Last year we got the first version of Pro Evolution on the 360. It looked nice, played pretty well, but something was missing. Actually, a lot was missing: stadia, team editing options, game options. When it first arrived the online multiplayer was also rather flawed – the host of the match always had a sparkling experience, lag free, while the guest got plenty of lag, making even friendly games less than fun. Still, they then fixed the multiplayer with a patch, and there's more content this year, so it should be 10 out of 10 easily, shouldn't it? Well, no actually.

Let me say first of all that while playing a game offline, either on your own or against a friend, PES 2008 on the 360 is the best football game on the system, and probably eclipses the PS2 version too now. If you've never played a PES game before then it's going to take you some time to get into the game and all its controls, but once you've got to grips with it there is immeasurable depth in the play – enough so that you will be playing it with friends up until and maybe beyond the day PES 2009 comes out.

While the majority of this review has been focusing on the negative, it's only because I now expect so much from the PES series. PES 2008 is a very good football game, especially so when sitting on the sofa with three other mates, but I'd also like to be able to get those mates together quickly for a game online, and we all know that it's technically possible. For playing offline with mates the game is a blast, and enough is different to just about justify the purchase cost over PES 6. If you must have all the Premier League teams though, or if you're only interested in playing offline, then it's probably best to look elsewhere.