This year, like the year before it and the year before that one and so on, saw the newset iterations to both the FIFA and Pro Evolution Soccer franchises. In recent years FIFA has dominated PES in both sales and critical acclaim but this year Konami has upped it's game significantly and this year is the tightest between the two games that it's been in years so I decided to compare both games in one handy bite sized portion, enjoy!  
  
Gameplay  
Ever since FIFA graced the next generation of consoles it's developers have strived to bring a more realistic and simulation-based football game to fans of the series and it seems Konami have attempted to go in the opposite direction with their more arcadey approach. This year however the games are as similar as they have been for a while. No longer will Messi dominate defences practically unchallenged and Ronaldo won't be scoring from ridiculous ranges as often as before in Pro Evo and the same could be said of FIFA however there is one key difference between the games, passing. In Pro Evo passing is snappy and responsive on the other hand FIFA's passing has been slowed considerably due to the complaints from the community of 'Ping-pong passing'. In this sense PES is superior to FIFA, counter attacking is a major risk due to the swiftness with which the ball can move and relying on such attacks for goals is a legitimate tactic. But this is not to say that PES is without flaws. I am no games designer but I think it is fair to say that the AI in PES is, for lack of a better phrase, border-line retarded. 'Keepers will fail to save shots directly at them or dive and miss extremely slow moving balls, defenders will rarely stay in position allowing the attacking team to score easy goals and players will sometimes ignore the ball altogether. To be honest the game just needs polish and I can understand this, Konami has just revamped the series in about a year, expecting the game to have no quirks or bugs on release isn't realistic. So FIFA should have no excuses, it's been developed in same mould since about '08 and therefore it should be jank-free, right? Well not quite. EA have erradicated the terrible goalkeeping of '10 but defenders have problems with positioning and just general awareness, too often will a defender sprint over to close down a centre foward leaving them man they were marking completely free with no input from the player. This is my only real gripe with the gameplay though and for that reason the tried and tested FIFA formula shines through once more.  
Gameplay: FIFA WINS! (JUST)
   
Features
EA has had to dedicate little time to modifying their gameplay recently and this has left them with time to increase and refine their feature set. Last year FIFA's main features were the Be a Pro mode and Manager mode and EA have decided to group these features under one heading, Career mode. Career mode allows the player to start a career as either a Player, a Player-Manager or a Manager. In addition EA have added the ability to play as the goalkeeper. I don't know if this is just me but I found myself playing Manager mode and playing online. Be a Pro does not interest me in the slightest and this year is no different. PES offers almost identical modes albeit with different names; Become a Legend and Master League. I won't bother comparing the Legend/Pro modes however I will say that I prefer FIFA's manager mode just because the quality and the depth is just right for someone like me who likes tinkering with formations and buying and selling players but does not want to go for a full-blown management game. Online functionality seems fine in both games however PES still suffers from some lag issues and I have experienced weird bugs with FIFA's online. 
Features: IT'S A DRAW FOLKS!  
  
Audio and Visuals   
If there is one thing that even the most die-hard PES fan will admit is wrong with their cherished game it's that the commentary is awful and I'm happy to say Konami have half-fixed the problem. I say half fix because they have replaced Lawro's commentary (which was terrible) with Jim Beglin's (which is great) however Jon Champion still remains and that means we are treated to great/horrific lines such as 'GUESS WHO!!!!' or 'FREE KICK!!!!!!' (which he says after you take the free kick, not when it is initially given) in fact, here's a link (this features commentary from previous games but you get the idea). EA have perfected the art of commentary and Martin Tyler and Andy Gray's delivery is perfect and so are the lines. It's clear that Tyler and Gray were given a lot more freedom to say what they wanted to say instead of reading lines written by someone with no where near as much insight into the beautiful game as these two have. Visually is probably where to games are most differing. Each game has a distinct style and it's hard to make a decision on which is better, play likenesses in both games are startiling and stadiums look decent but there is little else to say however PES does suffer from some stiffness when it comes to animations. Whereas FIFA is a fluid looking and feeling game in PES it is much easier to see the hard transition between animations and it is slightly off-putting 
Audio and Visuals: FIFA WINS!  
     
Conclusions   
So it would seem that FIFA is all conquering and the only football game to play this season? Well yes and no. If you hated last year's edition of FIFA this year's will do little to impress you but PES is such a vastly different game than it was 2 years ago that don't think FIFA fans should dismiss as easily as they did previously and there is no doubting that PES is a quality game but if you asked me which was better I would always, for this year at least, say FIFA. Please comment below on you're footy game of choice and remember if I missed anything out it's because I didn't play it or I forgot.