FIFA 08

Review from Samo, Samo, Samo, Samo, Samo, Samo and Samo - Wednesday, 19 December 2007 @ 10:36pm

I’ve always thought cloning myself would be pretty cool. As my life is gradually starting to fill up with stuff, I never seem to have any time to myself. Things are banking up too, I currently have four review titles on the go and I want to try to fit Mass Effect and Guitar Hero 3 around them. Unfortunately Mass Effect is winning the battle for my attention so as a result I’m getting behind. I had to slap myself to stay away from it tonight to make my way out the back to the computer room to write this review; however I know it’s sitting in the tray of my XBOX 360, patiently waiting for me....

...3 hours later....

Right, as I was saying, I need a clone. Then this review would be done by now and the Mass Effect would be still getting played. I would be happy, stress free, smiling and the birds would be singing. I’d be a bit like the EA Sports FIFA series. Every year, a new clone comes out with some little improvements over the last one. A nip and tuck here, some new graphics there, maybe a new feature or two and bingo, instant clone. Just cross out the 7 on the box and replace it with an 8.




To continue, I really need to briefly describe my recent history with the FIFA series. See, I’m a bit of a FIFA fan. FIFA 06 was possibly the absolute duck’s nuts when it comes to Football games (yes that’s right the sport’s official name is Football whether you like it or not) and I played it for hours and hours and hours. Yes, the control scheme was slightly frustrating in that players’ movements were often a little bit slow or delayed but I both accepted it and got used to it as time progressed. Then for FIFA 07, the designers were clever and changed the physics system, giving the ball its own independent behavior. This was a bad move and I found the control clunkiness increased to such a level that it was just unplayable. I thought this was possibly the single most disappointing thing ever, behind of course finding out that Portia DeRossi is gay then finding out that she’s dating Ellen DeGeneres.

So, to FIFA 08 then. Is it just another FIFA clone or brilliant in its own right? Well I’ll cut to the chase. As per usual, the game mechanic remains almost unchanged from FIFA 07. The reason I say almost is because the unbearable control clunkiness has been fixed. While the control still isn’t as velvet smooth as players of the Pro Evo series would be used to, FIFA 08 has made leaps and bounds over its predecessor. So that’s it then, all mathematics and other stuff aside, FIFA 08 is better than FIFA 07. Score 1 for brilliant.

Unfortunately after you get over the playable controls, it all starts to go downhill. FIFA 08 doesn’t look remarkably different from FIFA 07. There’s less of that annoying over-used motion blur and the seemingly unmown grass from FIFA 07 is gone, but other than that there’s really nothing to write home about. Call it a more refined version of FIFA 07. Score 1 for clone.

Martin Tyler and Andy Gray are back as the commentators and while they do an absolutely superb job with more sound bites and more variety than before they unfortunately do nothing to make this feel like a new game. This is a tough one, because while I can’t criticize the commentary, it really is superb, it feels like it’s from all the old games. As for the rest of the sound it’s a simple case of open FIFA 07 sound archive, copy, paste. Score 1 for clone.

So then, a 2-1 victory to the clone corner. And rightly so, because that’s exactly what FIFA 08 is. Another FIFA clone. If you’ve played one of the 3 most recent FIFAs, you already know what FIFA 08 is like. That’s where EA is very good at making money. Look at Need For Speed from Underground through to Carbon. Minimum changes, maximum sales = big profits. I don’t hold it against them, in many ways it’s good for the industry, I just wish at some point they’d put a bit more effort into their updates.

I shouldn’t just leave it there, because there are a couple of other new and interesting additions worth mentioning.




The first and possibly the most notable addition is EA have realised that there is actually a fledgling Football competition down here in Ozzie land and as a result of this realisation the A-League has been added. My first couple of days playing FIFA 08 was in the tournament mode playing as the Melbourne Victory which was something that I could really get into because the Victory is my team and I knew most of the players and it all felt nice and familiar and cosy. Then I played a game as Liverpool who are more talented in every way. Not just more talented, much, much more. This made going back to playing as the Victory feel like watching the other two Matrix movies. They really weren’t anywhere near as good as the first one were they? As a result of this I haven’t played an A-League game since. So this nice and heart-warming addition has become redundant. Oh well, at least the thought was there.

There are a few new game modes too, although a new mode or two is normal it’s starting to seem like EA are just adding random modes now because they can’t really think of much else to add. There are a couple of new and completely unfathomable tournament and online modes. I tried to play them but after about 40 minutes of trying to figure out just what was going on or why they’d bothered to include something as pointless as the new ‘Be a Pro’ mode where you just play as one player on the team in the 3rd person, my head hurt too much so I gave up. Call this objective journalism but if a feature is so pointless that I can’t figure out how it works it’s just annoying surplus that doesn’t really need to be there. Someone needs to tell EA that sometimes less is more. There is one new mode that is slightly useful which is the ability to play a season as a team in a single league. The HUD said it was new, I can’t seem to remember a FIFA game where I couldn’t play a Premier League season as Liverpool. I’ll take EA’s word for it that the Tournaments feature is new, but I’m not so sure. If it really was a tournaments feature, it’d include the World Cup yet the big one remains strangely although unsurprisingly absent. EA needs to save the World Cup for the spin off game next time a World Cup comes around.




In FIFA 08 there really are some silly and annoying things surrounding what is an excellent package to tarnish the overall appeal. It’s like EA made a brilliant game but just didn’t know when to stop making it. As a result FIFA 08 is an over-produced, over-embellished game that is 3 parts clone and 1 part pointlessness. To be fair, I can’t fault FIFA 08 as a game. It is nothing other than a brilliant Football game but when it’s been regurgitated and refined once a year for as long as living memory can possibly remember, it damn well should be. So yes, it lives up to the FIFA series and its amount of time in development but as for justifying a purchase, that all depends how long it is since your last FIFA confession my child. If you’re yet to pick up a Football title for your next gen console, FIFA 08 is definitely worth a look. Just don’t expect any groundbreaking newness. It’s another victim of the big EA cloning lab.

Summary

The reality is that FIFA 08 really is just another FIFA clone. You might want to pick this up if the addition of the A-League is appealing or if FIFA 07 really pissed you off. Oh yes, FIFA 08 is brilliant, there’s no denying that but so was FIFA 06.

Pros

Sensational gameplay that eschews the clunkiness from FIFA 07 and is now playable. Graphics, sound, commentary and presentation are exactly what you’d expect from a FIFA game: brilliant. Plenty of new game modes. Australia gets a nod with the inclusion of the A-League. Manager mode is still brilliant.

Cons

New game modes are pointless and annoying, feels too much like a clone of every other FIFA that has come before. Manager mode was brilliant in FIFA 06 and that game was just as fun.