The Fifa series is football as it sometimes can be at its worst - shiny, often boring, better captured in a three-minute highlight clip, with the richest team winning in the end. They are football simulations in the same sense that Need For Speed and Mario Kart are facsimiles of serious racing.īut while PES captures the spirit of football as it should be played, Fifa channels the sometimes grim reality. PES6 is as much an approximation of real life football as Fifa is - that is, not much at all. Subsequent instalments went off the rails entirely, allowing Fifa to eclipse the series that was once king, but it shouldn't take away from the pinnacle of the genre. Ageing, slow Zinedine Zidane sits in the centre, running the show, the technique and skill practically dripping down my hands as he gets the ball. His right leg, cocking back to hit the ball home, is like an executioner raising his axe. I like to run a France team with the twin terrors of speedy Nicolas Anelka and godlike Thierry Henry on the flanks, with David Trezeguet in the middle waiting to finish their passes. Adriano, who lives on as a legend to anyone who has played the game, takes all the defenders on and smashes the ball in with his left foot. Frank Lampard rattles one in from outside the penalty box and almost bursts the net. Skilful dribblers cut to and fro with wanton ease. I dug up the now-antique console and got a few games going, and immediately, the difference is day and night.