UEFA Euro 2008 Review

Written by: Darren Cartledge Posted: 8th May 2008

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The UEFA Euro 2008 Championships kick off on PlayStaion 3 and Xbox 360.

UEFA Euro 2008 Details:

	Sports
	PC/PlayStation 3/Xbox 360/PSP
	EA Games
	EA Games

Out Now

N/A

A lot of football fans will be looking forward to this summer as the European Championships kick off, for those who can’t quite wait, EA has released the official game of the championships and what’s better if you’re an England fan like me you can even make them compete.

UEFA Euro 2008 is very similar to EA’s FIFA 08, being based on the same Sports engine as the later game. The game features several game modes kick off, UEFA Euro 2008, Captain Your Country, The Story of Qualifying and several online game options.

The Kick off mode allows you to play a single, match or a penalty shoot out. You also have the option to play a match controlling only one player in the “be a Pro” option. This mode is ideal if you fancy a quick game with friends or haven’t got the time to take part in a full tournament.

The UEFA Euro 2008 option, as you would expect allows you to jump straight into the tournament either in the qualifying, group or knockout stages playing as the team of your choice from over 50 European countries.

In the games captain your country mode, you can create a player or select a pro featured in the game and compete against three rival players for the captaincy of your chosen country. Your rivals can be either AI controlled or played by real players on the same console. If you created your own player in this mode, at the end of each match you are awarded experience points that allow you to improve the abilities of your player. The games captain your country mode is pretty enjoyable to play although it can be a little frustrating at times, especially when your AI controlled team mates make mistakes or simply play badly.

In the Story of Qualifying, you have to play out a series of scenarios that happened in real world games during the qualifying process of Euro 2008. These include challenges such as coming back from 2-0 down with only a few minutes left to scoring a penalty to inspire a comeback. The challenges are usually fairly short and add a little bit of variety to what would just be a standard football game.

Both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox360 versions of UEFA Euro 2008 feature good online support. There are all the usual ranked and unranked matches you would expect to find in any online enabled sports title. You can also take part in online leagues as well as Euro Online Knockout cup. Both the Xbox Live and PlayStation Network online games run smoothly and lag free.

Stability wise sadly both versions of the game seem to have some problems, I encountered freezes when the game switches to an animation after the ball has gone out of play. This was usually solved after pressing pause however on one occasion I had to switch my console off and then on again losing all progress I had made. The problem seems to affect the PlayStation 3 version more so then the Xbox360.

Technical problems aside UEFA Euro 2008, is based on the same engine as EA’s FIFA games, although it’s supposed to have been made more responsive and accessible for this title. To be honest it’s a little hard to tell what differences have been implemented during play, although the game does provide a good and more importantly enjoyable playing experience, opposing players will try to intercept passes block shots, whilst your team mates will make runs and pass the ball for you to run onto, adding to the realism of the title. The game also provides a pretty good challenge, especially against the better teams featured in the game, which is a nice change from the relative ease of EA’s previous football titles.

Visually the game looks very good and as it’s fully licensed all the teams, kits, players and stadiums have been recreated perfectly. The game also features some nice touches such as player’s shirts and hair getting wet during games, although some of the players don’t look like their real life counter parts and all tend to look a little squashed, but it’s not enough to spoil it. Both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions look pretty much exactly the same however the PS3 version is slightly sharper looking but having said that the 360 version seems to handle the games colours better.

The games sound design is very good, with customised crowd chants for most teams featured in the game. Commentary for the most part is excellent although on some occasions you get the feeling they aren’t commenting on the game you are playing but then, these inaccuracies have always been present in football games.

On the whole UEFA Euro 2008 is a pretty solid football title, and while it may not feature all the leagues and tournaments featured in its big brother FIFA it still does provide a very good and enjoyable playing experience.