Soccer Showdown, FIFA 16 vs PES 2016

FIFA 16 and PES 2016 both want to steal your season – which one wants it most?

The past was a simpler time, a time in which either FIFA or PES was clear top dog. You knew where you stood. But now there’s so little between these lone sporting titans, the Real Madrid and Barcelona of a crowded genre that once featured the incredibad likes of Chris Kamara’s Street Soccer, that it’s down to intrepid features in genius magazines such as this to steer you in the right direction. After evolving from time to time, FIFA seems become a better game from past times

There’s FIFA 16, with its 20 accurately modeled stadiums and YouTube-conquering Ultimate Team; there’s PES 2016, with its Champions League license and supermodel looks courtesy of the Fox Engine. They’re both brilliant skews on what Pelé insists on calling ‘the Beautiful Game’ to everyone’s continued annoyance, and yet tricky to define, a bit like the word ‘complacent’. Describing how they play often leaves you using odd terms like ‘stodgy’ and ‘boggy’. So to prevent that, we’ve separated the fight into five categories. To make the whole thing immediately redundant, however, let’s just say this: whichever one you scout will be worthy of your transfer funds.