Let me start by saying, that I have been a religious FIFA player since FIFA 09. FIFA has been my #1 most played game by far over the last decade. I, like many others, have grown tired of EA's continued b***s***, and this year I decided to actually do something about it, and give PES a chance. This is my very first PES title, and actually my first ever non-FIFA soccer title.

That being said, I am going to try to compare my experience so far in PES to FIFA, in as many detailed categories as possible, grading each game and explaining which title excels at what, in my personal opinion.

1. Graphics
Winner? PES...but barely
Let's not kid ourselves, no one is complaining about FIFA's graphics. That being said, if you take the time to get the data packages, PES's graphics are such a breath of fresh air, from the same graphics in FIFA's previous 3 or 4 titles. Celebrations, animations, and fine details are all on point. I very rarely find something out of place on screen, that takes away from the realism of the game like I do when playing FIFA. The movement of players feels realistic, compared to the feeling of players being on skates with FIFA. The only department that I could say needs work in PES, is obviously better stadiums, and stadium ambiance (backgrounds, fans,ect.)

2. Audio & Commentary
Winner? FIFA... by a landslide
I will start by saying that I do enjoy the songs that are on PES's soundtrack. That is the last good thing I will say about PES's audio. The very first match, I found the audio quality of the commentary team (Peter Drury and Jim Beglin)to be refreshing. By the second match, I had already heard one phrase three separate times. They make no remark if a ball goes off the post, will tell a random side story in the middle of a counterattack, and repeat the same phrases towards the end of nearly every match. It is tiresome. I am not advocating for FIFA's commentary, by any means. But it is marginally better than PES's, for now. FIFA's soundtrack also takes the cake here, being four times the size (104 to PES's measly 25) and also being, well just better. Looks like FIFA can keep the crown of best video game soundtrack, for now.

3. Career Mode
Winner? PES...but barely
Career mode is the main reason I play FIFA or soccer games in general. I do enjoy online play, but most of my play time comes from Career mode. So you bet, the first thing I did after finishing the data packages, was to start a career with Fulham to get to the Prem. OH BOY am I having so much fun with it. Managing finances is fun, I enjoy the way training, and skill training is done. I enjoy being able to play as Diego Maradona or Johan Cruyff. I especially enjoy the stat tracking, and the ability to take part in Europa league (assuming you have the data packs). The biggest thing for me, is that I've yet to experience a single bug. As we all know, FIFA's career mode is still bug-ridden, and has been for years with little change.

4. Ultimate Team/My Team
Winner? PES...but barely
This one was difficult for me. And at the end of the day, PES gets the edge for me, soley for being only less pay-to-win than FIFA is. There are several changes to PES's version of UT. There are several good ideas littered in, such as the way PES does chemistry (known as Team Spirit). It focuses on positions, play-styles, your managers tactics, and player's ability to match these tactics, instead of coming from nationalities or leagues played in. The scout and agent system results in a much fairer allocation of decent players (I have spent 10$, and played roughly 10 matches of ranked online, and I have packed Ronaldo, several other 85+ players, a classic Ronaldinho, ect. It is not nearly as gamble based as FIFA is, if you put in a few dollars into the game, and spend your coins the right way, you can eventually get a decent team, guaranteed. It is however, more difficult to find specific players, however this matters less with the change in chemistry systems. My biggest complaint with PES's Ultimate team, is that it feels, I don't know, incomplete? Maybe I am spoiled with FIFA's squad building challenges, tournaments, and events. But other than playing ranked online matches, there seems to be a lack of actual things to do in PES's My Team. I'm still going to give it the edge, however because it does not feel scripted, and hasn't been completely ruined by micro-transactions. Yet.

5. Online play
Winner? FIFA...but barely
I wanted to give this to PES. FIFA has become so scripted lately that it legitimately isn't fun playing online. And I would probably give this to PES; If, that is, people actually played it. I struggle finding matches at all hours of the day. The only consistent mode I've been able to get a match, is on My Team's ranked mode. Lag isn't really an issue, but having to wait so long for a match is always a pain, no matter what game you are playing. Sadly this seems like a paradox, but until FIFA players migrate to this game, FIFA will still be the go-to for playing an online match.

