Last week, our own Michael Atkinson provided
his own insight into this year's round of the football feud to end them all, confirming that he thinks Pro Evo 2013 will emerge victorious this year as a better game than EA Sport's FIFA 13. Like him, I've played both demos, and though the PES team have made some major strides this season, they are still playing catch-up and the developed features come at a cost and I can't look beyond EA Sport's latest addition to the genre. For the first time in a long while though, the battle for supremacy this year has been a lot closer than some fans might have expected, and this decision was far from as easy as it has been in the past few years. Last year both games had their problems, with PES attracting a lot of criticism and FIFA 12 attracting specific criticism relating to the new defensive system, and FIFA 12 ultimately emerged as the champion once more. That seemed to prompt Konami into making more wholesale changes, rebuilding their game's engine from the foundations with the bias on gameplay and the development of balance between the old arcade sensibilities of ISS and the modern fascination with realistic sim-like play. And PES 2013 is a triumph of a game in comparison with the last few games of the series - Konami have really thought about their fans, and what it takes to keep a player engaged on the pitch, though there have been some compromises elsewhere unfortunately. And that's where FIFA 13 has the room to beat this years PES - taking advantage of the areas that Konami can't compete in to once again capture the crown of the best football video game of the year. It's those areas we're going to focus on here, exploring every major aspect of FIFA 13 to confirm exactly why EA Sports' release will be better than PES 2013 for both fans and critics alike. And it has nothing to do with how many copies will be sold. Click next to reveal the nine reasons football gaming fans can expect FIFA 13 to be the victor once again this year...