Fifa's looking extremely splendid this year, visually and gameplay wise, taking leaps forward since Fifa08, PES has a few tweaks but still looks like a ported PS2 game, where's the promised significant improvements Konami?

too hard to compare these games. visually fifa takes it since they always have, but then its never been about visuals for PES. i need to get my hands on them both to see which plays best. but if its like every other year, PES will be crowned the winner....AGAIN

everyone i know prefers PES, and i dont see it changing, the only real nagative aspect about last years outting was the lag fest of an online mode, but whatever, to each his own.

From these videos, FIFA looks more like the real thing and PES still seems like a caricature of football. In FIFA body movement and ball behavior seem more natural (except for the crosses which are way too floaty). In PES, game speed is still too fast and too uniform and I always hated the 45 degree dribbling engine, which they have in there since 7 years now. It makes the whole thing look so robotic. Will they ever change it? The way the ball seems to be attached to the player's leg with an invisible rubberband when running, is also very unrealistic. I am sure they didn't revamp the dodgy AI either. Agree with driftwood. Seabass and his team should start from scratch. This year it'll be FIFA for me again.

When you say "everyone I know" whom do you refer to? I'm a member of a number of football gaming forums including EvoWeb which is a forum built up around ISS/PES/WE and the large majority of people in those have moved away from PES due to the abysmal lack of effort by Konami in the last few PS2 versions and the abomination that is PES2008 on the 360/PS3.

Until Konami invest in a new engine that can meet the demands for visuals on a par with Fifa, that can bring the gameplay into the modern age, that features animations that don't look like they date back to the mega drive, that features commentary that has an ounce of passion then PES will remain to be the bastard child of football gaming.

Wow! FIFA looks amazing...

Are you on about PES08 on 360/PS3? how could anyone tha loves football like that game? its so fast and arcadey....takes no skill, get messi and you can run through any players

it was a joke

It's the one I'm buying :D

Only one game looks like true football and I have to admit, it isnt PES09. Fifa actually looks amazing, I cant believe my eyes, so so fluid! this will be the first Fifa game I will buy since Fifa 99 on Megadrive.

The thing thats stands out the most is the off-the-ball player a.i, the runs they make feels like they are human controlled, always trying to get into space, never static like PES.

I watched the PES vid first and I liked what I saw, then I put the FIfa vid on and it was like a breath of fresh air, I would go as far as saying Fifa looks miles better. Its a shame really as I will genuinely miss the Master League :(

I have spoken to a few friends of mine and despite all being PES guys last year they are all going over to Fifa this year. I loved PES but have been let down twice now and the Euro 08 demo really impressed me. Fifa looks very good this year, gameplay wise, graphics wise and animation is all looking better than PES which needs a def overhaul. Only thing that was a bit worrying with Fifa is that the keepers in this vid both made 1 massive mistake each nearly costing in goals and there should have been a blatent penalty when coupet comes rushing out. Other than that though I'm looking forward to Fifa more and I think thats what I'm buying.

As a long term PES fan and Fifa hater I opted for Fifa last year, going as far as to trade PES2008 for Fifa 08 after deciding I'd made a mistake. That meant I paid a lot more for Fifa than a should have. However, after watching these videos, to me, PES just looks more fun.

I've never really liked the look of Fifa - I know everyone thinks it looks better, but it looks too filtered, like they're trying to make it look like a render, it just doesn't do it to me visually. The pace is far more realistic, but it's more of a passing game.

PES was always the most realistic, and perhaps it's not now, but I like the faster pace, the more responsive players, the perfectly timed through ball, the gloriously different every time goal. It's still realistic, perhaps with more of a nod to keeping it fun and making you feel like a super star where Fifa concentrates on the grind of a real game, but can feel like a slog. Sometimes it's nice to get the ball to Kaka, take it past 3 players and score a blinder to set up a nice through ball to one of the fwds. PES always gives you that adrenalin rush, and it's cleaner graphics may not have the Fifa bling and EA filtering, but for me it always has looked better for it. I may change my mind, but right now I'm thinking of defecting back to PES again.

let's wait, seabass know what he does

from the vids, fifa appears to do everything better the PES from graphics, to animation, to the gameplay, PES may play the faster game but totally takes you out of it by looking too fake in comparison and fifa has the true footie pacing, and I prefer the passing game as that's what football is in real life, it's much more of a team/passing game than a solo runner.

So, you didn't like FIFA because it used to be too fast and arcadey, but now you like PES because it's fast and arcadey unlike FIFA?

I could never get past the awful development 'effort' that went in to PES08 - the clear 'blur' at the top of the pitch where the engine wasn't optimised enough to draw the grass correctly just reeked of poor programming. Not to mention the general downward spiral with the online game mode since PES5, each version having more lag than the previous. Now this year there seems to be very little change from what was already a poor game.

Perhaps there's a few new animations and better player models, but the awful grass blur still appears to be there, and the same old user interface/HUD - which looks like an MSDOS version of Windows Media Player 10.

FIFA seems to be taking a very notable step forward with each version. FIFA 07 introduced the next gen engine, FIFA 08 introduced Be a Pro and Be a Pro online, Euro 2008 introduced Captain Your Country (a variation of Be A Pro, but career based throughout the tournament), and FIFA 09 is introducing a further development of this, where you captain your favourite team in a career - along with 10 v 10 Be A Pro online.

PES... seems to be sticking to the same. I felt robbed when I bought PES08 to be brutally honest, and quickly sold the game. The trade-in price of £20 (when I paid £40) a week after release showed just how many trade-ins the game shops were receiving.

