FIFA Soccer 08

"FIFA 08 Scores"

EA Sports has consistently improved their soccer title. FIFA 08 improved upon FIFA 07 significantly, with many of the 'bugs' that were seen in the previous title addressed and removed. More teams, more options, and smoother gameplay has created the best soccer title to date, and one of the best sports titles of all time as well.

There are a few areas of concern, however. First, the manager mode is somewhat generic and doesn't pose any real difficulty. Users can take the worst team in the game and literally turn them into champions of the top divisions within just a few seasons. However, if you're more concerned with head to head play as opposed to manager mode, FIFA 08 has made great strides this year.

More user control has helped gamers put together quality play that consists of great passing, both long and short. Knocking the ball around inside and out can really create 'beautiful' gameplay. However, passing does take some time to figure out. Often times when just beginning to play gamers will notice that passes often go to the wrong teammate. This just takes time to learn how to pass, and once you do, it makes the game much more enjoyable.

Online play has been relatively good this year, although improvements could be made with the servers to create faster connection speeds. Often times I can't even connect with other users, which can be frustrating. However, I guess not being able to connect is better than being able to connect and then having major lag.

There are a handful of nuances about this game that many users can get frustrated with. First of all, keepers constantly get beat to the near post. This is very frustrating, but as a FIFA player you have to understand this and force your opponents to shot to the far post. In addition, set pieces can be a bit more difficult to defend, as it seems that often the ball has GPS to the striker's head. This leads to a high level of difficulty when trying to defend against corner kicks in particular. However, although these nuances can be annoying, the key is knowing these 'bugs', and knowing how to defend against them. After learning how to defend against the nuances, the level of enjoyment of this game goes up quite a bit.

Overall, I highly recommend this game. There are flaws, but major improvements have been made, and I look forward to the continued progress of this huge title.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 04/01/08

Game Release: FIFA Soccer 08 (US, 10/09/07)