FIFA 08 review

There are two key components to any great portable title: firstly designing the title around the stop-start nature of playing on the move, and secondly covering up the fact that you're doing the first thing at all. To an extent, EA succeed here with the latest portable FIFA, bending and shaping certain elements of this FIFA outing to fit them on Sony's chunky powerhouse. Ultimately its failings lie at the most basic levels- mostly how it just doesn't play as great as it should on the pitch.That's not to place the problems with the title on EA's doorstep- with player control assigned the PSP's analogue nub, extended matches prove simply too thumb-intensive. It's a common complaint levelled at many a PSP title- and admittedly avoidable if match times are kept to a minimum- but it noticeably reduces the urge to go for a second match. The option to switch over to the D-pad would at least alleviate the issue, but without a major redesign to the PSP, it would only be a minor improvement.That the game plays more ponderously than the home versions doesn't help. Though hardly clunky, between the vagueness in shot direction that the tiny PSP nub incurs and the appreciable sluggishness in player response conspire to make the controls rather woolly. With opposition AI essentially as aggressive as on other versions, it adds up to a more difficult FIFA than you would find elsewhere, and more frustrating for it. Conceding a goal because your halfwit thumb has issues directing a shot up the pitch tends to leave you giving away more goal kicks than Raith Rovers on an off day.In the main, though, this is essentially a somewhat stripped-down variation of the PS2 version, with some substantially poorer graphics to boot. Surprisingly, the quality of the sound is at least as good as could be expected from the home editions, though commentary is an obvious if tolerable absence. Of note is the capacity for the game to play back MP3s from Memory Stick, which certainly makes wandering the menus of Manager Mode more tolerable, but with the game's propensity to skip between tracks during menu switches, the absence of it during matches, and the option of only playing back the first 30 tracks on the Stick make it a token addition.Speaking of which, what little has been done to customise the title towards portable play barely impresses. A keepie-uppie button-matching game, football quiz, and Smash Court Tennis-inspired blockbusting game do not a portable redesign make, though the aforementioned Manager Mode is more sensible and appealing when doing transfers and plotting team strategies on the bus than at home. For completeness' sake, the much-publicised Interactive Leagues return, allowing players to log matches online for their favourite team in an attempt to compete against the world. It pads out the main tournament mode to a degree, though it's down to the special "challenge" tournaments, wherein short, pre-set matches force certain ways of playing, to genuinely redefine the play for a hand-held.When the most hand-held-friendly sections of a portable title are the ones shoehorned over from the home versions, you know there are definite issues, but all told there is a lot to like in FIFA 08. As a time-passing, feature-filled release it offers value for money at least, but given the degree to which the title is limited by, rather than enhanced by, the console's capabilities, this is decidedly in the "risky purchase" region. While one of the the biggest issue with the series lies decidedly with the console's controls itself, it's hard to lay all the blame on the game itself completely; but it remains difficult to recommend this over its home console versions, as ubiquitous as they are.