Pity us poor Americans. Since October 2007, gamers in Europe have been able to enjoy Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer for their favorite console, but we here in the USA just received the game in March…perhaps for the start of the Major League Soccer season, one could surmise, even if MLS isn’t in the game. Last year’s title was akin to Konami dipping their toe in the cold water of a next generation system. The graphics didn’t look much better than the original Xbox and the inability to edit player names and ratings crippled it. Thankfully Konami has fixed the name, fixed the graphics and fixed the player editing problem, leaving us with hands down what is the best soccer game on the Xbox 360 console.

Unlike the Nintendo Wii version, the Xbox 360 stays true to the original game; that is anyone who has played a Konami soccer game before, even going back to the PlayStation One will know how to control the players on the field (or pitch). Just because you have a general idea of the controls doesn’t mean you’re going to play well. You’ll need to know every command like the back of your hand in order to be successful. The AI of the CPU is very smart and is always on you in man-to-man coverage. In order to avoid losing the ball you’ll either have to pass efficiently or us the special controls off the right stick, such as protecting the ball. The animations or gameplay never feels canned; each time you dribble the ball it seems as though different rules of physics come into play. How a defender interacts with you directly affects your touch on the ball. It really is an amazing thing to watch.

In those man-on-man situations, the grunts and aggressiveness of the players is incredibly realistic, as you can see a defender literally push a man off the ball. The gameplay is very impressive; it feels as though you have players with real personalities – they’ll try to convince a linesman that a player was offside, cheer with excitement when they score a goal, as well as tell a referee off when they get yellow carded.

Everything good that you remember about PES is here this year and improved…the Master League is here in all its glory, and you can edit players or create your own – you even have a reason to use your Xbox Live Vision camera, as you can import your face in the game when you create a player. If there’s any complaint about the Master League, it’s that it can be overwhelming to a novice who just wants to get out and play. The game has some Championship Manager-like elements such as negotiating, player transfers, relegation/promotion and so forth and you can have the CPU take over some things but whatever you choose you’re stuck with through the entire game (no changes are allowed). A full season takes some time to complete in Master League so make sure you have some time to kill (you can always save between games). Of course you have other options, such as a quick exhibition, a cup championship and a traditional league, but by far the most replay value comes in the Master League.

The game looks fantastic. The pitch (field) looks pristine, and the lighting adds a great dimension to the game (you’ll play in the shade in some areas, for example, making it difficult to see). The players and the animations are simply incredible. This is one of the few games that make it worth saving replays to disk for later viewing – you will not see odd collision detection or players running through each other in this game – if players collide, they will bump and you’ll hear an audible groaning noise – very cool. It’s touches like this and the referees and the linesmen that really make this game a complete package.

While the game itself is much more enjoyable to play than last year’s offering there are still a few areas that really need to be improved. First, while the gameplay itself looks good, cutscenes like the introduction of the teams and the referees have a terrible frame rate – you’ll even see issues like this on replays in regular speed on up close cameras. It is mind boggling how the frame rate takes a hit – thankfully it doesn’t affect the actual game itself. Next, although many teams in Europe are licensed, you won’t find real names on the US National Team and (i.e. Twillmora instead of “Twellman”) MLS teams are nowhere to be found – even in a fantasy land like environment, which is a big disappointment. There is the option to create an entire league on your own, but sorry, I have a life and not that dedicated to the game. Of course, the 360 isn’t as easy as the PS3 to update, you have to have a memory card and a USB cable. Second, there aren’t as many stadiums on the 360 version as there are on the Wii, which is insane.

The final issue isn’t a fault of the game itself, but more of a fault of not being able to find an online opponent. Since the game is ‘old’ by European standards, everyone there seems to have moved on and we all know soccer games aren’t big sellers in the US, so finding an online opponent is difficult. When you do find one, there is some lag which makes a game like soccer with timing on headers rather frustrating.

Over all PES 2008 for the 360 is a mixed bag – it plays better, it looks better and you can edit everything; however it still doesn’t have the variety shown on the Wii or PS2, and the online play is only bearable if you can find an opponent to play head to head on the same console. Even with those faults, I’d still take it over FIFA because the single player game is just a joy to play – even if you have to deal with faulty rosters.