FIFA 2008
Reviewed by Rick Tittle
rick@ricktittle.com

Time for yet another installment of the number one franchise in soccer video games.  Yes, FIFA ’08 is now on the shelves of your favorite store and the folks at Electronic Arts have pulled out all the stops to get you to buy one.  For the uninitiated, FIFA stands for the International Football Associations Federation.  Since it’s located in the French-speaking part of Switzerland, it’s FIFA and not IFAF (IFAF sounds dumb, anyway).  These are the people in suits who run the world’s most popular sport.  FIFA has more members than the United Nations, just in case you thought it was a Mom and Pop shop.   The main reason for this is because FIFA recognizes nations that aren’t really nations.  Take for example the UK.  In the Olympics, they compete as Great Britain.  But as far as FIFA is concerned, they are four distinct sovereign states.  Hence we have England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland all participating as separate teams.  And I like it like that!

OK, so with all these leagues and players, each year EA has a tough task on their hands.  The finished product includes 15,000 players from 30 leagues.  Um, that’s a lot.  Nicely done!  How could anything go wrong?  Well, here’s my main complaint about the game.  Not all the stadia are rendered in their real-life regalia.  Sure, there’s the San Siro and Old Trafford, but when I played with my beloved Tottenham Hotspur at home, White Hart Lane was just some generic modern stadium.  It was the same generic modern stadium the USA plays it’s home games in, too!  Awful.  I do realize that getting everyone’s home arena to look like the real McCoy is not easy, but I expect more out of EA.  If they could do it for Madden, then why not at least the 20 teams in the English Premiership?  Weak.

As for game play, we all know that a game is no good unless it’s fun, regardless of the presentation and pretty graphics.  Thankfully the play is super-smooth as you might expect.  The camera angles are few and the players very small, but it looks like a real game.  The match commentary is the strongest point of the action.  The tandem of Martin Tyler and his sidekick Andy Gray (the Scot who played for Aston Villa and Everton) are on board and it’s a real treat to hear them throughout the course of the game.  There is also a managerial mode for those who like to sit back and pull the strings.

All in all, FIFA ’08 is a good game.  Not the best ever, but if you splash down your hard-earned money, you won’t be sorry.  I give it a 7.5 out of 10.

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