It’s common knowledge that if you like football and you like video games that you’ll know of both the PES and FIFA series of football games but every year heated debates pop up about which game is “better”, and this year is no exception.
Let me start here by saying that I am a Gamechanger for EA and help run and maintain a FIFA based website so it is highly likely that any dedicated fan of the PES franchise may take this article with a pinch of salt. That said, I am a fan of both games and a fan of football simulation foremost, so whilst I may have these links with FIFA all I want is the best football game I can get my hands on.
Demo quality
Whilst Konami treats its users to some fantastic depth in its demo I can’t help but feel EA seem to be missing the point of releasing a demo at all. To me a demo is a chance to experience the game and see if I want to buy it. Now I am the type of person who plays 7 minutes a half on FIFA and 10 minutes a half on PES so I was happy to see that on PES I could play * minutes a half but on FIFA my only option was 3 minutes a half!? Honestly EA what are you thinking? Do you want people to play your game or do you just want to show off the basic changes of the game without giving the user a real chance to experience a match?
For me 3 minutes a half really doesn’t offer enough time to see how a decent length match will pan out so it’s a real shame that EA still haven’t listened to their fans after they have asked for at least 6 minutes a half for the previous 2 demos and this one too.
Another thing I think PES has done better is offering a variety of teams. EA always seem to have big name teams and whilst I can understand this is due to a large demand it doesn’t help users such as myself who play with Championship teams mostly get a feel of the game at the lower leagues. PES however have chosen to give more variety in ability with Rangers being a mid card team as I would refer to them. I think it’s fair comment to say that whilst Rangers are not as low down as a Championship team they are nowhere near the standards of the teams in the FIFA demo which means the user can experience different levels of football.
I suppose to sum up what I’ve entitled demo quality it’s a clear “win” for Pro Evo due to them giving users what they want, a better demo in which to see what they really think of the game.
Presentation
FIFA 12:
Whilst FIFAs presentation has taken a step forward it still feels like something created by EA rather than a recreation of actual football. By this I mean that when I play the game the presentation does not make me feel like I am playing a football game, it makes me feel like I’m playing a video game made by EA because the presentation is of EA’s own design. I know that EA have to be careful about how they deliver their game but from my understanding they had or have some kind of licence with Sky Sports and if this is the case then why not use it?! When an English team are playing and are home then why not use the Sky Sports TV presentation style? Use the logo even if you can’t use the in game model to recreate the Sky Sports line up they have. All EA seem to have done this year is borrowed a presentation idea that they use on NHL 12 which is very disappointing. When I say this don’t think I mean the presentation is not better because it is, it’s just not football as we know it.
PES 2012:
When it comes to presentation PES feels a lot more complete with the cameras, stewards and so on when you come out to start the game, EA has an improvement with the small videos of various players. It’s odd that a camera man walking between each team as they prepare to come out of the tunnel or walking along in front of the players as they line up can make such a big difference, but it does.
I, as many other football gaming fans, have said it’s the small things that make such a big difference and it seems that Konami are in agreement as they really have focused on them. When a match starts you see the linesmen and the referee in the tunnel, stewards on the sidelines and around the players as they come out and you see the camera men. When the game starts you’ll notice the manager stood up on the sideline and in one case when playing on the first PES 2012 demo I even seen some random man making his way somewhere else in the stadium like he was doing something important. Now this may seem irrelevant to gameplay and it is, but it’s that kind of level of presentation that makes a massive difference and takes a player from playing a video game into playing football. A great example of a small touch that doesn’t affect the game but really adds to the immersion is how at half time the ground staff come out onto the pitch and tend to it, pushing in divots etc, it’s a small touch but it’s a great one.
Another area that the presentation is great is in the cut scenes as players expressed emotion in a realistic manner. PES has always been notoriously bad compared to FIFA in animations but when it comes to cut scenes I would say it is vice versa as FIFA’s cut scenes seem to lack emotion whereas PES’ have captured it very well.
