Best Football game of all time

The greatest football game of all time?

  • PES

    Votes: 3 2.2%
  • PES 2

    Votes: 5 3.7%
  • PES 3

    Votes: 12 8.9%
  • PES 4

    Votes: 7 5.2%
  • PES 5

    Votes: 35 25.9%
  • PES 6

    Votes: 39 28.9%
  • PES 2008 (PS2 version)

    Votes: 12 8.9%
  • PES 2009

    Votes: 1 0.7%
  • PES 2010

    Votes: 1 0.7%
  • PES 2011

    Votes: 6 4.4%
  • PES 2012

    Votes: 1 0.7%
  • PES 2013

    Votes: 12 8.9%
  • PES 2014

    Votes: 3 2.2%
  • PES 2015

    Votes: 3 2.2%
  • PES 2016

    Votes: 2 1.5%
  • PES 2017

    Votes: 14 10.4%
  • PES 2018

    Votes: 2 1.5%
  • PES 2019

    Votes: 2 1.5%
  • PES 2020

    Votes: 2 1.5%
  • PES 2021

    Votes: 41 30.4%
  • ISS (2D series)

    Votes: 3 2.2%
  • FIFA (2D series)

    Votes: 1 0.7%
  • Football Kingdom

    Votes: 5 3.7%
  • Sensible Soccer series

    Votes: 6 4.4%
  • Kick Off series

    Votes: 2 1.5%
  • FIFA (Saturn & PS1 era)

    Votes: 1 0.7%
  • FIFA (PS2,Xbox, GameCube era)

    Votes: 3 2.2%
  • FIFA (PS3,Xbox360 era)

    Votes: 9 6.7%
  • FIFA (PS4 & PS5 era)

    Votes: 9 6.7%
  • WE9LE

    Votes: 18 13.3%

  • Total voters
    135
Results may be a bit skewed on PES mostly forum. But worth a punt I guess
I am not really sure.
PES was absolute king on PS2, since PS3 days most people do think that FIFA overtook it as the game to play.
It is just a shame the last few years that FIFA has gone away from simulation and become an esports game.
 
I am not really sure.
PES was absolute king on PS2, since PS3 days most people do think that FIFA overtook it as the game to play.
It is just a shame the last few years that FIFA has gone away from simulation and become an esports game.
But how many here are realistically NOT going to choose PES 3-6?

If this was Fifo-web, and PES 3-6 still won, then you know it's a fair enough poll
 
But how many here are realistically NOT going to choose PES 3-6?

If this was Fifo-web, and PES 3-6 still won, then you know it's a fair enough poll

It it was a FIFA forum nobody would have even played PES 3-6 because of age.

But I think for a fair poll it should include the individual Fifa games.

For me personally the best games are:

PES 5
PES 2021
Fifa 19, 20, 22
 
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@FC Bayern as @DaWolf said, this is probably a voting poll for adults. Plus, FIFA was a steaming pile of garbage until the PS3 versions and I included it purely as a pitty vote and the reason people would mainly vote PES on here is because they are the type of people that know what a good football game is. There are some good versions of FIFA more towards the semi modern era of gaming but even with motion capture, physics and A.I (Definitely not A.I actually) they still don’t really compare to the golden generation of football games and by the looks of it, most people agree.
 
@FC Bayern as @DaWolf said, this is probably a voting poll for adults. Plus, FIFA was a steaming pile of garbage until the PS3 versions and I included it purely as a pitty vote and the reason people would mainly vote PES on here is because they are the type of people that know what a good football game is. There are some good versions of FIFA more towards the semi modern era of gaming but even with motion capture, physics and A.I (Definitely not A.I actually) they still don’t really compare to the golden generation of football games and by the looks of it, most people agree.
I mostly agree, but FIFA 14 and 16 have what you described, that unpredictably and dopamine hit. In that when I shoot I don't know wtf is going to happen. I miss loads, as I have semi shooting on and semi passing and manual through balls. So I get huge satisfaction from carving out chances, or even just pressing and defending, as the game allows you to muscle guys off the ball and do whatever I'd do IRL.
 
I mostly agree, but FIFA 14 and 16 have what you described, that unpredictably and dopamine hit. In that when I shoot I don't know wtf is going to happen. I miss loads, as I have semi shooting on and semi passing and manual through balls. So I get huge satisfaction from carving out chances, or even just pressing and defending, as the game allows you to muscle guys off the ball and do whatever I'd do IRL.

