Football,
and
Euro 2008
where the national pride of 16 European teams will fight it out in June. I've just gone to look at tickets prices for the first match,
Switzerland v Czech
and ouch - the cheapest is 539 pounds($1368), and the dearest is 728 quid.
Thank goodness EA's
UEFA Euro 2008
is as fine a football game - as in console game - that you'll find. The graphics, sounds and stadiums are simply as good as they have ever been in a football game.
It'll be interesting to see how well this sells in the UK after England's embarrassing failure to qualify (the
blame game continues
)
Personally, I'm backing
Kazakhstan
because I think they need a bit of encouragement and I'm hoping Borat will turn up to at least sing the national anthem. Verrry niice!
Check out this gamer's goal efforts set to Weezer:
And the concept is fun. I picked Liechtenstein for a kick-off single team match and lost horribly: 4-0 horribly against a strong Russian side. Needless to say it didn't help my points accumulation. You can choose any country and every goal will contribute to raising your cred on the online leaderboard.
I enjoyed the Captain Your Country mode in which you control one player and try and beat three others by working your way up to captain through consistent play, and with drive and a passion.
Pick your player well - watch out for the
potential stars
. Solid, very realistic, great graphics of sweaty football players - it looks and sounds like the real McCoy. You have to wonder how much more realistic football games can get.
MadGamer rating: 9 / 10
Conflict Denied Ops
(Eidos. Xbox 360, PC, PS3. 16+)
Conflict Denied Ops is another anti-terrorism mission set across South America, Africa and Siberia in which you have to stop a third-world dictatorship from getting nuclear weapons.
Teamwork is the essence, multiplayer online or cooperative. In single player you switch between two CIA paramilitary operatives using your A1 partner (agent Lang or Graves) as an extension of your own weaponry, and for covering fire as you hunt the enemy. Great idea with some nice weapon combinations, but graphics and AI feel dated.
It's the fifth in the series and not a lot has changed, even though other shooters have moved on. If your expectations aren't too high and you want some up-and-go retro style, you'll soon switch into the standard hunt-down-the-bad-guys-with-the nukes storyline as you travel around the globe, trying to kill terrorists and randomly blowing stuff up.
You can download a
PC demo here
.
MadGamer rating: 6 / 10
Turning Point: Fall of Liberty
(Codemasters. Xbox 360, PC, PS3. R13)
Turning Point
is a WWII-based story with an historical twist that makes it interesting.
In 1931, Winston Churchill was
hit by a taxi
but survived. This game pretends he was killed.
So Churchill's leadership didn't happen, so no Normandy invasion and Europe, including the UK, was under Nazi rule by 1945.
I love mad Dr Who-like twists like this, but somehow the game doesn't fully exploit the possibilities and becomes a rather average WWII story without the character and plot development it could have had.
The main character is a New York construction worker on a large building job who spots the Luftwaffe in the sky - not quite the charcter you'd expect to play in a first person war shooter about the Nazis.
With the Statue of Liberty blitzed by Zeppelins, and the city crumbling in smouldering ruin, it may set the scene and lend realism to the game, but there is an alarmingly disproportionate number of American dead, and survivors lining the streets, as buildings come down.
In fact, this game starts out so dramatic you'd think it didn't need consistency to carry it through. Sadly the AI, frame rate and (not-so-next-gen) graphics don't live up to the Unreal Engine hype. Cumbersome controls and the odd unfinished graphic doesn't make things any better. Good idea - pity the game becomes dull.
MadGamer rating: 5 / 10
*If you don't know our soccer slang: Jogo Bonito is Portuguese for beautiful game, used to describe skillful, flowing football, epitomized by Brazil at their best. e.g. The great Brazil team of 1970 played jogo bonito.
