Gamernode: Reviews - FIFA 08

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• FIFA 08
• PlayStation 3
• Electronic Arts (Toronto)
• Electronic Arts
• October 09th, 2007

The gameplay is good -- you constantly jockey for position and try to break away for a shot at the goal. Passing is imperative and a certain amount of thinking ahead is crucial to outmaneuvering your opponents by constantly being aware of where all your teammates are on the field. My thumbs and fingers had a pretty good workout as I tried to break though the defensive players by doing special moves and sprinting towards the goal. Those of you who like special moves will enjoy the nuances of the various button combos you'll use to give you that extra edge in your matches.

Sometimes, the AI in video games plays and reacts stiffly. In the back of your mind, you know that it's you against the machine. The AI doesn't really react like a real live player would. Given enough time, you can usually pick away at the AI of these games.

Not so with FIFA 08. The AI sports a 35 point decision engine and this gives the AI characters 1,000 potential choices of action per second based upon what you do at any particular moment in the game. For you math wiz kids, that's an astounding 60,000 unique decisions the AI is making per minute. Well heck, no wonder the game plays as if a human was at the other end. There are no easy goals here; you'll have to really play your best to get those precious scores.

All the AI characters, whether they are on the defensive or offensive, react intelligently and really make the game feel like a live online match. Speaking of online, you can choose ranked matches or unranked matches and participate in leagues too to represent your team. Since I was a noob with FIFA 08, I expected to be totally demoralized by the more talented and knowledgeable players. But surprisingly, I held my own quite well...until the second period.

Somehow, I had managed to put on a good defensive showing by hounding my adversary mercilessly, but my online opponent finally figured this out and proceeded to take long passing shots to break my defense and I eventually lost the match. But one thing is for sure: it was really fun and I wanted more. No doubt, if you exhaust all the offline modes in this game, the online matches will keep you entertained for quite a while.

The graphics in this game run at a steady 60fps and they look really nice. The replay feature of the game looks as if it was taken directly from the Madden school of replay and works well. When you are playing in certain modes such as challenge and pro, the camera takes on the perspective of an over-the-shoulder look. The effect is nice and draws you right down on the field where all the action is. The soccer stadiums look nice and the players look realistic and are entertaining to watch when they snarl at getting a yellow or red card. Overall, the game looks good.

The soccer commentators don't barge in too much with their description of the game action and do a nice job. An added unexpected bonus is the music that is in the game. When you're navigating through the menus or doing a lengthy manager session, the tunes going on in the background are quite good and don't sound like the usual (and horrible) canned music that some sports games revert to.

FIFA 08 is a fun title, whether you're a soccer fanatic or the casual bystander that sees an occasional soccer match on television. If you're looking for an entertaining sports game outside of your usual baseball, football and basketball, you might be surprised at how much fun this game can be. If you follow soccer closely and like soccer games, FIFA 08 will be a must buy for you.

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