Instead of creating a thread comparing the two current versions, thought we'd have a thread celebrating the best classic games these two franchises have created over the years, the best game modes/mini games or moments you've had playing certain versions and any other memories.
My first memory of any football-related video game was FIFA 95, running in a diagonal line cutting in from the wing and then smashing it top corner just outside the box
.. Romario I think was top rated, Shearer was a monster too.. loved the season mode on it and competing with the likes of Blackburn Rovers.
The next game which took my breath away was a game I went round a family friends house and played on the PC...Fifa 98: Road to the World Cup.. the greatest intro of all time, proper 3D graphics, great music, sensational gameplay, I only got to play it three times a year when we visited but the memories of playing it would stick with me all year.
Then my favourite Fifa of the nineties, Fifa 99. For me probably the best soundtrack of all time as in the great tunes just kept on coming 'funks soul brother - check it out now' and dribbling past players whilst pressing the shit out of the triangle button will never get old. It famously omitted R9 at his absolute peak and you had to look for him under the name of A. Calcio, but he was so worth getting your hands on, a dream to play with who left defenders for dust. This game marked the beginning of the end for the old school Fifa generation, with 2000 basically being a carbon copy but then FIFA started to shoot themselves in the foot until the PS3 Generation.
PES 4/PES 5
Holy shit. For me, the pinnacle of football represented on a video game. PES4 I never owned as I was a die-hard FIFA loyalist, and I remember at school, the new PES had been released and some lad bringing it into school and we had a tournament instead of science. We all paired up in teams of 2, and wow.. I felt like my eyes had been opened, the gameplay was leaps ahead of anything Fifa had ever produced and graphically it just looked far superior. I was still playing FIFA 2004 I think, using right stick for first touches, and pressing some other button for tactical options or off the ball etc and here was a game on a different planet, which I only got round to buying by PES 5. Kasabian, the training modes, Master League.. editing mode. My lord, far too much of my life was consumed by this game.. I have never found Manchester United as beautiful to play with since this game, a young Cristiano at the peak of his dribbling prowess was a monster to play with. Since this game, never really played with United in other video games as they're generally so underpowered so PES 5 (and to a lesser extent PES 6/7) rank high in terms of sentiment value for that reason.
One thing we didn't appreciate at the time was just how immense the gameplay mechanics were. Yes we all raved about them, but I genuinely don't think the modern game has come close to replicating the perfection of the ball physics or the balance between attack/defence we saw in these games. The players with the better footballing brains won 9 times out of 10 and that was a testament to its reputation as the best of football simulation, but it wasn't boring to play - it captured the excitement of the game perfectly.
I'm going to leave it there and let others hopefully chip in with other games from the 90s like ISS which I never got to play, and the FIFA games of the modern consoles which I have played but not to the same extent others have.
What have been some of your favourite games and memories?
My first memory of any football-related video game was FIFA 95, running in a diagonal line cutting in from the wing and then smashing it top corner just outside the box
.. Romario I think was top rated, Shearer was a monster too.. loved the season mode on it and competing with the likes of Blackburn Rovers.The next game which took my breath away was a game I went round a family friends house and played on the PC...Fifa 98: Road to the World Cup.. the greatest intro of all time, proper 3D graphics, great music, sensational gameplay, I only got to play it three times a year when we visited but the memories of playing it would stick with me all year.
Then my favourite Fifa of the nineties, Fifa 99. For me probably the best soundtrack of all time as in the great tunes just kept on coming 'funks soul brother - check it out now' and dribbling past players whilst pressing the shit out of the triangle button will never get old. It famously omitted R9 at his absolute peak and you had to look for him under the name of A. Calcio, but he was so worth getting your hands on, a dream to play with who left defenders for dust. This game marked the beginning of the end for the old school Fifa generation, with 2000 basically being a carbon copy but then FIFA started to shoot themselves in the foot until the PS3 Generation.
PES 4/PES 5
Holy shit. For me, the pinnacle of football represented on a video game. PES4 I never owned as I was a die-hard FIFA loyalist, and I remember at school, the new PES had been released and some lad bringing it into school and we had a tournament instead of science. We all paired up in teams of 2, and wow.. I felt like my eyes had been opened, the gameplay was leaps ahead of anything Fifa had ever produced and graphically it just looked far superior. I was still playing FIFA 2004 I think, using right stick for first touches, and pressing some other button for tactical options or off the ball etc and here was a game on a different planet, which I only got round to buying by PES 5. Kasabian, the training modes, Master League.. editing mode. My lord, far too much of my life was consumed by this game.. I have never found Manchester United as beautiful to play with since this game, a young Cristiano at the peak of his dribbling prowess was a monster to play with. Since this game, never really played with United in other video games as they're generally so underpowered so PES 5 (and to a lesser extent PES 6/7) rank high in terms of sentiment value for that reason.
One thing we didn't appreciate at the time was just how immense the gameplay mechanics were. Yes we all raved about them, but I genuinely don't think the modern game has come close to replicating the perfection of the ball physics or the balance between attack/defence we saw in these games. The players with the better footballing brains won 9 times out of 10 and that was a testament to its reputation as the best of football simulation, but it wasn't boring to play - it captured the excitement of the game perfectly.
I'm going to leave it there and let others hopefully chip in with other games from the 90s like ISS which I never got to play, and the FIFA games of the modern consoles which I have played but not to the same extent others have.
What have been some of your favourite games and memories?
