UEFA Euro 2004 Demo

Every four years, the best national teams in Europe gather up and compete in the most prestigious competition on the continent, in order to bring home the title of the best European country. Prior to this, though, all of them must get through the qualifier stage, where groups are formed and only the best two in each group get to advance to the actual competition.

In UEFA Euro 2004, you can be the winner of the tournament yourself, by leading the desired team to glory throughout the entire cup, starting from the qualifiers. You can also set up friendly matches to assess the skill level of your players, by testing their abilities in simulated confrontations with any of the other teams available in the game.

There are a total of 51 teams present in this installment, complete with player names, shirt designs and even the logos on their equipment. Moreover, you can also play on the actual stadiums the competition took place on, which are closely modeled after their real counterpart. By blending these elements with each other, you can really get into the atmosphere of the competition, especially since the difficulty level has been increased a little and you are always in danger of being eliminated.

Since players do not get the chance to improve their skills over such a short time span, there is something else that affects their ability to perform in peak condition, which is morale. This is now affected by the team's performance and it can have a great impact on the skill level of your players, which is also influenced by the overall fatigue. Thus, you must rest your stars after a few matches, in order to assure yourself they will be able to perform at their best when the time comes.

Gameplay-wise, the game has stepped up the difficulty level a bit, making it a bit harder for you to score goals. Thanks to this aspect, as well as the fact that the physics engine has been greatly improved, you get a much more realistic experience in the end, which translates into more satisfaction after each victory.

UEFA Euro 2004 achieves its purpose and accurately depicts the competition down to the last detail, complete with players, teams and the stadiums involved. As always, the mechanics are almost the same as they are in the original FIFA series, although slightly tweaked to provide more of a challenge to experienced players as well.