6. Overall Gameplay & Football Realism
Winner? PES...by a landslide
This is the category I've been waiting for. This category is the reason I cannot put PES down. It just feels so, right? Gone are the days of skating through opponents like they're ghosts. Gone are the days of being able to wack a pefectly scripted belter in to the upper 90, when your opponents back is to goal from outside the box. Tactics are actually tactics. The players actually do what you want them to. The best way I can describe this, is that in FIFA, you control 1 player at a time, and the ai controls the other 10 on your team. In PES, your tactics control the other 10 players you don't control. They hold their line where you tell them. They press if you want to press. They park the bus if you tell them to park the bus. Fouls feel real, like real, coliding bodies. My ONLY complaint with PES's realism, is that I think I have yet to see a single injury, for either side, in every game I've played. Otherwise, It is such a nice breath of fresh air to EA's "arcade soccer" as I'm now calling it. This will be enough to keep me off of FIFA 20 for the remainder of this year, I think.

FINAL VERDICT: PES...but barely
Disclaimer: I am really mad at EA. I'm tired of what they as developers have done to so many good franchises. Unfortunately, they are here to stay. So the best we as a fanbase can do, is show them that we won't put up with everything. Me purchasing PES this season, instead of FIFA, is my way of telling them that. I understand the game, and change, will not be welcome by everyone.
But if you, like me, are tired of FIFA giving you the same game every single year, I promise that this year's PES will be a nice change that will keep you entertained if you keep an open mind.

Don't forget the data package!

_Review only about offline mode_

Ok, so here's the thing, I've played FIFA from 2014 to 2019, I used to absolutely love it, to the point where I had more than 800h of play time on fifa 16, and I only play Career Mode! But over the years, I've spent less and less hours on it because I couldn't have fun with it anymore. And that's the key for me, having fun. And I lost that, I stopped playing football games for a year before I decided to try PES 2020.

I love the gameplay on PES 2020, it's fun, challenging, and it feels realistic, plus I was always a fan of build up play rather than one man dribbling the entire defence, so seems like PES is a perfect match for me.
Now of course, PES and FIFA aren't perfect games, far from it, both have their strength and weaknesses.
I know the lack of licensing can be annoying, but there are solutions for that on PC, and it's worth the effort, especially since it isn't a particularly hard thing to do. The UI isn't as pretty as FIFA, players aren't as responsive sometimes, and referees are... weird. But again, it's fun! I've felt the love for football again playing this game, something I haven't felt in years! And when I score a screamer in this game, I actually get up my chair and celebrate with the players.

So, if you're like me, and miss the joy of playing football, you might want to give PES a try.

PS: Don't be that "PES/FIFA is trash" guy, keep your mind open to trying new things. Like I said, they aren't perfect game, and it's about weighing the pros and the cons, for you personnally. Don't crap on a game without trying it, and don't crap on a game without reasoning behind it

Bought full version, paid retail. Game updated, now I have the LITE version.

I can't understand how a game company can downgrade the gameplay each year.

I tought 2019 was bad, than here comes this atrocity. 2 words describe this game, inconsistent garbage. I can't believe that the day came when i actually think that fifa's gameplay is better.

Defending AI is horrendous, at certain points in the game players would just stop from tackling, take a suddenly turn away, or just casually walk by in the opposite direction.

The passing is inconsistent and insane at the same time, passing stats don't matter in the key moments. Messi or Ronaldinho will miss simple short passes without pressure, while Cuadrado and Hettich (white starting player) will hit insane through passes. Another annoying thing is when you press the passing button or shooting button, long before the ball arrives to you and then the genious ai will make a turtle slow dribble and then shoot.

The dribbling is garbage, i can't understand how Messi and R10 feel like 100 kg, 40 yrs old men when changing direction. Shooting is random, Suarez or Messi will miss alone with the keeper in one game, in the another Cuadrado will score a hat trick.

The more i think about the gameplay the more i get annoyed. Let's continue. The players act insane while tired in the 0-20% bar. I haven't seen in my life a pro player just quit walking to a pass in a game, even if it was the 112'th min. I understand cramps, slowness, but just stopping and looking at the ball? What is this?

Another thing is the matchmaking ... noob keyboard player, with a 3030 team, 470 rating, I continuously get insta matched with 680+ players with 3800+ teams in the pvp events. I'd rather stay in que a little while and get matched with someone that is at my current skill level, than getting owned by 100 Ronaldo's .

The last thing that i want to talk about is the crashes, In 30 hours of gameplay i had my game crushing 3 times only in pvp games. It's annoying, but it could be a microsoft/driver problem i'm not sure.

In the conclusion, for the first time in a very long time since i discovered pes, and quit fifa, i am this mad about the gameplay. The scripting and the inconstancy is at an all time high. I can't even talk about the good things because of it, I'm sorry. The only reason i find playing this game, it's because is free

I am a long-time fan of the series, been playing since Winning Eleven for PS1, and this could have been a masterpiece. But if I could use one word to describe this game is LAZY.