Defending
Defending AI
FIFA 12:
With this year’s game defenders are better on a whole but still seem to lack urgency at times and do not seem to understand what is going on around them. A huge part of what makes defenders so good in real life is their ability to read a game and react to it, something they do not do in FIFA as they seem to become lost in play. On a whole the frequency in which players become lost is not too high but it’s enough to cause frustration and this in turn causes criticism. The poor defensive AI hits hardest with midfielders as quite often I find myself controlling a defender whilst trying to stop two attacking players only for a midfielder who is standing 10 yards away not to react to the two on one situation and come to help, even with no other threat anywhere near him.
It’s a real shame that with all of the fantastic work EA have done on FIFA 12 that they have not worked on the area that is key to gameplay, the AI.
In one circumstance my right midfielder was beaten by the oppositions left back leaving my right back to fend off an advancing left back and left midfielder, as I jockeyed backwards to ensure I wasn’t beaten they played a one two pulling me out of position and allowing them to pass me and get into a dangerous crossing position. Now this sounds fine and shows that the attacking AI was working well in this circumstance but the issue was that I had two central midfielders not more than 10 yards away and not marking any player in the middle and neither came to offer support. Had one or both of these midfielders come to me then the opposition would not have been able to play the one two pass to break past me and yet this is something that seemed to happen all over the pitch, midfielders not reacting to dangerous situations when they should be.
I hope that with the full retail release I can use the new sliders that EA have implemented to tweak this issue so that it does not happen as much, however I do find myself somewhat put out that I have to tune the game when Konami have managed to deliver a game that does not need tweaking in this area.
PES 2012:
One thing you can see Konami have put a lot of time and effort into with PES 2012 is the AI and the defending AI is no exception as it is fantastic. The midfielders are very intelligent and cover runs when the defence is struggling, they help cut off options and are thoughtful in their positioning to help break down attacks. There is also a real element of the players understanding the need to get back in certain situations such as when 2-3 attacking players on the opposition are breaking together and pose a threat. I was very impressed to see both the midfield and the defence charging back to help and positioning themselves well in the process.
PES 2012 delivers what you expect from a football game when it comes to defending, defenders react in the right situations, runs off of the ball are tracked, passing options are cut off and defenders seem to be constantly adapting to the situations that surround them, much credit to Konami.
Goalkeepers
FIFA 12:
One thing I was impressed with when playing the demo was to find that foot planting is there and working well with goalkeepers. In one game I took a pot shot to the left of the keeper as he was moving to his right forcing him to plant his foot before he could push off to dive left. I scored because of this and it looked realistic too which gave me a good hope for FIFA 12 goalkeepers. Now as I write this I am yet to see any freak goalkeeper moments in FIFA 12 although I am sure they will be there as it’s one of the hardest areas of the game to code, however I am pretty happy that in so many matches I have yet to see it when in FIFA 11 it was a regular occurrence, kudos EA.
On a whole my experience with goalkeepers in FIFA 12 so far has been very good, I’ve seen a good comparison to real keepers in deflections beating them, making reaction saves at the right times and not looking too overpowered like they were in FIFA 11. They seem to have been coded better to deal with crosses and also seem to understand lobbing angles better too.
PES 2012:
In PES I’ve always felt that the goalkeepers are hit and miss and it would seem my opinion on them for PES 2012 is pretty much the same. To put it bluntly the goalkeepers still seem to be on rails in how they go about things and remind me of the IF ELSE coding for javascript which is not a good thing for those who know what I’m talking about.
On numerous occasions I have already seen goalkeepers throwing themselves at a loose ball when a defender is calmly positioning himself to clear or lunging at a ball that has crossed the line already. In one case I had a shot with Defoe that deflected off a defender and past the keeper. The deflection hit the post and then as it came back at the keeper it hit him in his man grapes and went out of play. Having not reacted to the massive impact on his plums and still standing rooted to the spot he continued not to react until the ball has crossed the line at which point he launched himself at the ball like it was a winning lottery ticket.
I do like PES goalkeepers despite how it may sound as they feel human when it comes to shot stopping as they can be beaten realistically but when it comes to loose ball situations I fear that it’s all going to go pear shaped and goalkeepers are something Konami still need to do more work on.
