Customer Reviews

FIFA 08

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

It's been a while, several years in fact since EA Fifa has shown anything new, they tweak a little here and there but for all intents and purposes up until now not a lot has changed. In most peoples honest opinion Winning eleven has been the best franchise for this sport since early 2000 and with some great reasons, the feel of the game just wasn't there for EA, they always had the scoop on the graphics and obviously the team names but not much else..until this year.

I must admit when I played the demo I was ehh..but i took a chance cause of the long wait for the installment of winning eleven and went out and got a copy of EA fifa 08...and am I glad I did.

EA has turned the game on it's head this year, firstly the graphics are very good indeed, crisp characters all of which are easy identifiable, they even managed to get some of the bigger stars running patterns stances and so on right...not an easy task...then we come the game itself.

What really does it this year for fifa is a few thigns which i hope will revolutionize the way the game is played, what I'm talking about is the pro camera and the pro player mode...

So your on a field playing soccer you make runs, you get ignored, you call for the ball and make a run and find the ball delivered in your path before your closed down and slip it inside to your teamate who belts it into the net, sound about right in soccer..well Fifa 08 has covered this perfectly, playing Fifa this year is like actually being out on the field. absolutely superb idea, you know can control just one player and make the runs score the goals and make the passes while everything else is going on around you. Your level is counted meaning that if you are out of position lose the ball a lot or get constantly caught offside your rating is gonna drop so for the first time in any soccer game anywhere you play as a team and not a dribbler cause this is real, and in real soccer i rarely see someone gather the ball in their own half dribble the entire team and score..this year Fifa is making it real.

So hats off to that idea, the sound is the usual witty dialogue from Andy Gray and simply adds to the realism, the sound overall is decent if not outstanding, where are the boo's when an opponent touches the ball, where are the screams of the manager on the sideline? these are just things i hope is covered in the next installment...

More teams...yes finally they gave us our teams back, now granted not everyone wants to play as Derry City ( Ireland league ) but this is a world game so all teams should be covered, think of the european championship, not every tie is gonna be aginst Real Madrid, Man Utd, AC Milan, in real llife you'l get drawn against the smaller leagues too and thank gawd this has been brought back from the measily 6 leagues we had last year...so well done EA for that too.

The downside of the game, the referee, it still seems like he has swallowed his whistle, if you try a slide tackle he blow it up 9 time out've 10, so far I've only tried slide tackling 6 time, 5 of which was a foul and 1 the ref played the advantage, they probably need to work in this for the next installment, possibly a good idea is to have instead of a generic ref, to have an assortment of refs and linesmen, some more strict than others, some prone to mistakes etc, it would make the game a little more exciting if you were playing against your arch rival and saw the referee you had for todays game was prone to calling the game wrong every now and then..then after the game you'd be furious ..sound like real life soccer? But maybe this is something EA can work on for next year aswell.


With a whole set of new moves, shimmy's and interesting variation of goals you can score, EA has really raised the bar which is great for gaming now it's upto Winning Eleven to dig deep and try to take back it's crown, but i have a feeling This king won't be de-throned for quite some time.

Well done EA,..Long live the King!

This game is amazing, ill just start there. The graphics are top notch, and the gameplay has become alot better. It is WAY more realistic. This is finally a game where you can take on the defense one on one and get by him alot of the time, especially with this years addition of the left trigger skill moves. Also, the Be-A-Pro mode is without a doubt my most favorite mode of the game. It actually makes you feel like a player and gives you a cool connection that you get with very few games. The teams are plentiful, there are enough players to populate a small town and its all on that cd. All in all, a very good game that ill be playing for a while without ever, if ever, getting tired of it. Now all they need is the San Jose Earthquakes of the MLS =P

I've had this game a couple months now, and overall it's probably the best soccer/football game for XBox360. With that being said, there are some definite things I don't like about it, and things I wish were carried over from previous FIFA games.

The good: An amazing selection of teams and players, great graphics. It's hard to imagine having more choices for teams. Even the Irish league is on here, a first for EA.