Well they’re in the list under the different eras. If anything, the votes are likely to be higher for FIFA as a collection era rather than separating each game which would split the FIFA votes even further. So if anything it’s bias towards FIFA and it’s still not as well liked as PES 5 & 6
 
Looks like a 3-way race between PES 5, 6, and 2021! (although I'm sure that once more people start seeing the thread, WE9 will get more votes, it really has a cult following). PES 2013 is finally getting some votes, let's see if it picks up.
 
Yeah a surprising turn seeing PES 21 fighting for the top spot with PES 5 & 6.
 
@FC Bayern as @DaWolf said, this is probably a voting poll for adults. Plus, FIFA was a steaming pile of garbage until the PS3 versions and I included it purely as a pitty vote and the reason people would mainly vote PES on here is because they are the type of people that know what a good football game is. There are some good versions of FIFA more towards the semi modern era of gaming but even with motion capture, physics and A.I (Definitely not A.I actually) they still don’t really compare to the golden generation of football games and by the looks of it, most people agree.
Not the first time and not the last time, but I disagree with you. I LOVE the PS2 Fifa games. Particularly Fifa 07, and Fifa 2003 until 2005. Never owned Fifa 06 back in the day, but got it about 7 years ago, and it's also a very decent game. PES 5 still the better of the two, but I don't dismiss them out of sheer bias.

My point is purely that if you put a poll for 'who is the best player?' on a Portuguese forum, they'd mostly vote C.Ronaldo, and if you put it on an Argentine forum, they'd mostly vote L.Messi. So you can't get a truly unbiased vote when the majority of users here are here because they love PES. Ask a man to choose between his wife and some random woman in the street. The random woman may be kinder, more enthusiastic about things in life, better in bed, better in the kitchen, have more money from a more successful career. But the man would more than likely choose his wife, as that is who he loves. It's likely the PS2 PES games would win anyway due to their quality. I'm just urging caution over the fact that humans are inherently biased, thus some other games may not be truly reflected. I will give you points though for allowing a multiple selection, as it may balance things out a bit.
 
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Not the first time and not the last time, but I disagree with you. I LOVE the PS2 Fifa games. Particularly Fifa 07, and Fifa 2003 until 2005. Never owned Fifa 06 back in the day, but got it about 7 years ago, and it's also a very decent game. PES 5 still the better of the two, but I don't dismiss them out of sheer bias.

My point is purely that if you put a poll for 'who is the best player?' on a Portuguese forum, they'd mostly vote C.Ronaldo, and if you put it on an Argentine forum, they'd mostly vote L.Messi. So you can't get a truly unbiased vote when the majority of users here are here because they love PES. Ask a man to choose between his wife and some random woman in the street. The random woman may be kinder, more enthusiastic about things in life, better in bed, better in the kitchen, have more money from a more successful career. But the man would more than likely choose his wife, as that is who he loves. It's likely the PS2 PES games would win anyway due to their quality. I'm just urging caution over the fact that humans are inherently biased, thus some other games may not be truly reflected. I will give you points though for allowing a multiple selection, as it may balance things out a bit.

“Better in bed” 😂 that got me.
I’m bias to PES because I think it’s better than FIFA, however if you look at the poll it’s completely bias towards FIFA. All the FIFA games are split into eras, which actually gives a massive bias to FIFA because when it comes to the votes they aren’t split between different FIFA games. Eg. In the PS4 & PS5 era it could have ended up with 2 votes for one fifa, 3 for another version and so on. This way FIFA is given the fairest chance in a PES orientated forum.

Plus, on top of that, everybody knows the greatest football game of all time isn’t going to be made by EA lol
 
The poll so far is PES 5 in the lead by 1 vote and remarkably it’s PES 2021 that is currently in second place ahead of PES 6!
I’ve got to say, I’m quite surprised PES 6 is currently third!
 
The poll so far is PES 5 in the lead by 1 vote and remarkably it’s PES 2021 that is currently in second place ahead of PES 6!
I’ve got to say, I’m quite surprised PES 6 is currently third!
PES 2021 has just overtaken PES 6!

I guess people are really enjoying the gameplay mods!
 
This poll is seriously biased towards pes. Why list all the pes but not all the FIFA?
I don't feel like voting for an era will represent my preference for FIFA16.
Unless you details it, I won't vote (you might don't care, and that's fine).
 