Attacking
Attacking AI
FIFA 12:
One thing I was glad to experience when I played pre-alpha code of FIFA 12 was there was a massive improvement of FIFA 12’s attacking AI with reference to how it built up attacks. It was a case of the AI has suddenly learned more than one way to attack and playing the AI was more challenging as it now used variety in attacking was a lot more dangerous when dribbling at players and trying to beat them. I’m glad to say this is still working well and whilst most of my friends chose to play on World Class or legendary I knew dropping down to Pro to adapt was a good idea. (To those who chose to play on World Class and then got frustrated about it... told you haha.)
One major annoyance I found was that the computer still doesn’t recycle the play and instead chooses only to go forward. I chose to play Olymipique Marseille to test this theory out as the demo says they have a balanced build up play, with mixed build up passing, to me this surely should include passing the ball backwards. My guess after trying it was EA do not agree with me on this as after counting 30 passes over multiple attacks only one pass had gone backwards and this was due to there being no options in front of the striker. I think this is an area of FIFA that has always frustrated me as I think the opposition should understand the importance of recycling play when there are no options on as real teams do.
Another thing that stood out was how I still find that my team mates often run away from me when I’m the player in possession and need support, leaving me to be closed down and my options cut off.
It’s a shame really that with such a great leap forward in how the AI attacks that the movement off of the ball still requires a lot of work and with Konami putting in a lot of time this year on it FIFA has fallen even further behind.
PES 2012:
As with the defensive AI it would appear that Konami have worked very hard on the attacking aspects of the AI too with Konami delivering some fantastic advancements. As I mentioned one of my main pet hates on FIFA is how the movement is so static and the attack has to be orchestrated by the player in order to see any real movement, in PES 2012 that’s not an issue. The players understand how to attack, they make runs off of the ball, they support the ball carrier and they look for opportunities. The movement and intelligent positioning make games against the AI and 1 vs 1 great as the AI is competent of attacking in a variety of manners, in an intelligent manner and also makes good attacking decisions when you’re carrying the ball.
Shooting
FIFA 12:
I’ve always felt that the shooting in FIFA felt pretty good but with some of the changes I’ve realise that it actually still had a lot of space for improvement. The changes I’m talking about are how EA have added a lot more weight to the ball and distance shots now feel like they have a lot more realism in how they dip, curve and travel. It’s remarkable how well EA have adjusted the physics via tweaking and in doing so made the shooting feel a lot closer to real life.
Sadly, as you would expect, finesse shots are still too powerful. As I’ve said before finesse shots should not just be about a curling inside foot shot but instead should add finesse to a variety of types of shots.
Finesse means delicacy or subtlety in action and is a skill in handling a difficult situation, so I don’t think that the finesse modifier actually adds finesse but instead triggers and over powered inside foot shot. EA need to change the very way the finesse modifier works so when it is triggered the player is more delicate and subtle in how he attempts the shot so he uses accuracy over power. This should be contextual as it is with normal shooting so that if I hold down the finesse modifier as I hit a volley from a cross I should try to guide the ball rather than hit it, essentially using accuracy at the expense of power.
PES 2012:
With FIFA having got shooting down to a very nice level of realism (with exception of the finesse shooting) it’s good news to hear that PES’ shooting is also better than 2011’s. I do have a criticism with the shooting though, it seems to have gone from one extreme to another, with shots in PES 2011 taking a little too long to power up and now in PES 2012 shots can go off like a rocket with the tap of a button. I think whilst I do like the shooting in PES it can seem a little erratic with regards to power and this is something Konami need to sort out as I’m never comfortable with putting power into a shot as I never get the result you would expect. What I mean by this is more often than not I can tap the shot button and hit it like a scud missile and in other circumstances I can hold down to put some power in a shot to find that it doesn’t have enough behind it.
Another criticism I have is that the ball still feels like it floats too much. The sound effect of kicking the ball quite often is a thumping sound only for the ball to float like it’s partly inflated by using helium, it’s a total lack of continuity when the sound really doesn’t match the images playing in front of me.
