FIFA v Pro Evo

Lets see those thumbs - Quench pits the two console football top-dogs against each other, it’s FIFA football v Pro Evolution Soccer

By Paul Tolley and Stuart Jewell

FIFA

I’ve been playing FIFA since its brilliant first incarnation way back in my wee years. Each new version provides a nostalgia that Pro Evo simply cannot due to its young years. FIFA has an amazing heritage, with each game improving on the last (what’s the difference between Pro Evo 6 and Pro Evo 5 – apart from ¬£20 of course?).

FIFA takes me back to waking up on Christmas day as a little nipper, knowing full well that I’d spend it promising myself one more match before re-joining the family (because that’s what Christmas is about, right?) On second thoughts they can come and join me because anyone can pick up and play FIFA, it’s all about fun, not simulation, in contrast with Pro Evo where I’m constantly pulling teeth to get Gerrard to pass to Crouch’s feet. It is a severely frustrating game.

Surely everyone wants a pick-up-and-play football game, that’s what computer games are designed for. Why do Pro Evo players insist on accurately placing every player in a required position and then giving each one a defensive and attacking focus and lots of further nonsense that I’m sure makes little difference. If you want the exact football experience lets grab a ball and trot off to Bute Park!

FIFA provides fantastic game modes which make playing it a fresh and exciting experience every time. The lounge mode allows you to set up a mini-league of mates and use fun handicaps against each other. The manager and challenge modes finally make one player mode tolerable in a football game. And the scenario mode gives you the freedom to set up any challenge you wish to face or force upon your smug mate who just won five games in a row (3-0 down to AC Milan at half time anyone? No-one can come back from that).

I decided to play one match on each to freshen up my opinions on both games. I ended up playing a full world cup on FIFA. I’m now eight minutes into a game of Pro Evo and bored; it’s slow, lacks any excitement and the commentary is boring me to tears. Give me Clive Tyldsley for that Champions’ League feel and Andy Gray criticising every shot I take any day. Computer games are about fun, something Pro Evo and its players have forgotten.

This debate will rage on for years I have no doubt, but I’d like to extend an olive branch to Pro Evo players, one I’m sure we can all agree on. No game will ever be as good as Sensible Soccer.

Paul Tolley

Pro Evo

Pro Evo or Fifa: The debate which has resulted in many a fight between good friends or even strangers in the pub looking for a friendly chat.

It can be argued this is the biggest contest in football games, however, in my opinion it’s a one horse race.

The main reason that this argument still remains is that die-hard fifa fans are unwilling to see Pro Evo’s game play is light years ahead. The game play on Pro Evo is consistently superior and it has been regularly documented that the new FIFA is reminiscent of Pro Evo 3, albeit with better graphics. Just because FIFA has the real names and a few ‘popular’ songs on the soundtrack, people remain blind to its inferiority‚Ķ Alright, Pro Evo may not have all the correct names, but who doesn’t know who Von Mistelroum is, mind you Kluivert being renamed Froibaad is pushing it a bit.

Pro Evo also pips Fifa to the winner’s line with its multiplayer. Pro Evo tournaments matter so much between mates that people end up throwing consoles around, can get extremely depressed and, in the worst cases, form a tendency to try and play NFL games. My friend was so ridiculed he departed to Singapore to avoid the ribbings. The main reason for this is that goals scored on Pro Evo feel satisfying.

Another thing lacking with Fifa is its commentary. Although Pro Evo cannot claim to stimulate like a Charles Dickens novel or shock like Ron Atkinson, the phrases lost in translation from Japan turning almost crude (eg: “He spreads it round looking for an opening”) are easier on the ear than Clive and Andy randomly naming a few players here and there or McCoist’s trying to compare a Merseyside derby to when he was on A Question of Sport.

One thing that amazes me is how many sales Fifa can rack up for the same game. As well as Fifa 2006, the same match engine has been repackaged as the ‘official’ Champions’ League and Fifa World Cup 2006 game, modes all available on the original 2006 title. Mind you, if fuckwits keep shelling out their cash for it then why bother working to improve it?

Overall, what Pro Evo lacks in official endorsement and graphics, it makes up for in playability and realism. You know you have got a good game when the things players do in real life start to remind you of things PE5 players do.

Stuart Jewell