FIFA 08

[Boogahz]

Okay, I picked this up last night, and I managed to get a few games in before NCAA football started up this morning...

This game is a definite improvement over the other similar games I have played (mostly other EA games). The graphics look much better and the animations are very smooth. The "real" pictures on the player bios appear to be less "real" than the UEFA game I have been focused on for months now, but this doesn't take anything away from the game as the actual players look more "real." In-game commentary is nice, and the stadium noise seems much more realistic as well. Chants are more like what you would hear in games, and the stadium announcer is speaking in the home team's language as well.

The Be a Pro option makes the game more fun for me personally, and it is integrated well into the Challenges available. You choose which character you will control (except for in some challenges) and that is the only one you will play through the game. The camera setting follows your player, and expands just enough for you to track what is happening on the ball at any time. The controls are fairly simple when in this mode. When your team is on defense, you can jostle with other players to go for tackles, and you can have a team-mate assist on doubling up on the player with the ball if you want them to pressure more. When your team has the ball, you are able to: call for passes to yourself, call for crosses, call for a through ball as you break forward, and tell other players to take a shot on goal. You gain efficiency by doing these things properly, as well as good tackling, jostling other players for control, and dribbles. Goals in this mode felt much more rewarding since I was only able to control my own player's contributions.

Challenge mode gave me two different game-types, and the teams/leagues available to choose from depended on which region you start a challenge in. One game-type was just like the Be a Pro style. The challenge was something like: 1) Score a goal with _________, 2) Win the game in regular time. The player's name was decided by the team I chose, Chelsea. It turned out to be Lampard, so I only had control of him in this game. The other game-type was very similar to the normal game where you will control the entire team. The challenge was: 1) Score in the first 15 minutes with a Forward, 2) Complete 10 short passes with _________ in the second half, 3) Win the game in regular time. I chose Bayern München, and the blank was filled it with Ribéry. Completing the tasks unlock more challenges, and award you with a point value which is based on the challenge difficulty and the game-play difficulty setting.

The teams available amazed me. I admit that I have not played all of the base FIFA games over the years, but I have not seen any of them which include all of the lower-leagues like this one does. There are 23 countries listed. One additional option for International teams, and one more for "rest of the world" teams is available. Some of the countries have at least two leagues available, and England has four. The number of potential matchups you can set up in tourneys seems huge.

Manager mode is back, and from what I saw in FIFA 07, it seems to be fairly similar. You control your team's budget, and the players you use in games earn experience. You can then turn that experience around and apply it to their development. Budget improvements to training facilities can help you gain more experience at a certain position, improve crowd size, get better scouting reports, and attract better/more players. The schedules seem to match up fairly well with what you would see on a team's normal schedule, with league tourneys included. Your choice of sponsor will affect your season goals in order to secure their money and earn bonuses.

The ball really is independent in this game. Prior games have seen them basically be attached to rubber bands on player's feet, but maintaining possession in FIFA 08 takes some work to get used to. Skill play has been added which allows things like stepping over the ball, juggling, heel kicks, 360 spins, etc.. There are several good videos here and the skill video even has Miroslav Klose (my personal favorite striker)! Check out the Be a Pro video while you're there too.

I know that most of you will not have any interest in this game, but I would love to be able to get together with the few who do in order to play online. I have yet to set up an online match as I am getting used to the controls and such, but the interactive leagues look like they could be fun to get set up.

[Truant]

I got to play this game this past weekend. I can confirm that it kicks ass.

I only played in challenge mode, as we were trying to unlock all available points for player creation. So I can elaborate on other areas later.

[Boogahz]

I've been concentrating on a tourney I set up, but I really want to go do more challenges. I might concentrate on those over the weekend. Can you get points for doing challenges more than once, or do you only get them the first time you attempt them? I have unlocked a couple of the Experience packs, but I wasn't sure if I would end up only able to buy a limited number of items from the store.

[Truant]

You can only do them once, but there's a shitton of them. As you do challenges, you unlock more challenges in that region. And there are many challenges for each region.

It makes things kind of fun by changing your attention of the match. I did one where you had to complete 15 tackles, and not concede a corner kick! You have to give the other team the ball at midfield, and take it back before they make a shot, or risk a corner! But you can't really waste time trying to get a goal or two up, because you have to keep tackling!

The ones where you have to score 1 or 2 goals with a named player (often a midfielder for added difficulty) are much more enjoyable when you play as player instead of play as team. Then you don't have to try and keep up with where that guy is on the field and pass to him. You just get open and call for the ball. Another one that was kind of fun was to score in the first 15 minutes, and then win the match with at least 60% possesion. I got a lot of good practice with ball handling and passing. While that would be cheesy to do in a real match, playing keep away...it was real good practice!

There are 5 xp pack things to unlock iirc. I highly doubt that there wouldn't be enough points in the game to unlock everything. But I would definately go all for the xp packs first so I could create an actual good player. I believe that at default, the best rated player you could create was like 60.

[Boogahz]

Yeah, I think that I got mine to 64 at the start by buying some negative traits (Injury Prone, etc). I have purchased the first exp pack, and plan to get the second. I had hoped that I could play the challenges again on a higher difficulty to get more points. I would think that it would just award me the difference. I think I played the first one on Amateur since it was my first time to play the game, heh.

