Review: FIFA 08

Gameplay: 8
Sound: 8
Graphics: 8
Value 9:
Overall: 8.4

The Good:
.Good replay value
.Large selection of teams and leagues
.New be a Pro mode

The Bad:
.The bad fatigue feature gets annoying
.Poor AI

Since its debut 14 years ago EA have given use FIFA each year. When it originally debuted back in 1993 the football franchise was relatively unchallenged but now it has to set itself apart from the other football simulations. FIFA remains one of the most profitable football franchises to date and with the disappointment of FIFA 07 on the Xbox 360 last year the quality of the older games where thrown out of the window.

FIFA 08 offers a phenomenal 621 fully licensed teams and 30 leagues compared with the 7 leagues of FOFA 07 which in reality was only 6 as Serie B only contained one team: Jueventus. Over recent years many sport franchises have been criticised for the intelligence of the AI. FIFA 08 adds improvements which are further enhanced by excellent animations. FIFA 08 introduces create a character to the next gen consoles which essentially allows you to add yourself to the game. This adds a fun element to the game especially since you can assign yourself to any team on the game. FIFA 08’s highest focus remains on the be a manager mode. The manager mode flows well and the added influx of leagues means there is room for promotion and relegation. The mode forces you into relying upon tactics especially with the fatigue element. This can prove annoying especially when you play as a smaller team that can’t afford the large squad needed to become successful. The game caters for all levels of gamers with difficulties ranging from amateur to legend. Unlike previous FIFA games as your team improves you can acquire better players for example I bought Joe Cole as Leeds united after getting them promoted. This adds to the sense of achievement of guiding your team to the higher leagues. FIFA 08 differs from any previous instalment with the innovative new “Be a Pro” mode. It offers a fresh dimension to FIFA that is both enjoyable and challenging. When I first approached this mode I had to ask myself if FIFA would lose its original aim. I was wrong as well as retaining the manager mode to its full glory having the chance to play as one pro alongside the AI and friends online extended the re-playability. Game settings are relatively in depth ranging from match length which can actually be a standard match length of 90mins to the ball you play with. This adds more depth and realism and to the game.

FIFA 08 is everything fans expect of a sports game. EA have ensured that the realism remains as high as possible with official team kits and real stadiums from the Constant Vanden Stock stadium in Belgium to Manchester’s Old Trafford stadium that even contains the new quadrants. The manager mode offers you the chance to answer the media and the management board of your chosen club as in other recent FIFA games. You can face with problems from the team coach been old and in an need of an update to young fans asking the players for a kick about. You are offered a few different answers and you chose the one that best fits. For example in the case of the young fans wanting a kick about you could let them have a kick about, give away some signed pictures or ignore them. All of which affect your team. If you decided to let them play with the young fans then your players would be faced with increased fatigue for example. However, although the messages appear fresh after a while you may find yourself with messages you’ve had previously and adds a repetitive element to the game but its only a very small part of the game and shouldn’t be something that worries you so much! The classic quick play option allows you to jump into a match straight from the menu in less than a minute. This gives you a chance to play your mates in a local multiplayer or practice against the AI. For the first time ever on next gen consoles you have the chance to create tournaments and play them in such as the World Cup. The create a tournament mode allows you to have a little fun as well as you can add teams like Bradford City from the UK league 2 and pit them against teams like Spanish giants Barcelona in your own league.

Okay so now you’re wondering why buy FIFA and not its highly rated rival Winning Eleven (Pro Evolution Soccer). First and foremost FIFA offers a new mode that Pro Evolution does not. The Be a Pro mode which I have already mentioned. What stands this mode out the most is the option to have a 10 player online match. To do this you have to first download a free update but it is worth it. Playing alongside 10 real people is far better than the AI which does make several inaccurate mistakes; however, the camera can make playing difficult especially when the ball is far away from your player. You often have to rely on the crowd’s reaction to see if the opposition have scored or not if you cannot manage to race your player back to the opposite side of the pitch. Once you’re over the camera you begin to realise that this mode would be difficult to construct a decent camera off. It tries to allow you to see where the ball is and where it is going while you are off the ball but put you in the players shoes by almost placing you in first person. EA attempt to add to the realism further by making full use of the Xbox’s vibration function.

The mode is more than been confined to playing as one player every little thing you do has an effect on your players’ performance which is shown to you at the end of the match. A bad pass will garner a negative mark while positioning yourself correctly when receiving a pass will do the opposite and a positive mark is gained. Another new feature that adds to FIFA 08 is the ability to upload instant replays from the Be a Pro mode to the EA sports website which means you can show off your skills. However, it’s a shame that there is no file sharing option available but Fifa is heading in the right direction. With gaming now geared towards online gaming it only seems right that EA sports add another new online feature: the interactive leagues. The idea been that a player can hop online, choose a league and squad and play through their scheduled games, playing against their real life opponents.

