My FIFA 09 is on its way. I might get it sometime this week. While I’m highly curious how it would play and how I would like it, I also want to look back at the gripes I had with FIFA 08 to see if FIFA 09 addresses these issues. If you don’t understand what I’m talking about, you must be new to football gaming. Bear with me and the rest of the gamers in BlueChampions. We’ll dedicate most of this international break to the new king of football gaming – FIFA 09. By the way, if you’re not a gamer, it’s not too late to start – buy a XBOX 360 and FIFA 09 – your life will be complete.

Remember, I had written a very positive review on FIFA 08 in this very blog. Now, I’ll start finding faults with the game I have enjoyed so much. While I have enjoyed this game so much so far, the only reason why I’m now listing down the gripes is to later on review the FIFA 09 game to see if they have been taken care of. Okay, here we go:

Game speed

Slow gameplay is nice. I hate the arcadish speed. The game must slow enough for you to think and execute tactics and moves. Slow game speed looks rather realistic but actually it is not. FIFA 08 is slower than the pace of the premier league. So how exactly is this slow game play achieved? The players move slowly, turn slowly, react slowly and the ball also moves slowly. This does not help when you want to make a quick counter attack or do a blitzkreig with blistering pace. This works best with slow build up play. Sure that’s one popular way of playing but quick attacks should also be possible.

Many a times, players don’t react quick enough. Their actions are no way near our speed of thought. You see some space somewhere and think of a smart move but by the time our player gets the ball, holds it and turns and then runs, the smart move is no longer smart. Even short passing game is not possible in FIFA 08. For short passing, the passes should be quick and the first touch should be spot on. FIFA 08 will reward you if the opponent does not press you much. If you get someone who closes down you at every opportunity, you’ll find it quite tough in FIFA 08.

Response time

There is a considerable gap between your button press and the action/animation by the player. This actually kills the game. In reality, I’ve got accustomed to this delay and have even adjusted my playing style to accommodate this problem. This delay kills the creativity as you painfully go through the motions. This also results in button bashing which in turn results in more investment in controllers. At times, because of the slow response time, the game feels like you’re playing in the worst pitch muddled with rain. I’ve soon realised that you need to play differently in these circumstances. That’s good thinking but when will I play football the way I like, the way I want to?

Poor AI colleagues

Your opponent AI players are all playing like Brazil while your own AI colleagues play like division 2 players. That’s unfortunate. Many times, you’d have the ball and expect your AI colleague to use the space ahead and run so that you can give him the ball, but you’ll see him standing there watching you. Such things are very common and they were a big issue with the game. When the AI colleague I’m talking about a Drogba or a Joe Cole, how could they just be watching instead of making a run? It does not do justice to the attribute stats that FIFA 08 has assigned to them.

Also, when you play co-op in offline or online, every now and then you might collide with your co-op partner. It sounds so stupid to say that because we are supposed to be controlling the players but the collisions are out of our control. This can be such a downer when it happens in the attack in the final third or in the defending third when the opponent is closing in on goal.

All are equal

FIFA 08 had a socialistic approach to the player attributes. Except the big boys like Drogba, Torres, Ronaldo etc, most of the rest are almost the same. I can pretty well play with any 11 players on the pitch and get the same performance and the result. Only the real star players make a difference. This makes the choice of first eleven quite easy. This is unreal. Pro Evo was class in this aspect. Each and every player had their specialty and you could see that on the pitch. Wish it’s back in FIFA09.

Also there is no fatigue factor in the game. Though the energy bar shows that the energy is reducing, you can play with all players for 90 minutes without making any subs. The fatigue and the reduction in energy levels are not very pronounced. Essien can run around for even 120 minutes but certainly not Anelka?!

Passing game

Passing accuracy was a pain. Even the best of players had problems is making simple passes. In a single player game, it’s quite difficult because the pass receiver would initially be under AI’s control. At least in multiplayer co-op games, you could tell your mate to be alert and receive the pass, when you’re about to pass. In football, the weight of the pass would differ between a 5 yard pass and a 20 yard pass. In FIFA 08, the passes were weighted almost the same irrespective of how long you pass on the ground. This resulted in too many intercepted passes.

