FIFA Soccer 08

"Sadly...Another disappointment from the EA staff."

I already owned PES 2008 for my PS2 so when I finally got my hands on the PS3 I thought it would be a waste of money to buy the title once more, I decided then to give the FIFA title another go, after all I enjoyed the FIFA games up until FIFA 2004 game. That's when I switched to PES/WE titles. Either way, I was quickly disappointed by EA sports, they seemed to focus on thing only, making the game look good and everything else can go to hell.

Graphics and Sounds 8/10

As usual, FIFA is by far superior in this department; the licensed team shirts looked perfect, the stadiums were remarkably life like. Not one little detail went unnoticed. Although FIFA screwed up some of the player hair styles but that is expected in any football game. Something that lacked though was the advertisement boards on the side of the stadium. It annoyed me to see the ads reading "Need for Speed", instead it would have been a quite lovely addition if instead it would read "Carlsberg" in Anfield, "Heineken" in a Champions League game or 'Fly Emirates' in Emirates Stadium. But instead EA decided to go ahead and advertise for other games they put out there in the market.

A nice addition was the stories the commentators would spark up in the middle of the game. Something I also loved was the fact that in any game Liverpool was playing in you could hear the fans singing "You'll Never Walk Alone". Now being a Liverpool fan, noticing this addition made me love this game ever so more. All these minor details made the game feel life like, which is of course a good point. Although the only disappointment for the sound department would be the soundtrack…It just wasn't to my liking, but I bet others would bet to differ.

Gameplay 3/10

The game play, as with past FIFA titles, is disappointing. It did not grasp my attention enough to make me willing to go through 12 minutes of torture against the AI. On Amateur mode, once you get used to the game it self, you can easily slot 5+ goals in one game. And the opponent doesn't even pose a threat, unless you count the annoying dribbles that never end, but then again that's why there's harder setting, right? Wrong… Playing on harder settings means the AI can somehow steal the ball from your feet, use a defender to round up all your players and somehow while your still wondering what the hell is going on you find the ball in the back of your net.

That's not all, rounding up a defender and getting passed them is hard enough without the goalkeeper giving you hell. 1 on 1 with a goalkeeper in a real football match should mean a guaranteed goal. Well, not in FIFA. Somehow the keeper ends up pulling superb saves, in fact the easiest way to score in this game is to pass the ball to a striker inside the penalty box then slam the ball into the net. Something I found quite annoying was the fact that it seemed extremely hard to get a goal from outside the penalty box. Something that I think needs to be changed, after all each week we see a ton of these stunner goals from outside the box that they are hardly…stunners anymore. Any football fan is accustomed to seeing such a goal quite a lot these days.

On another side, the defensive aspect of this game for players is either incredibly easy or incredibly hellish. If you love to dive tackle into any challenge then you're screwed. Do that and expect a yellow card, it will take time until you are capable of pulling off a sliding tackle perfectly. It is quite safer to perform a standing tackle on the opponent, but with the players capable of passing by the defenders effortlessly it becomes quite the daunting task.

Online and Multiplayer 8/10

To be quite honest, this is the only reason why I still play FIFA at all. Once you get passed the rigidness of the game play you can start having fun online, but of course it never lasts that long. Online players seem to have the habit of quitting the game once they realize they got no way in hell they could produce a come back. This caused me to suddenly turn from an extremely happy mood to a mood of complete annoyance. But that was pretty much the only thing that I could point out disappointing in this area. Other than that it was perfect.

To sum it all, EA have went ahead and upped everything; except of course the one thing that truly mattered, the game play. This is the one thing that remains superior in WE/PES and that is why I feel compelled to boot up my PS2 and play PES 2008 for more endless hours over FIFA on the PS3.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 03/05/08

Game Release: FIFA 08 (EU, 09/28/07)