FIFA vs PES: The battle to make the best soccer game rages on

FIFA or Pro Evolution Soccer? It’s a debate that’s been around almost as long as I’ve been playing soccer (or football, to me and the rest of the world) games. Since their introductions in 1993 and 1996, respectively, EA and Konami’s series have been trying to outdo each other, adding various new features, tweaking their gameplay styles and snapping up licenses to appeal to fans. This year is no different, and the question is once again a hard one to answer.

What’s new in FIFA?

There are three flagship features for FIFA 17: a new story mode, a revamped set piece system and a switch to DICE’s Frostbite game engine. First built for Battlefield, Frostbite now powers a vast number of EA titles, including Star Wars Battlefront, Mirror’s Edge Catalyst, and the upcoming Mass Effect: Andromeda.

The switch in engine has been hotly anticipated by FIFA fans, who have been playing the same basic game since FIFA 14. But Frostbite makes less of a difference than you’d expect. Sure, the graphics — particularly faces and animations — look sharper, but rather than rebuilding FIFA from the ground up, EA Sports has integrated large swathes of its Ignite engine (which powers all its current team sports games) into Frostbite. Physics, animations, A.I. and the like are for the most part as they were in Ignite, although with future iterations that may change.

In terms of pure gameplay, the revamped free kick and corner system makes the biggest difference. You’ll now see much more gamified set pieces that have you choosing not only the power of kick but the starting position of your player and speed of their run up. Elsewhere there’s a little more hustle and bustle, with an increased importance on shielding the ball and turning away from players to gain a yard, and the AI has also seen an upgrade, especially in attack, with teammates making more runs to create space.

While the switch to Frostbite hasn’t rewritten the rulebook, it has allowed for a broad expansion of the game off the pitch. Where building the game’s many authentic stadiums once took a great deal of time and money to build, artists can create them much faster using Frostbite. It’s also easier for the developers to create new skill moves, facial animations and the like, and EA is promising more variety than ever before. It’s the extra flexibility of an engine that’s not purely tailored to render a pitch and players that’s allowed EA Sports to add a new story mode called “The Journey” to the game.

In The Journey, you’ll play as a fictional soccer player named Alex Hunter, fighting your way from squad player to Premier League star, and dealing with your in-club rival and meeting famous players along the way. Unlike the career modes of the past, though, it’s not only through playing that you’ll advance. EA Sports has taken a page from BioWare (another EA company) to an RPG of sorts, complete with off-pitch locations like locker rooms, apartments and press events, and a branching storyline right out of Mass Effect.

I played through the first 15 minutes or so of the mode, and it’s looking promising. Proceedings start in a locker room before the game, where you’re introduced to Hunter’s rival. With half an hour to go in the game, you’re brought on as a substitute to try and change the balance of play. Gameplay was straight from FIFA 16’s player career mode — you control a single character rather than the whole team — but there’s custom commentary that helps to advance the story. Before and after the match, I had a few dialog options to choose from, and they all felt meaningful. Depending on the decisions you make, stats like your popularity with your manager or fans change, which in turn shapes the story you’ll be told. EA says it consulted with young Premier League stars — namely Marcus Rashford, Dele Alli and Reece Oxford — to ensure the mode felt authentic.

What’s new in Pro Evolution Soccer?

The developers of Pro Evolution Soccer (PES) find themselves in a difficult place. After a lull in the late 2000s, the past two years have seen PES games rated higher (by critics) than their FIFA counterparts. But those ratings are not reflected in sales figures. Worldwide, VGChartz’ figures had EA selling 15 million FIFA 16 games across PlayStation, Xbox and PC last year, while Pro Evolution Soccer 2016 is listed as selling around 1.4 million copies. Faced with, as a PES spokesperson put it, a rival with “never-ending pockets” in EA, the game’s developers are sticking to the task of refining the core game to try and compete.

