UEFA Champions League 2004-2005 Review

As we have all recently seen Electronic Arts are pretty much hell-bent on securing as many official sports licenses as humanly possible. Although recent acquisitions such as the ESPN and NFL exclusivity deals have hit the headlines, the company have also been quietly securing the football/soccer market, recently gaining the license to bring the most prestigious club competition in the world to the videogame market.

At first glance, EAâ??s UEFA Champions League 2004/2005 is nothing more than a blatant cash-in, the sort of thing that old-school EA would have done a few years ago; after all, in the space of 12 months weâ??ve had UEFA Euro 2004 and FIFA 2005, is the Champions League merely to satisfy the lust of a relatively small collection of fans whose teams regularly play in the competition?

We have to be honest in saying that on first glance we cynically thought the title would be just that, and after playing a few games we still thought the same, but delving a little deeper into the game, UEFA Champions League does reveal one or two innovations.

After the customary UEFA Champions League music by Tony Britten finishes, the testing and tweaks become apparent from the start, as the now traditional EA Trax has been developed into â??EA Sports Talk Radio,â? something that will sound very familiar to anyone whoâ??d tuned into Sports shows on both sides of the Atlantic. A radio presenter introduces various â??callersâ??, who go on to express their opinions about forthcoming matches, along with providing some rather interesting banter on various subjects such as the ludicrous amounts of money in modern day football - surely a topic that EA has thrown in with a wry smile.

Although for the most part the options available to you are generic EA variations, the actual Champions League campaign option, inventively titled â??The Season,â? introduces a slight twist to what has become quite commonplace in some videogames today. Weâ??re all now used to â??Create-aâ?¦â? features in games, and for the first time EA have introduced it into one of their football games, but with a twist. Players can actually create their own manager from a range of attributes including everything from hair colour to style of clothes â?“ weâ??ll explain why shortly. Thereâ??s a lot of flexibility for players to subtly change their managerâ??s appearance, which is somewhat ironic given that certain other features in the game offer less flexibility that a steel rod!

UEFA includes a â??Situationâ? mode, for footie purists where gamers can structure various scenarios into a match; for instance, recreating Unitedâ??s glorious Champions League Cup victory against Bayern Munich back in 1999. Itâ??s a feature that has been utilised before, we seem to remember as far back as the ISS series on the SNES in the 1990s, but it is a mode that gamers will find quite attractive. For the ultimate challenge, try playing as Norwich City against AC Milan at the start of the 2nd half with City 5-0 down, its TOUGH. Again, this mode adds an extra layer of depth that is sure to extend the gameâ??s longevity even more than before; we are still playing FIFA 2005 on Live! pretty much every night and loving it as much as we did the first time we sampled itâ??s delights at EGN last August, which of course does bring up the same old question, â??why should I bother with UEFA?â?

Well the aforementioned â??Seasonâ? mode changes around the structure of the game compared to previous FIFA offerings - and virtually every other football game available come to think about it. Instead of playing match after match until you either win the league/tournament or get booted out of it, youâ??ll actually have to deal with a variety of objectives in your pursuit to the cup.

Whilst FIFA 2005â??s Career Mode certainly added a level of depth to that title, UEFAâ??s depth is slightly more developed and adds definite substance between matches, yet it does have a couple of black marks next to itâ??s scorecard.

For starters the manager that you created has regular updates and objectives set by the clubâ??s owner (something that a certain Mr Ferguson would never adhere to.) Before the match, the owner of the club will request that the team score a certain number of goals, set the formation of the team, and even request that certain players perform on the pitch for a certain number of minutes or even score! Whilst the whole objective system works at times, there were several instances when it actually made the game too rigid to the point of generating extreme gamepad throwing frustration.

