Re: FIFA 08 (Next Gen Chat)
So I've had some pretty decent hours on 08 since I picked it up (probably 18 - 25 hours or so) almost, entirely offline 1 v 1 matches.
Four words.
Best. Football. Game. Ever.
Is it perfect..? Nope. Not at all - but for every shortcoming, there's three or four things I love.
Now this is coming from a DIE HARD PES WHORE - who, for many years, has mercilessly (and rightfully so I'd claim) heckled any acquaintance who has played FIFA over PES.
The biggest hump to get over is that it's not PES. You can't play it like PES. If you do, you'll be frustrated and pissy. You have to play it like, to me, real football - you have to BUILD. Once you start doing that, it's incredibly rewarding.
My biggest niggles thus far would be the fact that I cannot play a good 1-2 pass (I might just need to work on that), and that the "power meter" continues to build a bit _after_ you release the button.
The gripes about lack of responsiveness, after my first 20 or so hours of gameplay, really do (for me) seem to come down to a quite good implementation of physics in the game.
Players have weight, they don't stop on a dime and change directions because, well, they can't. I've really come to love the extra "weight" players have, and find myself incorporating those dynamics into how I play.
Finally, I only had a chance to play it a bit, but the 5 v 5 online mode is ridiculously fun. What a great implementation!
After playing a few matches, I think 5 v 5 is probably better than 11 v 11, as with 5 v 5, there's enough AI players so that your side holds some semblance of shape at almost all times and in doing so, keeps it as team football - there's always a couple of players where they _should_ be. I think 11 v 11 would, in almost every match, see squads completely lose their shape and degenerate into eleven matches of 1 v 1.
Anyhow, I'm having ridiculous amounts of fun over here in the States, and will be doing my part (I can't believe I'm saying this) to turn other folks onto how damn good FIFA 08 is...
Cheers.