Gameplay is what has impressed me the most in UEFA Euro 2008. There are a number of significant improvements over FIFA 08 that makes it a much more enjoyable experience. The game now flows so well that I think it has the beating of PES. Yeah I said it. It plays superbly with realistic accurate and weighted passing, shooting, tackling and running. It plays a much more balanced game than this years' FIFA which tended to dish out a lot of defensive minded affairs. Whilst it possesses much more end to end action when compared to FIFI 08, it maintains the sense of realism as difficulty is concerned.
Ball control has also been improved no end which helps to create an epic, fluent game play style. This is without question the best game of football the EA franchise has ever created. Audio wise, the game is near perfection. Excellent crowd noises and match effects lifted straight from FIFA 08 provide an international match day twist. Crowds chant the name of their country and players names with supreme accuracy. Commentary is provided by Clive Tyldesley and Andy Townsend from ITV. The vocabulary seems to be vast so there is hardly any repetitive nonsense to listen to. Despite this, the sampled pairing sometimes becomes lost as to what is going on. A good example of this would be a 40 yard pile-driver hitting the crossbar with the line: “Ohhh what a chance he really should have scored there!” This isn’t an annoyance and can have quite a comedic value once you have heard it for yourself. The music is pulled from a variety of European bands/artists and suits the game down to a tee.
A part of this game that feels unfinished and even robbed is the online options. Unlike the 4v4 option in FIFA 08, you are now limited to 1v1 online play. This is a big deal for those gamers out there that love co-op play although you can have 2v2 locally. There is the option to play in online cup tournaments along with user created leagues. I haven’t experienced any lag so far on EA’s servers out of the handful of games I have played online. Apart from this, there isn’t much else to write home about. As mentioned earlier, your performance in matches affect your country’s standings in the overall leader board with a winner declared after the conclusion of the real life tournament at the end of June.
This is a game for die hard football fans, as it is coming in at the full retail price tag of £39.99. My best advice if you are on the fence is to wait until the price drops in July when the tournament is done and dusted. It will tie you over nicely until the highly anticipated FIFA 09 hits store shelves. When I described it as a mixed bag my reasons were such; good graphics, excellent sound, lack of real depth, superb game play but lacklustre online options.
EA are known to cash-in on major football tournaments (see FIFA RTWC) and they have done it again with UEFA Euro 2008 but it’s a damn good cash-in.
