(This is a bit old article send in by Arun Abraham Philip, a freind of mine. He currently works as an SAP professional for Wipro Technologies. Arun will be writing down something for us once in a while - Niyaz)

Before even FIFA 08 was released I decided to write a review on it because I was pretty confident things won’t improve much. This is not due to any divine intervention but I happened to be an ardent fan of FIFA series and follow it right from FIFA98. FIFA01 was the only edition I missed. And you could imagine how much I was disappointed about FIFA when I recently got a chance to play PES 6 for the first time. Courtesy to their countless no of promises, FIFA franchise has made its dedicated fans less loyal through all these years. They blabber a lot about ball physics, team chemistry and maybe player biology. Most of these remain undelivered. But the past few years have witnessed the resurgence of FIFA series mostly due to the pushing it gets from PES series. What we love about PES is the game play element it provides which seems to be fantastic and so real.

Was I a bit prejudiced about FIFA08? Let us see.

In FIFA when the CPU opposition gets the ball their possession won’t last long or we can easily get the ball off them. This is evident when you play against a mighty opponent with a weak team where then also the possession status at the end of the match will be 60+% favourable to your side (weaker side).I know as Andy Gray say “possession does not win matches for you” so the outcome may be the other way around, but it still makes the game unrealistic. I’ve felt that you could keep the ball at all the time if you are patient enough to pass it among the defenders. Try this in PES you will understand why it is impossible in real football as forwards or even midfielders will press forward as we make an error and eventually loss the ball; the best thing is that they seem to work as a team. In FIFA08 conditions have improved, I should say, you cannot pass the ball endlessly around your half; CPU will get into action and forces us to concede the possession.

Ball sticking to players’ feet is the main reason for the above listed problem. So possession problem is a bit worked out (not completely solved) now suggests that ball no longer seems to be tied to the player feet once he gets it. But still, you could run with the ball and pass it around, listening to your favourite music and thinking about the up coming test which you will fail definitely if things don’t improve.

Midfielders won’t make intelligent forward runs. They seems to be stuck in the ‘mid’field so that you’ll never see a midfielder scoring goals from a position ahead of a striker although they may score from behind the striker, long, out of box shots.

The best aspect of FIFA08 is its defence. At last good news to you, as they promised, this year you have complete control over your defence section, obligation goes to new switching system between players where you gets control over the ‘right’ player i.e. the control not goes to the player closest to the ball but the player who can actually block the ball. Moreover midfielders actively indulge in defending, rather than sitting tightly at the ‘mid’field when nothing happens there, by coming back to the box making precious tackles to save the day.

Easiest way to score goals in FIFA was, Goalie passing the ball to defender in front of him, then defender to mid fielder, then there will be a lone striker struggling at the end of box with a poor lone opp defender, all the other players will be standing their ground and keeping their positions as if this were some military encounter, where failing to stand their ground will cost them the entire war, once the striker receives the pass, defender will get out of his way like he smell something so bad (must be the boots and stockings) and striker could take a turn and score an easy goal against any opposition, any goalie, by a feeble ‘shot’ across the goal. Fortunately this jaded way of scoring inevitable goals comes to an end in FIFA08. FIFA08’s style is reminiscent of FIFA04’s, although scoring goals now are not as strenuous as it was then.

In my opinion short passing needs to be a bit more complicated coz I’m ready to give it a bit more effort and it is too easy this year also. I know some of you discord with my above opinion. Talks are going on right now that this year FIFA is too hard. But at least they could have made it so in the world class mode.

Other improvements are manual crossing and through balls. You definitely need an analogue stick to perform these. Likes of me are at the receiving end since I have always been at ease with my keyboard even though I’ve tried game pads. I know it sounds absurd but it is real. This will also adds tremendously to your multiplayer experience where one with perfect passing skills, i.e. you got to have precise control over the power and direction, gets huge advantage over other. For multiplayer games FIFA is far better than PES. You spend lot of time with FIFA, your skills get improved, and you get your trophies when playing against a human opponent. Above all you could master some skill moves and pull out them and reap your rewards by enjoying your game. In PES many a decisions are taken by the CPU even with your team.

Goalie can be controlled manually now and this is a cool improvement. On those one on one situation one with a steady head scores now. Dead ball situations are improved in which you can deceive your opponent (human) by locking the shot in one direction and pretending to change it by moving the camera. These again add to multiplayer rating.

Tactics modification allows you to create some custom formations and use them for your teams. First time when you get to FIFA08 create some formations and save them. You won’t get access to these customised formations in a manager mode if you created them after you start your manager career. In manager mode you could arrange friendly pre season matches and arrange training schedules. Be a pro mode is nothing but fixing the cursor to only a single player throughout the game. These are undoubtedly improvements inspired by PES.

Bottom line is that this is a multiplayer game which gives you immense control over your team; in fact you have to work a lot by practising the game and then enjoy yourself by challenging your friends. Against CPU it again gets dull and boring after a few games. This edition has made many improvements over the last year and seems to be heading the right direction to be the ultimate football sim, a journey which started with FIFA98 and lost its way somewhere between the lines.