Fewer throughballs

Through passes are an important weapon in attacking football. Not always easy to play the perfect through pass but they are quite common in professional football. Again, through balls have to be quick. There is no such thing called a slow throughball. If it’s slow, defenders will catch it. Throughballs don’t work not just because of the speed of the pass, it is because they are not supposed to work.

If the striker S1 is between defenders D1 and D2, and if S1 is closer to D1, when you make through ball in the region of S1 and D2, the ball should go between them. In FIFA 08, it would go straight to D2. That’s because the coding is such. When you release a through ball towards a particular direction, the path of the ball is modified by say 10 degrees. It does not see if the ball would end up at the feet of the defender or not. The code should be like this. When you release a through pass towards S1 and D2, the ball should go in the space between S1 and D2. Of course the player stats would determine how accurate this will be. Also there is thing called defender’s positional play.

Fewer Long Shots

Long shots are dumb. I’ve scored long shots and have seen people score as well in FIFA 08. But the success ratio is very low. When you give space and time to a Lampard or a Ballack at a 25 to 30 yard distance, at least 8 out of 10 times, they would trouble the keeper. You can say that I suck at this game. But I know that I win 4 out of 5 online matches. I can’t be too bad. The long shots don’t go in because of the way the ball physics is made. The ball physics is not really true.

Like in all video games, this game is also scripted to behave in a certain way, but not the accurate way. If everything happened the way it should, most of us would master the game and start winning easily. That would impact the longevity of the game. The game makers will make sure that it is difficult for you to master. Beyond a point, they will also give some unfair advantage to the AI opponent to make things difficult for you so you keep you interest.

The unfair AI advantage

This exists in every single game but the art of game making is in hiding this advantage as much as possible and making the gamer believe that he has to do better. Many times FIFA 08 unashamedly shows the injustice to the human player by boosting the AI to an incredible extent. You think Colchester would ever make a string of 10 passes in the attacking third? I understand that at higher difficulty levels, it should be tougher for the human opponent. But even a mediocre Chelsea would be too strong for a good Colchester. This also means that at high difficulty levels, There is very little difference between the teams. Because when the AI wants a certain result, it would get it. That’s why you mistake Bolton for Barcelona sometimes.

Dark Nights

Night matches are not bright enough. Day matches are fine. Matches at dusk are lovely. The night matches are not just illuminated enough. The bright part of the rectangle pitch is in the shape of a PSP, while all the corners and sidelines are pretty dark. When I play offline, I particularly avoid playing night matches. They even affect the game play to some effect. In reality, night matches excites me much more than day matches. Only in FIFA 08, as much as possible, I completely stay away from them.

Cheap tricks

There were many cheap tricks in this game, the most popular is what you might have encountered in online games, called ‘cut-back kings’. Those are the guys who pick teams like Man Utd and sprint down the wings like crazy and make inch perfect high-speed low cross to the box (aka cut-back) to be easily finished by their waiting striker. This works best with teams that have very fast individual players like Ronaldo.

Cut back is a very common tactic in the online games. It nearly killed the online gaming of FIFA 08. I soon learned how to tackle them and it is no longer a problem for me now. I can restrict them with my tactics. But these guys do only this all the 90 minutes. Every single time they get the possession, they give it to Ronaldo, run down the wing like a train and then cut back. In a way, it was the fault of the game. In real football, it is not this easy to perform a cut back. The fact that cut backs are a very sure shot method to score in online FIFA 08 against most opponents forced the ‘cut back kings’ not to try any other method or simply play football. Cut backs take the fun out of the game, especially for people like me who play the game for fun and not for points or ranks.

Teams on Turbo Boost

Some teams have been rated very very highly that the gap between them and the rest is wider than it is in real football. This is an issue in online gaming. Until Jan 2008 update, it was Barcelona and after that it was Man Utd. They were too good to be stopped. But then again, you learn to play them and then to beat them. Not really an issue for me, but most online gamers they hated to play Man Utd or Barcelona. I don’t have a problem in having some super teams, which are way above the rest. But then when I play as Sevilla and beat Man Utd, I should be getting more points than what the Man Utd would get in beating me as Sevilla.

