Review: Uefa Euro 2008 Xbox 360 game

The first thing you notice about EA's Uefa Euro 2008 is that it's not quite true to reality, in that England is represented in the game, despite being noticeably absent from the actually championships this summer.

Actually, it's not a mistake – the game includes all the European teams from the qualifying stages, because it's possible to play your team through the entire campaign from qualifiers to the final. Still, while it's odd to see England given such prominence in a tournament in which they're not playing, it's also a nice opportunity to play 'what-if?' and to settle a few scores.

Uefa Euro 2008 is to a certain extent based on EA's existing Fifa titles, although it's a considerable improvement on the Xbox 360 version of Fifa 08, not least because it comes much closer to matching the speed of play of competing title Pro Evolution Soccer 2008.

Gameplay, as with all modern football games, is hard to pick up at first simply because of the sheer number of button presses and combinations you need to learn before you can avoid being walloped by San Marino. They're all fairly logical, though, and there's a good guide in the setup menu, so it didn't take more than a couple of hours before we were parading around as match winners (well, we were losing by less than before, at any rate).

The single-player mode is fine, and it's not an easy game to beat, but it really becomes a lot of fun in multiplayer either over the internet or on a single console. There's a slightly odd mode in which you play one player at all times, although this requires rather a lot of running up and down the pitch trying to get at the ball, so it's less fun than it should be. Playing through this mode does unlock the chance to play as captain, though, which is more entertaining.

In all, if you're looking for the ideal post-pub football game, this is an excellent choice, and the single-player mode offers a suitable level of difficulty to sustain interest.