PES 2018 REVIEW scores revealed, as fans count down to the PS4, Xbox One release date

Football fans are counting down to the PES 2018 release date, which is only hours away.

The FIFA 18 rival has a September 12 release date on PS4, Xbox One, PS3, Xbox 360 and PC.

This means that with just a few short hours to go, PES 2018 review scores have started to trickle in.

Is PES 2018 a match for FIFA 18? Check out the review round-up below.

IGN – 9/10 (Not final): “True, it’s a game that benefits from serious time being dedicated to it, in order to learn all of its possibilities. As such, it’s not easy to recommend PES 2018 to the casual football game fan. But for those serious about diving in and soaking up all there is to know about Konami’s beautiful game, you will not find yourself disappointed.”

GamesRadar+ 4/5: “No matter the grumbles, those issues can’t take away from PES 2018’s overall recreation of the beautiful game. The same questions are asked every year of annual football/soccer simulations, is this better than last year? (Undoubtedly) Is it better than FIFA (We’ll have to wait and see, but probably) and, maybe, just maybe, is it the best football game ever? The answer is… nearly. As a wise commentator once said, nearly is nothing, but this is as close as we’ve gotten to Pro Evo perfection in a long, long time.”

FourFourTwo – 4.5/5: “Man Red vs Man Blue still won’t appeal to those seeking all the authentic bells and whistles, but if you can look past that, and merely want a game that pits 11 men against 11 men while accurately mimicking real football, PES 2018 does an incredible job.

“It’s time to drop the misty-eyed callbacks to PES 3 and PES 6. This is a series that, where it really matters, is at its absolute peak.”

Stuff – 4/5: “That makes its offline options more appealing than they might otherwise be but unless its multiplayer mode has been fixed you might find yourself craving new challenges before next season starts.

“Anyone unconvinced by PES before won’t find anything new here to tempt them now but those who had submitted to its charms won’t be disappointed.”

GamesReactor – 9/10: “All in all, we came away from PES 2018 with many more positives than negatives. It’s a true polishing of the winning formula that has been established over the past few years, and the added features like improved goalkeepers, advanced dribbling, and Random Selection mode should all go down well with fans of the series and football games in general.”