FIFA Soccer 08 Xbox 360 review

FIFA Soccer 08 for Xbox 360FIFA Soccer 08 puts you on the pitch to defy the odds, perfect your skills, elevate your game and rise up to win glory for your club.

Featuring the image of two-time FIFA World Player of the Year Ronaldinho on the cover, the 2008 edition of FIFA has already rocked the world for 2.9 million fans of the game within its first month after launch.

System: Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, Wii, PC, PSP, DS
Genre: Sports
Release dates: September 28th 2007 (EURO), October 9th 2007 (USA)
Players: 1-4 (up to 10 online)
Developer: EA Canada
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Origin: Canada

FIFA Soccer 08 screenshot
FIFA Soccer 08’s biggest stars are the body movements, individual moves and playing style of each athlete that have been captured, digitized and become life-like movements of the virtual players.

Outside of detailed players, you’ve got graphics running at 60FPS in the stadiums, and a very polished presentation.

Watch the FIFA Soccer 08 launch trailer.

So what are FIFA Soccer 08’s main features?
* Clinical Finishing — A true next-generation ball-striking engine calculates shot success by combining an almost infinite number of different contexts, including ball spin, pressure from defenders, player attributes, and even air pressure to recreate the drama and unpredictable nature of shooting. Intelligent Soccer — Now featuring AI with a 35-point decision engine which enables players to process 1,000 potential options and reactions every second in real time — more than 60,000 options every minute — via a dynamic ‘Threat Map’ system to capture the excitement and realism of soccer.
* Be a Pro: Offline Training — Think and react like a real professional soccer player. Play the entire game as a fixed player while getting real time feedback and analysis on the fly. A unique camera angle keeps both player and action in focus, zooming in when you’re on attack.
* Pro Skills — A new, organic building-block system enables you to combine tricks and skill moves together to recreate signature moves from the real-world superstars or define your own style of play. Animations can be interrupted at any time to transition into a new move, just like real life.
* Manual Controls — Dictate the play with new manual controls for through-passing and crossing. Now use the right-stick to quickly switch defenders and choose exactly who you want defending, when you want him.
* Online Leagues – Create and organize your own multiplayer Friends Leagues and tournaments (for up to 32 players) with all the tools in-game.
* EA Sports Interactive Leagues: – Represent your club online against your rivals throughout the season in the F.A. Premier League, Bundesliga, French League or Mexican 1st Division. Features weekly in-game pod casts by the development team.
* Video Upload: Capture your best goals and highlights in-game and bring them online for the world to see. Upload your highlights to the FIFA 08 website to create the ultimate highlight reel to prove the stories you are telling your friends are all true. Because without the footage, it’s fiction.
* Real World Soccer News — Receive up-to-the-minute soccer news and podcasts from media outlets.
* Complete Authenticity — Dramatically more authentic and exhilarating with 620 licensed teams, 30 official leagues, and more than 15,000 players!!
* Tournament Mode – Play 60 tournaments, including 35 officially licensed ones, or create one of your own.
* Be A Pro: Online Team Play — This free downloadable feature will enable 10 people anywhere in the world to connect online to play a single 5 vs. 5 online match. Up to five friends on different consoles will be able to select and take control of their own individual players on the same team, supported by AI teammates, to play against up to five rivals of another team. Alternatively, online users can select to play with free roaming players, and teams can have a combination of both.

Watch a FIFA Soccer 08 5 Versus 5 online match.

As a conclusion I’d have to say now that the ball has its own physics and the A.I. reacts real-time, it may have made the learning curve more steep, but it also gives a more realistic (skill based) soccer experience. You can’t just rush to the goal, you need skill to use signature moves to pass opponents with your team and score, all in all making for a much more satisfying goal.

On the other hand casual gamers have to invest the time to get better at playing, because this is a game you have to be a hardcore soccer fan for (steeper learning curve and tough I.A.). Now let’s rate this game on its fun-basis.

FUN FACTOR – 8.0
Loads of game modes to play and adjust. Awesome multiplayer modes! Gameplay is king here, because you have to keep moving, think about your next steps, take ’em and pass to shoot at the goal like the pro soccer players do. There’s a lot of details everywhere you look, in the case of shooting the ball, the new shot engine calculates success by a variety of factors such as ball spin, defender pressure, player attributes, and even air pressure.

Graphics – 8.0
The Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of the game boast superior graphics (and different commentators), and are dubbed “next-gen” by Electronic Arts for a reason, this is the best looking soccer game so far. On all other platforms, including the PC, the game uses an older engine. The next-gen comes from the beautifully detailed in-game look and the motion capture of the players that gives them new transitional animations, very smooth.

Audio – 8.0
Expect some great play-by-play talk from the commentators. Crowds react very well to what’s going on in the field. The immersion is made complete thanks to the wide variety of world music on the soundtrack.

Ingenuity – 8.0
With a heavy focus on realism, EA made themselves a most realistic soccer game that really forces you to think like a real player… or you’ll lose.

Replay Value – 8.0
With over 15,000 different players to choose from it’s an ultimate soccer simulation. The single player tournaments should last you ages. Multiplayer is both online and locally with friends, there’s a lot to come back for, especially with the Online Leagues and the later downloadable Online Team Play mode.