In other words, if you play with smaller teams, you should get more points when you win and lose less points when you lose the match. That would make things fair. Again, it’s not for me as I don’t care about my points or rank, but it would be fair for the thousands of them who take it seriously. Especially the people who always choose Man Utd, irrespective of who they actually support, choose them only to win games and score points. An point adjustment in line with the team chosen, would at least discourage them from choosing Man Utd all the time. You’ll get an idea when I say 8 out of my 10 opponents would be Man Utd, while I play as Chelsea, Bayern, Sevilla, Valencia, Roma, Rangers etc.

Shortened Be A Pro experience

Be A Pro was a fantastic feature in FIFA 08 but unfortunately you could only play one-off exhibition matches. If you had played ‘captain you country’ in Euro 2008, you’ll know how Be A Pro should have been. I’d love to play Be A Pro just like the ‘captain your country’ mode. You can deny that it was a great appetizer to have just exhibition matches for Be A Pro. I have tried playing as centre back and wing backs and have realised how difficult it is play in defence. Be A Pro is a mode that would enhance your football knowledge and experience immensely in terms of understanding the game, positioning and decision making. Be A Pro should have been a longer feature.

At the time it was released, FIFA 08 was a great game. It was the best of the lot. It was the closest thing to real football. I thoroughly enjoyed my online and offline experiences with FIFA 08. I’ve had some great moments with this game having played countless hours of virtual football. Despite all those things I have mentioned above, I loved and still love FIFA 08 and hope that FIFA 09 is a better game.

I’ve played the demo of FIFA 09 and have read the expert and user reviews. So I can confidently say that FIFA 09 would be the best ever football game. I’ll play FIFA 09 and post the reviews this weekend. See you!

Last week, I was playing FIFA 08 on XBOX 360 with my friends. After a thorough beating in a custom champions league, we thought let’s give PES6 a try. After we bought FIFA 08, we had not played PES6 at all. After we loaded the PES6, within seconds from kick-off, we realised that something was not okay with PES. We simply could not relate to the arcade style of PES anymore. We didn’t even finish the half. We switched back to FIFA 08, back to real football gaming!

I was always a PES fanboy. I absolutely H-A-T-E-D the EA series. I have been playing Konami series only since PES4. I’ve played enough of PES4, PES5, WE8i and finally thousands of hours of WE9. I had never thought that I’d ever choose FIFA over PES. But I have. I never thought FIFA could outperform PES. But they have. I know it could be hard to digest. But guys, FIFA 08 is the hands down winner this season. I haven’t seen PES 2008 yet but reports confirm that Konami has lost this battle.

So how did FIFA 08 dethrone PES, the eternal emperor of football gaming? They’ve got all the licenses of 620 teams in 30 leagues, next gen graphics and most importantly, they’ve got the gameplay right. Yes, they’ve got the gameplay spot on this time. Let me explain in detail.

Goodies

An area where FIFA has always done well. There is certainly some pleasure in playing for Chelsea, who are in fact called Chelsea and wear official Chelsea kits. During the PES days, I’ve always downloaded the patches to make it look as real as possible. With XBOX 360, such mix and matches are much more cumbersome and sometimes impossible. So, too see all the teams that matter to us having the correct team, player names and the most accurate kits, is absolute joy. An interesting point is that whenever the game is loading, you don’t have to look at screen that stares back at you with the words ‘loading . . .’. In such situations, you’ll be put in what’s called an arena where you as the player can do/practice your stuff and beat the goalie. So, you’re always kept busy, which is a nice idea. The commentary is awesome. Andy Gray and Martin Tyler do a fantastic job despite some repetitions. Crowd noise and chants are life like. The stadiums models are so beautiful and the pitch is nice looking too. You know what, you have an option of how you want the pitch to be mowed, squares, circles etc!

