UEFA Euro 2008 Review - IGN (2025)

The UEFA Euro Championships only come around every four years. They're sort of like the Olympics of European football in that way. While UEFA 2008 might lack several of the authentic teams and stadiums seen in FIFA, its gameplay has been tuned and refined enough for it to rise above EA's previous iteration.
For those who don't know what the 2008 UEFA European Football Championship (Euro 2008 for short) is, here's a brief introduction. There are 16 international football teams meeting in Austria and Switzerland from June 7 to June 29 to take part in the final stage of a tournament process that began back in August 2006 with the qualifying round. They begin by being split into four groups, two teams emerge from each group and are fed into the quarterfinals, at which point it's a standard single-elimination tournament until a champion is crowned. Now, back to videogames.

The biggest feature addition to FIFA 08 was the Be A Pro mode which allowed players to choose a player from their favorite team and participate in a Superstar mode similar to what is seen in Madden. Be A Pro put you in control of a single player for an entire game, dropping the camera down and giving the player's perspective of the action. The only limitation was that you could only play it for a single game. There was no stat tracking, no attribute progression, just one standalone game you could play from the new perspective.

UEFA Euro 2008 Review - IGN (1)

Those days are gone. UEFA Euro 2008 allows you to play through the entire Euro 2008 tournament in the all-new Captain Your Country mode. It's the same as Be A Pro -- meaning you still create your player and use the third-person camera angle during gameplay -- but now you'll get to play through the whole shebang. Not only that, but you'll also select three blokes from your chosen squad to make the trip down to B-team with you. See, not only do you need to build up your player's attributes, you'll need to earn a spot on the actual team of your choice. Until that time you're golden boy is stuck firmly in the minor leagues.

Your three chosen players are all controlled by the AI and their attributes will progress in the same manner as yours. Your players get a rating at the end of each match which then translates into a certain number of assignable attribute points. Turn enough heads with your performance and you'll eventually be called up to the show. It's a great mode that really brings you into the experience of the Tournament. The new camera angle is much more intimate than anything we've seen prior and the new roadie-run style presentation on breakaways (the camera shakes back and forth and drops right down to ground level) builds suspense and excitement fantastically well.

Sadly, it's the new Captain Your Country mode that creates a few new chinks to the armor. Being that you're only in control of one player on the field, much more of the onus is put on the AI to keep up the high level of play. There are instances where that doesn't work all that well. Occasionally players will fail to stick out their feet at a pass made from an opposing forward. You'll be thinking to yourself, "Stick out your foot and steal that pass!" but it won't happen. Then there are moments when the AI will drop lob through balls right behind the wall of your defense that will bring tears to your eyes.

UEFA Euro 2008 Review - IGN (2)

The artificial intelligence oddities spread to standard gameplay, but are then confined mainly to the behavior of the goalies. For some reason there are times when your keeper will send himself flying for a shot that was four of five feet wide. Then there are times when he should save a ball to prevent an opposing corner kick, but won't. There was never a time where he didn't save a ball that went for a goal, but the little annoyances do impact gameplay.

So the Captain Your Country mode will likely be the main draw for most football diehards, there's also the ability to play through the entire tournament from the more traditional camera angle in what is essentially the game's season mode. You can select to play through the entire tournament (friendlies and qualies included), the qualifying round up through the finals, or just finals. The only downer? You can't simulate a single game. That means if you want to play through the entire tournament you'll need to play everything from a friendly against Liechtenstein to a qualifying match against Croatia. It nearly breaks the tournament mode if you make that discovery late in the game and elected to play through all of Euro 2008.

The only other real downer to the Tournament Mode is that there's nothing to do once all is said and done. Since the Euro Championship only happen ever four years it wouldn't make much sense to have another tournament pop up in 2012, but it still feels a bit shallow.

Luckily the only mode has been beefed up a bit with a couple of new modes. First, there's Knockout Cup where 16 teams can join up and through a standard bracket-style tournament. Pretty standard stuff. Then there's Battle of the Nations which is similar to a mode that was in FIFA 2008. You pick an international squad and then tally points through your performance that go towards online worldwide rankings. Players get a bit of a point multiplier for playing as lesser squads. The online modes are certainly well-designed, and compliment the standard quick matches well, now if only the gameplay over the 'Net kept up the high marks for quality.

That's not to say that playing UEFA 2008 online is a headache. All of the highlights that I produced looked accurate for the sport, but with such football's dependency on, lag really shouldn't be so apparent. Moves were just a split-second too late which in football, makes all the difference. Again, it certainly doesn't break the online experience, but there's a serious learning curve to taking your game from the confines of solo or local play and venturing into the Internet world.

UEFA Euro 2008 Review - IGN (3)

Despite that, the core gameplay that runs UEFA Euro 2008 is quite good and is a marked improvement over FIFA 2008. One of my biggest problems with FIFA this past year was that there were still instances when your player would feel like they're on rails. Taking control out of your hands a bit too often. These occurrences have been almost entirely squashed. Players can now reposition themselves during lob balls to try and align their heads for that perfect shot. You can also cutoff passes with ease rather than waiting in the wings for the opposition to intercept.

The more advanced moves, things like the lob through ball or the trick system, have also been refined. Passing is more accurate in UEFA 2008 with fewer times when you'll wonder why in the hell the AI chose to pass to Player A rather than Player B in wide open space. There are still times when a regular through ball will go to the inside of a player rather than to the outside, but it's not often enough to be detrimental to the experience. The trick system has been simplified a bit from FIFA 2008 to allow for some good looking animations without the complexity of right analog combos. Nailing the rainbow move is still a bit of a chore, but then again, it should be.

I'd like to see them expand the trick system a bit to allow for easier accessibility for newbies. Obviously it still needs to be rooted in its nature as a simulation, but as it stands right now it's just a little too difficult to pull off anything all that impressive.

Thankfully the animations that drive these tricks, and the action in general, are fantastic. There are loads of new movements that playout over the course of the tournament, some you won't see until the finals. There are just that many. Friendly players can take each other out, players flip over one another and some of the tackle animations are downright awesome when you land them properly.

The visuals and presentation values of EA Sports titles have always been the brand's hallmark, and it's no different in UEFA Euro 2008. Tournament games pack serious emotion with raucous international crowds and panoramic views that let you know that you're about to take part in a spectacle of sports. Player and coach models look accurate and the camera system drops down to the field quite often to convey specific emotions at a given time. The framerate does drop on occasion, more so on the PS3 than on 360, but it's never at a pivotal moment. Instead it seems to be -- oddly enough -- relegated to replays.

UEFA Euro 2008 Review - IGN (4)

Weather effects were a focal point in development and the fruits of their labor can be seen when playing on the soggy pitches afforded by the European landscape. You'll need to send more balls skyward to avoid getting, quite literally, stuck in the mud. The field degrades over time and only certain portions become soggy as more and more raindrops soak into the grass. It's a small addition, but it helps legitimize the game in the eyes of the European faithful.

The second half of the presentation is the audio. Thankfully the duo of commentators are insightful and accurate when following the action. The real sonic star is the crowd, though. When you're on the B-team you'll see half-empty stadiums and slightly subdued fans. But buckle down and play Italy against France and get ready to hear cheers, jeers and chants abound. Now if only we could get some on-the-field chatter between players to really flesh out the audio experience…

UEFA Euro 2008 Review - IGN (2025)
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