PES2009 VS FIFA 2009. Which will you buy?

[stillzero]

At this time of the year both FIFA 2009 and PES2009 are released, as always. In the last 6 years there seemed to be a clear dominance from PES's more real gameplay over FIFA, despite the latter having a lot of licensed teams.
But last year PES 2008 turned out a major disappointment, due to many huge mistakes such as unplayable online lag, lack of innovation and even offline lag at times. FIFA seemed to have gained the upper hand last year, but many people, and I agree with them, still say the gameplay is very artificial.
This year Konami says they have tried to correct the mistakes of their last game. PES2009 also includes a Champions League license, some new modes, probably playable online mode and some new leagues. On the other hand, the most common oppinion about FIFA 2009 is that it's very similar to its predecessor.
I still haven't made my decision about which to buy, but I think I'll base it in the games' demos and reviews, despite not being very convinced about neither of the two. What about you, which will you buy, why, and what do you think about the current situation of this long lasting rivalry?

 

[$t3v0]

Both. My god ... I cannot fucking wait.

both bothb bothb thobthobothobtho

3rd october :|

 

[Despain]

um

all soccer games are the same

all football games are the same

all baseball games are the same

etc.

i really don't get the whole OH SWEET A NEW VERSION FOR THIS YEAR I WILL SPEND AN EXTRA 60 BUCKS TO BUY A GAME I ALREADY HAVE BUT WITH SLIGHTLY UPDATED COSTUMES

 

[Cruelty]

des, there's usually updated rosters, schedules, playbooks (for american football, anyhow), and statistics. when you have a sport that so many people care about on such a fanatic level, leaving these things outdated is simply criminal.

i tried playing these highly acclaimed soccer games, but everyone is just running around all willy-nilly like a bunch of animals and i've never even finished a game. i'm very american. I'v'e actually got a game of madden on pause right now

 

[Despain]

madden's the worst offender out of all of them

 

[Charlie Fleed]

Eh, eh, Des, something tells me that you're not a fan of this kind of game.

I'm a massive player of Pro Evolution Soccer, i started in 2000, after having owned Fifa'99 and Fifa 2000. Back then the differences were huge, Pro was a simulation, ok players had very limited skills, but it was still a simulation, while Fifa was very unrealistic.
To an occasional player the two seem to have converged a lot through the years, but i can clearly see the difference in their conception still now.

I agree that PES 2008 has been very disappointing. Passing has been improved, and so players' skills, but the AI, marking and defensive movements have had little to no improvement. Players have troubles in determining the correct place where to intercept the ball, sometimes they don't run at max speed while they should, sometimes the AI moves the players YOU ARE CONTROLLING and the most times the results are catastrophic.
However PES has the best shots and headers, players do not miraculously score on the top-right corner of the goal when not well balanced or disturbed by other players.
I could continue for two or three thread pages... in a few words, FIFA players do things that real players could not do, while PES players cannot do some basic things that every football player learns when he is, say, 10 years old.

From the promotional video i have seen so far, it seems to me that both have very little changes and PES is still closer to what i want in a football game (and what i think football is all about: not only skills, but timing, goemetry, strategy and so on), but it still suffers from the good old problems. Unfortunately videos and demos do not show the highest difficulty level (they do it on purpose) and it is very hard to evaluate the gameplay if you don't play the full game.

All considered, I'm with PES.

 

[stillzero]

Oh I'm so glad finally some American, football-hating moderators (did I lie?) didn't lock my topic this time. You see? There ARE non-Americans here, and they like football too.

About Pro Evolution, I want to add that the reason 2008 was so bad to me was mainly the online. I loved the old games, it's so cool to play PES against people from all over the world, and making my favourite team beat all the powerful teams other player's use. And scoring a great goal right in someone's face. You see, great goals only exist in football, even though I like almost every sport, I think in other sports you can't shine as much as in football, both in real life and in a game simulation.

And I've always liked PES over FIFA, even though 2008 was a huge disappointment, but if the new PES is still almost unplayable, I won't make the same mistake again. FIFA is not very good yet, but EA is taking benefits for Konami's laziness.

 

[Despain]

i dare you to dare me to lock this again, chief

 

[Sic Semper Tyranosaurus]

I'll unlock it out of spite. :hercule:

Anyways, I play in my spare time and can't imagine playing it as a video game. It always feels so dry that way.