This game struck me as a pleasant surprise when I got my hands on it last week - Euro 2008, the official game for the international European Championship this summer. As a die-hard PES fan since many many years back I wasn't expecting much - but EA has gotten their stuff together, and done a very good game that promises interesting things for Fifa 09. See more inside for tons of images and a pair of videos from the game.
The graphics are simply incredible, and looks very good both in replays and in-game. EA has done an even better work on their usual great presentation, putting together a bunch of nice menus and tons of details about the players. World Cup 06 and Euro 2004 seriously lacked enough content to satisfy me, but this year it has enough to justify the price tag: my favourite is the fantastic Be a Pro mode with an enhanced "Be the captain" mode, having you competing against three other CPU or human controlled players through B national games, to finally reach the spot as captain in the national team of choice.
The Be A Pro mode is apparently a blast online and very popular within the Fifa community. The online mode also has a leaderboard for the world's countries, giving you and all the other players the chance to take your nation to the top of the gaming world as you earn more and more points.
The game also lets you play through the qualification rounds, meaning there is hope for you England fans out there. You can also re-play big matches from previous Euro tournaments. Below you will find a video of me doing a qualification game with England, and a video of me playing as France and Thierry Henry in the Be A Pro mode.
In other news, I recently got a great 720p capture card. Unfortunately, my processor isn't enough to handle the resolution, so I will use 480p for a couple of weeks a head. The images will always be in 720p though.
All comments (25)
Some outtakes of player stats:
Terry - 87
Gerrard - 87
Rooney - 88
Puyol - 88
Fabregas - 87
Torres - 86
Ronaldo - 90
Cannavaro - 87
Pirlo - 88
Buffon - 91
Klose - 87
Ribéry - 89
Vieira - 87
Henry - 88
I hope for fifa 09 to have a new graphics engine with improved faces. The game mechinics at the moment are great, I love the gameplay engine, but my god fix the faces!
Edit: Oh and I don't like how most of the achievements are for the captain your country I aint a big fan of that mode.
And they really do need to change their engine.. everything has a plastic look to it. I'd like to see the unreal 3 engine be put to the test on fifa
As long as it's back for FIFA 09 though :)
If they do, that's going to be amazing.
I could almost hear the opponents go "C'mon mate, score a goal" as you easily navigated through their defence as Henry.
And yeah when it comes to football games this gen and I HATE to say this as I'm a hardcore PES fan (well, used to be), EA football games >>>>>> Konami football games.
Konami F'ed up good this gen and big kudos to EA.
Hence, i'm playing it right now :)
Never liked it, fell in love with fifa 07 the first time i played it due to the proper ball physics =)
and i love it, got it at launch and still playing it daily, i think this is the best NEXT GEN football game available.
I was playing PES08 alot before this came out, now i hardly touch PES08 LOL this also proves EURO 08 is a huge improvement on FIFA 08
Hopefully they will keep this type of gameplay for FIFA 09
2. Buffon is not better than Cech. (or the Carlisle keeper, based on Monday and Thursday!).
3. I finished the game about a month ago (was the 10th person in the world or something to 1k it, a proud moment!), it is fantabulous. Everyone should buy it.