FIFA 08 PS2 Q&A Feature

FIFA has come a long way in the last couple of years. This year, new features such as the 'Be a Pro Co-op Season' (featuring highly original player-locking gameplay) and a re-invigorated focus on the passing system by implementing manual crosses and through balls, means that FIFA is only getting better and better. Recently TVG sat down with current gen Line Producer Paul Hossack to discuss FIFA 08...

TVG: The idea with the Interactive Leagues last year was to play the same games on the same day as they were happening in real life. An aim of FIFA's, as I understand it, is to have 22 players playing an Interactive League game at once by the 2010 World Cup. What have you done with the Interactive Leagues this year?

First off, I love the feature. And I say that with bias because that was what I worked on last year when I was the online producer on current gen. And it's met with some really, really good successes here. We've seen some amazing participation numbers. What we're doing this year is it's actually been blown out across a lot of platforms.

Last year we started with it on the current gen platforms and this year it's going to be available on PS3, 360, PSP and Wii, so that with the weekend match between Liverpool and Everton, people will be playing that on all these different platforms and all those results get summed up into one decision: Who won? Everton or Liverpool? So, that's a really big win this year.

TVG: So it's still in this year and it's been bought onto more consoles?

It's still in and we're looking into adding a couple of more leagues for support this year. Some of the stuff you were alluding to is a bit of a vision for the FIFA franchise, to say: 'Hey? How do we get to 11 Vs. 11'. And I think that's something we believe strongly in as a FIFA franchise, and we've taken some steps towards educating users as to what it means to play 11 Vs. 11 this year. So, in current gen we have a new game mode called 'Be a Pro Co-op Season'.

The 'Be a Pro' part, you're going to hear this more and more from FIFA, refers to playing locked to one player. So, you're not switching amongst all 10 or 11 players on your side - you're playing as the right midfielder. But the 'Co-op Season' part is a game mode we've made around this idea of playing as one player. And what you do is you pick a club - I'll play as Liverpool - and me, my brother and some buddies will come over and we can play through, over time, a full season - over 38 matches - each of us locked to one player all season long.

The goal is who can grow their player the most and how you grow your player is you're going to get an individual task each match, say 'get so many shots on net', 'get so many passing percentage', and yours will be different from mine, so each of our tasks will be different, but then we'll also have a team task. And if we accomplish our tasks, then we get more XP, which lets you level-up and get more attribute points to boost your attributes.

TVG: The co-op features, and even just the player-lock features where you can call for the ball, are very unique to me. I haven't seen that before in a game so well done - I had a go just now. If you have a vision for 2010, that's going to work really well when you eventually bring the two things together...

I think you really spotted it there. So, one of the things we thought about this year is that you have to think that you can't just give people 11 Vs. 11 online. You can do anything you want, but I don't think it's the wise thing to do. I started playing football when I was five or six - whenever they would let me into the league - and it was 20 of us running around the ball and a keeper at either end of the pitch, because you didn't know how to play football at that age. You just don't know yet and it takes a lot of training and coaching until you learn how to play the game properly.

That's what we're doing this year with 'Be a Pro Co-op Season' - it's a fun mode in its own right - but it's also getting gamers used to the concept of playing as one player and what you have to think of doing. If the CPU team-mate has the ball, you have to know when it's a good time to ask for the pass. You have to monitor your stamina levels throughout the game to make sure you don't get too tired, too quickly. You have to use sprint sparingly to make sure you have some energy left at the end of the match.

TVG: You told us about the manual through balls and crossing in your demo, which I found really enjoyable and I thought the through balls were really well weighted with the manual direction as well. I also noticed that Jostling for a header feels very manually controlled as well - you're players aren't stuck so much to rails. You seem to be able to move around a lot more manually. Also, with ball swerve - you appear to be able to add ball swerve a lot more organically. Is the manual control something you've been working on very hard throughout the game?

So, you've touched on a bunch of things. The answer is yes, we've been working on a lot of that stuff. To me, a lot of what I wanted to get done with the game this year comes down to the concept of freedom. So, it's the freedom to put the ball where I want to put it, it's the freedom to control the player I want to control. What I've tried to do with the game this year is to take out a lot of the constraints that I've felt were hampering me, so I had the ability to do those things if I wanted to.

It's from the most core elements, like getting the through balls to manual, to the simplest little things like when the keeper dives and catches the ball - he can actually throw or kick it out very quickly now if you want him to, whereas in the past you might have been constrained to a longer animation of him getting up. So, there are a lot of little things we've worked on to really give you the freedom to play the game the way you want to play it.

TVG: You also spoke of player traits, so Steven Gerrard has more of a tendency to shoot from long range for example. When I just had a play, I've noticed more of an eye for details like Scholes's left footed shoot isn't as powerful as his right footed shot, which has been brought in more over the last few years as well. Are there any other examples of types of statistics or attributes that have been added in this year?

I guess you hit on one of the things there. We've added traits - which are covered off - which is how likely a player is to do something. Now, when you're asking about attributes: what we did is, we didn't add to the number of attributes, it's just how you actually use them. So, you could have a million attributes but that's not really going to help you make a better, more fun game - it's actually how you use them.

