FIFA 08 review

Playing against rearguards so stout they make George Graham’s Arsenal outfit look lax means matches are wars of attrition that frequently rumble on to unsatisfactory stalemates. Our opinion: to create a great soccer game, you need to operate on the proviso that an attacker potentially has the beating of a defender more often than not. After all, no goals equals no fun, and FIFA 08 is crucially lacking Pro Evo’s sense of adventure in the final third. We’re not so sure we didn’t prefer the FIFA of old’s insane 5-4 goalfests, actually.

With even the supposedly crappiest defenders pulling off man-marking jobs that Paolo Maldini would be proud of, losing your man is a near impossibility. This means that instead of working the ball around the pitch probing for openings or using the flanks and pinging crosses in you’re best off lumping it straight down the middle and attempting to dribble your way through the centre-back pairing - breaking the game rather than playing it. Boooring.