TFW Decides 2012: FIFA 2013 vs Pro Evo 2013

We’ve approached an interesting milestone for football video games:  this year’s iteration of FIFA and Pro Evo will likely be the final ones on the current generation of game consoles before primary development will focus on Sony and Microsoft’s new consoles that will get unveiled in 2013.  What this means is that this year’s versions should be the most feature rich iterations of the two franchises before next year we get a graphics engine overhaul but a stripping back of features.

Demos for FIFA and PES are now available on the Xbox Marketplace and I’ve had a decent kickabout with both versions.  There are no major surprises here.  FIFA is still the better game engine in my eyes.  Their production values are also an order of magnitude better than PES.  It probably helps that EA add the commentary in their demo version whereas Konami just give you the silent treatment.

An interesting note:  in the demo version of FIFA, Van Persie still plays for Arsenal.  You’d think they’d have that sorted by the time the final product is released but having said that, it’s only a couple of weeks away.  He also likes making out with German dudes as you can observe from the image above.

PES is slowly improving on past years but I still reckon it feels ‘on the rails’ with players running two dimensional tracks whereas FIFA feels like it has more natural movement from its players.  Last year EA heightened their focus on the defensive controls in FIFA which I thought greatly improved the game.  This year, they’re back to focusing on attack and in particular the first touch of the player.  It’s hard to articulate the difference but its certainly noticable that not all players have the same skill with their touch and it gives the game a more organic feel.

At the moment, I think I’m leaning towards getting FIFA again this year on the Xbox 360.  What say you, TFW?