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 other EA Sports title combined. In short, Leeds United is back. But what about EA's soccer franchise?

Well, let's say you want to take control of Leeds striker David Healy. And by take control, we mean complete control. In the new Be a Pro mode, you select any player from a squad and control him the entire match in what is almost like a third-person soccer game. The new camera system will zoom in and out to continually frame your player, the ball and the goal. If Healy is zipping up the field on a breakaway, the camera will zoom in and shake, just like the Gears of War embedded journalist cam.

Shots will become more difficult to hit based on a number of conditions. Has the ball just bounced? Is it rolling toward or away from the player? How fast is the player running? Is it his off foot? Not only will this increase the speed of the shot meter, but the ball will also take some wild trajectories depending on just how far off center your shot is. Moral of the story? Work for a good shot. Thankfully, you'll have some extra tool at your disposal to do so.