Pro Evolution Soccer (Winning Eleven) 2008 - Unplayable in Ad-Hoc mode?

We got our hands on recently released Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 or should we properly name it a Winning Eleven: Ubiquitous Evolution 2008 - Japanese version. The game still is not out in the rest of the world, like Konami announced, but that is not our problem. When we tried playing the game in Ad-Hoc mode it was simply unplayable?

Winning Eleven: Ubiquitous Evolution 2008, known as Pro Soccer Evolution 2008 is latest installment of Winning Eleven or again should we say Pro Evolution series. We did expect much of it, but Konami let us down. Not just because of the expectations, but because of not expecting that we will be let down entirely. Compared to previous installment in the series, 2008 version has no apparent major changes unless you count intro and menu graphics as major changes. Background music is nice, single-play in matches, cups and tours is great but then again …. no major changes. Then we wanted to engage in multiplayer experience and this is when the things got really wrong.
The PSP version of the Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 ~ Winning Eleven: Ubiquitous Evolution 2008 has no Infrastructure mode. Zero, none, nada. A disappointment, but OK, PS3/XBOX versions of the game has terrible problems with online play we couldn’t seriously expect to see it in PSP version, and there’s always Ad-Hoc mode. Wrong. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 ~ Winning Eleven: Ubiquitous Evolution 2008 has Ad-Hoc mode just like previous installment in the series, but it would be better off without it. Zero, none, nada.

We were stunned. Couldn’t believe our eyes. Ad-Hoc mode in Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 ~ Winning Eleven: Ubiquitous Evolution 2008 is simply unplayable. Lagging is so terrible that you reach a point where you don’t know where the ball is or where the players are. One moment you have the ball and in the other it’s in your goal. Unacceptable. Previous installment of Pro Evolution Soccer ~ Winning Eleven: Ubiquitous Evolution had small lag when large number of players got on the screen, but in 2008 version … it lags with 4-5 or even less players on the screen. Unbearable. After hours of trying to adjust our viewing angles, camera zoom levels, game options, clean MemorySticks and everything else we decided to try the game on two PSP Slims in hope that PSP Slim would handle the game better because of increased amount of internal memory. We struck no luck. Game preformed better, but the lag was still noticeable. We are still stunned. Our most expected game gone wrong. Ripped from our multiplayer competitions. Taken away from us by it’s creators.

Our only hope is that Konami will try to address these problems just like it’s trying with console versions of the game, or that US or European releases will include necessary corrections. Until then, we’re sticking with Pro Evo 6.