Disappointment++ ? (Gaming)
FIFA 08 is here and are we excited?! Not really; we’re a little disillusioned thanks to the cocktail of the games we’ve been treated to over the past month—The Witcher, Call of Duty 4, Crysis, Unreal Tournament 3, Gears of War, and there are more to come. So FIFA this year needs to be extra special to please us—and other gamers.
Graphics? Well, they’re pretty weird to say the least. The detail isn’t there; most of the players don’t look like the real ones. Instead they’ve tried to stuff in things like depth of field and HDR. The depth of field works horribly and everything, be it in focus or not, is blurred out. So you have giant blurred-out blobs running all over the field. The players end up as pale, washed-out characters against the dark background of the field.
The crowds go wild when you expect them to, but the commentators still blabber the same dialogues over and over again. The FIFA series would have great intro cinematics, and no-one skips them when they first play the game. These videos have been replaced by rendered in-game videos that run at a low resolution and end up being a screen full of pixelated madness. The songs as are still pretty catchy, and there’s a decent variety—a total of 50 tracks. One of FIFA’s strengths is the coverage of the leagues, players, and teams, and that stays.
The gameplay has become a little more difficult than before, which is a good thing. The controls react fast, and the traditional controls remain. There are a few video tutorials—if you need any. Then there are a few interesting gameplay modes—one is “Be a Pro,” which allows you to play a single player on the field. You can play a zone or a line of players. There’s also a manager mode, where you intervene and play the game yourself. There’s online and LAN multiplayer as well.
What do we think of the whole FIFA series now? It seems to be getting worse every time. There’s nothing super-innovative about the new 08 over the previous years. Go to online forums and you’ll find PES and FIFA fanboys arguing about which is better, but you’ll also find the occasional FIFA fanboy saying he’s had enough of the rubbish and that he’s moving to the other side; we’re hoping you’ll see many more. Having played older PES games, it’s obvious it is the more technical series, and probably the preferred choice for anyone looking for a good football game today. For less hardcore players, FIFA will remain a favourite pastime.
Rating : 6.5/10
Developers : EA Canada
Publisher : Electronic Arts
Distributor : Excel Interactive
Contact : customercare@excelinteractive.co.in
Price : Rs 999