Its that time of year again – the clash of the two rival ‘Soccer’ video games: Pro Evolution Soccer v EA Fifa Soccer
So who wins it this year….?
Well I purchased myself a PS3 Slim over the weekend and tested out the two demos – and here are my conclusion.
Let me put things into perspective – I was introduced to football gaming when there was a raft of competition on the market: Sensible Soccer, Goal! and Actua Soccer. Even in those days Fifa was seen as the more glamourous game. Meanwhile in Japan only one football game was being played and that was one that was called Winning Eleven. When brought to Europe it was called ISS which evolved to become Pro Evolution Soccer or PES as its more well known as. PES in its earlier days was a soccer simulation through and through. It was not a pick up and play arcade game that EA’s Fifa was. You had to actually learn the controls and practice your passing and shooting. You had to plan moves quickly ahead and sharp eyed enough to see gaps that you can thread throw balls too. This felt like football! Meanwhile with EA Fifa you were battling the AI with a 10-8 scoreline in PES you had to really earn your goals.
EA has always been the more popular product and PES more for the older more serious player – the purist if you like. And they both survived in their own happy medium and eventually killing the rest of the competition and buying out the licences. This was until two things happened – Konami looked at how EA frequently out sold it and also refreshed its product on a regular annual basis while they only realeased a product when they genuinely had a sequel. So Konami wanted a bit of the action – they moved PES out of exclusivity from the Playstation and made it available to all the main formats – they tarted up the game with better graphics started to make the game engine easier on the player (thus appealling to a wider audience) and began releasing their game at a similar time to EA Fifa’s.
Meanwhile EA had looked over its own garden fence and envied how PES managed to reproduced the game so well. So EA went the other direction of making its game more simulation based thus a little harder – and that is where we have it. Both games now are direct competitors, but who is better?
Well I can not give you a clear and out right answer until the full games of both are actually released – but based on the demos’ this is what I feel.
EA are at the moment clear winners almost in every category. PES has really allowed EA to catch up to it big time and PES this year has tried to come a little more back to its roots after what really were poor 2 previous games. The old PES shooting is back and you feel it less mechanical which was EA’s weakness. The shooting is probably going to be PES’s saving grace as in almost every other area EA wins hands down. Yes the players look better in PES than in Fifa – but that would be mainly about it.
Graphics: PES wins on player likeness.
Gameplay: Fifa wins save for the superior shooting in PES, but this is not enough.
Animation: Equal – both animations are different and are as good as one another.
Goalkeepers: PES GK’s are still poor – I need to stress test the Fifa ones’ a bit more.
Atmosphere: Fifa hands down – better commentary, fan sounds are better – Fifa has always been strong in this area.
Overall: Full game yet to be played but the demo on PS3 has convinced me to splash out on Fifa – PES I will still probably buy too but how long will I continue to play it for?
Filed under: computer gaming
