UEFA: Euro 2008
With none of the home nations managing to qualify for the real thing, Uefa: Euro 2008 could well be your only chance to see a British footballer lift some silverware this summer. But is it actually worth buying, or should we just ignore the Euros altogether and pretend that we didn’t want to win such a Mickey Mouse tournament anyway?
The first new initiative, and the first thing which you are introduced to when you enter the game, is the ‘Battle of the Nations’, where you are invited to nail your colours to the mast and register with a country to play for. This nation will serve as your ‘team’ and every game which you play, online or off, will gain your nation points towards daily online leader-boards for both individuals and nations in order to see who really deserves to be crowned European champions. While this is a fun idea, it does seem a little bit unfair, with the larger nations having a huge advantage through sheer volume of gamers accumulating points. So the likelihood of getting to eat your victory Coco-Pops out of a massive silver cup is slim at best, making it all feel like a bit of a waste of time.
Andy Townsend and Clive Tyldesley are the game commentators and do an excellent job, while the HD graphics and player likenesses are as sumptuous as we have come to expect from what is essentially a FIFA title. The gameplay is, as always, excellent and is an even tighter version of the ‘constantly in development’ FIFA 08 engine which allows for better ball control and more accurate shooting.
The 'Story of Qualification' is as fun as it is addictive, working in a very similar fashion to the ‘scenario’ mode from the old ISS games: you take over teams in difficult real life situations from the qualifiers to see if you can turn things around before the final whistle. All in all, Uefa: Euro 2008 is a solid title with awesome graphics, great gameplay, excellent sound and game modes that will keep you entertained for hours. However it is let down by its very nature and only has a handful of teams which you would ever want to play as, unlike its big cousin FIFA, which has all the club and international teams from the rest of the world.