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By Keith B (17th Jun 2008)

From Internode

Another major sporting event, another EA Sports title, this time EURO 2008 and promising to bring all the thrills and spills of the world game into your living room; where you can now revel in the realism as Azerbaijan grinds out a draw with San Marino. Because although the real EURO 2008 doesn’t kick off in Austria / Switzerland until June 7, you can play the console version of it already.

For those who don’t particularly know much about football games, there are two main camps: those that like EA’s FIFA series, and those that like the Pro Evolution one. The Pro Evo fans get their annual instalment of the game and are happy with that. FIFA players also get the annual instalment, which they too are happy with, but EA take this happiness and puts it into a happiness-quenching machine, lambasting the market with more football tie- in games than Uwe Boll has made bad movies. These instalments come in the form of a World Cup edition, this particular EURO one, and a street football game. And every year a tournament game comes out, like this one, the title inevitably end up fighting the criticism that they’re nothing more than a polish up of the FIFA engine from the last FIFA game with most of the content stripped out. Criticism which is usually true.
But I have to say that this year things are a little bit different, because not only did I enjoy my time playing the game to review it, now I’m looking forward to the next FIFA game already, because if they implement some of the elements of this EURO game into it, it could be excellent. Not only is there plenty of content, which I’ll get to in a moment, but the actual play itself is refined in a whole variety of subtle ways. Passing is slicker, crossing is more effective, tricks and skills are more controllable.

Player animations are better than usual, with most of them pretty detailed and the managers on the sideline looking really well. At the risk of sounding like I was enjoying it a little bit too much, the eyes on the players are stunning, the speed at which they flick around to other players in close-up replays really work, and if something like that was added to GTAIV I think it would have been a plus. It’s a small thing but I found myself constantly noticing it.

The big thing that the game offers this year (because just football isn’t enough, you see, when they have a football game to move too) is the chance to Captain your Country. This is actually a lot of fun, where you pick a team, then a player you want to try and earn the captaincy for, and finally three rival players. You start the season with some friendlies before moving onto the competitive matches, and it’s up to you to earn the respect of the coach by playing well in the position of your chosen character. So the game isn’t just about scoring goals, because your selected role might not depend on scoring, for example, if you’re a defender. But thinking I knew how to cruise through the game I picked a striker and figured that if I was scoring four goals a match there was no way the player couldn’t be the most important asset to the team, and therefore a certain candidate for the captaincy.

Well, while I may have scored most of the goals and was playing with a star player (each of your star players is represented by a star on the team screen), with the other striker bagging a few, I wasn’t the best in the team. No, that right was reserved for my completely mediocre midfielder who just happened to be the one passing the ball to me every time I scored. I went so far as to play the other side of the pitch to keep him away from the ball.

My point is, the Captain your Country mode can be quite a challenge and while being similar to Be a Pro mode from other versions of the FIFA franchise, its offers a lot of challenge and a host of achievements rewarding playback.

One thing my failed captaincy bid did allow me to do was perfect a host of goal celebrations, which are now interactive and applied through a variety of moves and pushes on the controller’s various elements. Fun for about an hour but then I wanted to turn them off to get back to the game, which I couldn’t. It also allowed me to get a handle on the skill moves, which are easier to handle and feel more effective. It’s still possible to break them and nick the ball but this year I had confidence in the system.

Another new feature is ‘The Story of Qualifying’, which pits you (like the Challenge mode of FIFA series) in scenarios and sees if you can play out of them, such as being two goals down as Bulgaria, with 20 minutes to go, against the Ukraine. Again, this is nothing new but it’s damn hard this year, and can be good if your own nation happens to pop up (if you’re European, of course). Like when I had to play to score a goal in the final minutes against San Marino as Republic of Ireland.

Online is always going to be important to a football game and this is no different, although the tournament tie-ins are never really as successful or populated as the core annual football game. To liven up this online side of things, EA bring your nationality and patriotism to the front by asking you to select the country you wish to represent, and then everything you do online goes to a ‘score per country. This ‘Battle of the Nations’ is a competition that runs until the end of June but you may not have time to make a dent in it. You need to be one of the top 250 players in the world on a day.

You can also get stuck into the EURO Online Cup, a drop-in drop-out tournament which pairs you with other players in the same round, meaning no hanging around in lobbies waiting.

Every year the commentary gets tired after a few long sessions, with the same voices droning along all the time. Well done then to the above-average Andy Townsend and the excellent Clive Tyldsley who are enjoyable to listen to throughout. Tyldsley n particular caused me to laugh occasionally with his utterly believable excitement. He should be on the next FIFA game.

I enjoyed putting EURO 2008 through the paces and it is absolutely a big improvement on what I’ve come to expect from these annual cash-ins. There is a lot of work, some things that are really excellent like the polished shooting, heading, skills and controls and others that are rehashed from earlier games. If I were you, and I was only buying one football game this year, it wouldn’t be this. I’d be saving for the next FIFA or Pro Evo if I were you with all the players and content. But if I wanted something football-based to pass the time, then this would certainly be worth it. There’s a lot to do here, and a lot to learn while doing it, considering that eight of the 12 pages in the booklet are just controls, skills and celebrations. But it’s never too hard to do and is a lot of fun, and challenging to master.

Keith B