FIFA 09 vs PES 09 - The Fightback

You may have heard in a related article by one of my "peers" that Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 has brutally knocked FIFA 09 out cold, crashing to the canvas with the ten count imminently approaching. Believe not these words of lies! You have only heard one side of the story (from what I understand is very biased source).

Admittedly, yes, over the past few years EA has become sloppy, putting mediocre features onto out of date consoles that did not have the ability to make FIFA a good game to play. At the same time, PES was a steadily growing force in the background, gathering many good reviews from fans and journalists alike. I myself was a firm PES follower until this year when I personally sampled the two games. I was disappointed with this edition of PES. It seems all they have done have stuck a new face on the front, in the form of Lionel Messi. Style over substance, it seems.

FIFA's loss was PES' gain. People were rapidly liking this idea of competition that was actually better than FIFA, unlike such things as THIS IS FOOTBALL which for some reason can't say its name without shouting. As PES grew in power, FIFA was dying out, trying each year to make itself better but had no fresh ideas to keep people interested. PES 6 was born and it seemed that the final nail had firmly been placed in the FIFA coffin.

However, since then, PES has been growing stale and FIFA has had a breath of new life in to it since the conversion to next gen consoles. After PES 2008, I began to worry. The game had become far too easy and scoring was just too simple. As long as you had the ball in their half, just shoot. Job done. At least FIFA attempted to make something that resembled real life football instead of a game that if you had Ronaldinho in your team you automatically won 6-0.

Now we come to PES 2009. Oh dear. What has happened? Our beloved PES has become the FIFA of old. They protest against these claims with their "new" Be a Pro mode. New. I'm sorry Konami but FIFA had that last year. And why can't they spell Uefa Champions League without an unnessecary font of anger? E.g. UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE. Also, the Master League. A poor man's version of the Manager Mode of FIFA, a knocked off game mode that fell off the back of EA's lorry and Konami snapped up and named it differently hoping no one would notice. I did. I'm pretty sure everyone else did too.

Now don't get me wrong, PES 2009 isn't terrible. It has some perks that I will admit Konami has thrown in to keep people true to the PES brand but I'm afraid it just isn't enough for me, who will this year buy the FIFA edition of football game for the first time in quite a while. I have turned my back on PES but with good reason. They have declined in standard and gone downhill dramatically.

If you only return one game this year, return PES 2009 for FIFA 09 instead. Trust me.