3. The Impact
One thing that EA Sports have done well throughout their entire stable of sports games is channel the ceremony of sport, celebrating the spectacle of the game through presentation, and adding to the effect with a tub-thumping soundtrack to get players focused and excited for the upcoming matches ahead. FIFA 13 has continued that trend, thanks in part to the excellent new Match Day set-up that makes every match feel like an FA Cup final, with the sort of pomp and circumstance that you might expect from the biggest sporting events in the world. But on an even more simple level, FIFA 13 packs the perfect amount of impact when it comes to scoring a goal, something that it plainly missing from PES 2013. As Michael said in his own article about PES:
FIFA feels like it has a weight to it: goals feel like they hit the back of the net and the feeling that gives is greater than scoring in Pro Evo, so much so that I imagine Arsene Wenger prefers Pro Evo. After all, why would you ruin a good move with a goal when the result is so understated? All joking aside, that is actually a major flaw: the entire point of the sport is the one thing that Pro Evo fails to deliver on. It might even be the lack of commentary on the demo that manages to dilute the reaction as the goal goes in, but I doubt it. It could also be a result of the ball physics Id praised earlier and the weightlessness that provides, but theres certainly something not quite right.
I can't help but agree. PES 2013 really feels like it rewards attractive football and a passing game, but FIFA 13 feels more like it's geared towards the art of goal-scoring, even despite the rebuilt control and dribbling systems. It is a more direct game, and the reward is enough to make it the better of the two games in that regard.