The not-so-good: As usual, the AI players (players not controlled by you) act like they've never played the sport before. Try not switching players when the other team has the ball, and watch as your defense sits back and lets them take shots at your goal. Yet when you have the ball anywhere near the box, the computer team swarms you. I'm also trying to figure out the secret to a successful corner (how does Peter Crouch NOT win the ball against much-smaller and inferior defenders? Good question, but it happens routinely on this game).

I've also had some issues with the penalties. The button to clear the ball is the same as the button to slide tackle. On more than one occasion, I've thought I was clearing the ball when instead it had already been miraculously stolen from me and I've ended up tackling a player instead, resulting in a free kick or penalty. I've also had free kicks given - almost always conveniently near the box - just for taking control of a defender and making contact with the other team.

One other thing I miss from previous versions is the custom camera angle. You basically get a few camera angles to choose from, and cannot customize them in any way shape or form. I find that I am either too close to the action (and can't see approaching defenders or players on my team who are open) or too far away (where I can't tell who has the ball).

The stadium set-up is weird, too. I liked it better when teams who didn't have a custom stadium played in a random one with no name. I played a game as Celtic the other day and their home stadium was not Celtic Park, but as if that wasn't enough, it was a stadium with a Spanish-sounding name. If you don't want to create Celtic Park, fine, but don't have them playing in a stadium with a name that clearly is not their home stadium. That just seems stupid to me, and educated football fans know Celtic don't play in El Stadio Olympico or whatever they have them playing in.

When I think back to previous versions of the series, I think the older versions were just a lot more fun. The crowds even seemed smarter and more in tune with things - remember when the Liverpool crowd would sing "Michael Rowed His Boat Ashore" after Michael Owen would score? I guess I just miss some of these things that appear to have been sacrificed for better graphics.

Some years are better than others in this franchise. I've been playing since 1996, and have to say that this version has hooked me the most out of any yearly release. The graphics and gameplay are phenomenal, and are very realistic to RL matches. I played pretty solid over the last few days, with the game having my attention for about 5 hrs a sitting.

Things I like: A nice assortment of new moves, stunning detail, wicked looking lunge tackles and scissor kicks, variations of gameplay, and unlockables. There is a new tournament mode and be a pro mode that are killer. I am tearing it up with Chelsea, and enjoy/appreciate all the intracacies that the game provides.

Things I don't like: Camera has no toggle up/down, far/away like the '07 version. The camera angles are fine as they are, but I am retentive enough to always want to fiddle with them. Also you can't jockey/muscle into position for air balls as well as the '07 version. If your long pass comes up a little short...you lose the battle to the ball and look like a weak sister.

Must buy for any soccer gamer.

The most anticipated soccer game has yet hit the shelves again. And EA did what their predecessors have failed to accomplish over the years. The biggest improvement is the gameplay that most people complain about, not to mention its arch rival PES/Winning eleven is a top notch on this. But EA is no longer behind, the AI adapts to your style of gameplay, and the ball physics is as smooth as possible..Though the referee, more often than not, might have swallowed his whistle and have missed a bunch of obvious calls from CPU's rough tackles. It seems that the CPU gets twice as more calls against you (hopefully a patch can fix this issue). But other than that, it's a bit of a steep learning curve, esp. if you are new to the game, but rewarding in the end. No more scoring 7-0 against the CPU (which I've accomplished many times on WE/PES). Graphics and presentation are also very strong with stunning visuals, though the frame rate suffers on replays on both xbox 360 / ps3 systems. But one thing I've noticed too is that referees are introduced before the game and suddenly disappear in the game. EA should have just not bothered to introduce them if they will be left out during a match... In-game camera is limited, and would be nice if they added a few angles like a dynamic v3 and the ability to zoom in/out on each camera angle will be a great help. Aside from the ghost referees and limited camera mode, there are a bunch of stadiums that are missing unfortunately, like the La liga cup holders, which is my team in the game, Real Madrid's Santiago Bernabeu... and a few other teams' stadiums. Oh well... Sound in the game isn't too bad at all, with soundtracks that are more pleasant to the ears and crowd chants and in-game conversation are more prevalent all throughout. While British duo Martin Tyler and Andy Gray provide adequate, if uninspired commentary. There's a lot more in the game that will keep you busy for quite a time like the `Be A Pro Mode' in which EA kind of experimented that actually works and fun to play. Add that to the many leagues and countless licensed teams and players that will for sure definitely kill some of your time throughout the rest of the season. And yes, I've played PES alongside FIFA... and loved both franchises. Before, I actually liked the more arcade style of play like Winning Eleven which is faster... but after playing a lot hours of this new FIFA franchise, I got the hang of it and I'd say its great. It's slow and that's how you play realistically anyway. Getting patient, passing the ball and finding an open guy... its soccer (or futbol). For someone who loves to watch the game, it's probably WE/PES. But for someone who actually plays the game, then it's FIFA. And with all the high hopes that everyone has been expecting, EA has delivered a punch this year and got their franchise back on track. Despite a few glitches, it's no doubt that FIFA 08 might be, by far the most realistic soccer sim game...ever.