This year, that means subtle changes to the pacing of the game. The tagline is “Control Reality,” and more than ever it feels like every decision matters. When you mess up a first touch or the speed of a pass there’s no way to quickly recover. Like in previous iterations, the gameplay favors a slow build up, probing for an opening before playing a decisive ball, and there’s a fresh set of tactics (and a much clearer set of menus to access those options) to help you guide your team to victory. PES 2016 was slow, and 2017 is slower still. Whether that’s a good or a bad thing is really a matter of preference.

There’s also a leap forward in AI, with defenders looking to mark tighter and make more interceptions. This new intelligence is also adaptive, so if you, like many, often pass to a star player, you’ll find your opposition will mark him more tightly, or even double up on coverage. The idea behind that is not just to make the game more challenging, but also to force you into being more creative with your attack.

Women’s soccer

The big ticket item for FIFA 16 was the addition of women’s football. At the EA Play event this year, there was no mention of the women’s game in the fifteen minutes FIFA was showcased. The official gameplay trailer for FIFA 17 has no women, and at the preview event I attended there was no way to field a women’s team. It was hard not to walk away from the event seeing last year’s mode — a bolted-on competition that let you play as one of 12 international teams — as a PR move; last year’s flavor.

EA Sports completely disagreed with that characterization when I asked, with a spokesperson saying that “women’s football is totally a part of FIFA 17,” adding “it’s an important piece” of the game and that more details on it will be announced further down the line. It’s nonetheless disappointing to see EA, which rightly won many plaudits for its inclusive move last year, completely ignoring that side of the game for the FIFA 17 launch. Especially since if there was ever a mode fit for gender equality in the FIFA series, it’s The Journey — an aspirational story that I’m sure will appeal to the next generation of real soccer stars, both male and female.

Pro Evolution Soccer 2017 continues the series’ focus on the men’s game. Adam Bhatti, PES’ Global Product and Brand Manager, told me that Konami is fully focused on improving the gameplay of the core game, rather than adding new modes. “It’s not that we don’t want to do it, it’s more that we have a list of things that fans want us to do and we’re focused on those things. Putting in women’s football before focusing on things like [master league, roster improvements and gameplay issues] would upset our fans.”

As much as I’d love to see a women’s mode in PES, it’s easy to understand why a developer with a smaller budget and a giant competitor takes this viewpoint. Bhatti also added that, although no serious talks have been had about adding it to the game, Konami does own the license to the women’s Champions League, so there would be “a natural fit there” down the line.

PES vs. FIFA

Having played around 45 minutes of each game, it’s impossible to make a call on which is better. FIFA’s general gameplay is definitely shifting closer towards PES’s. It’s harder than ever to gain a yard on an opponent or run past them on the flanks, and I had the most success when mirroring Barcelona’s (or, more appropriate for my skill level, Arsenal’s) way of passing the ball laterally and waiting for an opening.

Make no mistake, though: FIFA games are still fast-paced, and it’s way easier to score than in PES, which is striving further for realism. The developers have implemented a revamped formation and tactics system, with on the fly changes (first introduced, confusingly, by FIFA) now just a button away. It’s inarguably a harder game to pick up than EA’s fluid simulation, but like recent iterations it’s incredibly rewarding when you get it right.

As I touched on, a key difference between the two franchises is the amount of licenses they have the rights to. It’s fairly easy to divide the two: FIFA has thirty leagues or so — including the all-important English Premier League (EPL) — and lots of international teams, but no UEFA (i.e. European international) competitions. Konami has the Champions League and other UEFA-sanctioned competitions, the top French and Spanish leagues, some South American competitions, and a handful of club licenses, where you’ll get the right player names and shirts but unofficial league titles.

