Many of EA’s sports franchises get criticized for adding frivolous “innovations” instead of focusing on improving gameplay. The FIFA/UEFA series of games has recently been an exception, as it has improved its on-the-pitch action incrementally and at times significantly over the last few iterations. The ball moves more freely, the AI for your teammates and opponents is sharper, and the controls and skill moves are more responsive than ever in UEFA Euro 2008.

The other thing this title does especially well is immersing you into the Euro experience. When starting the game, you choose a country to represent, and your performance in the various game modes is scored and averaged into the ranking for your chosen team. This “Battle of Nations” lasts until June 30th, and your work in the game can impact your country’s place in the standings. Like the ESPN slogan, this is not just eleven versus eleven; this is country versus country. Lastly, there’s an online knockout tournament that you don’t have to play in one sitting. You can log in, and if someone else is in a similar spot in his or her bracket, you will play your match against them and continue the tournament.

Over fifty nations are represented. You can play from the qualifying stages on up to the finals, and also customize the teams participating in the tournament to your liking. The squads are expanded, and most of the world’s best players are available for selection. Curiously, though, some teams – including major participants like the Netherlands – don’t have their real players, which is surprising given the depth of EA’s FIFA license.

The players, kits, and stadia look fantastic and authentic, including smaller venues for qualifying matches. The action is fast-paced and smooth, save the occasional insignificant hiccup when using some of the various camera angles. Players move realistically with a large variety of lifelike animations so that the action never looks bland or repetitive.

The announcing team is typical for a sports game. While they don’t really detract from the experience, they occasionally offer inaccurate or delayed descriptions of the action, they sometimes contradict themselves, and they repeat catch phrases over time. Their enthusiasm does add to the excitement, though, and they do mention specific items about some of the countries and players, giving it a broadcast feel. The crowds are vibrant and vocal, chanting and singing throughout the contest. A European-style pop EA Trax soundtrack underscores it all, which is appropriate for the theme of this title.

The eleven-versus-eleven action is solid, as players will make runs, mark up, pass, and shoot realistically, although you will need to occasionally switch manually to another player to keep your team’s shape and to keep the defense tidy. The pace is a bit quicker than FIFA 08, and the action is definitely slanted to the offense, but it mostly matches the exciting style of many of the tournament’s participants. Jostling for the ball has also improved which makes winning balls in the air challenging and adds a fun dimension to crosses into the box, free kicks, and goal kicks. One area that still needs some work is the fouling, as most teams combine for less than five fouls in a given contest, even using longer halves, and penalty kicks are a rare occurrence.