I originally purchased Pro Evolution 2008 (Australian version), however, was a bit dissapointed with the graphics and very dissapointed with the online play. In fact Pro Evo 2008 is so jerky it is almost unplayable online.

So after a few weeks I also purchased FIFA 2008. The best four things about FIFA 2008 when compared with Pro Evo 2008 are:

(1) The graphics and realism is much better. It is almost like watching a football game on TV.
(2) The fully licenced teams & players. Even LA Galaxy with David Beckham and the Australian Hyundai A League.
(3) The on-line play actually works and is very playable. In fact the online features with FIFA 2008 are great.
(4) I find the camera angles to be better in Pro Evo 2008.

However, for the casual player (like myself) FIFA 2008 just doesn't feel as much FUN to play as Pro Evo 2008. By comparison, passes and shooting for goal feels spongy. Even on the easiest difficulty setting FIFA 2008 is much harder than Pro Evo 2008. With Pro Evo 2008 on the easiest setting you end up with some big scoring games. In this respect it probably has a more Arcade feel to it than FIFA 2008. However Pro Evo 2008 is FUN. Even when you play it occasionally (so you have not necessarily mastered all of the moves).

In summary, if you are a die hard football fan looking for total realism then FIFA 2008 is your game.

If you are after a game which will give you much fun with less frustration to master (and you are not concerned about online play) then Pro Evo 2008 is your choice as far as I am concerned.

I find I play Pro Evo 2008 far more than FIFA 2008 for this reason.

Saying this, if FIFA 2008 had Pro Evo 2008 great ball control and Fun Factor for the casual player (at least on the easiest settings) then it would be almost perfect.

Bought this game on 11/1, been playing it as much as possible. Great improvement over FIFA 2007 (XBOX 360) which was very disappointing. The game is very deep, lots of strategy, lots of options, lots of leagues. The game is definitely slowed down, but it's now more realistic. Physics are awesome. The ball acts like a ball & not a brick. I love how players leap over oncoming sliding tackles, when they do that sometimes it's anybody's ball. I started playing on Professional Level MLS Kansas City Wizards Management Mode, but was getting my arse whooped, scaled it down to Semi-Pro & am doing a little better. Not an easy game, & there are 5 difficulty levels. Be A Pro Mode is completely awesome, really makes you feel like your actually playing. I wish they could have combined Pro Mode with a Season Mode. That would have been something. I think EA really did their homework for this game. If your a hard core soccer fan or even just a hobbyist I strongly recommend this game. Ryan

I have been following the fifa series since 2004 (ps2). I own Fifa 04,05,06,07, and 08 in PS2. I have recently made the switch to the Xbox 360 console and so far just own the Fifa 08 game. I have to say that so far this game is truly excellent in gameplay as well as in graphics. I thought the ps2 graphics were realistic.. boy was i wrong. Xbox 360 truly gives meaning to the next gen gaming term. overall i recommend this game for anyone who loves the fifa series and no matter what console you choose, this game will satisfy your thirst for a great soccer gaming experience.

The game is overall what i expected and more, it has many more features then fifa 06 and 07, also the game play is quite different, it is a little more realistic and slower game play as well. HDTV looks great and the colors are excellent. also a big plus is the challenge mode, it willl keep you entertained, same thing with be a pro mode

overall great buy, its worth the money

its a fantastic game the physics are very real and plenty of support of leagues, but they are lacking stadiums and fan interaction would have liked to see more.