Gameplay
FIFA 12:
One major issue that I have brought up about game play many times is how fast players just don’t seem able to break away from the defence and in FIFA 12 this seems to have got worse. On one occasion I got a good 3 yard advantage on Kolarov as Walcott but after running down the line for 15-20 yards Kolarov had caught me up and started pulling me back to slow me down more. Now I know there are other factors like stamina and so on but this was at the beginning of the match so I do not understand how Kolarov, who has acceleration 76 and sprint speed 68, caught up to Walcott who has 97 acceleration and 96 sprint speed, it’s like the road runner being caught by the Coyote with a ball and chain on his leg. This seems to be the case with many break away opportunities with faster players being caught by much slower ones and really needs to be fixed as players like Walcott would never be caught by Kolarov if he had a 3 yard ahead start.
Having put forward an opinion that would suggest that the defence has an advantage over the attack this year I feel this is the point to spin that around and point out that this is very much not the case and that it is more of the opposite. It would seem that with the new precision dribbling and tactical defending this year’s FIFA is very much unbalanced in terms of attack vs defending. It’s no secret that in previous years FIFA has been far too aggressive with its defending system and in FIFA 11 one of the most common complaints was that defending was too automated. Cue the complete 180 and a whole new defending system called tactical defending in which tackling is manual and there is only containing, no heat seeking missile defenders.
I think it’s fair to say that the biggest shock to the system when playing FIFA 12 is adapting to no longer having FIFA do so much of the defending for you. Whilst this seems to have split decisions I’m very much in favour of the new tactical defending system but I do think that the tackle button is a little underpowered, especially when used against the new precision dribbling.
One great effect of taking away auto tackling is that the field is opened up and time on the ball is possible now which is something FIFA has always needed due to it feeling so restricted.
One thing I always tend to pay attention to with each game in the FIFA series is the speed of the game as a whole and this year I think the speed felt right for me. I certainly feel it is a lot slower in how it plays if you play possession football as you no longer feel forced to move the ball around at a high pace to maintain possession, instead you just have to make sensible passes and hold the ball when options are not on. Having said that this could lead to a nasty online issue of cheap wins by getting a goal and then going into defensive overdrive and just keeping a hold of possession with no attempt to try and score a second, I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
One thing I do want to add whilst under the category of game play is the new addition of fast throw ins which may not always be available but at times are great for keeping the game flowing rather than being broken down by a lot of starts and stops. It’s good to see EA implement this after it was a much requested feature by many fans of the FIFA franchise.
PES 2012:
One area that PES always was great in FIFA 11 and that helped me enjoy the gameplay so much was the inertia. PES has got inertia down to a tee giving the player the ability to use momentum, weight shift and foot planting as real footballers do to beat players. This is a key area that FIFA has always lacked and it is one of the key reasons that playing PES can be an absolute joy as there is nothing better than running or jogging alongside a defending player only to make a sudden turn and leave the defender flat footed and unable to stop you. The inertia of PES seems to affect many aspects of the game too, not just dribbling as defenders come charging out to block a shot only for a striker to fake his shot and watch as the defenders momentum takes him straight past the ball and striker.
I think inertia is something EA have over looked a lot and whilst I have watched as Chris (aka HandofBeadle) and Toby (aka Xaor) have argued this point at Gamechanger meetings until they are blue in the face, it still seems to be something EA either don’t understand or don’t want to implement.
One area that PES 2012 seems to have fallen short is with the fouls and collisions. Most of my frustration when playing PES 2012 comes with collision detection and the foul/tackling within the game as frequently it seems to be a case of the game getting it all wrong and certainly not having any consistency. On numerous occasions I found myself being tripped, knocked and bashed about from various challenges where the player never got near the ball only for the referee to play on as if nothing had happened. Now if it had been a case of we collided and I came off worse I could accept that, but frequently when I have the ball I find I am pushed by a defender which initiates a stumble or collision animation. That causes me to not only lose possession but also not be able to move whilst the animation takes place meaning the player has fouled me as he’s not made contact with the ball but has made contact with me causing the loss of possession. PES doesn’t seem to understand this type of collision and it happens far too often not to be a problem and thus it causes a lot of frustration as possession is lost to a foul that doesn’t seem to register which leads me onto my next point.