Gameplay

The important aspect of the gameplay in a football sim is the ball physics. This has been the problem area for FIFA for many years. There were either inaccurate physics or purely scripted ball movements. This time, it is near perfect. Sometimes, you might feel that the ball is floating in the air for too long a time, but that’s rare. Another important aspect is the speed of the game. The pace of the game in FIFA 08 is perfect. It’s not too fast or not too slow, it’s just perfect. It allows you to pass the ball around or keep the ball until you find an opening. Now you can think which makes the game more creative and interesting. The passing and setup in PES was more intuitive whereas in FIFA 08 it’s based on your planning and creativitiy. One thing that PES players will find difficult in FIFA 08 is the player response. In PES, the moment you hit the ‘pass’ button, your player passes the ball. In FIFA 08, there is a slight delay in player response and this can be quite frustrating initially. After you get used to this lag, it wouldn’t matter much.

You can’t beat a whole team by dribbling with one superstar player. Dribbling is not difficult but since the game is slowed down, it is quite possible for the defender to knock you off and take the ball, if you’re not too far away, unless you can do the step overs, rainbows, rabonas etc. These special tricks incredibly easy to perform but only with special players. Basically, you don’t have to use six fingers on eight buttons to perform a trick move. When I say easy to perform, I’m referring to the training mode. In match situations, either that does not come to my mind or I don’t want to take a risk of losing the possession. There is no referee on the pitch but appears only during cutscenes, mostly with a bad news. I don’t have a problem with referee not being there. Sometimes, similarity of the referee’s jersey and that of my team confuses me, so that’s fine.

Also, I’ve played WE9 for two years with no crowd in the stadium. So, that’s fine. Only this time, I feel that formations matter in a FIFA game. Your choice of formation can really impact the result. Similarly, if you get someone on your sent off, unless you do something preventive, you can get punished. Still, I’ve not found too much value in substituting players. In PES, the fatigued players would run so slowly that you’ll automatically substitute them. Also I always thought the PES method is little faulty. Can’t professional players play 90 minutes? I understand they would get slower but it should not be that they simply walk or jog.

Defending is easy one may say. All that you’ve to do is make some contact with the opponent and you have the ball. When you play skilled players or play in higher difficulties, you can see attackers dancing through your defence and get into a 1-on-1 situation soon. FIFA 08 rewards only enterprising and creative football. In PES, it is quite possible for anyone to build an attack without too much of difficulty. In FIFA 08, you really have to sweat a bit to make a decent end product from an attack. The size of the pitch is really big and game play is slow which mean you’re seeing what you see in real football. It is not an arcade game. It is a simulation, a near-perfect simulation.

You also have a tournament mode, where you can create your own custom tournament in the way you want. It can be a knockout cup, group league cup – with or without two legs with/without away goals rule, or it can just be a league. As you have 620 licensed teams, you can practically re-create the current champions league set up and win the trophy for Chelsea. You should be playing and winning tournaments. For every win and especially tournament wins, you’ll be awarded points. You can use these points to unlock the third kits of the team you want, that is if you have enough points. So, the game keeps you busy, in someway or the other.

Single player games

EA has brought in a massively addictive revolutionary feature in the history of football gaming. That’s called ‘Be a Pro’ mode. In this mode, you play as one fixed player for the whole match. You may say that this is not new, what’s new is the amazing camera angle. The ‘Pro Cam’ is not your regular camera angle that you’ve normally played in a football game. Suppose you play as Malouda as the left winger, throughout the match this cam does the difficult job of showing both Malouda and the where the action is happening. When the opponent is attacking us and the ball is in our penalty area, Malouda may not be doing much. He may be just waiting for his moment in the left midfield. The cam angle shows both the ball and Malouda. This means that the camera will have to move swiftly to capture the action around the ball without losing sight of your player, which it does ever so smoothly. The real fun is when you (Malouda) get the ball and dribble through the left wing and when you get closer and closer to the penalty box, the camera gets closer and closer to you, to such an extent it is almost a first person view, like you’ve seen in some of the action shooter games.

