Uefa Champions League 2004-2005 - Xbox

After many years being owned and developed by Eidos/Silicon Dreams, EA releases the official Champions League game for the 2004/2005 season.

The latest revision of the engine, first introduced in FIFA 2003, carries over most gameplay elements from the 2005 edition, but includes some gameplay changes, such as slightly more aggressive attacking AI (reducing the need to constantly push players forward with the off-the-ball button, while ball control remains as before), new refereeing aspects such as occasional deliberate mistakes (like the odd bad offside or throw-in call, without the referee's errors actually cheating the player), the advantage rule and handballs, as well as a new set-piece system that replaces the much-criticised "targeting" and "push and shove" from the 2005 edition. This system is far less rigid and formulaic, since a directional arrow and power bars determine how crosses are played, and there are four movement configurations for the players, which makes every indirect free kick and corner play out differently. On direct free kicks, players can choose to take precise or curled shots, or lay off a pass to a nearby player to probe a gap in the defence. All options are available at any time and aren't determined by the distance to goal. Many of these changes were later carried over into the new FIFA 06 engine, which was also chosen as the match engine for the later FIFA Manager from Bright Future.

The presentation is modelled on real TV broadcasts, with goals, fouls and shot attempts summarised not only in the highlight reel, but also during stoppages and in picture-in-picture pop-ups. Since the game is presented in a false letterbox format, statistics are occasionally shown alongside the scoreline, letting you keep track of certain objectives. A highly requested feature, the ability to see the stamina bars of the players from both teams closest to the ball, was finally added, as were icons for the special abilities (pace, shooting, dribbling or tackling) of the best players.

The Champions League, in which the player leads a team to the final at the Atatürk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul to succeed FC Porto as European champions, is one of the available modes, but not the main one. That honour belongs to the "The Season" mode, in which the player first creates their manager avatar and then works through a series of 50 missions, starting with a tight match the previous week against a Champions League rival, followed by a club takeover and rising expectations, and (hopefully) ending with the Champions League final. In this mode, players can also unlock additional features such as balls, a stadium and special exhibition modes by meeting objectives set by the club president during the season. Some of these are decisive matches (failure at which can lead to being sacked), while others are simply about balancing the squad. Other modes include the usual friendlies, "Home and Away" (a two-player friendly), scenarios (in which the player can create situations, such as two players defending a 1-0 lead for 45 minutes) and training.

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