I haven't tried the R888R yet, but the older ones were great and these are said to be better.
However, I think I'll be buying a set of Nankang AR1's once mine are burnt out. Reviews so far say they're on par with the 888 but much cheaper!
I'm not sure how they managed to get away with the tread pattern. The whole reason the R88R came about was that they required a continuous tread around the full circumference to be road legal. Yet the AR1 doesn't have this and is still road legal?