Pro
Evolution Soccer 2008 Demo (Xbox 360).
The demo (not available in North America, but you can just create
another passport account to download it) allows you to play a full match
using two of the following national teams; Turkey, Spain, France,
Brazil, Argentina and Portugal.
Positives
- Excellent on-pitch animations for the
players. The referee is also particularly well animated and I like that
the game doesn’t always go to a cut-scene when ref gives out a card.
- Slightly improved presentation with
nice Picture-In-Picture of the bench and also when an injured player
comes back on.
- Love the new player celebrations that
can include the subs!
- Diving (hold down RB, LB and Left
Trigger)
- Improved dribbling and player
responsiveness
- Shots have more zip and the lobs are
better with respect to backspin
- Very good player faces and the player
builds are spot on
- Quick free-kicks are implemented much
better
- New dribble moves and the CPU uses
them in a realistic manner (for example Christano Ronaldo uses his
trademark heel/dribble move quite often)
Negatives
- Pitch textures are woeful, seriously,
they’re awful
- Not sure if this is running at 60fps
because FIFA 08 seems to run much smoother
- Keepers often display poor judgement
(though Rustu seems to be more crazy than the other keepers).
- No post-match stats
- I’m not seeing any evidence of Team
Vision adaptive AI whatsoever
- CPU seems to afford your players too
much space, even on the ‘Top Player’ difficulty level
While I enjoyed the demo I have to say I’m a little underwhelmed – I
was definitely expecting a bit more when it comes to the AI and the
player control. There is talk, however, that this demo was based on the
Leipzig build and not the most recent TGS build. I hope that’s the case.
FIFA
08 Demo (Xbox 360).
The demo allows you to play a single half in the Alianz Arena using
any two of the following club teams; Manchester United, Barcelona,
Marseille, New York Red Bull, Inter, and America. Props to EA Sports for
acknowledging the MLS and Mexican football.
Positives
- Players are more responsive than FIFA
07 and UEFA Champions League 06/07
- Skill stick/moves – I really like that
there are a ton of different moves (step over, elastico, 360 spins,
sidesteps, flick-ups, hell you can even do that Blanco trick when he
jumps up with the ball in his feet).
- The slide ‘tackle’ is now an actual
slide rather than a pre-canned animation that always interacts with
another player, so you can use it to block off passes and time slide
tackles like you would in real-life
- Love the pitch textures
- Love the Alianz stadium announcer
- Better AI with regards to player
movement on both sides of the ball compared to UEFA Champions League
Negatives
- Ball physics are still floaty,
especially when it comes to crosses – they move so slowly and just hang
in the air (while the AI goalie just stands and watches most of the
time) and headers still don’t have good pace on them
- Controls still need work when it comes
to responsiveness and the game needs a ‘super-cancel’ so you can adjust
the automatic runs of players
-
Free kicks are still ass compared to Winning Eleven (though I like the
fact that the CPU seems to score more frequently on them) – you have
more control and way more options for set plays in Winning Eleven.
- The ‘holding down a pass button to
control the strength of a through pass’ is nice but it doesn’t work for
a quick one touch through or when you turn a defender and want to make a
quick pass because you have to HOLD down the button for an extra second
– by which time the defender who’s been hounding you can take the ball
of you.
- Player models are a bit wonky. For
example, Viera looks like Heskey as he’s way too buff, Rooney stands too
tall and doesn’t have the hunch he does in real life, Tevez is too tall
(in real life he’s midget), Scholes is also too tall and his hair too
light – he looks like Alan Smith. Crespo looks like Adriano (even his
skin is too dark).
- AI passing is good but they don’t mix
up the long ball (which they did do in UEFA Champions League) and I’m
amazed at the brilliant passing and ball movement of the New York Red
Bull – they should be playing in La Liga not the MLS….
Despite my bitching I’m still very excited about FIFA 08. A full list
of teams and a full manager mode will wipe the floor with PES/WE’s
Master League and I’m intrigued to see how Be A Pro turns out.
Lavan Chandran
10/01/2007
Screenshots from
www.ign.com and www.teamxbox.com