I think PES 2021 unmodded should be the only option. Otherwise it's got an unfair advantage.

Also, ISS Pro 98/Evolution/Evolution 2 deserve their own entries.

ISS Pro Evolution 2 or PES3 get my nod. Although, after so many years and so many games I find it almost impossible to compare sometimes. It's like comparing players or teams in real life.

I usually like to define mine by generation/console:

- FIFA International Soccer
- ISS 98
- ISS Pro Evolution 2
- PES3
- World Cup 2010
- FIFA 14
- Championship Manager 01/02
 
PES 2021 has just overtaken PES 6!

I guess people are really enjoying the gameplay mods!

Certainly surprising but if the people have voted it then I guess it’s currently considered the second best game after PES 5. Maybe it will even dethrone PES5?!! 😲

@papinho81 If I split up the FIFA games into separate games (not that there’s enough poll votes spaces for that) then the total votes would be even less than they were now as explained previously.

@Flipper the Priest PES 5 & PES 6 also have mods and patches etc too so I think it’s fine. Plus, I didn’t specifically say PES 2021 + mods
 
Certainly surprising but if the people have voted it then I guess it’s currently considered the second best game after PES 5. Maybe it will even dethrone PES5?!! 😲

@papinho81 If I split up the FIFA games into separate games (not that there’s enough poll votes spaces for that) then the total votes would be even less than they were now as explained previously.

@Flipper the Priest PES 5 & PES 6 also have mods and patches etc too so I think it’s fine. Plus, I didn’t specifically say PES 2021 + mods
I don't think so. Exactly for the reason I mentioned in my previous post.
 
I don't think so. Exactly for the reason I mentioned in my previous post.
Think logically. There’s currently 5 votes in the PS3, XBox 360 era. That era includes FIFA 16. Unless all 5 votes were for FIFA 16 then FIFA 16 (included in that group) would have less votes than it has now. It’s very simple to understand.
 
Think logically. There’s currently 5 votes in the PS3, XBox 360 era. That era includes FIFA 16. Unless all 5 votes were for FIFA 16 then FIFA 16 (included in that group) would have less votes than it has now. It’s very simple to understand.
I'd rather put FIFA 16 in the "PS4" era though (as that's where all Ignite-based games, FIFA 16 included, belong).

You both have a point though: you'd say that if the FIFA games were split they'd get less votes each (I'd vote for Ignite FIFA 14 for example, so it'd be a vote "less" for FIFA 16 in the PS4 era), he's saying that there might be people not voting because they don't see their favourite game listed.

By the way, back to the reason I was initially posting:
Do you prefer FIFA games over PES games? I always they thought they lacked something. Not sure what. Soul maybe? Lol
As I said earlier, I'm still not sure that FIFA 14 is the best football game ever: I'm swinging between it, FIFA 19 and PES 5 currently.

I'm a career mode player so, when it comes to career mode, I am one of the people @bsmaff was taliking about: in the PS3 era FIFA overtook PES and from there on it always offered a more complete/refined experience. And I'm not even taking regens into account.
PES for PC in the early PS4 era was good to play but almost "lifeless" in terms of look and feel, FIFA was way more alive. I'm a PC gamer and the comparison between, say, FIFA 16 and PES 2016 on PC was completely one-sided.
 
I'd rather put FIFA 16 in the "PS4" era though (as that's where all Ignite-based games, FIFA 16 included, belong).

You both have a point though: you'd say that if the FIFA games were split they'd get less votes each (I'd vote for Ignite FIFA 14 for example, so it'd be a vote "less" for FIFA 16 in the PS4 era), he's saying that there might be people not voting because they don't see their favourite game listed.

By the way, back to the reason I was initially posting:

As I said earlier, I'm still not sure that FIFA 14 is the best football game ever: I'm swinging between it, FIFA 19 and PES 5 currently.

I'm a career mode player so, when it comes to career mode, I am one of the people @bsmaff was taliking about: in the PS3 era FIFA overtook PES and from there on it always offered a more complete/refined experience. And I'm not even taking regens into account.
PES for PC in the early PS4 era was good to play but almost "lifeless" in terms of look and feel, FIFA was way more alive. I'm a PC gamer and the comparison between, say, FIFA 16 and PES 2016 on PC was completely one-sided.
There has to be a line drawn somewhere. I can’t put the same FIFA game in on multiple systems. Otherwise I’d end up having games like PES 2013 on PS3, Wii, PS2 etc. there simply isn’t enough voting slots available. This is the fairest way I could think of and if people do like FIFA 16 then they can pick it from either of the eras.

