One of the most noticeable improvements over Pro Evolution Soccer 6 has been the animation, the players march out of any of the 15 beautifully modelled Stadia with flares and huge club or country flags waving in the crowd - the whole atmosphere feels very authentic and real. Players are now even better modelled than they were in Pro Evolution Soccer 6 and almost every player is recognisable whether it be from Ronaldinho to Henry. Not only are they recognisable from close up, with far greater animation than last year's game, they are also recognisable in-game. While it looks great the game also suffers from frame-rate issues. Situations such as corner kicks, heavy defences, or at most times where there is excessive on-screen traffic, it slows down. While it isn't a gameplay effecting problem, and is certainly not off-putting, it is definitely noticeable.

Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 has significantly progressed the series further towards 'playing' as a real game of football plays. As in previous games, matches on the highest difficulty setting (as in real-life football) are seldom massively high-scoring events. Players should expect the odd bore-draw here and there and numerous tight games that are decided by a sublime piece of skill or a lucky deflection. Needless to say, there are few games on the market on any format that have moments that can truly compare with the sheer ecstasy of scoring a stunning goal at the end of a beautifully conceived move in PES2008.

Some of the other changes are not easy to describe. The game simply ‘plays better’ and requires the player to use more intelligence, foresight and vision to make beautiful moves. One-touch football and tight passing triangles are not just needed to look good, but become a necessity in order to unlock the defences of opposing teams. Short passing feels faster, slicker and more accurate as well.

The biggest difference between Konami's games and their rivals has always been the level of control the player has, and the lack of pre-determination. Each match feels open and able to swing at any moment, and (with the exception of a dinked free kick from just outside the box) there have never been any signs of "cheat goals". Gone are the rails that players in other games seem to be fixed to, along with with pointless "skills" and matches that end with cricket scores. PES has always been the football fans' favourite and for a reason - it plays the closest to a real match you can get without getting muddy on a Sunday morning with dangerously overweight, middle-aged men at the local park. The ball feels like an actual ball during the game, with weight and a life of its own, rather than a glue-covered beach ball that's pinged back and forth like some macabre game of giant pinball. Lunging challenges will make contact with the ball and send it spinning and veering wildly. A well-thumped volley at the woodwork can come back in all manner of directions: all things which draw the player in and do their darndest to convince them that this is football.

Plenty of other touches and refinements have been made all over the pitch. The widely-criticised heading has been revamped and crosses can be far more effective than before. It's possible now, for example, to power a header down at the keeper's feet and have it bounce up and beat him. Tricks such as the roulette and Ronaldinho's flip-flap are still there and still not so good as to let you merely dance past the defence - not without some decent skill anyway. Fouls at first seem more commonplace, but refining the way you play and the challenges you choose to take on soon remedies this. These changes mean there's a brief period of re-learning for veterans of the series, and quite a lot to take on for Pro Evo virgins.

Unfortunately what Konami have given us is a PES with all the toys missing. In some ways, this wouldn’t be such a big issue if things were compensated in other areas – take, for instance, a dynamic, deformable pitch system; proper, influential weather effects; or a full edit mode. But that just hasn’t been the case. Even in light of all these flaws, the fact that it still plays like a dream is testament to its fundamental strengths. For the time you’re actually playing a match and not fiddling stats, team emblems, Sun JiHai’s celebration, or Cristiano Ronaldo’s shirt, PES2008 is nothing but a joy to play. It’s still nowhere near as intelligent or difficult as some players want, but the AI certainly appears to have been notched up a few pegs: the computer actually seems to do a reasonable job at trying to stop you from scoring. Scoring from free kicks is also harder than ever. The only telling drawbacks are (still) the relatively predictable attack patterns and a greater tendency for late goals to be scored as a result of player fatigue. Other than that, the gameplay is arguably the best yet, only after the match do you wonder why everything else is missing.

It’s like someone trying to make a pizza with only so much topping – there’s not enough to go around, but they try desperately hard to spread it and make the thing look ‘right’, but no matter what they do, there’ll be parts without any cheese or tomato. But if you’re trying to make the best pizza in the world to satisfy a pizza-loving person, you should offer as much topping as that person demands. Luckily, Konami aren’t in the pizza making business. They’re in the business of making one of the best football games in the world, and a very successful one to boot. But they need to move on. They need to elevate PES to the next stage of its life that it so deserves, and the only way they can do that is to give players more of what they want rather than take from them.