Game Overview
Champions League turned up in our pigeon hole and to be honest it sat there for a day not being touched as we were still engrossed in playing Fifa07 when it came to football games, when EA bring out two football games so close together it's hard to imagine them being any different at all, so the excitement levels just weren't there for Champions League, and if we are honest we had only just made the switch from PES6 to Fifa so were hooked on getting better at Fifa.

How wrong can someone be, you think you know a lot about games and that you know what to expect from particular games companies and then a game like Champions League comes along and proves you completely wrong! In fact we felt a little stupid to think that Champions League was going to be anything like Fifa!! Because it's not!

To the untrained eye and to the person who is not familiar to the EA range of football games, you probably won't notice too much of a difference between Fifa07 and Champions League, however on closer inspection, particularly goal celebrations you'll notice the sharpness in graphics and overall quality is immense, like nothing you will have seen before, in any footie game, full stop!

Gameplay is crisp with that typical Fifa feel to it but this time round the players do what you want them to do, and you can score some absolutely fantastic goals although you do have to be on top of your game to score them, the main thing is though that Champions League, just like in real life, is football at its best!

As well as the usual game modes you would expect i.e. Champions League, friendly matches, Xbox Live etc you have whats called Ultimate Team, now this is where it gets very interesting! In Ultimate Team mode you are giving the challenge of creating the best football team possible, you do this by buying cards and exchanging them with people online. Remember when you were 8 years old and you used to collect Merlin or Panini stickers and put them in an album, well it's exactly the same kind of thing although you can pick the best player you get from packs of cards to play in your team. Any swapsies you get can be put on the Xbox Live Transfer List and sold to people.

It really is a superb idea from EA and is very addictive indeed, you have to train your players, renew their contracts, get physios and coaches in and keep an eye on their contracts as well. It really keeps you involved and isn't just about going out on the pitch and scoring goals. At the point of writing this review we can confirm that our squad is a little rubbish although we managed to pick up Andrew Johnson on the Xbox Live transfer list for 250 credits (bargain!), David Bentley, James Harper and Alan Pardew as our manager. The rest of the team we have never heard of but in time they will all be swapped for Superstars, although we'll probably keep AJ!

Our Conclusions


Overall Score: 9/10

Thanks to EA