SportsGamer community member, LucianoJ, breaks down the FIFA vs. PES rivalry. Which one did he think was better? Continue reading to find out. After you're done be sure to stop by our forums and share your thoughts on both games.
The Pre-Game Show: FIFA vs. PES
History is filled with rivalries. The Greeks versus the Trojans. The French versus the British. Axis versus Allies. The Soviets against the U.S. Gaming has its own burning rivalries currently in effect. Microsoft versus Sony. EA versus 2k. This fall sees the return of a global rivalry some North American gamers pay little attention to. Both EA Sports and Konami have released their latest version of their successful and controversial soccer games. The war between the fan boys of FIFA and PES (formerly Winning Eleven) has gone on for several seasons on numerous consoles and the PC, as well. Increased competition and numerous defections has led to EA Sports FIFA 09 earning an advantage in sales, as well as hype.
Licenses:
EA paid big bucks up front for the rights to use official player names, and uniforms (known to international fans as “kits”). EA also churned out an extra soccer game each year, labeled as either “World Cup” or “UEFA Champions League.” Imagine the complaints if EA released a “Madden: The Playoffs” game, or “NCAA Football BCS Bowl Challenge.” Most would complain about buying more than one game, per sport, per year. Too many sports games are criticized as being roster patches, sold at full price. The World Cup and Champions League versions did have some gameplay tweaks and other gimmicks.
Any review of PES includes this weakness: Konami is at a disadvantage because so many teams and players are under aliases. The PES owner has had to do some major editing to make the game recognizable. This year is the first year PES has a fully licensed Champions League mode. While this competition is second to the World Cup, it is hard to say how much of a selling point CL will be to North American gamers. It may be as meaningless and insignificant as the MLS and Mexican Primera Liga are to international “football” fans.
Gameplay:
Year after year, Pro Evolution Soccer the majority of serious gamers considered the sim, while FIFA was criticized as being an arcade game wrapped in eye candy. Real soccer players and fans picked Konami, button-mashing cheesers picked EA. If you check the forums on 
various gaming websites, many claim to have converted from PES to FIFA. On a few forums people have asked, "Has Seabass lost his edge?"
Ball physics, AI, player ratings and the number of game modes all differ from game to game. Each year, there are changes meant to make the games more realistic, but bugs exist, too. Online competition means logging on to find the majority choosing Barcelona versus Manchester United, or Brazil versus France. FIFA now features clubs, Be A Pro, and 10 vs. 10 modes, to go along with manager and tournament modes. PES’ Master League is generally considered to be the top gameplay mode of all. Fan boys from both sides will tell you that FIFA’s gains in gameplay quality have come by trying to be more Konami-like in AI and tactics.
Visuals:
From the designs of the menus, the renderings of the stadiums, crowds and players, FIFA often has the advantage. Gradually, more star players faces appeared on top of the sprites, and fewer generic faces appeared on the big clubs. The next gen FIFA faces are downright creepy. EA artists need to make these faces more photo-realistic. The simple fact is the only time the detail of the faces generally comes into focus is on instant replays. Most gamers set their camera views to Tele or Broadcast to get a better upper deck view of the full field, in spite of the option for on-screen radar of all players.
Sound:
FIFA, like other EA titles, includes a huge soundtrack in the game. Just as movie studios try to use music, so does EA in the packaging of their games. Madden, NBA Live, and the NHL series always try to make the tunes as trendy and quirky as the games themselves. FIFA has an eclectic mix of world beat, English pop, and Euro disco. Konami makes no attempt to feature a soundtrack in their game.
FIFA generally has an advantage as far as the quality of its announcers, but changes the combination of play-by-play and color commentators every few years. Going from John Motson to Clive Tyldsley to Martin Tyler means little to North American gamers. How 
annoying they are, and how well the comments are synched with the on-field events is what matters. In previous years, Scottish legend Ally McCoist’s thick accent was hard to understand. Andy Gray’s analysis can add gameplay hints as well as funny comments. “He couldn’t hit a donkey in the backside with a banjo,” was one of Gray’s goofiest comments in one previous version of FIFA. Both games generally do a decent job of capturing the sound effects of the real game on the pitch.
The move to Next Gen: Konami gets credit for making the same game, all modes and features for Next Gen and PC. FIFA still has a big PC following but up until this year, the PC version was considered a PS2 port. FIFA 09 for PC did get a visual facelift, but still doesn’t take advantage of the high-end capabilities of most newer computers. Only the consoles have the full Next Gen look. If you look up the reviews of the first couple of next gen FIFAs, the PS2 and original Xbox versions were deeper and smoother, but many EA Sports titles face that same criticism. Like EA’s NHL franchise, 08 was a magic number. Last year was a breakthrough, and this year sees the fulfillment of true potential.
