''FIFA 08'' (titled ''FIFA Soccer 08'' in North America ) is a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...

simulation A simulation is the imitation of the operation of a real-world process or system over time. Simulations require the use of Conceptual model, models; the model represents the key characteristics or behaviors of the selected system or proc ...

video game developed by

EA Canada EA Vancouver (formerly known as EA Burnaby, then EA Canada) is a Canadian video game developer located in Burnaby, British Columbia. The development studio opened as Distinctive Software in January 1983, and is also Electronic Arts's largest and ...

and published by

Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the ...

under the

EA Sports EA Sports is a division of Electronic Arts that develops and publishes sports video games. Formerly a marketing gimmick of Electronic Arts, in which they tried to imitate real-life sports networks by calling themselves the "EA Sports Network ...

label. It was released on all popular gaming formats in September 2007 in Europe, Australia and Asia, and in October 2007 in North America. The

PlayStation 3 The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. The successor to the PlayStation 2, it is part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. It was first released on Novemb ...

and

Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generati ...

versions of the game feature an improved

game engine A game engine is a software framework primarily designed for the development of video games and generally includes relevant libraries and support programs. The "engine" terminology is similar to the term "software engine" used in the software ...

with superior graphics and different commentators and are dubbed "next-generation" by EA. On all other platforms—including the PC—the game utilizes an older engine. The

Nintendo DS The is a handheld game console produced by Nintendo, released globally across 2004 and 2005. The DS, an initialism for "Developers' System" or "Dual Screen", introduced distinctive new features to handheld games: two LCD screens working in t ...

version features fewer teams, stadiums, game modes and kits due to the limitations of the machine's storage medium. Commentary comes from

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...

Martin Tyler Martin Tyler (born 14 September 1945) is an English football commentator. He has worked as a commentator for Sky Sports since 1990, covering the Premier League and UEFA Champions League, as well as other domestic and international competition ...

and Andy Gray on next generation consoles. However,

ITV Sport ITV Sport is a sport producer for ITV. It was formed following the merger between Granada Sport and Central Sport.Clive Tyldesley Clive Tyldesley (born 21 August 1954) is an English television sports broadcaster. He was ITV's senior football commentator from 1998 until 2020. In that role, he has led the ITV commentary team at four World Cups and four European Championshi ...

partners Gray on current generation consoles, and the PC version of the game. On the

version of the game, Tyldesley commentates solo. It also marks the first time the

GameCube The is a home video game console developed and released by Nintendo in Japan on September 14, 2001, in North America on November 18, 2001, and in PAL territories in 2002. It is the successor to the Nintendo 64 (1996), and predecessor of the ...

has been excluded from the FIFA lineup since FIFA 2001 and the first the original

Xbox Xbox is a video gaming brand created and owned by Microsoft. The brand consists of five video game consoles, as well as applications (games), streaming services, an online service by the name of Xbox network, and the development arm by the ...

and

Game Boy Advance The (GBA) is a 32-bit handheld game console developed, manufactured and marketed by Nintendo as the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, in North America on June 11, 2001, in the PAL region on June 22, ...

has been excluded from the FIFA lineup since '' FIFA Football 2002''. The tagline for the game is "Can You FIFA 08?". The theme song is "Sketches (20 Something Life)" by La Rocca, from the album ''The Truth''.

New features

New features that were not in '' FIFA (now EA Football )07'' include " Be a Pro Mode", where the player plays as only one player (the player can be changed) throughout the entire match. However, this mode is not available for goalkeepers. New features for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 include cooperative online play and a change of controls, which features the right stick as a way of selecting which player is to be on defense. However, this control setting can be changed back to the ''FIFA 07'' configuration as well as other preset control configurations. In addition, the online mode has a new addition with interactive leagues, where players choose a league, a team, and play against real-life opponents. While not an entirely new feature, ''FIFA 08'' includes new trick moves that can be used by using the right analog stick, which were, for the most part, absent in ''FIFA 07''. In general, the speed of game also has decreased in ''FIFA 08''. In the PS2 version of the game, two new features were added. The first being goalkeeper AI, which meant when in a one-on-one situation with a forward and goalkeeper, one could push the right analog stick and have complete control of the goalkeeper. The second of these was when taking a free kick you were able to push the R3 (right stick) to lock the position of the ball, while you used the stick to determine exactly where you wanted the free kick to go. These were two features that have not been used in any FIFA games since, although many users and fans have expressed their feelings to see both or one make a welcome return.

Manager Mode

The Manager Mode on 08 has few enhancements from its predecessor, however, some of the new features include the chance to schedule training on certain dates, via the manager's

calendar A calendar is a system of organizing days. This is done by giving names to periods of time, typically days, weeks, months and years. A date is the designation of a single and specific day within such a system. A calendar is also a phy ...

, and the option to play up to four pre-season friendlies.

Leagues and teams

''FIFA 08'' includes 621 licensed teams, 43 national teams, with 30 leagues and more than 15,000 licensed players. Several teams from other leagues also appear in a "Rest of World" category. Of the 621 teams that comprise the game, 29 appear unlicensed, 13 of them being national teams.

National teams

''FIFA 08'' has 44 teams in its international division. The most notable exclusion is Japan (who made it into the round of 16 in the 2002 World Cup, but whose licensing rights currently belong to Konami). The following international teams are playable in the current generation consoles. But not all the teams are fully licensed e.g. Netherlands

Soundtrack

EA Sports officially announced ''FIFA 08''s' soundtrack on 11 September 2007. It featured many

Latin music Latin music ( Portuguese and es, música latina) is a term used by the music industry as a catch-all category for various styles of music from Ibero-America (including Spain and Portugal) and the Latino United States inspired by Latin Amer ...

acts including

Ivy Queen Martha Ivelisse Pesante Rodríguez (born March 4, 1972), known professionally as Ivy Queen, is a Puerto Rican singer, rapper, songwriter, and actress. She is considered one of the pioneers of the reggaeton genre, commonly referred to as the Qu ...

and

Pacha Massive Pacha Massive (from ‘Pachamama’ meaning "Mother Earth"), is a Latin alternative band led by Dominican-born multi-instrumentalist, DJ and producer Nova. Formed in the Bronx, New York in 2005, the band was Nacional Records’ first U.S.-based ...

Reception

The PlayStation 2 version of ''FIFA 08'' received a "Double Platinum" sales award from the

Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association The Association for UK Interactive Entertainment (Ukie) is a non-profit trade association for the video game industry in the United Kingdom (UK). Ukie was originally founded as the European Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA), and the ...

(ELSPA), indicating sales of at least 600,000 copies in the United Kingdom. ELSPA gave the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 releases each a "Platinum" certification, for sales of at least 300,000 copies per version in the region.

Awards

In 2008, ''FIFA 08'' was nominated for BAFTA Children's Kids Vote Award.

References

External links

Official website
{{Authority control 2007 video games

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

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