Surprisingly, a recent survey discovered that Steve McClaren is currently the most popular man in the country. Unsurprisingly however, the country in question was Russia.

For years now, games in the FIFA series and sides managed by McClaren have both suffered the same criticism - that they play better on paper than they do on the pitch. With such a well known name and a mass of fans though, the chances of Electronic Arts moving away from their tried and tested formula seemed about as likely as Steve spending his newly freed up holiday time next summer in the lovely Croatian capital of Zagreb. That's why FIFA 08 comes as such a shock, because although there are some things that are still typically EA about it, there are also more than a few surprises.

So let's start deep in FIFA heartland with some stats. FIFA 08 features heftier figures than one of Diego Maradona's bar tabs, with 15,000 officially licensed players, 43 national teams and club sides from 30 top leagues. The actual tournaments available range from the top division in Brazil to English League 2 and there's also the facility to create your own using the custom options. What's more, online play continues to be heavily supported, with the ability to set up a league or compete in one of the official ones. On top of all of this there's the new EA Sports Football World site on which you can sort through tonnes of stats, upload your replays or watch those of others and join in forum discussions. Indeed, the multiplayer in FIFA 08 is bulging with options. Online you can get together with as many as seven other people in various match set ups, while offline you can invite up to six friends to play with or against you. There's even the ability for your mates to step into one of your saved competitions to help you out.

After reading about all these features, you're probably thinking, "That's all great, but let's get onto the part about this new FIFA having the series standard of easily accessible matches that end in score lines that only Portsmouth against Reading games can usually produce and we can wrap this review up ahead of time." Well, hold your Ruud Van Nistelrooys, because the developers have decided to give this year's game an image change that's on the same kind of scale as knocking down Old Trafford and replacing it with a prawn sandwich factory.

The most noticeable difference in FIFA 08 comes with the way matches play. The pace of games has been capped at about half of their previous speed, meaning that the days when having the feline-like reflexes of Peter Bonetti or the Matrix style ability to slow time were the best ways to success are gone. Instead, what you now need are patience, planning and the talent to put your ideas into practice. Passes, for example, no longer seem like they're on rails and even simple ones require concentration and skill to complete. The success of the through ball button has also now been greatly reduced; whereas before its use virtually guaranteed you a one-on-one against the opposing keeper, now it's only an option when your skill, and that of the players you're controlling, combines to create a channel to fit the ball down.

Another major change is the way the AI has been beefed up, with the computer consistently organising large numbers of players into a tight and intelligent defensive shield. Although the various difficulty levels mean you can adjust the challenge to suit your preferences, scores always remain within the realms of reality rather than the recreations of the Shoot Out at the OK Corral in previous iterations. The complexities of the new playing system also mean that matches against another human are usually a bit more open than those against the computer and that playing with more than one person on the same side really needs all minds thinking as one.

In its last few editions, FIFA seemed to be trying to develop itself into a more serious footballing simulator, but always appeared reluctant to let go of its arcade leanings. Is it a just a coincidence then that the major alterations to the series have come in the same year that EA have released the skateboarding genre redefining skate, or are we witnessing a statement of intent from the development company most noted for minor franchise tweaking that it actually now intends to starting taking some risks and do some major 'developing'? Only time will tell. For now, the changes made in FIFA 08 stand out like Peter Crouch on a trip to Lilliput and it will be interesting to see how people take to them, because whilst they might not be as revolutionary as those featured in their four wheeled stable mate, FIFA's rebirth has produced an amazing sports title.

Games not only look like actual football matches, but they feel like actual football matches as well - and not just any old matches, but top footballing quality ones like those you get in the Champions League and Serie A. There's a great sense of subtlety to each contest, with players' relative speeds and physical strengths important for retaining the ball. An extremely deft touch on the controls is also required to create passages of play that combine intelligent passing with movement more intricate than that on a Swiss watch.

That isn't all though, because FIFA 08 also introduces a further, completely new, feature to the franchise - the 'Be A Pro' mode. Rather than controlling a whole team as you normally would in a match, in Be A Pro you're instead responsible for only one player, with the computer commanding all the rest. It's an idea that's been around since the Libero Grande arcade and PSOne games, but Be A Pro takes the concept one step further. As well as needing to do your best to ensure your that team claims victory, you also get rated on your personal performance, with plus points being given for making tackles, scoring goals and the like, and points being lost for such things as giving away possession and not being in the right position. It's a neat idea that provides a fun variation to play and only adds to the value of an already inventive game.

By now you're probably thinking "fine, with Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 really not making any radical advances and having periodic Max Headroom style jarring animation, FIFA is now the new Pro Evo, just with more… er… evo and is therefore the king of football games". Wait just a second though, because EA's new wonder title isn't quite perfect.

For a start, the balance to matches isn't quite right. Whilst it's great that the individual animations are so detailed, with space at such a premium even basic player movements often take too long and the special skill ones available via the right analog stick are frequently not an option. The way that the AI defends by placing as many men as possible in narrow positions around the edge of the area also means that getting the ball out wide for a cross is by far the best tactic to use over and over again. And just as the controls aren't quite there, the player likenesses are slightly off as well. From a distance this isn't really noticeable, but up close many look like the back end of a Wayne Rooney with faces that only a manager could love. Most shocking of all, however, are some of the letdowns in presentation. There's no coin toss, no weather variations and the ref only appears in the cut scenes. The highlights at the end of matches sometimes miss out important events, like goals, while the computer often makes strange substitutions, such as bringing on a defender for a striker when it's losing.

There are only twenty three stadiums included too, which makes it slightly strange when you play an English Premier League season, for example, and half of your away games take place in Spain. There's also an extremely limited amount of different control set-ups, all of which require you to have the R2 button as sprint and only allow you to control player movement with the analog stick rather than the directional pad, a feature that's bound to annoy some old-school fans.

Offline, Be A Pro is only available in single games and the camera in this new mode understandably struggles to constantly give you a view that contains all the visual information you need, especially during the shaking effect it intentionally does when you go on a run or get near the opponent's goal. Finally, in the sound department, whilst the supporters' chants and the asides from commentators Martin Tyler and Andy Gray are impressive, the actual description of the action is slightly stilted and there's not enough reaction from the crowd when goals are scored.

With this latest game in the series, EA seem to have finally become sick of FIFA being regarded as the 'Richard and Judy's - You Say We Pay' to Pro Evolution's 'University Challenge' and have decided to give their franchise a footballing education. The result is a flawed masterpiece, a game that, stunningly, is almost the antithesis of its predecessors - one that plays next-gen football but with some previous-gen presentation. It's a game that every football fan should experience and one that many will want to have around permanently. In a stroke EA have managed to move FIFA from a Steve McClaren to a Fabio Capello - is there anyone else out there currently thinking that doing the same thing for England might be a smart move?

Reviewed by James Hamblin for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).