- Title: UEFA Euro 2008
- Platform: Xbox 360
- Publisher: EA
- Developer: EA Canada
- ESRB Rating: “E” For Everyone
- Genre: Soccer
- Pros: Solid gameplay; decent graphics; great sound; Captain Your Country mode is amazing
- Cons: Smaller scale release with a large scale price; custom celebration feature is kind of stupid
The UEFA Euro Championship is a tournament of European national teams that takes place every four years. It is basically the World Cup of Europe, and it is a pretty big deal even though most people in the U.S. probably don’t care. You should care, though, because this is going to be world-class soccer at its absolute finest. And here’s a tip, mark June 17th, 2008 on your calendar because that is when France and Italy meet up in group play. If a rematch of the World Cup final isn’t enough to get you excited, I don’t know what will.
The UEFA Euro 2008 videogame features every team eligible for the European Championship, 50+ in all, as well as all of the real life players for each team. You can play through all of the qualifying rounds as well as the final tournament in both a team mode as well as a mode where you control just one player called “Captain Your Country”. There are also quick match and Xbox Live modes available as well. Obviously, there isn’t quite the depth of features as we find in the yearly FIFA releases. Which is what makes the $50 price for this game a bit hard to swallow. It is good, certainly, but not $50 good when you are likely going to buy FIFA 09 for $60 a few months from now.
Gameplay
The rest of the gameplay is pretty obvious. Soccer is soccer, after all. So what I want to focus on is the Captain Your Country mode. In this mode you play as just one player out on the field. Unlike the Be a Pro mode in FIFA 08 which had a different camera angle, CYC uses the traditional camera which makes it easier to connect on passes and make runs up the sides. It isn’t quite as realistic as Be a Pro, but it is still very effective in making you truly feel like you are a real player and are really contributing. When you score because you made a perfect run and your teammate feeds you a beautiful through ball so you can slip behind the defense, there is no more satisfying feeling in any sports videogame. Also, the A.I. is well put together and put up a tough fight, so when you score you really have to earn it.
Graphics and Sound
Graphically, UEFA Euro 2008 is a nice looking game in most respects. The animation is nearly perfect, and combined with the enhanced physics make a very believable looking game of soccer. The player models are nice, but the faces don’t look quite right. The game also features weather effects, which really look good and change the way the game plays.The sound is also very well done. The announcers do a good job for the most part, but do get behind by a couple of seconds whenever a lot of action is going on. The most impressive aspect of the sound is the crowd. They cheer and boo in all of the right places and really give the game an epic feel.
Bottom Line
With all of that said, there is still the question of value and that is where Euro 2008 falls short. At $30, I would easily recommend it. But at $50, with FIFA 09 coming in a few months, it is hard to justify buying this unless you are a hardcore soccer fan. Give it a rental and see how much you think it is worth. I do know one thing, if FIFA 09 can build on the positive things in this game, it should be phenomenal.
