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Published
by EA Sports
Developed by EA Sports
Release Date: Out Now
Price: £39.99 (PS2) £29.99 (PC)
This
week has seen the continuation of the Champions League football
and from now on it becomes exciting because it's knockout
time instead of the boring group format that you have in
the first phase. Just in time for recommencement of the
competition, EA Sports have released UEFA Champions League
2004-2005 to allow you to play out the competition for yourself.
Of course you could play out an unofficial version of the
competition in the FIFA games but here you have everything
fully licensed with the correct teams prior to the January
transfer window activity. This review looks at the PC and
PlayStation 2 versions of the game.
UEFA
Champions League is not just about the competition itself
although naturally it's the main focus of the game. The
modes on offer are UEFA Champions League, Tournament, Situation,
Online, The Season and Practice. The UEFA Champions League
mode allows you to either pick one of the teams who made
it to the group stage of the competition or you can substitute
one of the teams from another in the same country. So in
effect then you could swap Liverpool for West Brom or another
English team if you wanted to. Then of course the aim is
to win the competition. Practice and Tournament need no
explanation but Situation allows you to create a scenario
and play it out. For instance you could create a match between
Bayern Munich and Arsenal with the score beginning at 3-1
and then take control of Arsenal and attempt to win the
match. It's not a bad mode to have but the main mode is
The Season.
Contrary
to its name, in The Season mode you don't simply play through
a season going from match to match. Instead you pick a team
(doesn't have to be a Champions League team), create a manager
and then you'll have to play through a series of events
with the ultimate goal of winning the Champions League.
I picked Liverpool and my first task was to win the final
game of the season against Newcastle United in order to
clinch the fourth and final Champions League space. I managed
to win the game only to find that a new owner had bought
the club and expected us to go on to bigger things. Pre-season
matches followed with goals set for them also. The one I
had to win by three clear goals whilst in another I had
to keep a clean sheet (concede no goals in other words).
The chairman demanded I sold an attacker, midfielder and
a defender and with the money raised, I had to buy replacements.
Fortunately the sales and purchases were instant so as to
avoid any waiting around. Well you get the idea then you
simply have to meet the challenges that are thrust your
way which leads to the constant improvement of your team.
Let's
look at how the game plays then. I was expecting the game
to simply be the same as FIFA 2005 and I was surprised to
find it's actually a little better but some glitches tend
to spoil things somewhat. Player movement seems improved
as do the set piece moves especially the free-kicks. Shooting
seems a little more intuitive and the game as a whole seems
to flow with more realism. It's still not as realistic as
the Pro Evolution Soccer series but improvement definitely
seems to be being made. However, there are some things which
spoil the game to some degree. Penalties are sometimes given
when it's clearly obvious that no foul was made. Some offside
decisions seem dodgy to say the least and the lack of a
radar (the small overhead view of the pitch that usually
sits at the bottom of the screen) is definitely a negative
point. However whilst these problems can be overcome, I
experienced one bug which plain annoyed me.
Playing
in a game I needed to avoid losing by 3 clear goals I was
in the uncomfortable position of being 3-1 down. It looked
like I was (just about) going to get the result I needed
to qualify for the next round when disaster struck as my
defender, who was about 3 virtual feet away, was judged
to have hacked down the opponent's striker in my penalty
box. After that Oscar winning performance the opponent's
striker picked himself up, placed the ball on the penalty
spot and then hit the ball towards my goal. My keeper agonisingly
stretched for the ball only to deflect the ball just inside
the post. A goal! Well yes it was a goal but hang on a minute
the referee had just given a corner. Thinking I had been
mistaken I pressed the start button and watched the action
replay. The ball definitely went just inside the post and
then proceeded to bobble toward the back of the net so why
was the corner given? It's a bug, a big dirty bug that thankfully
let me off the hook as the match finished 3-1 but nevertheless
it's disappointing to see it and as this was on the PlayStation
2 version there's no chance of a patch.
UEFA
Champions League doesn't really offer any graphical advances
from FIFA 2005. The game does look good though and as you'd
expect the PC version looks the best of all partly due to
the high resolutions the game can run in. For some reason
the developers chose to display the matches in a letterbox
format with player details and the score being shown in
the borders. Whilst this isn't a bad thing as such, if you
don't like it it's irritating that you can't disable this
view and return to a full screen display. The default camera
view is a zoomed out view which personally I prefer but
you can alter it if you wish. The player likenesses are
average with some players being recognisable and some looking
nothing like the players. The presentation though is superb
and wipes the floor with other football games on the market.
You'll see split screen action replays and picture-in-picture
of your manager during a game (in The Season mode) which
definitely gives the game a TV style presentation. Load
times can be rather painful on the PlayStation 2 but on
the PC they are very quick and it's quite a contrast moving
from one version to another.
Whilst
UEFA Champions League is fine for deaf gamers there are
some omissions. The match commentary is unsubtitled, which
is always to be expected but there is a lack of text messages
or icons to inform you of refereeing decisions. For example
you'll get no visual indication that a handball foul has
been committed. You'll simply see the break in play and
a player raising his upturned hands as if to say 'I'm innocent
ref'. Whilst playing The Season mode there is also an EA
Sports Talk Radio show being played which discusses how
your team has been playing. None of this is subtitled although
to be fair it's not really important. All information outside
of a game is shown in text though (apart from the EA Sports
Talk Radio) and you'll always know what your objectives
are. When playing The Season mode you can pause a match
at any time and check what goals need to be accomplished
which is very useful indeed.
People
are always sceptical about sports games that are simply
based on one competition because they feel it's not going
to be worth the asking price due to its limited replay value.
UEFA Champions League 2004-2005 stands up well to this kind
of criticism and the inclusion of The Season mode makes
it worthwhile for fans of the FIFA series. Not forgetting
of course that on both PC and PlayStation 2 you can take
the game online and play in exhibition games as well as
arrange a tournament, which again adds value to the game.
However my satisfaction with the game was dented by some
of the decision making issues within the game. The aforementioned
'goal that never was' incident being the most disappointing
of all. This is a rare glitch to be fair but it nevertheless
could ruin your enjoyment (if this occurred in an online
game you'd be furious) of what is otherwise a good football
game.
Overall
Game Rating: 7.0/10
A worthwhile game based on the premier European club competition.
The game plays better than FIFA 2005 but there's a few glitches
that should have been ironed out.
Deaf
Gamers Classification:
(Click
the letter or here
for details)
You'll
be completely unaware of the Talk Radio and some icons (or
text) for refereeing decisions would have been nice.
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