Another issue I’ve always disliked about PES 2011 seems to have carried over to PES 2012 and that is the stumble animation that seems to be triggered when you run alongside a defender for more than a second or two. It’s very frustrating as it detaches the ball from the carrier and causes him to stumble allowing the defending player to take away possession. This seems to be Konamis answer to two players running side by side in deadlock rather than having a system like FIFA where the players can jostle and battle for the ball like in real football. There is nothing more frustrating than getting into a side by side battle in PES knowing you have the weaker player of the two as you know there is only a matter of time before you’ll lose possession or give up your run. This is not realistic in any sense as there are many times that in football a weaker player can win a jostle for the ball using his balance, ability to keep the ball close to his feet and determination. I think this is an area where PES needs to add a better jostling system so the outcome of side by side jostling is not just a stumble and dispossession so frequently.
I’ve been quite negative so far with this section and I’m afraid it’ll have to continue here as I’m also disappointed with the speed of the of game. PES has always had a decent pace to it but now the game feels a lot faster with more pressuring which almost reminds me of FIFA prior to tactical defending. It’s not quite as bad as FIFA was but still with FIFA going in the right direction it feels like PES has gone the opposite way which is a shame as one of the things I enjoyed a lot with PES was the games pace.
Player Individuality
FIFA 12:
I know EA have focused more on player individuality and whilst there is definitely a difference that has been made over the last two years it still doesn’t meet the level I want. Player individuality still doesn’t feel like it’s actual a case of individuality but more a case of grouping. This may sound odd but what I mean by grouping is that strong players are strong, fast players are fast, deadly finishers are deadly finishers but they are not individuals, they are more like clones with different bodies. Another branch of the individuality is lost in the off the ball and positioning part of the game as FIFA doesn’t do this well. Players like Messi are superb not just because of what they do on the ball but what they do off of the ball so with off of the ball movement being pretty generic you lose a lot of personality and individuality of a player.
PES 2012:
As with PES 2011 the player individuality seems to be streaks ahead of FIFA with players having style cards that allows them to use their individual traits on the field. The difference between the games is that the players actually feel like their real life counter parts which leaves the question to be begged “if Konami can do it then why can’t EA?”.
Upon playing the demo I gave Inter Milan a go and Sneijder felt dangerous when shooting from range, Cambiasso felt like he bullied the midfield and Eto’o made dangerous runs and tracked back too. It’s something that Konami have done very well and it works on so many levels that players feel right.
AI
Off the ball AI
FIFA 12:
This is the area of FIFA which falls shortest in my opinion as players still make straight, easy to read runs and more than often have to be triggered to happen at all which gives the user more to do in a short space of time. If I were playing in the premiership I would not expect to have to shout to a player “make a run”, in order for his brain to start working but this seems to be the case with FIFA. EA drastically need to look at their off of the ball system as the off the ball attacking runs are almost non-existent and when triggered they are always straight and pointless which is even more frustrating as the user has no option to manually make an off of the ball run.
PES 2012:
The off of the ball movement on PES is fantastic with defenders getting into sensible defending positions and strikers making intelligent runs to space or pulling players out of position. On numerous occasions I watched players making diagonal runs and then turning when they saw space to move into which really gave me options when attacking as well as helping pull defenders out of position.
The off the ball runs also carry over to defending very well with defenders tracking runs properly and making sure that they are not static when there is a threat.
To add to the great automatic runs PES offers a system that has triggered runs where the user can click the analogue stick and the player will make a run. Now at first I thought this was no different to FIFA’s poor straight line triggered runs which is true when you’re set to automatic runs. However, on PES you can set your triggered runs to manual and then you can open up a whole new level of off of the ball runs by manually controlling another player using the right analogue whilst dribbling with your other player using the left analogue. At first I found this very hard but with a little practice I found myself using this very effectively to ensure I got to my passes first, split defences and just give my receiving player more space.
The thing I find odd about this is I’m fairly sure it was in a previous FIFA in the past as a bit of a gimmick and yet it’s a feature that works so well for those who wish to explore it so I have no idea why it has not resurfaced in FIFA again.