This is a game where you’ve to think like a footballer, you have to use the space, lose your marker, stay in your position etc. In a full match, you’d get the ball, may be 10 times and you should make the best of these chances. You can ask for passes and lobs to which your team mates would respond, if you’re in reasonable positions. At the end of the match, you would be rated bases on successful passes, shots, goals, occasions of out-of-position, wrong calls for passes etc. I tried playing as John Terry and that must have the worst performance by Captain John in whole career. It takes a lot play as a defender in football games. The exhilarating thing is when the camera gets behind you (that’s when you have the ball), the camera height is so low that you could see the crowds in the stands cheering and chanting, which makes you feel that you’re ‘there’.

Overall, Be a Pro is a fanstastic football experience, which has very very long replayability value. The pity is, this fantastic ‘Be a Pro’ mode allows you to play only exhibition matches, you cannot play a competition or leagues. They’d have saved it for FIFA 09, I guess!

The smart thing EA has done is, even when you’re playing a non-’Be a Pro’ match, such as a league or a cup competition, you can still use the ‘pro cam’. The single player game is best payed in this camera mode. If you’ve not played this camera angle, then you’ve not played FIFA 08. The AI thinks better now. They play creatively and punish you if you leave gaps in defence. As always, there are various difficulty levels. If you’re already a football gaming genius, I’d advise you to start with ’semi-pro’ difficulty and slowly move along.

Multiplayer player offline games

PES was pure gold in multiplayer games. While playing multiplayer games, FIFA 08 can be a little frustrating. That’s only until you get used to the speed of the gameplay, weight of the ball and the player capabilities. They’ve made those animations in such a way that it resembles real football. Stuff like making a 180 degree turn as you’re gathering the ball, is not every player can do. When the players fall down, they may not be able to get up on their feet within second (thinking about Drogba here ). These things can be frustrating as a gamer but it is realistic. You should expect such things in FIFA 08 and be disappointed. PES has pampered us quite a bit in someways, but EA have managed to create a real football game.

XBOX Live

Alongwith the ‘Pro Cam’ stuff, FIFA 08 online is the best feature of this game. Many many lounges and leagues and you get matched with your opponent in few seconds. In gameplay, there is no lag at all. It plays as smooth as an offline game. EA have also now introduced 5 vs 5 online ‘Be a Pro’ games. Here 5 players on each side pick the players they want to play as, and compete in a ‘Be a Pro’ game. Yesterday, I played this mode for the first time where I joined a Real Madrid vs Espanyol game, where I played as Robinho in rght midfield. I played crap football in the first half, losing possession, mis-directed passes and all that. In the second half I played better, making an assist and setting up another, before missing an open goal sitter. We won 3-2 after extra time. With FIFA 08 online, you’re promised of thousands of hours of exciting football against random opponents of varied style and strengths.

Gripes

So, is FIFA 08 the absolutely perfect game? Impossible. We’ll always find faults even with the best. The areas where FIFA 08 miss out slightly is in the way it differentiates team strengths and player strengths. In a certain level, if you’re playing Newcastle or Slavia Prague, you won’t find too much of a difference. Similarly in my team selection, there’s not too much to choose between Shevchenko and Kalou. May be I’ve to play more games to realise the difference but atleast in PES such differences are very obvious. Also, the menus are little difficult to view and navigate. And of course the player response time. It’s ok that we’re getting used to it, there should not be too much of a gap in the first place between my button press and the player actions. I play with wireless controllers. That could also be the reason.

Plus points

Pace of the game
Size of the pitch
Player animations
Be a Pro mode
Pro camera angle
Excellent online features

Minus points

Clumsy menus
Not too much of a difference between various team
Player strengths and specialties not very obvious
It can be very hard for some people (that’s why I play on semi-pro difficulty!)

Final Word

I never thought I’d say this – ‘FIFA 08 is the best football game I have ever played’. This EA’s effort makes you feel you’re playing football, makes you think like a footballer or makes you watch a game like a football fan. This is the closest thing to real football. You have to use the space, have sound tactics and make the right decisions to win a match – just like in real football. I always felt that either PES should get the licenses or FIFA should get the right game play. The latter has actually happened. If you have not bought this game, I strongly recommend this game for you. I’ve written this as a very very satisfied customer. Football is simulated, finally!