To enhance the experience your results are uploaded to an online leader board in which your squad is ranked on results, performances and how the rest of the world is faring. As always FIFA has the largest amount of licensing to offer of any football sim if you take that stance when purchasing a game. As in last year’s edition of FIFA the loading screen gives you something to do with the ability to play one on one with the keeper using a player of your choice. Ronaldinho the standard player used. It gives you a chance to practice shots and new to this game free kicks and penalties which can be set up by using the d-pad. It can also be used as a place to practice tricks and to put it simply it offers a pretty cool way of loading a game as the loading screen is in a sense hidden.

FIFA’s gameplay heavily relies on the attempt to improve the quality of the AI. In a sense this has been achieved. The difficulty to score goals in Pro difficulty can frustrate the player but also gives satisfaction when goals are scored. Despite EA’s best efforts the AI still make silly mistakes. For example when playing in manager mode when the opposition ran down the wing there were a few occasions when the AI would run straight off the pitch. In addition to this set pieces by the AI are often direct at the keeper or lack anything special. The animations and movements of players have improved with little things like tackles and goal keeper movement appearing more realistic than previous instalments of the franchise. The controls are generic from previous instalments making it easy to adapt for fans of the game. The only fiddly controls come from the ability to do tricks. The control manual gives a set of instructions on how to do the tricks but they are difficult to pull off in a match and even harder to do successfully. The free kick system has improved from last year but curling the ball still remains relatively difficult but once learnt is easy to pull off and there’s nothing like watching the replay of a good free kick. The corner system has changed as well and can take some getting used to but again once learnt the satisfaction of scoring from a corner seeps in. The menus in FIFA 08 are extremely easy to navigate and setting up a manager mode can take a minute or so. A decent sized HD television is recommended for some text in the game can prove difficult to read unless close up otherwise!

The fatigue system remains the same as previous FIFA’s but it means that a large squad is needed to retain a good level of fitness. This can prove annoying especially when a club with little funding as you can’t afford a large squad. The team chemistry system remains and the more times the same players play together the better the team chemistry and therefore the better the performance simple really but it does bring in the management element. Manager mode offers slightly more complex menus than the main menu but it is still easy to navigate and help can be acquired by the touch of a button meaning it’s hard to get lost when creating a game, tournament or season.

I have already touched upon the online multiplayer options. After testing out the online facilities I found the game to only lag a few times and it was generally very good as I expected. This meant online play was very smooth and made the experience even more enjoyable and less frustrating. The local multiplayer allows up to 4 players to compete in the same match, tournament or a season. This is particularly fun when creating a small tournament where each player goes as a separate team. Fifa offers 49 achievements some easier than others. There is a total of a 1000 gamer points on offer enough to challenge even veteran gamers. There are extra free downloads available from the update which allows online play in Be a Pro mode to interviews with the developers of FIFA 08 and team updates. In Be a Pro mode there is the function to upload your instant replays to the EA sports website for when you score that special something. FIFA 08 offers good re-playability as with most sports games. However, after a few seasons as the same team it can get tedious and repetitive but with the large amount of teams on offer it is easy enough to change teams whether this to be for a new challenge or simply more achievements. You can also try different tournaments from International tournaments like the World Cup to Club tournaments like the Champions league or even create your own tournament. The Be a Pro mode offers move play time as it offers something completely different and the 10 player online feature is great fun. As far sports games go FIFA doesn’t fail to offer the amount of re-playability we expect from all good sports franchises.

Graphically I have already discussed the vast improvements this is partly due to the use of a new game engine for the next gen versions. HD technology also adds a boost to the sharpness of the animations. Realistic movement from players enhance the gaming experience and the use of real stadiums keeps hardcore football fans happy. EA have ensured that the stadiums remain faithful to the real thing with even the new instalments to the stadiums like the new quadrants as mention before in Old Trafford shown. As far as FIFA games go FIFA 08 graphically delivers the best graphics from any FIFA but as with any game there is always room for improvement but this instalment has impressed me as it shows the potential future FIFA games can have. In terms of glitches FIFA has done well in the fact that very little glitches have been found or at the very least noticed. The frame rate is smoothed and in solo games and local multiplayer there has been no slowness in frame rates what so ever. The only slow frame rate comes from the occasional lag in online play.

EA have got another fantastic soundtrack with new music from the likes of Peter Bjorn and John to the Hoosiers. The songs are recognisable and fit in with the game and styles of EA sports. One of the major problems that lets Fifa down year after year is the repetitive commentary. After playing a couple of matches you hear commentating you have heard before which can become extremely repetitive. This is a hard problem to fix but at least EA have tried to improve the problem by adding a larger library of speech in the commentary. The sound effects are realistic but are similar to FIFA 07. My personal favourite is when the ball hit’s the bar the sfx is great.

FIFA 08 is by no means prefect but it has done more than enough to prove that it is a decent FIFA game. Compared with FIFA titles of recent years FIFA 08 has bags of potential and appears to show a bright future for forthcoming titles in the franchise.
Football fans won’t be disappointed with this outing but with Pro Evo on its way it may be worth the wait to see how the rival game pans out.

--Sean Linley, 360Stage Editor--