Fifa 08 (Xbox 360)

I was worried that Fifa had gone too far in the simulation direction to allow me to feel that anymore, ill be honest I was getting frustrated. My biggest criticism of Fifa 07 last year was that it felt like you were playing underwater with the speed of the game, everything just felt slow, at no point during my games against the computer on 07 did I ever feel in control of what I was doing, and that really ruined my enjoyment of it, 08 has improved on this, I still feel that they've maybe made it a bit too slow, the speed at which the game can move does still feel a little stunted. the sprint speed of players feels still a little slow. you just don't get the sense of urgency of being 1-0 down in
the dying seconds of a cup final that players really want to push themselves to commit all or nothing to getting an equaliser.

Having said that my opinion of the game changed when I played against my friends, the game takes on a completely different style when you're playing against real people, they make real mistakes, react at the same speed you do, and generally the game takes on a different feel. This leads me to believe that the AI on Fifa's computer controlled playing is set too high, the easiest setting on the game is probably what I would have considered medium at least.

As well as the standard exhibition matches, the season/management mode where you can play through a year as a team, buying and selling players and generally helping your team of choice through a season as best you can and the cup modes (including the create a cup mode so you can add as many teams and options as you like).

Also there are a few new modes, the most interesting of which is the "Be a pro" mode, where you play a full match controlling one player only, its an interesting gameplay mode, and I feel if the predicted "five a side online" comes out in the new year then this mode will really help set that up.

Basically the be a pro mode gives you a third person shoulder camera control on one player only, for anyone who's played Fifa 07 its the same kind of camera work we got in the lobby last year, during the game you're expected to hold a position on the pitch, and depending on the position either tackle, play ball distributor or give a goalkeeper a run as a centre forward, depending on the position you play and the team you choose, it can be a lonely game of not much possession but in the attempts I tried as Christiano Ronaldo at Man United
it can be quite an involving mode. its definitely something new, its worth a try and EA should be commended for giving it a go, I look forward to the 5aside option online in the future.

Talking of online its a decent time to discuss the Xbox live elements of Fifa, I must admit to struggling more with Fifa than I have for a while in locating a game online, maybe I’ve been spoilt recently in my choice of games I played but it seemed pretty tricky to get into a lobby with someone, I seem to be spending as much time trying to locate a lobby and an opponent as I do actually playing, now granted I accept as its a 1v1 game its going to be tricky to find people but surely it can't be that tricky I found myself questioning just how many people were actually online playing fifa when I was, you can't tell me this isn't a popular game!

Put that aside when I did get online the games I played were pretty universally lag free and ran like my opponent was sitting next to me in the room, I didn’t suffer, the framerate didn’t drop and the graphic quality was 100% true to the local play speed and style, its enjoyable to play online, granted I’d enjoy it more if I wasn't getting beaten 9 times out of 10 but
that’s a failing with me not the game!