Those possession % and passing % looked like fun. I think I remember reading where some don't actually require that you win the game, but that you complete other tasks.

[Tyek]

I have not picked it up yet, I still enjoy Pro Evo. I thought about the league thing too. Thought it might be fun to start forming VV leagues on some of the sports games since that feature is becoming more prevalent. How would you rate it against Pro Evo?

[Boogahz]

I never could get into ProEvo. I don't know what it is, and I have read other people's reviews to see what they find good and bad about it. The controls always just felt "off" to me, and I do like the "extras" that EA has as well. Maybe someone else has played ProEvo more and can offer better info on what those differences are. It was similar to my feelings on almost all 2k sports. I can barely make myself play through one full game on any that I have tried so far.

[Tyek]

How long are the games. I want a game I can pick up and play for 30 minutes or so sometimes. NCAA08 is great, but by the time you have recruited and played a game, you have commited at least 1.5 hours. I want the occassional quick game, one reason I like ProEvo.

[Boogahz]

The tourney I have been playing has the game set for 5 minute halves. I think they normally take a total of 10-15 minutes per game if I don't take the time to tweak formations or check over stats. I can get a couple games in over my lunch break. You can change the time per half and difficulty for each game before you start. They are not set in stone when you start the tourney, so I can play longer halves when I have more time.

[Boogahz]

I finally jumped online to play a few matches last night, and I had a blast. I played one normal game, and several "Be a Pro" style games.

I believe the most people I had in one game was 10 (5 per team). The first person on a team gets to be the "captain," and I believe they were able to change which team was being used by your side. They also control lineup decisions, subs, formations, etc.. Once the game prepares to launch, each player chooses which position they want to play. There is also an option to be eligible to play "Any" position, which some people tend to prefer.

I had trouble with the "Any" option due to the way that the Pro camera angles worked, and what seemed to be lag in switching players in that game-mode. Also, not knowing who will get control of the Keeper can make for some embarassing goals. One person on "Any" seems to be enough to me. Normally this was the Captain anyhow, since he could also control subs.

I tried playing in the interactive league with FC Bayern, but nobody seemed to want to play VfL Bochum when I was online I would still like to see how this game-mode works though.

[Nick]

I have this game, if you like Football it's probably the best one around. It takes a little while to get into, but the rewards are fantastic, I just won the league with Man Utd, was grand! (Ronaldo got the most goals, he's amazing in this game/rl)

[Boogahz]

Yeah, I have played through a few seasons. I am in my second Manager Mode season as well. Started as 1. FC Köln, and then moved up to FC Bayern München. I haven't done many of the challenges, but I might try a few more soon. Online play has been cool. I made the mistake of going back to UEFA Champion's League 06-07, and started turning the ball over too much in FIFA08. Through-balls are way too easy in the UEFA game since it was before EA made the latest ball changes.

I got a few more games in this afternoon online, and I am still liking it...even though I still can't find anyone to play against Bayern in the interactive league ><

[Boogahz]

Okay, I had the afternoon off yesterday, and I played a bit more online. I won my first ranked online match, and I got through a couple of the Challenges. One question I have about the challenge-mode would be about the time limits. Many of the events that are currently open for me include things like "score two goals within 10 minutes." Now, in real-time, this wouldn't be an issue, but when the half is set to 4-5 minutes, this is a PAIN! I managed to win one Challenge like this (1 goal in 15 minutes, 3 goals with at least 2 players, and win in regular time) after restarting the challenge any time I was approaching 13 minutes without a goal.

Truant mentioned doing challenges. Do you have any tips for these? I could change the time limits, but I have them set short due to playing when I don't have a lot of time to sit down and play one game for an hour

[Truant]

I haven't played in quite a while (I don't own any next gen systems), but from what I remember.

Several of them have "score a goal in the first x minutes." I would try to score immediately after kick off. If I didn't, I'd restart.
On all the ones that have you score as x player. Use the mode where you can't switch players. Star mode, or pro mode or whatever. Just be that player and just call for the ball constantly.
On the ones where they want you to score with a midfielder, or a defender. Check stats before the game and determine which player you're going to have the best chance with. Try to only use that player. You'll either need to use that person and stay way out of position and call for the ball. Or you'll need to pass back to that player and drive all the way upfield with them.
The pass/steal/tackle challenges are a piece of cake, but a matter of patience. I'd try to score on opening kickoff, and then focus on only those things. The steal/tackle can be a little trickier as you need to pay attention to field position. You just give them the ball and take it away.

I would actually not shorten the time limits on any of them, as they'd make pretty much all of the challenges harder. Get your ball handling skills down and practice scoring on the opening kickoff. Just dribble/juke up the middle and shoot. That will make 99% of the challenges easier.

[Boogahz]

I also found that restarting a challenge can result in a different player being designated as the ________ player. I did two attempts of a "score 2 goals" challenge where it listed a defender in that slot. I came close a few times, but his shooting accuracy blew. The third time I did the challenge, it was a striker listed. That helped! Also, I have been choosing the lowest ranking team in each region as an opponent in order to give myself a better chance...will try again tonight!