Hear Clive Tyldesly shout out your name!
Now here’s the bit I love. Isn’t it every football-loving boy’s dream to play and captain their country? Well, this mode let’s you do that and, I’m still grinning about this, you can put your surname on the back of your shirt and have the commentator refer to you by your surname throughout the game! This made me feel about I was 15 years of age, I can tell you. I was delighted to discover that amongst the 200+ commentator names that you can choose whilst creating your player; it had my surname amongst them. Not everyone is going to be as lucky, but I can tell you that if you are it’s really a moment to be savoured as you score a goal and the commentator shouts out your name when you strike the ball and then you run off to celebrate and see your name on the back of the shirt. Get in there my son! (We can't be too far away from using the vision cam to capture our likenesses, it's going to happen).Despite playing plenty of games in the other game modes, I’ve been back to playing ‘Captain Your Country’ time and time again purely so I can feel just a smidgen of what it must be like to play for England. This highlight of my EURO 2008 experience so far was making my way through the game mode right up to the UEFA Cup final against France and hearing and seeing my name alongside the likes of Rooney and Gerrard as I tussled with players and run myself ragged on the pitch to help my team secure a victory and lift the trophy; simply brilliant.
Okay, I'm getting excited now...deep breath, calm down, right...let’s get back on track to the standard matches, such as the EURO 2008 tournament. The interface that you use prior to each match is practically unchanged from FIFA 08 allowing you to set up man marking, formations, team mentality and so on. On the pitch however, there’s some notable changes.
One of the new features that EA has been touting this year is interactive celebrations. When you score a goal, you have a 10 second period to run within the confines of the pitch and execute a number of moves (around 14 overall), such as holding your hand in the air (Michael Owen-style) or raising two hands above your head (Shearer-style). The celebration culminates in a range of self indulgent finishing move where you have a couple of seconds to press a button to dive on your chest, slide on your knees or something similar
I can understand that the novelty may wear off slightly once you’ve gone through and mastered the whole array of moves, but at the moment, I love it; I think it really adds to the whole football match experience. If I score a 25-yard screamer it’s great fun running off from the pursuing team-mates, beckoning them to follow you and then holding your hand to your ear at the whistling-Turkish supporters or running for the corner flag to do the ‘Crouch-robot dance’. Online this is sure to annoy your opponent, which can only be a good thing. Personally, I feel the interactive celebrations have more of an impact and are certainly more fun to execute when you’re playing as your user-created player in ‘Captain Your Country’ mode, but there still a welcome addition and intuitive to pull off.
One of the noticeable changes on match-day is the reaction of the crowd. When you play away, the fans of the home team whistle when you have the ball. I played against Turkey in a friendly and the sound of whistling grew and grew in volume as I passed the ball around the back four to waste precious time. It’s a small change, but one that adds a bit more atmosphere to match-days and one that makes you feel a bit more on edge, especially if you’re trying to chase the game or if you’re only leading by 1 goal in a crucial match.