The EPL is the most popular national league in the world by viewing figures, and its absence from PES remains a real problem. Konami gets around this by allowing players to modify any team, and this year it’ll make it easier to import and export “your creations” via USB. Read that statement as “you’ll be able to download the proper teams from a forum somewhere and load them onto your PlayStation or Xbox after a couple of days.” I was fine doing swapping memory cards between friends in 2004 when PES was by far the better game, but it’s a lot to ask players to fake official teams in 2016.

The question over which soccer game you should buy remains an entirely personal one. For the past two years I’ve actually bought both. I recognized that PES offered better gameplay, especially in multiplayer, but the licensing and general presentation of FIFA always kept me coming back for single-player sessions. The addition of The Journey makes FiFA 17 a must-buy for me, while the further refinement to mechanics and pacing will probably make Pro Evolution Soccer 2017 my multiplayer go-to. So… my answer to FIFA or Pro Evolution Soccer? Buy FIFA if you love licensing, PES if you love realism and, if you can, buy both. Just like last year.

Formula E will pit drivers against gamers in virtual race

The joys of motorsport are in watching the perfect fusion of mechanical engineering and human ingenuity, right? Apparently not, as Formula E’s leaders have decided that the competition will now expand to include virtual races. In an interview with Reuters, Formula E chief Alejandro Agag says that the competition’s first battle will take place at CES 2017 in Las Vegas. The event will put professional race drivers against pro gamers, duking it out on simulators with a track that won’t be disclosed until the day. The action may be imagined, but the stakes are high, with the victorious driver in line to win a $1 million payoff.

It’s a one-off, but the move opens the door to ever closer union between sports and its electronic counterpart. Agag believes that esports is a “huge opportunity” that his organization wants to be “immersed in.” It’s also a chance to determine who is better: professional drivers or the gamers who maybe haven’t had the same opportunities. Formula E is also investigating the potential for virtual drivers to compete in real-world races as they’re going on. While the technology to implement that is still far away, it seems like being a mere spectator won’t be an option in the future.

Source: Reuters

‘Mighty No. 9’ suffers Xbox 360 delays and a deluge of issues

Gamers eager to jump into the long-awaited 2D action platformer Mighty No. 9 were in for a rude awakening today after some concerning issues plagued the Kickstarter-funded title that looked to some to be a spiritual successor to Mega Man in many ways. Not only has the Xbox 360 suffered a delay on the game’s very release day, but there are scads of other problems plaguing those who just wanted to jump in and shoot some bad guys.

Mighty No. 9 was planned for release today on various platforms, and it did make its way to players on other consoles including Wii U, but the Xbox 360 delay came as something of a shock as developer Comcept came forward to announce that it wouldn’t, in fact, be out for a few more days still.

Publisher Deep Silver took to official game blog to explain the delay, noting “issues regarding the publishing process” for the Xbox 360 version as well as a “certification bug” that was found during final rounds of testing.

“Our team has already re-submitted the build to Deep Silver (and to Microsoft), and we expect it to go gold within a few days if all goes according to plan. For the backers who chose that platform we are supplying Steam keys so that those users are not left behind on release day. Once the Xbox 360 version is ready for release we will send out those codes to the relevant backers ASAP,” the blog noted. Additionally, players who chose Mac or Linux versions of Mighty No. 9 will be waiting a few more days as well as those aren’t officially ready to roll out just yet, either.

Unfortunately, it looks like those lucky enough to both receive a copy of the game on a console of their choosing and get started on release day are having to deal with another set of problems entirely. Users with Wii U consoles have reported that their consoles seem to have been bricked, or rendered totally useless, after entering the special Mighty No. 9 backer codes sent out to Kickstarter supporters.

So my Mighty No 9 PSN backer code doesn’t work, it supposedly bricks the WiiU, DLC apparently breaks the game, and pic.twitter.com/3ECDWLBqDd

— #BeeLDeaL | B:L (@blbeel) June 21, 2016

Other players report their codes simply won’t work, or they only received one of the special vouchers for DLC character Ray and not the “Retro” downloadable content pack. According to VentureBeat, Deep Silver has claimed there was a patch deployed to alleviate these issues, but that likely won’t help a console that’s already been bricked to begin with.

