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For everyone out there who just has to have a soccer game not just every year, but every 6 months, EA hears your plea. Celebrating the excitement of the UEFA European Soccer Championship comes the only official game of the series. The question always comes to my mind when doing one of these games, much like when playing the Olympic Basketball titles is why would anyone choose a title such as this over the major FIFA brand? Sure the game gains momentum strictly for the fact that you will get a more polished engine since the game is 6 months later, but you get less teams and a game that is only focused around that championship series. That’s like buying a baseball title where it features only the division and wild card winners and playing only the playoffs and World Series. Yes the game looks better, sporting 60 frames per second on the field (with various frame rate dropping during celebrations and cut scenes), the lighting is fantastic, the animations smoother and sporting more moves, shots, and tackles, and much more. Sure, the game plays better, with tighter controls, a very solid physics engine for both the ball and players separately, a smarter A.I. for both the challengers and goalie, and oh so much more. The sound is generally the same, but better in some aspects, for instance the game can center it’s attention around the players at hand, which will give you a more authentic feel when a player’s actual name is called more times than not. The crowd is very vivacious cheering, booing, and chanting their team’s anthems, and….well not much more. But I have to ask you, why not just incorporate the tourney in your FIFA games, and continue to polish the game to its fullest extent. I sometimes feel like a beta tester for EA when it comes to these titles. But hey, that’s just me, you on the other hand may feel ecstatic about this title and for good reason…it’s very solid!
If you are a soccer fanatic and want to know what you’re getting for the, slightly, lower price of a 10 dollar price cut here ya go. You get to compete as one of the 52 teams who will play and qualify up to the UEFA EURO 2008 games in Austria and Switzerland. You can play as yourself on the same team with up to 3 friends and even compete with each other for the captain’s job. You all 8 official stadiums beautifully recreated to preserve authenticity. You will notice real time player ratings taking place based on a player’s performance which can swing a team’s momentum throughout the season. Dynamic whether including rain and mud will come into play and change the course of any game. Lastly, you can hop online and represent your country and try to gain global supremacy. While I think the idea of two soccer games by the same company every year is a silly idea, there are many of you how chomp at the bit to get each and every incarnation. For you I say, UEFA EURO 2008 is the best version of soccer that EA has put up to date, and just gets me excited for what lies in store for the full game called FIFA 09 this fall!
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