As usual, Electronic Arts takes advantage of a major soccer to even to propose a videogame version of it. A few weeks before UEFA Euro 2008's kick off, the eponymous game offers to wake up the patriot inside of you to lead your national team on to the victory. Largely inspired from FIFA 08 and spiced up by a party-like atmosphere, does FIFA 08 have what it takes to become an undoubted pro-player?

Rendez-vous in Switzerland and Austria

Out with club teams and some national selections, on with the 53 European countries represented in UEFA Euro 2008. As for the game modes, aside from the classic Kick off and the indispensable Penalty Session, the game of course honors Euro 2008 with the possibility if competing in the tournament's final phases or to begin with the qualifications. You can also generate random groups in order to vary things a bit, or to give England a chance of taking on the final phase towards the title (joking). The Scenario mode submits a series of challenges based on real match situations, in which you will generally have to turn the score about with particular conditions. One will also notice the presence of mini-games made especially for this installment: Juggling, consisting in holding the console vertically and chaining QTEs to perform the longest series of juggles possible), Wall Challenge (some kind of soccer **** in which the player has to hit specific blocks to raise his score) and Quiz (series of diverse questions about the national clubs and Euro's story). Unluckily, this PlayStation Portable installment does not offer online play, a not really welcomed amputation that makes the title's lifetime weigh even less on the balance.

UEFA Euro 2008 also means all official licenses from all countries that are UEFA members. Each nation comprises, in average, around thirty players. Some will regret the absence of marking players as well as the presence of others that may surprise or bother. A sometimes arguable choice, notably when it comes to noticing the surprises announce of the 23 names retained often provoke. Moreover, you will here have to get satisfied with the developers' personal choices. The 8 stadiums welcoming the competition are of course included and the player will have the occasion to trespass the grasses from St.-Jakob-Park, Stadion Zuric, Stade de Genève, Wankdorf-stadion, Stadion Salzburg, Stadion Tivoli, Weidmannsdorf and Ernst-Happel-Stadion, truthfully represented for the occasion. Everything, in the title, is aimed at making you bathe into the ambience of this sports event and on this point, Electronic Arts does not disappoint.

A fragile competition...

UEFA Euro 2008's gameplay is not surprising at any point. As foreseeable as FIFA 08's one, the playability of this opus does not bring any novelty. This Euro 2008 offers similar sensations compared to its predecessors with repetitive tactics, identical movements, game technique that don't evolve and that obliges the player to stick to the same scheme. Rebuking, all the more as the artificial intelligence has not been pushed up in any manner and will thus not help feeling a bit like discovering new features in this episode. A series that seems to have some real problems to rise above the rest on PSP and here, the pill is hard to swallow. Visually speaking, it nearly is the same result. The game displays textures still as enjoyable but really close to the 08 edition, so, they're still improvable. The modelizations are not really convincing and the whole looks like a soup one could have hoped better, despite the few ambience note brought by the event.