Heading for the showers
The list of tweaks continues with the addition of more cut-scenes that appear every time you get a throw-in, a corner, a penalty, a free-kick or a near-miss. Thankfully, all of them are skippable, so if it’s not your bag you can bypass them quickly. They do, however, add something to match-days and there’s a good variety of different ones to enjoy. You can watch player reactions (which show those players nearest to the ball) or occasionally you can watch the manager’s frustration on the side of the pitch as he paces up and down.In addition, there’s a subtle change to penalty kicks, which now brings the camera closer over your shoulder, so you don’t feel like the goal mouth is 20 yards away and there’s the inclusion of rumble, so when you step up for a penalty or if you hit the woodwork at any point in the match you get the shaking movement. Once again, another small tweak to make the experience more authentic; and it works.
On the pitch, the AI is brilliant, moving into space, responding accurately to your one-two commands and accurately tracking back and making decent tackles as well as moving up the pitch fluidly during attacks. Passing, crossing and shooting feels much like it did in FIFA 08, but the passing metre seems to give you more control and accuracy, especially when you’re trying to execute those long cross field passes.
The water spots and mud patches on the pitch certainly have an effect the ball as it slows down in those spots and the negative tactics from teams, such as Azerbaijan, who put 10 players behind the ball if they play you at Wembley, make you work hard to try and win every match.
Other game modes include the UEFA EURO 2008 tournament where you can choose to play through qualifiers or go straight on into the final tournament, EURO online tournament and STORY OF QUALIFYING, which gives you the challenge of completing a number of significant scenarios from past European championships.
One scenario which I enjoyed was jumping into the San Marino vs. Germany game, where the Germans lead 9-0. My task was to score another 4 goals in the last 25 minute, emulating the Germans record breaking European win in 2006.
UEFA EURO 2008 isn’t just an average soccer title to play while you wait for FIFA 09. It’s an accomplished game boasting some exemplary features. The game engine is better than FIFA 08 and the match experience is more authentic,whereas the visual improvements, including graphics, cut-scenes and animations make it the best looking soccer game to date. The new game mode, ‘Captain Your Country’ is imaginative and exceptionally good fun to play,and while ‘Battle of the Nations’ could be a hit or miss amongst gamers, depending on how players decide to tackle it, you’ve got to give EA props for trying to innovate within the genre and creating what I believe to be the best football game on the market.
If only it had all the national leagues as well!
Read our interview with the UEFA EURO 2008 lead designer.
Pros
Presentation, visuals and audio
Captain your Country mode
You can have your name on the shirt and have the commentator mention you!
Best football engine yet
Captures the atmosphere of the big match
Cons
Corners are more difficult to score from
Interactive celebrations might annoy you after a while, and probably will if you’re on the receiving end
UEFA EURO 2008 isn’t just EA’s best football game, it’s the best football game ever.
HEXUS Awards
UEFA EURO 2008- Xbox 360 - 9/10
