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UEFA Champions League 2004/2005 Review
Score: 
By: Lior Fengas
Date: Monday, 28 February, 2005
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UEFA Champions League 04/05 |
| Game Type: Action |
| Developer: EA Canada |
| Publisher: EA SPORTS |
| Platform: PS2, Xbox, PC |
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Built around an improved FIFA 2005 engine, UEFA Champions League 2004/2005 is a quality football game. Better than Konami's games... probably not. The closest thing you can possibly get to capturing the feeling and excitment of the UEFA Champions League on your computer... absolutely! This rather brief review takes a look at a few of the finer points of the game...
Game PlayThe game engine is a tweaked and rather improved version of the already quite pleasing FIFA 2005 engine. Like I've said, it is not as good of engine as Konami's but this does not necessarily make it bad.
You will certainly notice that all of the bugs from FIFA 2005 are gone (no more big gaps in the midfield), while players seem a lot more responsive to your controls. You can now beat players without having to use the elaborate moves assigned to your right analogue stick. Shots are better weighted and more realistic looking.
Finally EA have fixed the free kick and corner systems. When I say fixed, I do not mean they are necessarily perfect... once again Konami has an edge in this department. Thankfully though, the rather restricted FIFA 2005 free kick and corner system has been scrapped and replaced with a far more "free feeling" system which ads a lot to set pieces.
GraphicsThe graphics are designed to look best in night mode. This makes sense as all UCL games take place at night. The stadium and sky lighting is vastly improved and on my PC with a quality video card looked superb. Those of you who played FIFA 2005 on a PC with a 128 MB video card will know all about the bug which caused players to look incredibly "shiney" in night mode. Thankfully EA fixed this and never has a football game looked so impressive on my computer.
SoundWith out a doubt, the best sound in any football video game! Clive Tysley is amazing and is a welcome change from the now rather stale commentary of John Motson. The crowd is involved throughout the match, and the use of the official Champions League theme song really gets the blood pumping.
OptionsNothing overly impressive here. In fact, I don't see any options I didn't already see in FIFA 2005. I do not have a huge issue with EA releasing these "updated games" each year, be it a Euro, World Cup or UCL game. However, they need to learn to at least add something to every part of the game. I cannot give the options a good score when they are simply the same options from a game that was released 4 months ago.
OverallOverall UEFA Champions League 200/2005 is a game I would recommend to anyone who enjoys a good game of football. It is not ground breaking, but it does do what it promises... it captures the excitement of the UEFA Champions League. The most impressive part of this game, and perhaps the one exception to my groundbreaking statement is the sound. It is truly superb!
Check out the official UEFA Champions League 2004/2005 website for a complete list of game modea and features which I did not mention in this review. Screenshots are also available there.
Score
Gameplay: 8
Graphics: 9
Sound: 9.5
Options: 7
Controls: 7.5
Overall: 8.5
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