UEFA Euro 2004 (Xbox) > Reviews (5)

I likes me sports game I do - oh yes I do - oh yes I do - ladyboyboy loves his sports games.

The run up to a major football event such as the World Cup or European Championships will inevitably lead to the release of a franchised game to cash in on the frenzied upsurge in interest to all things football related and being the sucker I am I plumped for the UEFA Euro 2004 game released in May 2004 - I sadly paid full price - £34.99 and shudder ever time I think of how many decent pre-owned games I could have bought instead - in a nutshell this game is bobbins - quite possibly one of the worst ever released on the X-Box and the worst football game known to man.

The basics of the game are that you take control of one of the teams who qualified to play in Euro 2004 and using the same controls as Pro Evolution Soccer you can either play a full European Championship - play one on one games against the teams available or have practice matches to improve your skills - I would strongly recommend the practice mode as a first port of call as the AI is simply ridiculously hard to beat even when you match England or France against teams such as Latvia.

The controls are easy to master but the players controlled by the computer are way faster and never seem to miss a tackle. When programming the fact that Michael Owen is really fast in real life doesn't seem to have been taken into account and he is as fast as all of the other England players.

The graphics are nothing to shout from the rooftops about either - you can't make out who players are supposed to be - something you can do in Pro Evolution and FIFA 2006 - Player movements are jerky and not fluid by any stretch of the imagination. FIFA with great foresight probably knew how bad this game was going to be and wouldn't allow the use of real names for most of the players.

The less said about the sound effects the better - they are dreadful - the crowd chants sound like a crisp packets being rubbed between the palms of your hands and quickly get on your nerves - commentary is basic and very repetitive and within minutes you will have your TV muted to stop the rage from completely taking over!

I have a word of advice - don't buy this game - don't even accept it if people are trying to give it to you - it's the worst game I have ever played.