Since the first Pro Evolution Soccer hit our PS2s in 2001, the rivalry between this – the so-called realistic football simulator – and FIFA – the frivolous, often-misguided licence whore – has pretty much run its course. Everyone acknowledged that Pro Evo was the better game, while Konami – under the impression that it had nailed the footy formula early on – was content to update each title every year in the most minor way. Meanwhile, FIFA floundered as it tried to play catch up, leading to the worst string of football games that EA had put out since the series began.

Still, this was never likely to stay the same forever. While EA has crafted a game of football that we want to play in FIFA 08, Konami has stumbled into the footy fold with a doggedly flawed edition of Pro Evo for the PS3. The frame-rate issues, freakish bugs and inconsistent AI have sullied what was always a respectable experience on the PS2. This is still recognisable as a Pro Evo title, but that’s the problem: it’s stagnating, nothing has changed. Well, nothing has changed for the better, but there are plenty of problems with PES 2008 that weren’t apparent before.

The frame rate has derailed itself in the leap to the PS3. Konami has tried to render the crowd in detail, but the result is shocking, so what we have is an atmosphere-killing crowd of PSone-quality models, chanting in an identical unison. It’s horrible, as well, because when the team is lining up pre-match, the camera jerks uncontrollably, as if this annoying crowd detail has come at the cost of the game.

Unfortunately, the frame rate is just the start of the graphical horror. Although the game itself tends to run crisply during play, there is a lot of random slowdown that will ruin the multiplayer experience. Meanwhile, most of the likenesses are way off, and hardly any of the players look as photo-realistic as they should on the PS3.

If you were planning on glancing at the game’s graphical prowess through the near-pornographic replays that the series is renowned for, you’re going to have to put these plans on hold: they’re awful. The misery of the crowd detail absolutely murders the replays, turning them into choppy, horrible montages that barely validate your goal-scoring efforts.

So, we’ve said all that and we’re still giving it 70%. Why, you ask? Well, PES 2008 still plays an exceptionally solid game of football. Konami didn’t use the PS3 to even an iota of its potential, but this is still a good laugh in spite of the initial disappointment. For one, the game is more strategic than we remember it being. In what was annoyingly billed ‘Teamvision’ by Konami, the mechanics of the game require a lot more passing between your team-mates before you try to score. The defensive AI is incredibly difficult to outrun, so unless you pass it around between yourselves, breaking down the defence is an uncomfortable challenge. They’ll fragment if you keep at it, which makes the system worthwhile, and this item alone almost makes the rest of the arcadey gameplay acceptable.

Sadly, the game is still dirtied by the frustrating AI, as well as some baffling occurrences in the course of every match. On some occasions, players dive wildly when they bump into each other, and other red herrings – such as defenders doing dramatic, diving headers when in plenty of space – just boggle the mind. The AI has a horrible habit of divvying up your formation as well, throwing just about all of your midfielders into the box while your defence stays deep in your own half. It just doesn’t make sense! Also, the amount of scripted offsides caused by your team’s AI is just discriminatory: if Konami pegged this as a realistic aspect of the experience, it had better think on it for next year’s instalment.

Actually, they’d better think on a lot of things for the next PES on the PS3. With the same stupid commentary and some freakish defensive absences in multiplayer, you’ve got the same Pro Evo we played in 2001, only with detrimental changes to the formula. Worryingly, PES 2008 has fallen short of the FIFA franchise by a wide margin, providing a football game that even loyalists will see as inferior. Sure, this was a football series that was a 90% title back in 2001, but it’s not even close in 2008. FIFA is classier and more fun to play this year, while the animation isn’t so soulless. If this is Konami’s interpretation of a next-gen benchmark for the beautiful game, then the years ahead are going to be bleak for the once mighty franchise.

Samuel Roberts