Mighty No. 9 hasn’t enjoyed a very successful launch day despite its promising Kickstarter campaign and preliminary artwork, game design briefs and especially the involvement of the legendary Keiji Inafune. Perhaps these issues will be resolved in the next few days or so and players rewarded with the game they’ve been waiting for, even if it doesn’t appear to be delivering exactly what was promised according to initial reviews.

Via: VentureBeat

Source: Mighty No. 9

Jump into the ‘Overwatch’ Competitive Play beta now

Overwatch, the massively popular online multiplayer shooter from Blizzard, is now bringing its Public Test Region live in North America, allowing PC players the chance to square off in the upcoming Competitive Play update. That means any current PC player can pick up the official client to test out the Competitive Play mode right now. As in, right now? You’re still reading this?

The patch, which originally launched in South Korea, is available to players all over the world now, serving up the Competitive Play mode. You can jump in and try out the tweaked gameplay, which comes packing a new point system, sudden deaths in the event of a tie, and other various additions.

If you make progress in the beta test, you won’t be able to carry it into your official Overwatch game, but you won’t have to wait much longer for the full patch as it comes out later this month. Unfortunately, this test won’t be out for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One users just yet, but Blizzard is planning on announcing the Competitive Play update for both platforms in the coming week.

Source: Overwatch Blog

The hostile takeover of ‘Watch Dogs’ studio Ubisoft continues

Ubisoft, the studio behind Assassin’s Creed, Watch Dogs, South Park, Rabbids and plenty of other off-the-wall franchises, is slowly losing itself. The company is being swallowed up by Vivendi, the entertainment conglomerate responsible for Universal Music Group and Dailymotion, among other ventures. Vivendi has been buying Ubisoft stock with the goal of securing a seat on the studio’s board, and it now controls 20.1 percent of Ubisoft shares and 17.76 percent of its voting rights. The latest stock purchase comes just days after E3 ended on June 16th.

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot previously called Vivendi’s purchases “unsolicited and unwelcome,” and he’s been working on ways to fight the company’s “creeping control” of his family’s studio. In late May, Vivendi purchased a majority stake in Gameloft, the mobile games publisher also owned by the Guillemot family.

Vivendi has said it has no plans to take over Ubisoft, but its stock purchases continue to worry the studio’s founders. Guillemot told CNBC last week that Ubisoft’s main goal is to remain independent. However, as a backup plan, he’s entertaining the idea of a merger with a gaming or tech company — just not Vivendi.

For an informative breakdown of the Ubisoft-Vivendi saga, see Game Informer’s June explainer.

Vivendi isn’t a stranger to the video game world. It once owned a majority share of Overwatch and Call of Duty studio Activision Blizzard. Activision bought itself back from Vivendi in 2013 for $8.2 billion, transforming the studio into an independent company.

Source: Game Informer

‘Outlast 2’ drops you in a desert for a fresh batch of nightmares

The Outlast 2 demo made me jump and shriek in the middle of the E3 show floor, in Microsoft’s rowdy Xbox space where I was surrounded by swashbuckling pirates, roaring racing games and joyous fans. With my clammy fingers gripping an Xbox One controller, headphones hugging my ears, Outlast 2 sucked me in. Its setting, a pitch-black northern Arizona desert, was impressively immersive — not to mention accurate to the actual Supai region that inspired it. I should know; I’ve backpacked through the area (and now I may never do so again).

The Outlast 2 demo is horrifying, wonderful, gruesome and downright marvelous — in a bone-chilling kind of way.

