At the Post, as in all workplaces, lively discussions frequently occur on politics, on cinema – we have long argued over Tarantino's latest film, for example – or on TV series: but, as in many jobs, it is the most lively debates are taking place on football. Which is a very elegant way to describe what happens every day in Slack's chat dedicated to sport (ask the only Milan editor what the air is in there recently). Not paying for the constant risk of editorial crises, and determined not to disprove the most trite clichés in any way, the football fans of the Post sometimes stay after the end of working hours to also play video games, football.
If once, partly out of laziness and partly out of snobbery, they loved to use video game editions dating back four or five years earlier, tacitly appreciated because they made everyone feel younger, today they have become accustomed to the comforts of the latest releases. So also this year we tried the two great football video games, PES 2020 and FIFA 20, to evaluate which platform would host our fights for the 2019/2020 season. And here comes the premises: we have evaluated them only for the purpose that interests us, and that is the offline multiplayer game (1 vs 1 or 2 vs 2). It is a reduced use of the great potential of the two games, but it is also the only one we feel competent enough to give you advice on. And it's the funniest use too, let's face it. Another thing: various levels of play are represented between us, from the editor who uses the arrow keys (save the comments, we've all done them already) to those who regularly use finger cramping keystrokes. We have taken this into account in the overall judgment.
PES 2020
For PlayStation 4 it costs € 49.90 on Amazon and € 49.90 on ePrice. For Xbox One it costs 54.09 euros on Amazon and 74.49 euros on ePrice.
involved in the test belong to the demographic that learned to play football video games with FIFA in the late nineties, grew up in those years when PES was the only game that made sense to play, and has been back for several years now. to use only FIFA. A very common condition, given that it is estimated that FIFA today sells over ten times more than PES worldwide. But the test was more than ever free of prejudices, and PES 2020 – whose official name, for some reason, is eFootball PES 2020 – immediately struck us for two things: for the extraordinary ugliness of the game menus, and for the extraordinary beauty of the pre-match animation.
We start strong: Barcelona-Bayern, two against two. The reproduction of the Camp Nou is impressive, and the movements of the game immediately seem to us the most natural and realistic that we have ever seen in a football game. Being used to FIFA, it is quite complicated to understand how to move the players, but the pace of the game is much slower and more reasoned, and allows us to become familiar with the style of PES. Despite Messi, Suarez, Griezmann, Lewandowsky and Coutinho, the game ends with a 0-0 that puts us a bit embarrassed. The defenses are very good, as they say.
Always grumbling about the difficulty of moving between the menus and the more than ever bumper graphics of the functions to modify the formation, we explore all the many leagues available: from the Belgian to the Danish one to the Argentine one, we get carried away by enthusiasm and we play a great Boca Junior – River Plate, finished 3 to 2 and which however takes place regularly without riots, fights and actually at the Bombonera in Buenos Aires, an evident lack of realism of PES.
The game, as is well known, has not solved one of its main problems: the English and Spanish teams are almost all unlicensed, the Bundesliga is almost completely missing, the reproduced jerseys make the arms fall. It is true, however, that the fictitious names of the teams have been made a little more meaningful: Madrid Chamartin B instead of MD White, for Real Madrid, or Manchester B instead of Man Blue for Manchester City. But there are many important teams without names, logos and original jerseys, and above all the last one is a feature that is difficult to overlook. It is true, however, that your “geek cousin” might know how to overcome this problem. And it is also true that PES 2020 is the only game on which Juventus can be used, which has sold the exclusive rights to Konami and which on FIFA is indicated with a terrible Piemonte Calcio, and has a very different shirt from the original.
Leaving these complaints aside, let's try to play a Milanese derby – Serie A, apart from Brescia, has all the original licenses – and San Siro is also beautifully reproduced. The game, however, is played in the afternoon, and in the left half of the pitch the grass is a blinding white whose realism seems frankly excessive. The default camera is different than in FIFA, and hitting the goal with shots isn't super easy. But the dynamics and physics with which the players finish at goal is admirable and it seems to us that it contains a number of possibilities far superior to those of FIFA, more realistic, elegant and above all less predictable.
