves.

For hardcore gamers, there's really only a choice of two consoles (the hassle and expense of a PC has never sat well with us when it comes to gaming and the Wii is just too damn family-focused). What happens when you can only splash your cash on one of them and you feel like ultimately you made the wrong decision? Being among work colleagues discussing the many incredible games they've been enjoying on their Xbox 360s, I've been feeling somewhat behind the times as well as completely alienated. As a PS3 owner I'm currently missing out on big-hitters like Halo 3, Bioshock, and PGR 4, not to mention established classics like Dead Rising (which I have played for an extended period), Gears Of War (ditto) and Crackdown. Since the PS3's launch, I've enjoyed a handful of fantastic games, most of which were multi-format releases and I don't necessarily regret my choice. I'm simply unable to shake the nagging feeling that as a PS3 gamer, I'm getting left behind. Discovering that I have to wait an extra month for the Half Life 2 Orange Box to be released was the last straw, I have to vent my frustration and convey my bitterness. I'm sick and tired of waiting for the PS3 to deliver the lofty promises that we're made from the moment Ken Kutaragi held aloft that big, slab of next-gen console. With PS3's killer apps turning out to be not all that killer (see Heavenly Sword, Resistance et al) and the PlayStation Store being the online equivalent of Old Mother Hubbard's cupboard, we're left looking impatiently at our watches for the big games to come along. And to be fair, there are some doozies just around the corner-well, about four to six months away. Home, LittleBigPlanet, Killzone 2 and Metal Gear Solid 4 are all going to be huge and you'll only be able to experience them on PlayStation 3. But what to do until the console finally gets the big, quality titles that have been so sorely lacking? Buy a 360? It looks as if this is the only (stupid, expensive) solution.

When the Xbox 360 came out almost two years ago, gamers were faced with what seemed like a tough decision. With the looming, power of the PlayStation 3 on the horizon promising a complete next-gen experience the likes of which the Bill Gates-box could never hope to muster, it came down to a simple, but difficult choice. Buy a 360, blowing your wad on the first of the next-gen consoles and hope the PS3 fails to live up to expectation or stick with your current console and wait it out for the promise of what will quite possibly be the uber-console that will blow the 360 out of the water? An easy A or B answer to a complex situation, we decided to opt for B, wait it out to hopefully feel smug that we exercised restraint, saving the pennies for the superior piece of machinery. After all, Sony's rhetoric promised incredible things for the future of gaming and on paper, it's the better console. A raft of huge exclusives, free online play, motion control, 1080p HD resolution through its HDMI output, backwards compatibility and exceptional graphics and sound that would outdo the 360 by some distance. That it looked like the Bentley of games consoles enrobed in luxurious, semi-transparent black plastic, something akin to the imposing monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey entirely convinced us that we'd get our just reward for our monk-like patience.

March 23rd and our PS3 arrives. For several months the warm glow of satisfaction is unmistakable, we feel safe in the knowledge that it was all worth the long delays and agonizing news stories about blue diodes and whatnot to experience the ultimate in gaming nirvana. Flash forward to the present day and well, we're feeling pretty stupid.

You see, the PS3 is an incredible machine delivering everything Sony said it would, except for one salient component: the games and a everyone knows that a console ultimately lives or dies by its games. Of course Microsoft have had a head start of over a year, but then the PS3 has now been on the shelves for seven months and the number of quality titles and exclusives can be counted on one hand. Okay, perhaps that's a slight exaggeration, but the truth remains that the 360 is home to the majority of triple-A titles and exclusives. Blockbusting games like Bioshock, Halo 3, Gears Of War, Crackdown, Forza 2, Project Gotham 4, Lost Planet, Dead Rising, Condemned, Mass Effect, Fable 2, Splinter Cell 5: the list goes on and will no doubt expand even further in the coming months as Gates reaches even further into his bottomless pockets. However, glancing further into the future, there are a number of PS3 exclusives to get genuinely excited about. Unreal Tournament 3 and Haze will now lead on the PS3, debuting on 360 at a later date whereas the likes of Metal Gear 4, Final Fantasy XIII, Killzone 2, LittleBigPlanet, Gran Turismo 5 and spy-based MMO The Agency will remain resolutely PS3 exclusive (for now). This of course is all well and good if you're prepared to wait and wait we shall. We've heard that good things do eventually come...

However, in the meantime while Landon enjoys the benefits of owning both a 360 and PS3, it looks as if I'm going to have to stick an Xbox on the credit card. Aaah. Plastic. Now do I go for the Premium or the Elite?

An Xbox 360 can currently be picked up for between £170-£300 depending on the model. Look out for some generous bundle deals. Free Halo 3 or PGR 4 for instance.

The PS3 can now be snapped up for either £299 for the 40GB model or £349 for the 60GB original. Again, shop around and you can grab yourself a tasty bundle package.

Sony offer an alternative to a price cut for PS3...

Following Sony's generous UK PlayStation 3 package consisting of two launch titles, a brace of control pads and a 60GB console, the majority of punters looking to get their hands on a piece of Sony's next-gen pie felt a little fobbed off. Even more so in light of the price cuts seen in America and Japan, it seemed that once again the PAL territories were getting a bum deal.

Well, guess what? Sony have come up with a new, cost-effective way of making the PS3 available to potential buyers who found the £425 price tag too much to swallow. As of next week Sony will be releasing a diluted version of the PS3, stripped of a lot of the extras that made the launch model a truly premium console. The first and most significant casualty is the hard drive, which has been cut back to 40GB, a feature that will be expanded to a muscular 80GB in the States. Yet another poke in the eye for the UK market. In addition to losing 20GB of storage space, the new PS3 will be shorn of two of its USB ports and backwards compatibility with PS2 titles, although PSone discs will still work fine. Every cloud, eh? But wait, there's more. You won't be able to pop your music and holiday snaps onto the hard drive directly through the memory card slots simply because there aren't any on the updated, downgraded machine.
The upside to all of this is that those yet to own a PS3 can now pick one up for the more wallet friendly price tag of £299.99. Unfortunately, the really bad news is that anyone wanting the full spec original console will have to get it fast. Luckily, there's great news for anyone looking to get their mitts on the untouched launch model. You can now pick one up for the bargain price of just £349.99! Genuine value for money once the games start to arrive (patience, give it a couple of months). Rumour has it that soon the 40GB model will be the only available option so you'll have to get in quick or be condemned to own an inferior slab of plastic and chips. Ouch!

Also, while we're on the subject, The Shed would like to issue a pair of apologies. One for being away for so long (moving to London took some time out of our schedule) and two for being weighted heavily on the PS3 side. We assure you that we are totally unbiased in our console love. We love them all equally. Long story short, Landon is the 360 reviewer and he's a lazy git and neither of us own, or know anyone that owns, a Wii. So there.

The 40GB PlayStation 3 and cut price 60GB model is available from today. That's Wednesday 10th October, kids.