JRI's Profile

Why do we buy video games? Mainly for the entertainment but also because we want to experience the challenge of playing and in the case of sports titles maybe we want to try our skill at the game even if we are just an armchair athlete. So how does FIFA 08 stack up when measured against these ideals?

Well first of all it is damn good entertainment, the game is non-stop action, and you as a player are involved at every step. There are a few small cut scenes such as when a throw in or a corner is required but these are within the context of the game and come at natural stoppages anyway but aside from these I found myself totally engrossed in each match from the start to finish, even when my team was down 4 – 1.

But is the game challenging? Well I have only played about 8 matches so far but each one has proved not only challenging but also rewarding. Let me go through some of the controls first though. As with all the latest versions of the EA Sports games on the Wii there are two modes of play, Family and Advanced. I selected Family mode for the first game that I played and was a little put off by what was happening on the pitch. The manual for the game states that you can control the passing of the ball between players with the A and/or B button and a flick of the Wiimote in the desired direction and yet my team mates were passing the ball without me doing anything, this perplexed me to begin with and I felt disconnected with the game. In fact, in Family mode, if you just put the Wiimote on the floor and do nothing the game will continue without you, almost. Your on-screen team will happily go about their jobs aside from a few key moments, you need to be involved for kick-offs, throw ins, corner and goal kicks and shots at goal but for all else the AI will control all player movement for you including passing between players unless of course you make a direct action with the Wiimote.

As for the Wiimote motions required to play in Family mode they are pretty simple and easy to pick up, press the A button for a short pass and optionally flick the Wiimote in the desired direction (or use the D-Pad for the same effect) otherwise the AI will choose the nearest team mate for you, the B button performs a through pass allowing your team mate to run on to the ball and pressing A + B performs a long pass, which can be ‘charged’ up to decide exactly how long the pass will be. A shot at goal is taken by flicking the Wiimote up or down without pressing any button, the upward motion takes a normal shot while the downward motion takes a finesse shot, with less power but more accuracy. On defence the controls are even simpler, press A to switch between defenders, B to attempt a tackle and flick the Wiimote downward to attempt a slide tackle.

Advanced mode introduces the Nunchuk, now you can control your player movements directly using the control stick with the ability to have your player sprint by holding down the Z button. There are also a whole host of really advanced movements such as a lobbed through pass (hold the C button then press the B button) or a ground cross (press the A button then double tap the B button) as well as skill moves and tricks using the C button and flicking the Wiimote or Nunchuk in various directions. I can’t say that I have performed any of these in a controlled manner yet but give me a few more games and I am sure the controls will be more natural.

So back to the question of ‘challenge’. Aside from the fact that there is another team on the pitch with you, all of whom are trying to get the ball into the back of your net, the control of your players alone gives enough challenge to keep the interest high, Even when the Family mode controls have been mastered the next step up is to use the Advanced controls, and then to start using some of the skill moves. There are also different levels of difficulty and many teams of varying skills to play against, so if you are a fan of the beautiful game there is plenty here to keep you coming back for more. Oh yeah, and you can play online against other human opponents as well.

One of the big things for a Wii game is how responsive are the motion controls? The answer to this is good enough. I can’t imagine even in my wildest fantasy, that I would be good enough to play for even the worst professional team in any league anywhere in the world, so I don’t see why my play on the virtual pitch should be 100% accurate, so long as I feel that I have a good deal of control over my on-screen actions it is okay if I occasionally fluff a shot at goal or accidentally pass to a defender when I was trying to put a player into open space on the left wing. Some of the time when making a pass the game will think I was passing right when I wanted to pass forward, this can happen 3 or 4 times in a match and is something that couldn’t happen using a classic controller stick movement or button push, but I think this just adds the human factor into the game.

EA have done a good job with FIFA 08, I am especially impressed with the commentary of the game, it is possible to go a whole match without registering that the commentators have repeated themselves, their repertoire is so varied, sure you will hear them say ‘There’s a throw in” more than once and this is to be expected though in general the running commentary is varied and situation specific. The animation of the players looks good though the players seem a bit small on screen, I tried adjusting the zoom slider on the game settings menu but it didn’t seem to have much effect. The graphics are good for the Wii, the stadiums look really nice, though I have not come across any varying weather conditions so I do not know if this is a feature that has been included or not. A nice addition to the game is the on-screen indications of what action the game detected, this is shown in the bottom right corner of the screen and displays things like “Sliding Tackle” or “Finesse Shot” with a tick or cross icon to show whether the more was effective or not. If this shows “Finesse Shot” when you thought you were doing a normal shot this means that either you performed the wrong Wiimote action or the game detected a different Wiimote motion, with this visual indicator you might be able to adjust your motion for next time.

Of course, for a Wii title, there has to be some mini games thrown in but I haven’t tried these yet, I will leave these for a future update after I have played a lot more matches and mastered some of the skill moves.

JRI.


Quite a few games later and the Wellington Phoenix are in second place in the Hyundai A League. Yes that is right in FIFA 08 you can play in a large number of local tournaments including the Australian league and, while their real live counterparts are struggling, my particular version of the Phoenix are doing very well thank you. I am slowly getting to grips with the game and the vast array of gesture based controls although I have one or two minor gripes. First of all I think it would have been a good idea to allow the player to map some of the controls as they feel works best for them. For instance to take a shot at goal you give the wiimote an upward flick of the wrist, while a downward flick will perform a finesse shot, one with less power. However, in the heat of the moment when trying to take a powerful shot passed the goalkeeper I often find myself flicking the wiimote downward. Now this is a personal failing, I know what I should be doing but my brain-to-arm action somehow gets confused, but it could have been remedied if the developers had provided the option to remap the controls, oh well I guess I can’t ask for too much.

My second gripe is also a minor one but this one did annoy me, under the options menu there is a slider to set the length of the game, well each half actually. This slider has five settings, 2-4-6-8 and 10 minutes, meaning that the maximum length that you can set the game time to is 20 minutes. Come on, surely this is a gamers personal preference, it should be possible to set the time anywhere from 1-90 minutes, I know this is a minor issue but it should be my choice.

I should also update an earlier comment I made about the game, I have now had one match in the rain. The effect this had on the game was quite minimal, the atmosphere was gloomier, obviously there were raindrops marring the vision of the field (it was pelting down) but it did not really have any effect on the movement of the players or the ball. I was expected lobbed kicks to pitch and stop and while on landing the ball did visibly kick up a splash of water the motion of the ball carried on as if the pitch was dry. Player motion also continued as normal, turning and passing was not hampered by the rain or by the wet ground at all.

So there are a few bad points, but do not get me wrong, I am enjoying playing this game and in the absence of PES 2008 on the Wii (to be released next year) this does provide a very good representation of the sport. Oh yeah and I am still very impressed with the commentary, I cannot fault this part of the game at all, sure when playing as the Phoenix the commentators do not call the names of any of the players as the do in the English leagues but can you really have expected them to record every name of every player in all the leagues provided by this game?

Right, now to get the Phoenix to the top of the table.

JRI.