"Across the pond, consumers prefer racing and soccer games to blockbuster action, adventure and first-person shooter games that are the staple of the U.S. diet. Indeed, Europeans view such games as "evil," says Cevat Yerli, chief executive of Crytek, a German game developer that specializes in first-person shooters."

"Their unholy alliance seems to be paying off as everyone’s favourite Plumber and Hedgehog have topped the UK’s all format charts again this week. This game is proving to be a beast that will not be slain, consistently rising and falling in the charts just to climb to the top spot again. Not only is the game number one overall but first on the Wii and second on the DS charts, cementing the fact that I am the only one who finds the premise of a stunted overweight Italian posing anything that ev..."

"This would surprise the hell out of you if this report was for North America, wouldn't it? Well, it's not; the UK has always loved their soccer, and that much is clearly evident, here: according to Videogamer.com, EA has announced that FIFA 08 is the first 2007 title to top one million in sales across the pond.

Some will argue the game's biggest competition, Konami's Winning Eleven: Pro Evolution Soccer 2008, is the better of the two sports games, but hey, name-brand recognition always sel..."

"Many thanks to the NPD group and some commentary from their Anita Frazier, NPD analyst.

Absolutely insane results. YTD industry sales up 73%, 45% for SW. And Wii GH3 edges out the PS2 version, and Half-Life 2 has a very, very good first month, given the competition.

And, what was that Sony???? You sold 75k in the last week of this reported month? And you sold 46k for the 3 weeks before that??

HW Results

Wii 519K
Nintendo DS 458K
Xbox 360 366K
PSP 286K
PlayStation 2 184K
PlayS..."

Two highly successful Football Franchises, creating two highly sucessful Football Games. Now the problem comes down to "which is best". Well we all want to know (if we don't already) whether or not we should buy PES 08 or FIFA 08. Well to make things easier for us, the kind folks at Sony UK have given us the arguments we all have inside in the hopes to help us decide...

Not one, but five screenshots have come out from Electronic Arts for Fifa 08 and it's easy to say that the screenshots are most DEFINITELY impressive. Take a look at them yourself below and give us your impressions.

"We spoke with associate producer Paul Hossack after our hands-on time with the PS2 version of FIFA 08, and he almost spilled the beans on FIFA 09. When we asked him whether the next FIFA would appear on the machine, he said he's been told not to give details on games that haven't been announced, but did have this to say:

"We believe pretty strongly in the PS2 platform and that there are still some games to come from FIFA on the PS2. Put another way, FIFA 05 was our last version on PS1 - an..."

""The FIFA 08 next-gen gameplay engine, built to maximize the power of Xbox 360 and PLAYSTATION 3, delivers animations and ball control that is so responsive you feel like you are actually on the pitch. Footballers in FIFA 08 now benefit from A.I. so smart, it features a 35-point decision engine which enables players to process multiple decisions and reactions in real-time. The A.I.’s dynamic ‘Threat Map’ system captures the excitement and realism of football. Players are now aware of their su..."

"The latest Nintendo Power has a hands-on preview of FIFA 08 for the Wii and has published the first ever images of the game, including some shots of the Mii-based mini-games. The game is due out in September. Check out the scans below."

"We sat down with Booth and his team at EA Canada to get our first look at FIFA 08 and the new Be a Pro mode. Booth, a native of England, was decked out in his finest Leeds United jersey and made an exciting announcement: FIFA 08 on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 will feature 30 leagues, 620 teams and about 15,000 players.

Not only is that a record for FIFA -- Booth worked on the excellent FIFA 07 on current gen that featured only a whopping 27 leagues -- but that's more teams than every ot..."

"EA is feeling as confident as ever about the yearly FIFA vs PES battle as FIFA 08 and PES 7 prepare to do battle for another season.

"I'm happy to say that we're comfortably on top in the whole FIFA vs Pro Evolution Soccer battle," marketing manager Dan Holman told UK trade mag, MCV. Our market share has kept on increasing over the past three years, and more and more core gamers are being converted to FIFA all the time."

The bullishness doesn't end there either. "We've sold 1.7 million..."