Failing to complete objectives set by the owner will on occasion mean that players in the squad will have to be sold. This happened quite early on when, playing as Man Utd we were beaten by their Reserves â?“ our only excuse being that the â??reserveâ? squad did include the likes of Alan Smith, Wes Brown and Kleberson! Post-match training over and done with, we were presented with the highly annoying transfer market screens where the owner/chairman forced us to sell a few star players to shake-up the team. This meant that we had to choose which player to sell from a list of Roy Keane, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, and Christiano Ronaldo â?“ letâ??s face it, after one bad training session, what Premiership chairman would ever dare force his manager to sell quality players like that, unless youâ??re a Chelsea or Aston Villa fan perhapsâ?¦

There is little leeway and we were eventually forced to sell Roy Keane to Barcelona and Paul Scholes to Middlesborough. With the income generated from the sale of two star players, we then had to bring in new faces to replace two players that we never really wanted to leave. To compound that, most of the players that we approached werenâ??t interested in a transfer, and were left with the prospect of buying second-rate players who youâ??ve never heard of - although we did manage to unsettle Viera, a strange sight in a United top!

The idea of objective based gameplay is a great idea that does help to add depth to the game and give it a definite sense of structure, but the fact that at times itâ??s just simply too rigid is of concern; you need to feel that itâ??s you as a manager making the important decisions, not being dictated to by a tyrant chairman. If the feature were to make itâ??s FIFA debut this Autumn, then please EA, be a little more flexible with it and please allow the manager a little more freedom to make their own mind up about the important decisions.

Going into the season requires you to play on the final day of the domestic season â?“ a nice touch that gently introduces gamers to the campaign structure of the game and the full blow out of the Champions League competition.

One of the first things that strikeâ??s you whilst playing the game itself is that it seems to flow a lot quicker than FIFA 2005 does. The continuing improvement to fluidity that has happened in the last few FIFA titles continues with UEFA Champions League and weâ??re hoping that bodes well for FIFA 2006. Whilst UEFA does include the brilliant right analogue-stick tricks of FIFA 2005 it does have to be pointed out that the various moves and abilities donâ??t feel quite as profound as they do in UEFAâ??s big brother, and at first we were left wondering whether the sticks actually did anything at all.

The majority of the actually gameplay is nigh-on identical to EAâ??s last few football titles, with a control system that doesnâ??t dare to introduce any new concepts and virtually indistinguishable AI so matches have a habit of feeling strangely similar if youâ??ve been playing FIFA 2005 or UEFA Euro 2004 recently.

Changes have been made however to the in-game display; which is now presented in the increasingly popular letterbox interface with various match statistics presented in the black borders â?“ whether or not the cut-down view is the reason behind the increased fluidity and frame-rate (ala Resident Evil 4) or simply a cosmetic effect remains to be seen.

After developing a strong free-kick system in recent FIFA titles, EA have taken the chance to experiment, the result of which isnâ??t too favourable and feels more hit â??nâ?? miss than before. The crosshair of FIFA 2005 has been replaced by a square that is reminiscent of spot-the-ball competitions, whilst the ability to judge the kick accurately seems to be diminished somewhat. One of the criticisms made against FIFA 2005 was the rigidity of the corner system, and once again EA havenâ??t missed the chance to tweak and as a result the range of options and control over the corner is greatly improved. As well as being able to direct the general aim of the ball, something that was significantly missed in FIFA, the developers have also given gamers the chance to choose from a few options and sub-options about whether the corner should be direct or in-swinging. Although these sorts of options were available in FIFA, in UEFA the emphasis is placed more on the direction of the ball than which player is being targeted. As a result the cornering system is greatly improved and is sure to please those unhappy with the FIFA system.

Away from the adjustments, the general sounds and visuals havenâ??t been messed around with; the time certainly hasnâ??t been spent trying to improve on the graphics in the game since the players look as they do in FIFA, although subtle changes such as the inclusion of the Champions League logo on shirt sleeves adds to the authenticity of the game - no matter how strange it seems to see it appear on the shirts like Norwich City. Audio wise the crowd still sings the club songs and cheer as if their team has already won the Cup, but as itâ??s the European Cup, Motty and McCoist are replaced by Clive Tyldesley and Andy Gray to provide gamers with their viewpoints and comments as the matches unfold. While perhaps the banter between the two isnâ??t quite as good as M&M, itâ??s not a bad attempt to please both of the UKâ??s broadcasters of Champions League football.