The best new feature of PES 2008

30 Aug 2007

A few months back Konami announced that it would be giving punters attending the Leipzig Game Convention the opportunity to get hands-on with the next-gen versions of PES 2008. It was among the first games we checked out during the fairly quiet press-only preview day.

First impressions are strong: visually it's a hike from the PS2 version - not just in terms of high-defintion sheen, but also some amazingly lifelike facial likenesses, with Mascherano and Tevez looking indistiguishable from the real article (we were playing as Argentina). Similary, added detail and animation gives off-the-ball cut-scenes further TV-coverage presentation qualities.

The version we played had no option to change the camera view - so we couldn't check out the visuals from our normal default wide view - but in general it looks exactly as we'd hoped: high-res andglossy with smooth player movement and an emphasis on recreating the individual playing styles, runs and lopes of the sport's more recognisable players.