On the shooting model, for example, it's about what situation the footballer's in when he's trying to strike the ball and that should really effect how close or not, and what type of shot it's going to be. If the gamer actually had the right angle on his pad then, okay, he had the right angle. But were you in the right situation? Should you have actually hit that shot there, or were you trying to do a 90 degree turn in the middle of it on your left foot, and you're a right footed player. In that case, your chances of it being a good shot are a lot lower.

TVG: That feel is throughout the game and I think that's a real move forward, both last year, and this year specifically it's got even better. As far as ball physics improvements and the AI we've spoken of are concerned, do you see this year as a huge leap forward or more of an evolution from last year's game?

I guess I can answer the question in two ways. So, I think 07did a fantastic job - we did a great job of getting the fundamentals and a lot of the areas right. I think we brought a bit of a different approach this year. One is that positioning was the last thing to really nail and I think it was important that we spent a lot of time on that this year.

But, outside of that, I don't want to call things revolutionary or use too much marketing speak one way or the other. It's just a different approach which, and you hit on it before, is to get towards putting the control and the freedom in the gamer's hand.

So, it's in your control to place the through ball where you want and it feels more real. It's the same with the crosses and even down to the goalkeeper control where you can actually take charge of the goalkeeper and rush him out or close down an angle. But it's all down to you to perform, and to me that is what's fun. Even when you mess up, at least I messed up and it wasn't the game messing up.

TVG: With all the player's you have, and you're adding more traits and formations to teams this year, that's going to require a lot of research. How do you do that exactly?

It is a huge task. I get e-mails from our database team all the time saying: 'We've just given you a new version of the database. There's 576 teams in it with 12,600 and something players.' Holy smokes we've got a lot of players in there. So I've alluded to part of the answer, we have a database team. So this is a separate team that works exclusively on collecting the data and making sure it's of the highest accuracy.

This is an internal team, say in the order of 10 guys or so working on this. But they actually work with an external community of 150 football fans. So, what will happen is, these football fans around the world have convinced us they know football and we'll give them access to the database, and they'll access and edit the players. Things from the look - what's the player's hair colour and hairstyle - to filling in all of the attributes, traits and marking up what the team formation is etc. Then our database team collects this information and really goes through it with a fine tooth comb. We play the game, we iterate on it, constantly trying to really get down to a really solid database at the end. But it's a complex task, for sure.

TVG: And, regarding those traits, are any of them hidden stats that you wouldn't see in - say - the player editor or in the team management screens?

On the traits, we don't actually expose those to tell you who is, or who isn't. So, a trait is supposed make the guy feels like he's the real player. It's not supposed to be an on/off feeling of look at this/look at that. Does Ronaldhino feel like Ronaldhino? Do the stars of the game, who are known for being certain ways, feel and play like those guys in our game? And I think you're going to find that the answer is much more so in 08.

TVG: I think there are a lot of really unique features in FIFA 08 that I've never seen in a football game. One example is the ability to mask where your aiming for the throw-ins and free-kicks - especially with the free-kicks. I mean, I just scored a screamer with Wesley Sneijder just by faking the goalkeeper - it was brilliant. The player locking system, for when you lock on to a player, and then them actually calling for passes, is incredibly unique as well.

Last year and this year we've seen other additions, like the move away from the FIFAs of a few years ago where free-kicks were done on a meter and a curve, and the corners were done with the same thing. There's much more free-play involved and a much more organic feel to it. There are also features such as playing advantage with certain fouls. Have you been influenced by other football games in moving in that direction, or is that completely down to brainstorming in-house that's come up with those ideas?

It's probably a combination of both. So, obviously we have a strong competitor, and I think both Konami and FIFA push each other to make better products. So, we'll look at their game. But, the first thing that came to mind when you asked me that question was: the answer is our gameplay engineers are FIFA gamers. They are hardcore football gamers, they put in a ton of hours but it's because they're playing the game so much. So, they really are the target audience. These are guys who're playing the game constantly and are always trying to think of things that they want in the game.

That's what has made FIFA 08 such a fun project to work on because the team is playing our own game all the time and always pushing ourselves for something better. We said about that whole free-kick mechanic - It just started from one thing to another: we added goalkeeper control, so people were moving their wall and goalkeeper to cover wherever the opponent was aiming. That's what brought it to the next level of needing to bring some tool back to the guy taking the free-kick. And those types of things, especially in this open play feel, is something that we've really latched on to and something that we're finding a lot of fun.

TVG: Going back to the Interactive Leagues. This year, have you had any trouble with - say - when Manchester United are playing, everyone wants to play as Manchester United and nobody wanting to play as - say - Wigan?

That's a good question and it's something we actually thought about before we put out 07. We put a rivals feature in for every club in the game that are in Interactive Leagues, which identifies who their rivals are. What that means is, you can imagine that the Wigan Vs. Man Utd could be 100 guys to 10 guys, and there's 90 guys on Man Utd who don't have anyone to play against. Well, what you do is, not only can you play as Man Utd, you can also play against who your rivals are. So, if Man Utd's rivals are Man City, a Man Utd guy can also be playing as Liverpool if Liverpool are playing Man City. So, there are a lot of things we can do with setting up the rivals in the right way so that you can always find a match to play.

TVG would like to thank EA Canada's Paul Hossack, the Line Producer on the current gen FIFA titles, for taking time out to speak to us about FIFA 08, due out on multiple platforms in the Autumn.