Edit: As it stands, even if you add every vote for FIFA in all eras ever it still wouldn’t be winning.
 
Certainly surprising but if the people have voted it then I guess it’s currently considered the second best game after PES 5. Maybe it will even dethrone PES5?!! 😲

@papinho81 If I split up the FIFA games into separate games (not that there’s enough poll votes spaces for that) then the total votes would be even less than they were now as explained previously.

@Flipper the Priest PES 5 & PES 6 also have mods and patches etc too so I think it’s fine. Plus, I didn’t specifically say PES 2021 + mods

Fair enough. I just don't think anyone should make a final judgement a game based on a modded version, especially when the gameplay has been altered!
 
Fair enough. I just don't think anyone should make a final judgement a game based on a modded version, especially when the gameplay has been altered!
I appreciate your point. I kind of thought people would just use their common sense when casting a vote. I didn’t think I’d have to type the words “with no mods” on every option. Besides, although it’s interesting to find out which football games people like it’s just a bit of fun really.
 
I might be in the minority here, but I think mods can be included in the decision. Even if not made by Konami/EA, the fact that the PC versions are moddable (and even console versions can have updated option files) are IMO, part of the game, as they are part of their capacity. My two cents. 🤷‍♂️

In terms of graphics, I've always thought that they were the least important aspects of football games (PES 4, 5, and 6's popularity attest to this). Even if the PC versions of PES 2015-17 are not as updated as the console version in terms of graphics, I think there's a certain charm in the more "muted" colors and old school presentation. Again, these are complemented by mods. For example, the PC gameplay mods in PES 2016 drastically improve the game, IMO, making passing better and improving goalkeepers somewhat (the game's biggest flaw, IMO).

In terms of the entire FIFA discussion, I think the limit of polling options means that it's impossible to include the individual games. Perhaps, the titles with 0 or very little voting could be gradually removed, and popular FIFA's (like 07, 14, 16, or 19) could be included. I dunno, just an idea. :)
 
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Yeah gameplay and fun are the most important thing for any game not just football games. Once you have great gameplay then graphics are an added bonus. There’s nothing worse than seeing a game that looks incredible but is completely mediocre to play.

My initial plan was to do exactly what you said @millossobek as written in my first post but unfortunately it won’t let me edit, add or remove any of the options now.

Also, 2021 has suddenly had an influx of votes since my comments. I’ll speak to a mod to see if any new accounts have been made to influence the poll. Damn, people are taking this super serious lol
And now I’ve just noticed that PES 5 has lost 3 votes even though I’ve set it so users can’t change their votes.
 
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Im voting to PES 5 but It's not the game I've played the most. I devoted the most time to PES 6 and PES 2021, but that was due to the large number of patches and constant updates. However, from what I remember, I had the most amazing matches, goals and seasons while playing PES 5. PES 6 was very similar but more subdued when it comes to, for example, the course of matches or scoring beautiful goals. I probably won't come back to PES 5, but I have great memories of this game. At the moment, I'm rediscovering FIFA 16 and it's the game that gives me the most fun right now, I think it's even better than PES 21 with mods. And it still has a lot of patches and lineup updates. Im talking about PC gaming
 
Im voting to PES 5 but It's not the game I've played the most. I devoted the most time to PES 6 and PES 2021, but that was due to the large number of patches and constant updates. However, from what I remember, I had the most amazing matches, goals and seasons while playing PES 5. PES 6 was very similar but more subdued when it comes to, for example, the course of matches or scoring beautiful goals. I probably won't come back to PES 5, but I have great memories of this game. At the moment, I'm rediscovering FIFA 16 and it's the game that gives me the most fun right now, I think it's even better than PES 21 with mods. And it still has a lot of patches and lineup updates. Im talking about PC gaming
Yeah PES 5 does let you create some magic moments but I think the same can be said of PES 6. They’re both stellar titles for sure.
 
PES 2021 has edged into the lead! PES 6 has moved into second and the once dominant poll leader PES 5 has dropped to third place…. The purists will NOT be happy.
 
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