With an interesting European Championship being played out (if you exclude Italy, which Spain just did) soccer-kicking (to the true fan) is still front and centre. So, it's good to hear that Konami is going to pit Pro Evolution Soccer against EA's FIFA franchise once again with PES 2009 in Autumn 2008.

In fact, we hope the PES vs FIFA battle will hot up again with the new release because it's that kind of competition that will - we hope - force quality up and keep prices down.

Apparently, "Konami is already planning a raft of extensive new additions that will further bridge the gap between PES and the real thing," we are entirely unsure how that is going to work unless some form of virtual reality body-kit is packaged.

Jon Murphy, PES Project Leader for Konami Digital Entertainment GmbH says, "We are committed to extending the realism of the new game with a wealth of key gameplay additions, and will produce a football title that truly embodies all the skill and pace that is good about the modern game."

We haven't been told what the additions are as yet - but we're excited by the this virtual reality body suit idea. Bagsy us being Eric Cantona and a certain person from a certain other publication (you know who you are) can be Matthew Simmons.

PES 2009 is due out in the Autumn on PC, PSP, PS3, PS2 and Xbox 360.