FIFA: A Franchise Reborn

[SoAwesome]

I like Winning Eleven but the problem for me was released February while FIFA released in September. Wasn't going to wait 6 months for a soccer game so I went with FIFA.

[ps3veron]

Excellent article! Old school PES fan here who made the jump and I fully agree with whats written.

And just for the record, as a Liverpool fan, we beat United 2-1 last game

[mockme]

I'm also one of those former PES-players, and on the last generation consoles I did enjoy it very much and still do whenever I feel like going old school, but right now I am immensely enjoying FIFA on the current gen. Not so arcadeish anymore, while I get the feeling that PES is not as sim as it was anymore.

Anyway, great article!

[cgalligan]

Funny how EA steps their game up when faced with Competition...

Are you paying attention NFL???

[cgalligan]

2k Hockey was better than EA Hockey... Then EA stepped up and made their game better...

PES was better than Fifa... Then EA stepped up and made their game better...

2k5 was better than Madden... Then EA bought the NFL License?

Are you paying attention... This is the way to do things... Don't buy out your competitor just because you can... MAKE A BETTER PRODUCT!!! The People will Decide which one is in fact BETTER... Don't force feed it down our throats and take away our freedom of Choice...

[jb1]

Good article, I'm an old school PES player that began before that with ISS and my clear game of choice now is FIFA. You have to give them credit for sorting their gameplay out, yes it's still far from perfect but as you alluded to back in the early 00's playing FIFA was a truly painful experience but they have come a long way since then.

PES on the other hand has done nothing but go downhill (although there are some signs of life with PES 12) since the glory days of PES 5 and 6 where licenses didn't matter as the gameplay was as near to perfection as was possible at that time. Since then i've struggled to play any of the Konami releases for more than a few days before discarding the game. From horrible Goalies to players skating up and down the pitch the game I played and loved more than any other for years and years has vanished.

Another factor in FIFA's rise to dominance for me was the introduction of their Ultimate Team mode, yes they raised their gameplay above the level of PES but I think the introduction of FUT was a real hammer blow as that saw a lot of disillusioned PES gamers such as myself get addicted to FIFA in a way that we hadn't before. For all of FIFA's positives it still isn't a game that I can enjoy vs the CPU but the quality of the online multiplayer games keeps me coming back for more. PES tried to offer a rival to FUT but it was too little too late.

[209vaughn]

The control I have over my players in both FIFA and NBA 2k is just stunning. Through a controller I have the ability to feel like I'm playing a sport. The controller-player connection is smooth and intuitive.

NCAA and Madden need to rewrite a lot of code to make you feel like you're in complete control of your player and his movements. Fluid controls and controller-player connections need to be tight.

NCAA and Madden controls are simplified and dumb downed. The hardeds position in all of sports is the QB - but in the video game world its a point and click game. Give us deeper controls and controller-player connections need to be tight.

[kerosene31]

The perfect example of how competition makes better games. Each game has pluses and minuses, and each pushes the other to be better every year.