Konami makes hundreds of millions of dollars with this game and it amuses me that they just do not seem to care about their fans and players. Go ahead and read the reviews, the same complaints over and over which Konami simply ignores. This is a huge disrespect to the people who made them who they are today.

My main issues with the game are:
1. AI is virtually non-existant. They seem to have taken shortcuts instead of doing a competent job at programming the game. The players' abilities do not seem to matter, it is almost as if there is a gameplay baseline which is moved up or down depending on opponent's strenght, difficulty level and whether match is home or away. Your players move slower, make more mistakes, ignore the ball, etc. while your opponents all of a sudden become flawless aliens who just score with ease, no matter what you do. Making your players worse and opponent better instead of improving AI quality is just LAZY and DISRESPECTFUL.

2. Master League has no immersion at all. All championships feel the same and it just feels like we are playing and endless stream of individual games. Forget about the amazing feeling of hiring a good player and how he would change your game, and that drive to win and get better ones. It is now just boring and repetitive.

3. The lag and unresponsiveness. Remember back when we pressed right and the player moved right? Forget it, now the players receive the ball, think about their tax returns, then maybe start to move towards... nevermind they already lost the ball and are still performing the movement animation. Playing online is incredibly annoying due to the constant lag - I have a 300mb internet connection with very low ping, yet I have to press the buttons 2 seconds before I expect them to take action.

4. Physical contact is everything. Nothing else matters, this is now a wrestling game. There is no more dribbling, feints, awesome through balls, nothing, just have a strong player and win the ball or get ahead regardless of pace and acceleration.

5. Become a Legend. If you hate maths and need to study for a maths test, play three BAL matches. It will crush your soul in such a way that 12h studying algebra will feel like a walk in the park with a cute and nice girl. Your team's AI is so bad that is almost funny, but you cannot laugh because the anger turned your heart into lava and your soul into a dark and cold abyss of misery and pain. DO NOT PLAY BAL if you like anything about your life.

6. MyClub is not as bad as some comments suggest. It is pay-to-win only for kids with desire for immediate reward. I have not spent a dime on in-game purchases and have been managing to build a decent team. Enjoy the ride you know? However, it is also clearly a cash grab and the lag makes it impossible to enjoy playing.

This game is decent only for playing for fun with mates, but if you already own a previous version this one is not worth it. Not yet. If Konami decides to use some of their millions in profits to improve AI and responsiveness and gameplay overall, then it might become a good purchase.

If you want to have fun, do not buy this game. If you are searching for something to make you really annoyed then go ahead and purchase it.

I don't play PVP. I only play PVE in campaign modes on Top Player difficulty (I believe has been the most balanced difficulty even since the older PES). Here's my review:

x- Crowd reactions are cool (atmospheric, vibes etc.)
x- Animation- fantastic (with exception to cutscenes, will explain why in CONS)
x- Innovative dribbling/defending control schemes and mechanics- a major improvement from 2019


e- Cutscenes- massive downgrade from previous versions.
They made it so that every player is the same height e.g. Messi is standing shoulder-to-shoulder with VVD in ref cutscenes. I understand it's so that it's easier to animate the interaction between the players (skips clipping/hoverhands) but honestly I prefer the clipping and hoverhands than making Cristiano stand as tall as Hazard. It's super awkward to look at.

e- Defending/dribbling is ridiculously stacked against you (vs. COM).
If you dribble with Suarez (who not only has good technique, but is strong enough to maintain balance while shielding away many defenders), even the flimsy Coutinho can simply stick his leg in, make you trip, and take the ball from you (nothing from the ref).
If you press with VVD and bump with your shoulder, even the skin-and-bones Sterling can hold you off as he dribbles from the middle line all the way to the penalty box and take a shot.
The Physical Contact, player height and weight stat are essentially useless.

e- Refball.
You can be dispossessed by obstruction, pushing, pulling etc. and the ref will pretend he doesn't see it, but it goes the other way when you dispossess the same way. The ref will always blow foul.
Also some very outrageous tackles that gets my player a 2-month injury gets no booking.

e- Flawed contact-ragdolling system.
Sometimes the animation follows through which causes some players to trip, stumble and fall, and the ref will foul you for this (never the COM, just you), when it clearly has nothing to do with the ball or possession or even anything cynical.
Also you can abuse the contact system by placing your player in the way of a running COM player. If he's running to chase the counter-attack, you will slow him down. He will keep the same path despite your obstruction instead of avoiding you. It looks ridiculous.

e- VIRTUALLY ALL THE COM FREEKICKS GO IN. ALL OF THEM. EVERYONE IS JUNINHO WHEN THEY TAKE FREEKICKS.
Even Juninho misses IRL from time to time.

e- Scripted player movement.
Whether or not that pass will connect is determined by:
1. The passing stat for direct passes.
2. The passing stat, and pace stat of the recipient for through passes.
This is logical up until you visibly see that that player should have been able to receive the pass but suddenly slows down because by measure of stats, he shouldn't have been able to. It's a stupid way of implementing stats logic. This has been the case for PES for many years back-to-back. The same stupid implementation goes for defending. A player who should've been able to intercept suddenly slows down and allows a goal to be conceded.

