FIFA 08 review (PS2)

The void between PES and FIFA was drastically reduced last year with the promising yet flawed FIFA surprising many, and PES 6 feeling somewhat of a letdown in terms of evolution. PES still came out tops for many, but for the first time arguably since World Cup 98, FIFA was once again enjoyable to play.

So great things were expected of FIFA 08. FIFA 07 was only a slightly more fluid engine and refined AI away from at least being on a par with its closest competitor and 08 was expected to address those issues. Well FIFA 08 has made great leaps to address these issues and introduces an excellent new mode to keep people entertained. It’s not quite ‘there’ yet, but it’s getting Close!

Accrington Stanley, who are they?

FIFA’s Manager mode is without a doubt much more immersive and rewarding than PES’s Master League equivalent. For a start it has licensed teams and players from many of the World’s top nations, including Italy, Holland, Spain, France, Germany and of course England. Being able to start off as lowly Accrington Stanley and attempt to take them to the Champions League by wheeling and dealing in the transfer market and increasing their players stats through playing well is much more rewarding than taking Trad Bricks from League 2 to League 1 in the Master League. The manager mode certainly won’t give Football Manager a run for its money, but then it’s not trying to; it purely exists to add some meat on to the main games bones and as such does an extremely good job of it.

The AI has been improved immensely over FIFA 07, with the opposition putting up a very good challenge on even the Semi-Pro difficulty level. To compare I played a game of FIFA 07 on Semi-Pro as Arsenal vs Spurs and won the match 8-0 at a stroll. I then played it again on FIFA 08 using the same teams and difficulty level and sneaked a very tight 2-0 victory. Pro is arguably more difficult than the hardest difficulty setting in 07 and as such presents a very tough and realistic challenge. Keepers no longer run about in the penalty area like they are part of some elaborate Benny Hill sketch and defenders and midfielders intelligently track players, which makes creating an opening a tough yet rewarding experience. You really have to fight for every goal and finding space is a rarity. One-on-one’s have also been cut down to the bare minimum, with no more than one or two happening in each game, which makes it much more realistic.

Crosses are no longer a guaranteed route to goal as you have to control exactly where the cross goes by the positioning of the analogue stick. While this offers greater control over the placement of the cross it is very hard to get the hang of and get out of old habits. The through-balls work in a similar manner and are even harder to get the hang of, but once you’ve mastered them they become a deadly weapon in your attacking arsenal.

This year also sees the addition of ‘Be A Pro’ mode, which enables you to take control of one player on the pitch (or two if you play Co-op). While this doesn’t feature the fancy over the shoulder cam of its next-gen brother, this mode is still highly entertaining and offers a completely different way to play the game. Obviously most people will opt to play as a striker, but it’s fun no matter where you play on the pitch. Thankfully the AI does a good job of controlling the other players and you can call for the ball whenever you want, even choosing the type of pass they make to you.

Rooney or Ronaldinho? Shrek or Mr Ed?

he ‘Be A Pro’ mode is also more fleshed out on the PS2 than the same offering on the PS3 or 360 version. Whereas the ‘next-gen’ FIFA only gave you the option to participate in one match as one player, FIFA 08 on the PS2 enables you to create your own player and take them through an entire season. If you so wish you can even have up to three other players playing the same mode with you. This again opens up a whole new way of playing the game and is excellent fun, although obviously you’ll spend your first few games shouting at each other as you wander offside or leave your position wide open.

The right analogue stick can now also be used to switch players. While this may sound unnecessary and even awkward to use, once you get used to it you wonder how you’ve managed to play football games without it! How many times have you pressed L1 in the past to change player, only for the AI to choose the man closest to the halfway line, rather than the defender tracking the man on the edge of the box? With a flick of the right analogue stick in the direction of the player you want to control, you can swap straight to them and take control, whether they’re closest to the ball or not. It’s a great way of covering runs or even positioning your defenders better.

There are other minor additions, such as the ability to create custom formations (complete with player attacking and defensive runs) and the ability to arrange pre-season friendly matches within the managerial mode, which helps you to build your teams chemistry before the season starts (which is very important if you don’t want to get off to a lacklustre start to your campaign).

The Challenge mode also makes a welcome return. Essentially a collection of matches with specific conditions, such as win by a certain margin or come back from 2-0 down with 25 minutes to go, it’s very rewarding and offers something different to a long drawn-out season. With the plethora of challenges available across a multitude of countries, there’s enough in here alone to keep you going for hours. There are also a number of licensed tournaments to complete should you wish. Basically no matter what mood you’re in or what spare time you have, there’s always something to do in FIFA 08!

Taxi for EA!

But just like the best sides, there’s always a dip in form and with FIFA 08 it’s with the actual on pitch action. Now don’t fret! It’s certainly playable and as good if not slightly better than last years iteration, but it hasn’t made the necessary improvements to make it an essential purchase or to convert fans in love with it’s rival.

Players aren’t as responsive as they should be for a start and not even as responsive as they were in FIFA 07. Whereas arguably the players in PES are a little too responsive and even players like Sol Campbell can make sharp turns, the players in FIFA take longer to respond than Phillipe Senderos after a particularly heavy night out! They still have to finish their animation before they’ll follow your instructions and you often spend a lot of time pressing a direction before you want to go that way, otherwise if you leave it to the last minute you’ll usually carry on straight into the oncoming defender and lose the chance to score. You do get use to it, but it still ruins the fluidity a little and makes getting past defenders even harder than is necessary.

Goalkeepers are still an issue but this time instead of being a team of Robbo’s they’ve turned into a team of Buffon’s. You can set the AI of the goalkeepers to a different setting to the rest of the team, but even on Semi-Pro the goalkeepers pull off too many unbelievable saves. It helps keep the score down but does so in a very artificial manner.

Shots don’t feel as weighted as they should be and tend to float towards goal. They also seem to suffer from having too much power, which makes the goalkeepers saves even more unrealistic. Free kicks especially suffer from this increase in ball speed and as such feel very unrealistic. Commentary also feels like a step backwards, with very repetitive lines and a bug that means that Martin Tyler will often congratulate the keeper on a fantastic save when the ball went soaring over the crossbar for a goal kick.

Finally making substitutions or tactical changes is much more difficult than it should be as the game refuses to let you make a change when the ball is out of play. Instead it stores your instruction and waits for the ball to go out again before allowing you to make the changes. While that doesn’t necessarily sound like a big issue it does cause problems as in FIFA 08 it’s very rare for the ball to go out of play. Due to most of the action taking place in the midfield area and the AI committing very few fouls, you can often go 25-30 minutes until the ball goes out of play or play is stopped for a foul. Thus if you decide in the 60th minute that your star striker is struggling for fitness and want to take him off, you might be lucky and be able to make the substitution sometime in the 85th minute when the ball finally goes out of play!

All things considered though, the action is still entertaining, multiplayer is a hoot, online play is relatively trouble free and the ‘Be A Pro’ mode is such an excellent and well realised idea that FIFA 08 is well worth recommending, especially if you enjoyed 07. It’s not quite the genre defining game it could have been, but EA is definitely heading in the right direction!