FIFA Soccer 08

The Good
The only really new feature in this version of FIFA soccer is the "be a pro"-feature, and that's an exciting and good new addition.

In "be a pro" you play only one player on the field, trying to keep your positions and do your job. However, this is a quite useless feature unless you play with one, or preferably more, friends. You can play up to four players in one team, working together on different positions. It's actually quite fun to play through a season like this, although the feature is far from perfect. More on that later.

The soundtrack is extensive and at times pretty good, and the number of teams and players is huge. There is a good career-mode where you try your luck as a manager for a team, buying and selling players and developing new ones. That's the best feature of the game.

The Bad
The problem with FIFA 08 is that it is more or less exactly the same as FIFA 07. The only new feature is "be a pro", which is good, but not good enough.

The problem with "be a pro" is that the computer-controlled players are worthless. They just stand around, they never take any initiative, never make any runs and they don't even try to make decent passes most of the time. This makes "be a pro" useless if you are playing alone, and just about bearable if you are two. You need at least one human player in each line (defence, midfield, attack) or else you will only get frustrated by your incompetent team mates.

Another big problem is the bugs. Too often the game crashes. The worst thing is that your saved careers can get corrupted so you will have to start all over again. Not too much fun if you have played about ten seasons or so. It also tends to lock up when you make substitutions. Annoying? You bet.

I'm also extremely disappointed in the graphics. FIFA 08 actually looks even worse than FIFA 07, which also had dated graphics. But FIFA 07 had a nice "blur" effect in replay sequences and more that made the graphics look nicer than it really was. FIFA 08 is more "clean" and therefore looks much worse. The worst part is the players' hair, which looks more like helmets than hair. Terrible.

The absolute worst part is that FIFA 08 is so good on PS3 and Xbox 360, while the PC-version is so dated and utterly disappointing in every way. It's not even good enough for an expansion, let alone a full price game.

FIFA 08 could have been great, just look at the Xbox 360-version. Sadly it wasn't.

The Bottom Line
More of the same, only worse. The only new feature is so flawed it far from makes up for all that is bad about this game. I expected much more, and got nothing.