Review: UEFA EURO 2008 - Xbox 360

by Steven Williamson on 10 April 2008, 10:23

Tags: UEFA EURO 2008, Electronic Arts (NASDAQ:EA), PC, Xbox 360, PS2, PSP, PS3, Mobile, Sports

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qamme

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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


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HEXUS Forums :: 34 Comments

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I actually did think it would be just FIFA 08 with a Euro 2008 tournament built in. Best football game, ever? I certainly didn't see that coming. :surprised:

The celebrations do sound fun, but are they just fun for a while? I'll be interested in having a game of this, FIFA 08 was definitely a big step up for the FIFA series, this sounds like another one.
noooo i have been hammering fifa recently and really didnt want to hear how good this was. Deep down i knew it would be because of how good the demo was but i was hoping there wouldnt be any life span to it….and you ruined it all you evil evil man :D

Need to find some money to get this one now, somehow…off to the docks i go, hello sailor!

Just erm dont tell the missus :D
Seemed ok on the demo, nowt special. Best football game ever? You are obviously having a giraffe. :) Still each to his own.

Steven, when I was playing it, the tackling left me cold. As far as I could tell you can either jockey the player, hoping to get a toe on the ball, usually doing nothing, or press the other button which immediately fouled the player with the ball giving them a free kick.

What was I missing?

Oh, and where is the HEXUS Ikaruga review? If any XBLA game so far deserves some attention, its that one.
hmm thats odd stewart, its actually a lot harder to attack than defend. The defender always has the advantage and you can rarely just run through opponents.
Stewart
Seemed ok on the demo, nowt special. Best football game ever? You are obviously having a giraffe. :) Still each to his own.

Steven, when I was playing it, the tackling left me cold. As far as I could tell you can either jockey the player, hoping to get a toe on the ball, usually doing nothing, or press the other button which immediately fouled the player with the ball giving them a free kick.

What was I missing?

Hmm, I've been able to slide in just like I have done on FIFA to take the ball cleanly. I would say that timing for slide tackles does need to be more accurate though because the turning of the AI players seems to be quicker, so they can avoid your tackles a bit more.

Against a human controlled opponent, the tackling feels much like it does with FIFA online. I'm quite aggrssive online with FIFA in tackling and when I played it multiplayer the slide tackling felt much the same, but the jostling did seem slightly different and perhaps more difficult to get the ball. AI defenders do seem to have an edge though.

One thing I did notice against the CPU is that you hardly ever get a free-kick because they don't tend to slide in on you - mind you I'm only playing semi-pro.

At the moment this is keeping me of FIFA. It's hard to describe just how good I think Captain Your Country mode is, it's partly to do with being able to see your name on the shirt and hear your voice, but it's such a fluid game experience as well and competing against your own teammates really adds a new dimension.

If anyone wants me to check whether there surname is included ,just let me know!