PES sucked online, so I'll buy FIFA this year.

havent played a FIFA game in years. So purely on what I'm seeing, FIFA is far more appealing were as PES I still believe we will be getting more of the same with minor tweaks. Player animation is particularly impressive in the fifa game.

Does anyone know if it will be possible to play leagues with your mates online? And I don't mean custom created league, but I mean against the CPU?

You think that was the only negative? You're deluded, no offense. I'm a die-hard PES player, or sorry, I used to be. Been playing them from day one way back on the SNES' ISS days, and then the PSX series. I stopped playing them after 4 on the PS2. They were getting so boring and stale by then, even though I still never touched a Fifa game because they were so shit. Once I played Fifa 07, I realized that EA were seriously on to something good, and then 08 came out, albeit with some responsive issues, it was still a great game, and much better than what the trash Konami were putting out as far as effort was concerned. It looked better, moved better, controlled better as far as passing was went, and was extremely addictive online, which is a major part to ANY game these days, where PES' was just broken. Sorry, mate, but I bought my 360 to get both the visual impact, as well as the online experience, and mix that up with experiencing new gameplay elements to most genre's. PES is now extremely dated. It feels and looks archaic, like it's a PS2 game from 7 years ago. Horrible animations, rough ball physics, horrible garish graphics, and still ridiculous lack of license. I mean, Konami has made enough money out of these games, and if I'm paying 40 quid for a football game, I now expect to have all the extra#'s that come with it. Thankfully Fifa 09 is stepping up to the plate and delivering the football game that I've always dreamed about. I always wished PES had all the full authenticity. I always said if it had that, then PES would dominate forever. How ironic that now PES has had the last leg it has to stand on (gameplay) be chopped out from under it. Now Fifa has bothing amazing true next gen gameplay, visuals, and licenses as well as an amazing online set up. The ultimate package in a football game, and even a die-hard PES fan would be insane to deny it. It's a huge win for the football fan. End of.

Clearly, he doesn't. The man hasn't a clue how to develop properly for the current consoles, and that's a fact.

Sorry for the triple post. I just feel compelled to say that on the evidence of these two video's, it's shockingly obvious which game is going to come out the clear winner this time round. One game looks incredible, with fluid realistic animation, lighting, shadowing, passing, movement, the lot. While on the other hand, one looks so flat and very last gen. If a single image can paint a thousand words, then how many can a moving video do? It's embarrassing on Konami's behalf to even present that game on current gen consoles. I turned their video off 30 seconds in, whereas I wanted to watch more and more of EA's.

FIFA is looking better than ever.

Let me put this straight. No FIFA game has ever been remotely close to the splendid PES gameplay. FIFA 2007 was horrible, FIFA 2008 was impossible to control and EURO 2008 was a bit better but slow and boring as heck.

FIFA 2009 is the first in the whole series that seems to take a significant gameplay approach reminiscent to PES, which is good, really good, with a remarkably superior visual look. In terms of animation both of them are equal.

It will be a matter of testing both to know which one handles better and has more dept (very important here) PES also needs to include many more game modes and not limit to regular 1 vs 1 online matches which is where FIFA has taken the cake for a long shot.

On the other side, PES 2009 gameplay and framerate looks much better than the horrible PES 2008 (being PES 2007 the best so far, despite bugs) It's fast, it's spectacular and those guys playing are probably the best ones I've seen in this game's previews (very hard defenses) which gives us a clue of the dept of the game. Lets hope Konami goes back to the right track. We don't care if it doesn't look as fantastic as FIFA (it never has) but if it plays better, then we fans will eventually be sold.

BUGS: I have noticed some bugs in FIFA gameplay. The goalkeepers pretty much suck. One of them almost commited an auto goal when trying to catch an easy ball. Then the other let it slip from a pass from the defense almost striking another auto-goal and the only goal in the match was stoppable in my opinion.

The ONLY reason why many PES fans bought FIFA 2008 last year is because PES 2008 sucked big time. The online mode was atrocious, with tons of lag resulting in not only slowdowns but worst of all, teleporting players and balls. If it wasn't enough, Konami also screwed the gameplay by making it extremely unrealistic.

However, it doesn't mean FIFA 2008 was a better game. Visually it was, but the gameplay was even worse than any PES. Currently, the best gameplay in a football game to date PES 2007 and that's what most people in the Top 100 rank I play with say (I'm in the top 500)

FIFA 2008 gameplay just couldn't get you hooked, it was slow and the ball terribly difficult to deal with in key situations. You'd have to wait until the field and the ball get their crap togheter before you could finish or control an splendid pass, leading to a lot of frustration.

To me, the best football game would be a combination of FIFA visuals and gameplay modes + PES 2007 gameplay with its bugs fixed (deselecting players, slowing down for passes, etc...) That, by current standards. Who knows if PES 2009 of FIFA 09 can improve the gameplay standards imposed by PES 2007.

According the metacritic scores, Fifa 08 was a better game than PES 2008, which, let's be honest, was complete turd. You stated that PES 2008 was awful, yet no Fifa has been better? A tad contradicting in your opinions. I think it's widely acknowledged from both parties, that Fifa 08 was the better game last year. You deem it impossible to control, I disagree. It had response issues, but still played the more faithful representation to the real sport than what the ridiculously arcady PES 2008 ever did.This is an insane comment. I've nothing more to add.

pes 2009's really good, I think you haven't played japanese games before. gameplay in japanese games always great. what I need in pes 2008 really in this version, I see that. fifa 09 is really beautiful and fresh but I feel that fifa still don't have a good gameplay, I can't see anything better in this version except graphic