FIFA 08 (also known as FIFA Football 08 and FIFA Soccer 08) is the forthcoming installment of Electronic Arts' popular series of football video games. Developed by EA Canada, it is to be published by Electronic Arts worldwide. It is expected to be released September 2007 or October 2007, depending on your region. The game will be released on the following platforms: Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PS2, PSP, DS, PC, Mobile, and N-Gage.

Key Features

Manual Controls — Dictate the play with new manual controls for through-passing and crossing. Control the goalkeeper in one-on-one situations to deny the striker yourself. Use the right-stick to quickly switch to the exact player you want to control when defending.

Be A Pro: Co-op Season — Take on the role of a professional footballer, create your own player and test yourself in one position for an entire season. Master positioning, improve your attributes and develop into an elite player. Co-operate with up to three friends fixed to their player on the same team, but compete with those same friends on individual challenges. All performances are tracked through detailed statistics to determine who really is a pro.

Custom Formations — Design your own unique strategy to create the perfect formation and tactics. Set each player’s exact position in the formation, and assign specific attacking and defensive runs to unlock the opposition.

Enhanced AI — New defensive and positioning logic requires greater tactical expertise to break down the opposition New AI ensures players are in the right place at the right time. Player and team traits differentiate the stars.

Manager Mode Improvements – New features include pre-season friendlies to test your team before a campaign, new training options to hone your squad of players and dynamic board expectations that change depending on your successes … or failures.

Online Football Clubs (PlayStation 2) — Form your own group of like-minded soccer fans to take on all challengers online and create a Football Club. Gain status among the online community by helping your Football Club climb the rankings. Win more points based on the importance of the match, like playing Interactive Leagues or challenging other Football Clubs to a grudge-match tournament.

Share Replays (PC) – Now you can save and show-off your best games or just the highlights! It is easy to capture a game or key moments and export as a video file to share with your friends and foes. Brag about match-winning plays and goals or even capture the entire ninety minutes to relive your favorite games.

Complete Authenticity – Featuring 30 leagues, 30 real stadiums and more than 12,500 players all accurately recreated.

Commentators

For current generation consoles, the English language commentators will be Clive Tyldesley and Andy Gray. The next generation versions could possibly feature Martin Tyler and Andy Gray.[5]

Gameplay

Most features return from FIFA 07 such as the Manager Mode and the Interactive Leagues. Gameplay has changed though. FIFA 08 now has a new engine that enables players on the team to react to situations around them and make decisons just like in real life. This is called a 35-point decision engine. Other new gameplay features include much improved shooting. After the ball is hit infinite factors now affect the ball; including ball spin, pressure from defenders, player attributes, and even air resistance and air pressure to truly re-create the unpredictable world of shooting a football.[6] The game will also have a new feature that will allow the player to take control of an individual player for the entire match called "Be-A-Pro" mode.[7][6]

Wii

The Wii version of the game will contain many exclusive features and unique gameplay via the Wii's control system: the Nunchuk is used to control a player's body with the analog stick used to control the direction of the player's movement. FIFA 08 on the Wii features Ronaldinho as the first football player created as a unique and playable mini character. There are two ways to play: in the main game FIFA 08 plays in a similar way to the other FIFA games but using the Wii controllers to pass, shoot and perform trick moves. The second way to play the game features a range of party games: Juggling, Table Football and Boot It with your own Mii. Once you've reached a certain skill level it's possible to unlock Ronaldinho.

Leagues

FIFA 08 will include 620 licensed teams, 30 leagues (with all 27 leagues from FIFA 07[8]), and more than 15,000 players included. This is 20% more than what featured in FIFA 07.[9] The new leagues officially confirmed are the FAI League of Ireland[10], the Australian A-League[11] and the Czech Gambrinus Liga[1]. The following leagues have been confirmed for FIFA 08:

* Australian A-League
* Austrian Bundesliga
* Belgian Jupiler League
* Brazilian Campeonato Brasileiro
* Czech Gambrinus Liga
* Danish Superligaen
* Dutch Eredivisie
* English Premier League
* English Football League Championship
* English Football League One
* English Football League Two
* French Ligue 1
* French Ligue 2
* German Bundesliga 1
* German Bundesliga 2
* FAI Premier Division
* Italian Serie A
* Italian Serie B
* Korean K-League
* Major League Soccer
* Primera División de México
* Norwegian Tippeligaen
* Polish Orange Ekstraklasa
* Portuguese BWINLIGA
* Scottish Premier League
* Spanish Primera División
* Spanish Segunda División
* Swedish Allsvenskan
* Swiss Axpo Super League
* Turkcell Super League


Game covers

Ronaldinho will be featured on game cover in all regions, along with the following footballers depending on region.[12]

* Austria: Andreas Ivanschitz of Panathinaikos FC[12]
* Australia & New Zealand: Wayne Rooney of Manchester United. However, Archie Thompson of Melbourne Victory will be official "ambassador" for the game. [13]
* France: Franck Ribéry of Bayern Munich [14]
* Germany: Miroslav Klose of Bayern Munich [15]
* Spain: Sergio Ramos of Real Madrid [15]
* Switzerland: Tranquillo Barnetta of Bayer Leverkusen[16]
* North America: Guillermo Ochoa of Club América & Jozy Altidore of Red Bull New York[17] [15]
* Poland: Euzebiusz Smolarek of Racing Santander [15]
* Portugal: Cristiano Ronaldo of Manchester United [citation needed


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