Simple. The best football game ever.
As soon as the game loads up you can tell how good it is. You could just spend hours polishing your skills in the arena. PES has a training mode but it's nothing compared to the arena. And with it you have always got something to do. When your game is loading up it takes you straight to the arena where you can have a few shots with your chosen star before the match kicks off.
On to the menus and it's all quite simple to navigate round. Kick Off, Manager Mode, Tournaments, XBox Live, you can already see how much there is to do. You can even create players (although you can't create clubs like last-gen FIFA 07).
When you play a match Martin Tyler and Andy Gray are your commentators and it looks and sounds so real you could easily confuse it for Sky Sports. If you walked into a room and saw FIFA you would think it's a live match, it's just so realistic. You can play as your favourite team in their real kit which has always been FIFA's main advantage over PES and it still is. Although the realism doesn't replace the fun.....
FIFA 08 is enjoyable and is on a whole new level from PES. The controls are brilliant and the gameplay is absolutely perfect. Not only is this game capable of giving hours of single-player joy but the offline and online multiplayer is superb.
It's great playing with up to four mates on your console and then online it's just sensational. Game modes such as Interactive Leagues and Be-A-Pro give the game even more life than expected and these are top quality. Be-A-Pro puts you in the boots of one player instead of controlling the whole team and it works very well.
Five user controlled and five computer controlled gives the game a bit more variety.
There are a few improvements that i think will be made for next season. Most notably when you are in a match there are no visible match officials apart from in the yellow and red card cut-scenes. The Be-A-Pro should have an offline career mode and maybe 10 vs 10 online instead of 5. Also it would be nice if the game didn't stop as much (for example you should have the ability to take a quick throw or free kick) among other improvements. Although these issues shouldn't take too much away from the experience - it's still a class game. Obviously, as always with FIFA there will be more teams, more stadiums etc. added once again and possible the managers (as seen in EURO 2008).
I could go on for hours about this game because it really is that good - any football fan's dream game. EA took risks with the game but they more than payed off with this spectacular effort from the Vancouver studio. There are plenty of things i haven't touched upon in this review that make this game all the more special but one section of the back cover says it all for me:
'30 Leagues, 23 Real Stadiums and 15000 Players. Go online and organize tournaments and represent your club in the award-winning interactive leagues.'
PES 2008 has 4 licensed leagues a host of international teams with fake players & kits and a terrible online experience. EA are well and truly top of the league this season.
Summary:
Graphics 9.9
Gameplay 9.9
Audio & Soundtrack 9.8
Achievements 7.2
Life 10
Value For Money 9.9
Innovation & New Ideas 8.7
Online 9.6
Balance (Between Fun & Realism) 10
Game Modes & Multiplayer 10
OVERALL: 95 quite nearly the perfect football game.