Will this game challenge FIFA 2005 and Pro Evo Soccer 4 on XBOX?
User Rating: 6 | UEFA Champions League 2004-2005 XBOX
The question I asked myself before I started to play UEFA Champions League 2004-2005 was if it has what it takes to compete with the two big soccer titles for XBox, Pro Evolution Soccer 4 and FIFA 2005. After playing for a bit I came to the conclusion that it sure had the potential, but failed in the end. I will come back to why later on. So, what do UCL 0405 has to offer that FIFA and PES4 don't? First off, there is the season mode where you play in a mission based season. It all starts off with a match that will take you to the champions league if you win so that will be your first objective. If you win, a businessman will buy your team and he wants to evaluate it so a training game between you and your reserves is about to happen. Even here are there some objectives. Win by 2 goals and shoot more than 5 goals on target. As you can see, this season mode is really slow in the beginning but it gets more interesting by time. Some objectives are kinda pointless like sell 3 players and buy 3 players. I mean, why? The point with this is to take your team of choice to glory in the Champions League through a mission-based season. It get's fun the further you go. I found myself sitting there with the so ever unwanted "just one more time" feeling which of course, made my girlfriend upset. You have all had that feeling before don't you? Another difference between the other soccer games for XBox is the referees. They now make faults. In one of the games the referee blowed his whistle for offside when I must have been 1-2 meters on the right side. This is of course a really bad thing. Feels like the referee makes a mistake just because he has to, and not because the situation is hard. Bleh. This should be removed immediately or improved significantly. Another really bad thing about this game is the screen. Honestly, who came up with the bright idea to insert two large black areas at the top and bottom of the screen? The idea of not being able to melee with 2 weapons in Halo 2 is alot smarter than this. I can't see so much as I wanted to see. Annoying like hell and in some camera views it gets even worse. No thanks. The gameplay is pretty good though. If you have played FIFA 2005 it won't take you long until you know how to play UCL. It's the same engine and almost identical controls. Too make a short summary, it doesn't even get close to PES4 but it sure will be a nice replacement for FIFA 2005 while waiting for FIFA 2006. However, if you have FIFA 2005, I wouldn't recommend buying UCL since it pretty much offers the same to you.
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