With the start of Euro 2008 just a month and a half away, the football fan inside all of us can start hyping up for arguably the second biggest tournament on the international football circuit. An integral part of warming up for any major sporting fixture is of course the accompanying video games. With UEFA 08 building from the platform of FIFA 08, it’s not likely to disappoint.
UEFA 2008 is essentially a tweaked version of FIFA 08, though sacrificing quantity for quality. Though some may immediately complain at the distinct lack of teams (52) compared with FIFA 08, there is as with every downside, an upside. The detail of the players is extraordinary! All of the real life players have been modelled hyper-realistically; David Beckham for example, even has his real life tattoo’s showing in game.
Without the club teams involved in UEFA, the franchise/dynasty mode has been cut. In its place are some exciting new ones which definitely show promise. Captain Your Country is building off FIFA 08’s ‘Be a Pro’ mode where players control only a single participant in each team. This time a whole game mode has been built around this feature, in which players will need to work their way up from the B team, beating out four CPU or Player controlled rivals and captaining their country for UEFA 08.
Battle of the nations is another new feature, tailored for the tournament. Tallying all points between countries offline and online to find the theoretical winner of UEFA 08. I did my bit for England, though their chances can be one in a million at best as they aren’t even in the tournament.
The gameplay as previously mentioned is fairly similar to that of FIFA 08, though there are some noticeable improvements. The goalkeeper AI has been drastically improved, to the point where no rubbish goals are going on. Also much improved are the passing and shooting, totally revitalising the game and showing great promise for FIFA 09.
UEFA 08 is a must have for soccer fans. Don’t look at this as merely a rebranded FIFA 08, (which is still one of the best football games ever seen), but as a whole new game definitely worth having a look at.