First 10 Minutes: Euro 2008

Manager
Thursday, May 15, 2008 | 11:00 AM
25 comments

Xbox 360 PS3

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.

Gameplay images

Commented on 2008-05-15 11:32:31

As always, if anyone has any question or a request of a certain image, I'll try to do it.

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

In reply to

Ezekiel_Xz

Commented on 2008-05-15 12:05:48

I own this game and the only thing I don't like is the faces. Everyone looks like lifeless zombies. In a weird way Pro Evo with its worse graphics has the better faces. You can look at a pro evo face and think oh look its scholes or ronaldo. But with this you go it sort of looks like this zombie could be ronaldo, but im not sure it is.

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.

roxwell

Commented on 2008-05-15 12:11:35

We (England) are not in it though :/

bleachedsmiles

Commented on 2008-05-15 12:29:24

yeah i dont think this will sell as well as the fifa worldcups. Simply because none of the uk is in it.

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

Johnny_Holiday

Commented on 2008-05-15 12:38:34

UK is in it, it includes the qualifications game, so you can win the Europe championschip with england or scottland...

Commented on 2008-05-15 13:36:07 In reply to Johnny_Holiday

or Scotland

now you're being ridiculous ;)

star_santo

Commented on 2008-05-15 13:38:33

why aint portugal got the new kit thats strange

blmbox

Commented on 2008-05-15 18:20:58

I'm actually rather excited for Fifa 09, seeing as Euro 2008 is such a good game. This coming from one of the biggest PES fans, btw ...

citizenx

Commented on 2008-05-15 18:29:14

Euro 2008 doesnt support 5v5, does it? Big let down.

As long as it's back for FIFA 09 though :)

Commented on 2008-05-15 18:34:11

I've heard Fifa 09 is going to do 11v11?

If they do, that's going to be amazing.

Kendoguk

Commented on 2008-05-15 18:46:52

why does ronaldo look nothing like himself, and why is buffons stats so high?

Se777eN

Commented on 2008-05-15 19:24:07

love it best fifa to come out PHACT!

Commented on 2008-05-15 19:28:03

*Fact.

itaintrite

Commented on 2008-05-15 20:43:01 In reply to Kendoguk

Posted by Kendoguk

Cause he's the best GK in the world!

n3ro

Commented on 2008-05-15 20:48:19

Played it for almost 3 weeks now. The game is a major improvement since FIFA 08. As you guys mentioned - we look forward to FIFA 09 and I hope they build around this improving formula that they provided in EURO 2008.

masteratt

Commented on 2008-05-15 21:12:25

What the hell, what difficulty is this?

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.

Commented on 2008-05-15 21:25:35

Even though i've been disappointed with Pes in this gen, I still bloody love it.

Hence, i'm playing it right now :)

Baleur

Commented on 2008-05-15 21:31:04

PES feels like smurfs on lsd running around, imo :)
Never liked it, fell in love with fifa 07 the first time i played it due to the proper ball physics =)

Commented on 2008-05-15 22:42:49 In reply to masteratt

Posted by masteratt

What the hell, what difficulty is this?

I'm not sure, but I thiink it is 3/5 (_maybe_ 2/5, but I doubt it). And I was playing against really really crappy teams. I guess I could have used 4/5 though, after some training.

GangStarr

Commented on 2008-05-15 23:48:08

noob!! :P j/k i play on Legendary

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

Zomoniac

Commented on 2008-05-16 14:58:44

1. Yes, England are in it. Every country who played in qualifying is in it. There are achievements that you have to play as England, Northern Ireland and San Marino to get.

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.