Latest patch completely killed the game.
Player first touch is broken
Player responsiveness is even worse
Players stop mid run for no reason. Example, attackers on counter attack just abruptly stop or don't push forward at all
Finishing seems inconsistent
Is it me or did player face quality reduce dramatically??
Defenders making awful decision and in general lack awareness and responsiveness even when ball is within their reach
The game is just infuriating and feels like I have no control over players
Blatant scripting is present in games

the offline experience may be decent, although stale and the same stuff over and over again... yes, they've added something like 10 different cutscenes to the master league (wich you're gonna skip anyway), and that's pretty much all the new stuff there is to it. wooooo!

yes, the gameplay seems great at first, until you see your players running away from a loose ball, keepers concedeing goals that should be easy to stop, 96 rated defenders missing easy balls, 99 pace 99 acceleration players getting outpaced by piqué and so on... oh and refrees are a joke. Worse than last year if possible. FIX THIS KONAMI!

then comes the online. what a mess... the matchmaking system is completely random, I'm around rank 700 and i get constantly matched with poor 300ish guys AND 1k monsters. Lag cheaters are still there since idk pes 2016? How hard is it, KONAMI, to detect them, ban them, OR maybe change your stupid system so that if they mess with the connection (and mine is still running fine, which is the case) they loose the game and move on? Why on earth should I waste 20 minutes of my day just to see the game cancelled at 90'+3?!?

You still face players who when loosing just leave the joypad for the rest of the match, and that can mean 15-20 minutes of pointless gameplay. I mean, KONAMI, is it that difficult to implement a timer and kick inactive players like almost EVERY other online game does?

GP prizes for wins and tournaments are a joke compared to the cost of contract renewals and packs, which are useless anyway if you decided to buy a few Myclub Coins, since almost EVERY special player is WAY better than any other, so you'll end up finding useless players that will become trainers... for 25k GP?!? seriously? oh and limiting purchases of special players to 3 at a time, and letting you get duplicates is soooo frustrating!

what else... MUSIC is HORRIBLE and repetitive as usual (got a tank full of gas yeah you know really fast gimme everything you got gimme everything you got...). REALLY?!?

MENUS are the same stuff as last year, they've just redone the main menu, the rest is still the same unresponsive mess. going from one menu to the other takes forever, there are loading times every two seconds, plus you can barely tell which menu entry is selected (dark purple vs black: genius choice KONAMI!!)

OH, and you CANNOT reset your block list... so if you're, like me, blocking cheaters and AFKers etc... you'll have your list capped pretty soon. Then one day you'll tell yourself, let's reset, maybe those cheaters quit playing and i can block more active ones... well you can't! You have to unblock every player one after the other, and everytime there's a loading time, a confirmation box... RIDICULOUS.

I could go on and on forever with the flaws of this game, but i think this is enough. Hope KONAMI gets their stuff together really fast, cause this game is an insult to the player base.

Put the money into development, bug fixing, network optimization, idk, SOMETHING, instead of useless partnerships... it makes no sense when 75% of the teams and players are unlicensed anyway and you'll NEED to get an option file to get a decent experience... Let FIFA worry about that and get back to the drawing board to deliver solid gameplay, solid online experience and a 2020 interface AT LEAST.

Until then, i won't be buying this joke anymore

Oh and how hard could that be to implement a way of quitting the game other than goin back to the main menu?!? why do you force us to Alt+F4?!?

So what can i say. Ive been playing fifa for years. Ive played every fifa game that has ever been released.
I have player hundreds of hours of fifa 17, fifa 18 and fifa 19.
The frustration level with fifa kept on going up until i could not stand it anymore.
I have played pes before (2013, 2014 and 2015) and then i played myclub in pes2019. It was soooooo much better. The gameplay is soooo much better that fifa.
myClub is so much more rewarding the fut. It does not even come close.
So if you want to be able to play soccer the way you want (not the way the scripts want you to), then play pes. Its just so much better that fifa.

Love PES, but this game is almost unplayable in its current state. Referees not calling blatant fouls, awful goalkeeping, players ignoring the ball, players getting stuck in animations when the ball hits them? needs fixing.