Best Football game of all time

[sleevel]

Does anyone else’s favorite change on a daily basis?

 

[oldbox]

I’m playing the pre update version now and it’s insane how much EA have made the game decline

Yes, sometimes the first version or even the demo version of the game is better than subsequent versions, in which innovations are associated with deterioration of other aspects.
Also FIFA 19 with using "initfs_Win32" before updates version looks better to me than after updates. Only in this game I saw a free kick awarded for GK's hand-game outside the penalty area. I'm playing this game for fun with sliders for player/CPU acceleration 49 and passes/shoots power 45, normal speed, professional difficulty, 30 minutes lenght, full manual controller. It's good game with frequent fun shoots like this:

 

[gabe.paul.logan]

Football games are so dead for me. Last 10-15 years gaming looks pretty but its empty or with broken fundamentals. The PS2 era has great games but now they are indeed aged and im not talking about graphics.

 

[Jimi_Zuko]

for me its pes 2021 still play it to this day, for some reason whenever i turn it on i see new things happen from time to time.

 

[Bravez]

Wasn't sure how to vote on this because it's so subjective and dependent on relative tech etc.

In the end i went for the game which I think really changed everything in terms of how football games played and the variation that was possible and that for me, was PES2. It was such a jump from the first and I just remember feeling so immersed and able to do whatever I wanted.

In terms of pure completeness I'd probably say FIFA15/16.

 

[Chris Davies]

In the end i went for the game which I think really changed everything in terms of how football games played and the variation that was possible and that for me, was PES2. It was such a jump from the first and I just remember feeling so immersed and able to do whatever I wanted.

In terms of pure completeness I'd probably say FIFA15/16.

Almost exact same feelings as yourself.

PES2 came along at a time when my friends and I were saying "it can't get any better really can it", and somehow it did. Not just better "feel", fewer stiff animations and even more varied gameplay, but more teams/divisions for ML, cup games, contract negotiations... It's no wonder it outsold FIFA.

Speaking of FIFA, I looked up some PES2 reviews and check out this quote from this BBC Sport review of the game:

"You won't get five-all matches which characterise the arcade feel of EA's FIFA series [...]"

23 years later (twenty-three, holy shit) and that's your average online FC score, what's changed? Only the name.

From an arcade game, to something truly great in FIFA 16, and all the way back again. Sigh... Anyway.

That "We Will Rock You" intro is still probably my favourite game intro of all-time, just dripping with the dev's love of the game.
You knew they wanted what you wanted (to recreate the joy of football). That feeling left a looooong time ago now.



Now I say "almost" same feelings, because... I've written about WE6FE a few times before now.

The thrill of getting a PS2 chipped in a pub car park to be able to play it...
Buying the import from independent game retailers who loved PES as much as you did, and were as excited as you were to play it...
The work of patching the game with translations (burning a new disc to use an updated translation practically every week)...

The feeling of sitting down with my dad, who is 81 years old now, to play this game for the first time - in the early hours of the morning, before he left for work - after figuring out the patching process and getting it all working ... and neither of us being able to put the controller down until the last possible second.

It's no wonder I'm still here all these years later - and for me, WE6FE was the absolute pinnacle. So many little tweaks and fixes (crossing was a viable option again, for example).

 

[Bravez]

Almost exact same feelings as yourself.

And this is why I always check into the FIFA thread to see what your opinion is It's very rare anything you post doesn't reflect my thoughts almost exactly.

Ah the old chipped PS2. I bought something called swap magic i think it was. Had to pull off the front of my PS2, insert the region disc it came with for whatever region you wanted to play, then insert some little plastic tool to push the tray out and swap the disc for the game. I'll never forget the anticipation I felt when trying to load up WE9LE and the sheer excitement as it loaded up. Had picked it the game in a local independent after ordering the swap magic online.

There was something incredible about all game releases when information was at a premium and based only out of magazines. No leaks, no trailers, videos etc. Just a magazine article and hopefully a demo. In fact, I might ignore anything GTA6 related from now until release to try and get a little bit of that feeling back.