Horrible, Pessimo jogo...!
Now, granted, I'm not really into football, and the prospect of an even-numbered summer without the customarily blinkered Team England hype fills me with joy rather than gloom. This didn't, however, stop me from playing Pro Evolution Soccer 08 with glee for most of the winter (mostly because of the excellent customisation, always solid in Pro Evo, but also for the nuanced, addictive gameplay.) This EA effort makes me wonder just why it is, other than the big licencing fee injections, that this lumbering production-line giant of a sports-gaming empire has been allowed to dominate its market this far into the century.
In fact, just one look at Euro 2008 confirms my suspicion that EA has been using the same engine for all its sports games for ages. As a cricket and rugby fan, I've been dissapointed with their consistently unenthusiastic efforts in those fields for ages. But to find myself looking at the player models in a football, wait, a football game, and thinking, 'those look just like the models in Rugby 2004' had me fairly gobsmacked.
If you can get past the presentation (which I couldn't) by hoping for good gameplay, don't hope too hard. Aside from the free kick innovations, which seem pretty trivial, it's a suggish game to play if you're used to better things.
Granted, International football rarely scales the heights like the domestic game, but playing this really does feel like one of those awful 50-plus masters events. Jogging around the park, leaning on one another every five minutes for a breather, you know the drill. In a word (or two), past-it.
Don't steal it. Don't torrent it. Don't read this. Don't, whatever you do, buy it.