Never thought it would happen to me but a couple of weeks ago I only went and bought the new slim n’ light PSP and with it the Fifa Soccer ’08. Now i haven’t owned any type of game-playing machine since the Amstrad CPC 464 which its fair to say was in quite a different era for such things. I spent a little extra on the import version of the game as i wanted the English commentary which is provided by ITV’s Clive Tyldesley and Sky’s Andy Gray and mostly good it is too though obviously there are times whne it doesn’t really match up with the action!
Just starting a game of football was quite problematic as I had no idea that there was an analog stick (disguised as a tiny speaker) for directional use rather than the cursor keys or whatever they’re called. I couldn’t score for my first half dozen games but then got into the habit of drawing and scoring before finally winning against Norwich City (who my dad supports not that that is really of relevence here). Maybe I’d have done better if I didn’t choose to be Leicester but one bonus (?) is that a fortnight later I am definitely now more familiar with a team of players that has changed so much in the last few years.
There’s still so many features that I haven’t looked into but goalkeepers coming up for corners if you need a goal in injury time is quite exciting and I have managed to get my keeper to score a couple of times albeit not from said corners!
It certainly fills a few gaps between lessons but I’ve not yet started playing it on the train like some geeks mostly because I can’t help but commentate and shout things when i play it.
Tokyo Fox (東京狐) 