The impression is that PES immediately considers you an adult and that it forces you to play something similar to real football, without giving you anything, not even in those automatic movements of the players, especially in defense, which sometimes make the difference between recovering a ball and suffer a goal. Building choral actions seems easier and more satisfying than usual, and we quickly understand that it is the only strategy to apply if you want to bring the game home. Overall, that of PES 2020 seemed to us a more tiring gaming experience if you are not used to it, but which can be very satisfying and stimulating when you get carried away. If you want a ready-to-go game, which even your friend who hasn't touched a joypad since Adriano was on the game covers can play, PES 2020 is not the right choice.
FIFA 20
For PlayStation 4 it costs 59.99 euros on Amazon and 59.99 euros on ePrice. For Xbox One it costs € 69.99 on Amazon and € 59.90 on ePrice.
After several games spent puzzling into schemes that are absolutely beyond our reach, switching to FIFA has something liberating. The phosphorescent colors of the menus, the familiar songs full of little guitars and choirs and the beautiful welcome menu dilate the pupils of those of us who had suffered the most from PES's brain. The wait for the first match is spasmodic as we try in vain to skip the boring animation starring Vinicius Jr. in a suburban pitch, and we immediately start with a match that tastes like a quarter-final of the Europa League: Atalanta – Galatasaray.
The impression is that of being in a kind of CGI reboot of the film that we have just seen in its original version: FIFA 20 is very fast, the ball spins like in a pinball machine, the players are fast and the game pushes you to do a action after another without breathing hard and without thinking too much about it. It is not a novelty compared to the previous edition, compared to which perhaps, on closer inspection, certain dynamics have even been slowed down: but the approach is so different compared to PES that it seems to play another sport. The main difference is that with FIFA we all have fun right away, and we score a lot. Atalanta wins 2 to 0, and the subsequent Bologna-Cagliari even ends 1-4: a big difference compared to PES, where the last two games played were all 0 to 0. It depends a lot on habit, but there is no doubt that the most “arcade” mode in FIFA favors goals and spectacular matches.
The addiction effect is triggered immediately, and at the end of each game we can't wait to play another one, a feeling that in PES was more attenuated: it is the classic game that will make you late in the evenings with friends, the ones that they go on for hours to the sound of “the revenge and that's it”, “the beautiful one again and then we turn off”. But if in PES the impression is that of playing something very similar to football, in FIFA you play FIFA: in the new edition there are still those dynamics and those unrealistic situations that those who know the game know how to exploit to their advantage, from the ease of discarding the entire opposing defense at the first ball of the game to the effectiveness of rapid progressions with through ball passes when the opposing defense is not yet deployed.
Except for Juventus, and metabolized the absence of Boca and River, scrolling through long lists of original logos and names is a very rewarding experience after hours of PES, and those of us fans of second and third jerseys get lost for a while 'among the German mid-table teams. The instinct of the crowd, however, is to play one big match after another, despite the grumbling of the editor who would only use Austrian fighting teams. After a couple of Real Madrid – Manchester City we calm down and throw ourselves into a derby in which Roma wastes a well-deserved advantage by allowing a comeback in the last five minutes (“it's Roma, they did it well” says a Roman player).
We do not even notice that two hours have passed, it is dark outside, someone is late for yoga class and someone else has several missed calls from loved ones: FIFA has done its job, essentially, and is elected to the 'unanimity as a game that best suits our needs. The novelties we have noticed compared to the previous edition are not very many and do not affect the judgment much, but we are fine with it: what we are looking for is a game that even the less practical ones can enjoy, that can be used without too much regularity and that still guarantees matches full of goals and reversals, the most beautiful among friends. And for once, the least satisfied are the Juventus editors, still a little embarrassed by the fake name of their team: a minimal form of sporting retaliation, according to all the other editors.
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