On a personal note, I’ve looked around, waiting patiently for magazine reviews to tell me how these games play, not just offline, but over the power of the internet against human opponents, but anything I’ve seen has only been based on not being connected. So with this in mind, I thought I’d do another of my comparison reviews, seeing as how the NHL one went down quite well, but this time with a sport I feel a bit more at home with, soccer (or football to give it its proper name). So here is the definitive look at both Konami and EA’s titles and a chance for us to see who truly is on top of their game. This time it will be based on a penalty shootout with graphics, value for money, sound, gameplay and online playability. Right ref, let’s get it started.

1st penalty - Graphics

EA always seem to lay out some pretty decent visuals in all of their titles, but some of them do seem to be missing a smoothness and sharpness in favor of looking pretty. Pro Evolution Soccer on the other hand might not look as impressive as its rival on occasion, but (apart from PES ‘08 and the travesty it was) it keeps up a very smooth and fluid frame rate with any jerkiness kept to a minimum. Both games this year have improved on their own look and style from the year before and are looking a lot better for it, especially when Pro Evo has the Champions League license in its back pocket, but even with that, FIFA just has the added hair products and designer clothes to make it look a bit more pleasing to the eye. With that, we see FIFA crack one into the roof of the net, as Konami’s first pick gets nervous and blasts it past the right hand post.

PES 09  - X
FIFA 09 - 0