PES 2008

Pro Evolution Soccer 2008

Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (officially abbreviated as PES 2008; Winning Eleven 2008 in Korea and Japan) is an association football (soccer) video game in the Pro Evolution Soccer series by Konami.

The game was officially announced on 18 June 2007. Its title is different than the other Pro Evolution Soccer games in that it’s of a year and not a version; this was due to EA Sports’ FIFA series naming their titles with two digit numbers (i.e. 07, 08) and in conclusion would seem that PES was a year behind FIFA (to non-fans which had no knowledge of the previous games of the franchise).

It was released for Windows, Wii, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, and Xbox 360.

A PS3 demo is available for download from the PlayStation Store,[9] an Xbox 360 demo has been released on the Xbox Live Marketplace, and a PC demo has been released.

The Nintendo Wii version of PES 2008 (named Winning Eleven Play Maker 2008 in Japan) differs radically from the other versions. The basic gameplay is centered around pointing the Wii Remote at the screen and directing players by dragging them with the on-screen cursor, and passing is done by simply pointing to the desired space or player and pressing a button. This allows for a more tactical approach to the game, as there is almost complete freedom in moving any player on the screen anywhere, and much more tactics and maneuvers can be used in the attacking game than ever before.

This version omits the Master League mode for the Champions Road, which lets the player tour a slew of different leagues around Europe, and when a games is won, it is possible to acquire players from the defeated teams. Also, it features an online mode that Konami called “the best online experience” when compared to the other versions.

The Wii version of PES 2008 received generally more positive reviews than the other versions.

Teams

Licensed leagues

The leagues below are fully licensed, and all teams from these leagues are licensed:

• Liga BBVA
• Ligue 1
• Serie A
• Eredivisie

Unlicensed leagues

English Premier League unlicensed teams but all include real player names: Note: In the Winning Eleven 2008 version for PS3, some names of the teams have been altered:

• North London/Arzegum (Arsenal) (was licensed in PES 5 and PES 6)
• West Midlands Village (Aston Villa)
• West Midlands City (Birmingham City)
• Lancashire (Blackburn Rovers)
• Middlebrook (Bolton Wanderers)
• London FC/Telfee (Chelsea) (was licensed in PES 5)
• Derbyshire (Derby County)
• Merseyside Blue (Everton)
• West London White (Fulham)
• Merseyside Red (Liverpool) (licensed in PES 2009 and PES 2010)
• Man Blue/Mccresta C (Manchester City)
• Man Red/Mccresta U (Manchester United) (licensed in PES 6, PES 2009 and PES 2010)
• Teesside (Middlesbrough)
• Pompy (Portsmouth)
• Berkshire Blues (Reading)
• Wearside (Sunderland)
• East London (West Ham United)
• Lancashire Athletic (Wigan Athletic)

• Anderlecht
• Club Brugge
• Dinamo Zagreb
• Copenhagen
• HJK Helsinki
• Olympiacos
• Panathinaikos
• AEK Athens
• Rosenborg
• Wisła Kraków
• Benfica
• Porto
• Sporting CP
• Lokomotiv Moscow
• Spartak Moscow
• Celtic
• Rangers
• Red Star Belgrade
• AIK
• Hammarby IF
• Helsingborg IF
• IFK Göteborg
• Basel
• Zurich
• Bayern Munich
• Beşiktaş
• Galatasaray
• Fenerbahçe
• Dynamo Kyiv
• Shakhtar Donetsk
• River Plate
• Boca Juniors
• Internacional

There are no unlicensed club teams with fake team and player names in PES 2008, as there were in previous games in the PES series.

National teams

Africa

• Angola
• Cameroon
• Côte d’Ivoire
• Ghana
• Nigeria
• South Africa
• Togo
• Tunisia

Asia

• Australia
• Iran
• Japan
• Saudi Arabia
• South Korea

Europe

• Austria
• Belgium
• Bulgaria
• Croatia
• Czech Republic
• Denmark
• England
• Finland
• France
• Germany
• Greece
• Hungary
• Republic of Ireland
• Israel
• Italy
• Netherlands
• Northern Ireland
• Norway
• Poland
• Portugal
• Romania
• Russia
• Scotland
• Serbia
• Slovakia
• Slovenia
• Spain
• Sweden
• Switzerland
• Turkey
• Ukraine
• Wales

South America

• Argentina
• Brazil
• Chile
• Colombia
• Ecuador
• Paraguay
• Peru
• Uruguay

North America

• Costa Rica
• Mexico
• Trinidad and Tobago
• United States

Unplayable teams

These are teams that cannot be used in the game but are opponents when challenging for the National Team Cup Tournaments or International Challenge mode. They contain fake player names and unlicensed kits:

Asia

• Singapore
• China
• Uzbekistan
• Vietnam
• Oman
• Malaysia
• Iraq
• Thailand
• United Arab Emirates
• Indonesia
• Qatar

Europe

• Albania
• Andorra
• Armenia
• Azerbaijan
• Belarus
• Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Cyprus
• Estonia
• Faroe Islands
• Georgia
• Iceland
• Kazakhstan
• Latvia
• Liechtenstein
• Lithuania
• Luxembourg
• Macedonia
• Malta
• Moldova
• San Marino

Africa

• Algeria
• Egypt
• Morocco
• Senegal

North America

• Honduras
• Jamaica

South America

• Bolivia
• Venezuela

There are also a few other “non playable” teams on the game that you can play against on the Cup mode if you choose to go through the qualifying stages. However, you cannot edit, add, or remove players from these teams’ squads.

Classic teams

All the teams do not have official player names:

• England
• France
• Germany
• Italy
• Netherlands
• Argentina
• Brazil

Generic Teams

There is also a separate league with 18 generic teams (Team A, Team B etc.), which can be edited fully, like in the previous game. This is thought to be due to the fact that Konami failed to get the rights to the German Bundesliga, and is usually made into the Bundesliga or another league of one’s preference by patch makers. However, most people use this to put their edited players into playable teams from the start instead of having to play through Master League to purchase them or alternatively edit the existing non-generic teams. This feature does not appear in the Wii version of the game.

Stadiums

• Konami Stadium
• Estádio da Luz
• Estádio do Dragão
• Estádio José Alvalade
• Bristol Mary Stadium
• Ville Marie Stadium
• Mohamed Lewis Stadium
• Antlion Colisseum
• Teatro Blanco
• Orange Arena
• Catalonia Stadium
• Santiago Bernabéu
• Stadio Olimpico
• San Siro
• Stade Louis II