What's to be gained when you cheat against other players in Pro Evoution Soccer 2008 (PC, Xbox 360, PS2, PS3, PSP, Wii, DS)? A lot, apparently. There's cash, bragging rights, and other sick pleasures to boot. Fortunately, Konami Digital Entertainment and Play.com are doing something to keep the rats off online matches. Read all about it in the full article up next.

Konami, one of the more prominent names in the video game industry, has released its financial reports for the nine month period from April to December of last year. They report the strong success of Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 as well as the Metal Gear series. More in the full article.

Soccer fans, be confused no more: Konami decided to unify the Winning Eleven series under a single, consistent name - at least in the Western front. The company has confirmed that the title for Winning Eleven Soccer for US fans will now stay similar to the European version, Pro Evolution Soccer. If Konami were to keep the name for one more year, it's latest title would have been Winning Eleven Soccer 11. More at the full story.

Konami's general manager Pete Stone congratulates the UK major retailers for staying true to their word, and not selling copies of Konami's hot Pro Soccer Evolution 2008 (for the PS3, PS2, Xbox 360, and PC) before its official October 26 launch date, even when some other retailers broke the street date.

Stone also recalled some cases of games being sold days before the launch date, saying that Konami does not condone the act, and that it creates damaging anarchy in the market.

Soccer gamers who are having issues with Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 by Konami for the PC can how heave a sigh of relief: Konami just released a patch that fixes some lagging issues during online multiplayer sessions, as well as some corrective changes in the in-game text. Here's the complete changelog for this new PES patch:

• Lag issues resulting from slow connections have been improved.
• The speed the power bar builds up is now consistent.
• Small mistakes in the in-game text have been fixed.
• Minor issues that occurred under rare conditions have been solved.

Click on the Read link to download the patch!

 

The results are in for ChartTrack's top games in the UK All Format category for the week ending October 27, and it is a favorable one for soccer games for all platforms.

As expected the latest title under Konami's hit soccer franchise, Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC, and PS2) is topping the charts. Quite remarkable for a game that was released only last October 26. The former chart topper Football Manager 2008 by Sega for the PC and Mac OS X is now sitting on third place, while EA's FIFA 08 (for the PS3, PS2, Xbox 360, DS, PSP, Wii, PC) is still holding on to its second placer spot from the previous week, after getting kicked unceremoniously by Football Manager 2008 on the week ending October 6.

As for games from other genres, Nintendo's hit portable adventure The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass is also not moving from its fourth spot since last weeks's charts. Bungie Studios' Halo 3 is still riding the waves of its popularity (though a bit subdued), and is now occupying the 8th spot in the current charts.

Here's the list of the top ten games that made it in ChartTrack's All Format category for the week ending October 27:

1. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (Konami)
2. FIFA 08 (EA)
3. Football Manager 2008 (Sega)
4. The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (Nintendo)
5. Ratatouille (THQ)
6. The Orange Box (EA)
7. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (Nintendo)
8. Halo 3 (Microsoft)
9. High School Musical: Makin' The Cut! (Disney Interactive Studios)
10. Crash of the Titans (Vivendi Games)

  

Heads up soccer fans, Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 is flying into stores in Europe on October 26 for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC, PS2 and mobile phones. The handheld versions for the PSP and Nintendo DS will be arriving on November.

The game features an all new adaptive AI called Teamvision. The AI constantly adapts to the gamer's style of play, building new ways to attack and counter and to learn from past mistakes. Konami president Kunio Eno made the announcement, expressing his own enthusiasm for the game saying:

[I reckon it's] the greatest football game of all time. Demand is massive for what is easily the best Pro Evolution Soccer title to date, and we anticipate record sales as we bring the series to PlayStation 3 for the first time, and unleash stunning versions for all leading formats.

Konami has just opened an official Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PSP, DS, PlayStation 2, and PC) website for the fans. Well, not exactly a full-fledged site, if you were looking for more game-related details.

Depending on your nationality (or spoken language), the PES 2008 website hosts links for the various European countries, as well as Japan and Australia. It currently hosts links to other related sites, such as the PES league community sites, the official Konami website, and the KonamiStyle online store.

We recommend that the readers give the site try, which is available via the read link below. We'll also let you know if the PES 2008 site updates with any new information in the near future, hopefully with some snippets on any new teams coming into play.

Konami is releasing some new details for their upcoming Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 game. This particular snippet may interest the more hardcore soccer fans out there, as it lists some of the licensed teams that are expected to appear in the game. Read the list below to see who's joining alongside PES 2008's national teams:

• Juventus Turin
• AC Milan
• Celtic
• Porto
• Newcastle
• Tottenham
• RSC Anderlecht
• HJK Helsinki
• IFK Goteborg
• Panathinaicos
• Spartak Moscow
• Fenerbache
• NK Dinamo Zagreb
• FC Basel amongst

That only appears to be a snippet of thing to come - Konami expects to have over 250 teams cropping up in PES 2008. Further subdivided, that's 3000+ individual players to work with. Check back again in case we hear any further updates for the team lineup for Konami's title heading for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PSP, DS, PlayStation 2, and PC.

 

Pro Evolution Soccer is the first stop for many when they need their football fix, and for a good reason. From the humble beginnings of Winning Eleven, Konami Digital is now ready to explode with Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (PS3, Xbox 360, PC, PSP, DS) which should sell to all football fans. If you've been an avid fan, these screenshots that seem to be from Pro Evolution Soccer 2008's versions on more powerful platforms (PS3, 360, PC) are sure to catch your attention.

It's quite pleasing to see that even commoners look good. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 never really pushed for eye-candy if it would make gameplay suffer, but this upcoming installment of the video game more than satisfies. We also get a good glimpse at the different menus and options available in-game. Being a manager may actually get a lot tougher this time around, since the players can complain if you work them too hard.