Football season is in full swing, with many of the top leagues around Europe and the rest of the world in the early stages of their long and arduous campaigns. As is the case every year, a new football season brings new football video games along with it.
EA Sports FIFA series has been the top dog in the digital sports world for a while now. However a renewed push from rival publisher Konami and its soccer franchise Pro Evolution is making it harder for gamers to decide which game to place in their starting XI and which to relegate to the bench.
The biggest addition to this year's FIFA is the much talked about inclusion of female players and teams. To coincide with the recently concluded Women's World Cup; EA Sports created playable versions of many of the women's national sides. The likes of Alex Morgan, Abby Wambach, and Marta are all useable in digital form for the first time ever.
Feedback on female players has been pretty good so far, with many reviewers praising the attention to detail given to the whole project. The women's game has a different pace and feel to its male counterpart and that seems to be conveyed pretty well in the game.
Elsewhere though, it seems that FIFA has opted for incremental changes. Ars Technica's John Robertson says the gameplay is, for better or worse, classic FIFA:
The trouble is, the spectacle comes at the cost of complexity. While you often see teams shunning convention and attempting an entirely new style of play, FIFA 16 aims for no such diversity. Once you've become accustomed to the patterns of player movement and potential passing angles, you quickly realise that you're never going to experience a situation or event that you've not already seen before.
PES on the other hand has been hailed for its sharp gameplay and mechanics. It may lack the myriad of licenses and visual flair of FIFA, but it does have its beat on the pitch. Metro says:
PES 2016 isn't perfect, but this is a major step forward for a series that was already improving in leaps and bounds each year. We've certainly no hesitation in calling PES 2016 the best football game of the generation so far.
