UEFA Euro 2012 is an expansion pack to FIFA 12, it’s different to past FIFA games related to tournaments as instead of being an entire retail game, it has been made into a DLC for the latest FIFA instead.

Euro 2012 features 53 teams from Europe, adding even more than FIFA 12 had, however many of these teams are unlicensed which is very disappointing. FIFA is known for having licensing for nearly every team, so it’s surprising to play a FIFA game with fake player names – it doesn’t affect the experience but you would just expect EA to get the real names in. New teams in the DLC include Wales, Kazakhstan, San Marino and more. EA Also updated all players stats for the DLC so that they reflect themselves in real life now, so some players have gone down like Fernando Torres due to his bad season, while others have gone up such as Sneijder. Euro 2012 also features some new modes for you to play with.

The main new mode is Expedition mode. In this you start out with a random team of players, none  of whom are rated highly, you then pick a group to start with and are taken to a map where you select your opponent. Beating your opponent bags you one of their players, beat them once to get a reserve, again you get a sub, again your get a starting XI player. When you beat a team you get to build a road to another country to face them. You cannot ace countries unless you have a road built to them so you must beat some countries before you can play others. If you lose a match then a road will be destroyed resulting in you having to replay it to regain the road. Expedition is one of the best modes in Euro 2012, it’s practically Ultimate Team, offline, and without the auction houses, so if your not very good at building a team online you can do it offline which is much easier. Also when you beat a country you get a mosaic piece. These mosaic pieces are collected and each country has 3, once you collect them all you form a picture. You have to beat all countries three times so it takes quite a long time to achieve.

Other modes In the DLC include just the basic tournament mode, in which you pick a team from the Euro’s tournament, or you can add a squad and then must complete the group stage, and 3 knockout stages to win the tournament. This tournament can also be played online but is not much different to any other tournament modes In Fifa even though the trophy celebration at the end is some bit different. One thing that does make it different though is the stadiums.

EA has put all 8 official stadiums from Ukraine, and Poland into the game and they look great. Many will think that they feel the same as any other stadiums in the game but they have a different atmosphere to them which changes the tone of play in comparison to FIFA 12, which is nice as the look of FIFA 12 can get somewhat stale at times. All 8 stadiums look great, and the crowds are also somewhat updated with them waving flags for the teams playing. Another thing that has been updated are the menus which have all been changed to purple and the in game menus have all changed to match the colors of the Euros. One big complaint  we had with the DLC was that you cannot play your friends online. This comes across as a rather illogical move in leaving out this feature, and it’s actually quite irritating that they did leave it out. You can still play offline but it’s nice to play people you know online instead of random strangers all the time.

The Euro 2012 DLC is basically just more FIFA 12 but it doesn’t even add much. Expedition mode is fun but can get quite boring, the tournament mode is just like any other tournament in the game, the updated squads is nice, and the new stadiums look great, but not being able to play friends online and EA not getting all the teams licensed is quite an annoyance. If you’re a big football fan then we recommend you pick it up as you’ll get some good fun out of it, and will help hype you for the Euros. If your not that big a fan then then isn’t really any reason why you need it, FIFA 12 will keep you going while you wait for the next full fledged FIFA game later this year.

Final Score: 3.5/5