Animations
FIFA 12:
And so we reach animations, the area where FIFA has excelled for quite some time between the two games. Now this year should of been EA’s year to really make an impact with their new engine (no pun intended), however with only 2 days of play it would seem that the Impact Engine is not delivering quite as well as it should be. First of all I will say that when the Impact Engine works it looks fantastic as it did when we played it in Guildford in its pre-alpha stage, however, it is a real immersion killer when it does bug up and a player “floats” in mid air or “explodes” across the field. The Impact Engine has a hell of a lot of potential and generally works very well but it has some nasty side effects such as the for mentioned exploding players or floating mid air collisions as well as some quite unnatural moments as limbs can bend in a manner they never should. Having said that even with these niggles and bugs I think the overall animations and look of the game is very impressive and looks very organic as a whole making FIFA a very immersive game to play.
PES 2012:
With PES 2012 I think the animations have come a long way but still feel like they need a lot of work. Now I know many may think that this is harsh as PES has taken a big step forward in flow and animations but it still feels like the animations need to be changed drastically and the flow from one animation to another is also massively flawed and it affects the game play. There is nothing more frustrating than playing a game where you’re immersed in the game play and then a very unnaturally timed animation takes place and leaves you wondering why it’s happened. An example is when I am running 3-4 yards away from a player tracking him down the line the player will switch from a full sprint into a jockey and back again for no apparent reason and it looks massively unnatural. I suppose the best way to sum it up is that whilst PES delivers very good animation captures they do not seem to transition properly, meaning every time an animation switches from one to another you get a slight jerking feeling which is often referred to as “robotic”. Whilst this happening once or twice is not a big deal to me it feels like PES does this far too frequently and that it does not transition well enough on a whole, giving the game the feel of a poorly animated game when it actually isn’t.
Graphics
FIFA 12:
I suppose the best place to start with FIFA’s graphics is with the player faces which are fantastic and really easy to identify thanks to the 8 way technology. Having said that some faces still look wrong and obviously the further you go down the leagues the more likely it will be that faces get worse and worse.
In previous FIFA’s the graphics have not looked so great with the colour palettes that EA have used and the crowds have looked awful so it is a great change to see the graphics of FIFA taking a nice step forward. The colours look a lot nicer, the
PES 2012:
PES 2012 looks fantastic with so many little touches all being included, even the cameras behind the net are of a high quality as well as the stewards and so on. The colours used look genuine, the details on players look sharp and player faces are easy to identify. I think the best way to sum up the graphics of PES 2012 is that they are everything you would expect from a football game and the only flaws I can find is that some of the Caucasian players can look a little rubbery and that some parts of the game can look like they are not part of one whole if that makes sense? I think a better way of explaining myself is that at times the graphics as a whole don’t have great continuity.
Commentary
FIFA 12:
With the previous FIFA games commentary has always been pretty good but it seems that this year with EA having to find a new commentary team they have created some fantastic commentary with Martin Tyler and Alan Smith discussing various aspects of the game and reacting very well to the game being played. I personally think the commentary is fantastic and although I’m sure in time some phrases will get repetitive it is great to see there is a lot more depth and a lot less irrelevant commentary being used at the wrong times.
PES 2012:
I’m not sure if I missed an option or something but on the demo I couldn’t actually find anything to change so that the commentary was on. I’m not sure if PES 2012 plans on having commentary but I can’t imagine it doesn’t but with it not being in the demo (or at least I can’t find it) I can’t actually comment on it.
Summary
FIFA 12:
FIFA 12 has taken some big steps in improving its game, with the new tactical defending being the biggest of them all and it has resulted in what looks to be a promising game. Unfortunately it would seem that the potential problem areas are already easy to identify in FIFA 12 with some freak Impact Engine issues and AI that is really lacking in key areas of the game.
I suppose to sum up my thoughts on FIFA is that there is a great game there and with more time playing its retail version with the sliders there is even more potential for a fantastic football game.
PES 2012:
PES 2012 is a great step forward in many ways but there is something about it that reminds me of FIFA when I thought FIFA needed some major changes, maybe it’s the speed, I honestly don’t know. Having said that PES shows that AI can be done very well in a football game and that a thinking man’s football is possible within gaming.
With PES’ previous reputation of depth in its games and its new and improved game play I’m sure the retail game will offer hours upon hours of great football gaming and I think it’s safe to say I will be buying both games and enjoying both games despite not reaching the standards I would like.
