11 out of 12 people found this review helpful.
Fifa 08: Verging on perfection
Date of Review: Nov 20, 2007
The Bottom Line: Please get yourself down to your local video game shop and buy it, or at least try it out at your friends house because it will blow you away.
To give you some idea of how long I have been playing the games in the Fifa series the first time I played it was way back on the original Playstation for Fifa 1996. To say that this game has come over in leaps and bounds is an understatement.
The main problem with Fifa 2007 was that the game play didn't seem smooth enough. I am glad to say that EA Sports have seen to this problem and brought the game play above that normally reserved for the Pro Evolution circuit.
A newcomer to this game might want to start out with the settings at a novice level, but for those who are adapt or 'Fifa'Pro's' you can wander straight in at Semi Pro or even Pro level. The skills that you play with are entirely up to you. As a novice you could quite easily get a decent amount of game play out of Fifa 2008, and maybe even score a couple of goals in the process but step it up a gear and this game really comes into its own. By learning the special moves, passes tactics and a whole lot more, you open up the field and take the gameplay to a whole new level.
I personally switched into Pro mode and got on with it. Learning the additional buttons/combinations takes time, but after a while (not in the first game you play) it should become second nature. Although, gone are the good old days of holding two buttons together to get a desired move. Now you have to hold one button, press another whilst pushing one joystick in the direction of play, whilst wiggling the other to create some sort of fancy move. If you do manage to pull this off correctly then congratulations you have just managed to get round the opposition. However, I would assume that whilst your brain is still thinking about how you managed to perform this skill, the next opposition player will tackle you and taken your glory away at the same time, as in my experience.
Now we get on to what the game is really about.....scoring. This time it is not as simple as the older versions of get within a certain range with full power and a spectacular goal will be forthcoming. This time it is harder. In the manual there is a fancy chart to explain how to power up a shot. If you don't read this part, your favourite striker will no doubt hit the ball so hard he will make Jonny Wilkinson look like a Sunday league rugby player, and take out the spectator on row Z in the stadium. So with practice you will get the power right, and that's just the start . To say that EA have got this spot on would almost be disrespectful. They have created this part of the programming in a world of its own. Take a shot whilst under pressure from another player and you will find it harder to keep the shot on target, like wise, hit the ball with the players left foot, and if he is right footed and the power will be reduced along with the accuracy. One final I would like to make is that it is nearly impossible to score if you're sprinting at the same time. A tip of mine would be to try and time the sprint to end whilst powering up your shot for maximum effect.
So you have learned some skills and even scored a few goals. You might have even got through a league using a low league level team (Mansfield Town anyone). But connect your Xbox to Xbox Live and you will find out just how good you are. There are thousands of online players and teams all wanting to have a piece of you. Don't get me wrong you may be good but until you play someone else that you don't know at all, you won't know if you are as good as you think you are.
Another way to try and beat the opposition is to get the tactics right in order to play your game. Full attack or full defence. Change the formations of your key players or put 3 strikers on at the same time. It is all there to take advantage of. Be careful as you can put players on that cause your team to work inefficiently.
In a way I think EA are going to struggle to better what they have now, but with HDTV finding its way in to more and more homes, I am sure that there is another surprise just around the corner, ready to give us all a more realistic experience.
I would advise you to buy this game as you will not be disappointed.