Outlast 2 stars investigative journalists Blake and Lynn Langermann, a husband-and-wife team who set out on a mission to uncover the truth behind the murder of a pregnant woman known only as Jane Doe. The search leads them to the Arizona desert’s northern Supai region, an area nestled in the Grand Canyon and filled with towering mountains, rust-colored dirt, prickly cacti, massive waterfalls and sparse yet hearty vegetation. It’s gorgeous (when it’s not infested with murderous demons).

The demo opens with Blake and Lynn speaking over a helicopter’s communication system, but their words quickly turn to screams as the copter spins out and crashes into the desert below. Blake survives, glasses, camera and all, and he cries out for Lynn in the midnight desert landscape. From a first-person perspective, Blake begins scouring the land for Lynn, eventually running into a series of ramshackle houses and barns.

Some of the buildings are dimly lit, but other areas are completely engulfed in blackness. Just as in the original Outlast (which I adored), Blake can use his camcorder’s night vision to see in the dark, lending a majority of the game an unearthly, eerie green glow. Also mirroring the first installment, night vision quickly drains the camera, sending Blake on a constant, frantic hunt for fresh batteries. This is on top of the constant, frantic hunt for Lynn, and Blake’s desperate attempts to outrun the violent demons and townsfolk occupying the small desert town. Outlast is a brilliantly panicky franchise and from what I’ve seen, the sequel proudly continues this trend.

The tiny, scattered town is rife with religious imagery and bloodshed. Crosses hang from the doorways and under one canopy, flies swarm around a pile of blood and dismembered limbs. Dead bodies litter the village. Blake spots townsfolk as he searches the houses and shacks, though at first they simply stare at him with glowing green night-vision eyes and then fade silently into the night. After a while, though, they begin to chase Blake, intent on killing him. He screams for his wife and he hears horrified shrieks in return.

Blake runs. At one point, I direct him straight into a cactus and it actually does damage, slowing him down for a second while he recovers. His breaths huff in my ears as he becomes more panicked and bodiless whispers assault my senses, sending shivers down my spine. The townsfolk have flashlights and Blake hides from their beams in a corn field; the town is walled off in certain places, subtly nudging players in the correct direction while imparting the illusion of choice in an open world.

Eventually, Blake stumbles across a well. As he peers into it, tongue-like tentacles emerge from the black pit and suck him down. He ends up in a vent system with a deep, malicious voice ringing in his ears. The demonic voice laughs as he crawls across the thin metal, peering backward every now and then with a single button press as other voices join the tunnel of terror. The vent eventually falls and Blake emerges in a well-lit classroom covered in crosses and posters glorifying Jesus. He’s landed in a Catholic school.

As if Catholic school weren’t terrifying enough, the hallways are dark and filled with shifting, shooting shadows. As Blake walks along aisles of lockers, black silhouettes materialize and disappear right by his sides, until eventually the entire hallway is overrun with ghostly energy, lockers banging open and closed in a riotous cacophony.

Blake is familiar with this school and he makes his way into another hallway, where he begins screaming for Jessica, a young girl he once knew. She runs by, a small girl in a prim school uniform, and Blake runs into the hallway, only to see her body hanging from the ceiling. It’s sucked up by demonic hands and tentacles as Blake yells her name.

Soon after, Blake finds himself back in the high desert, running from the townsfolk once again — and from something much more sinister. As the tall, gangly men with flashlights hunt him down, their voices creeping ever closer, Blake runs directly into an otherworldly figure — a woman with a horrifying, lifeless face and a giant homemade axe-like weapon. Blake falls on his back in front of her and she brings the weapon down hard between his legs. He looks down as she rakes the axe head back, leaving behind a bloody mess where Blake’s crotch used to be. Fade to black. Outlast 2 demo complete.

Similarly, my Supai hiking career may also be complete.

Follow all the news from E3 2016 here!

Tencent buys the game company behind ‘Clash of Clans’

As Candy Crush and Kim Kardashian have taught us, there’s a lot of money in cheesy mobile games. Tencent has purchased Clash of Clans maker Supercell in a deal that values it at $10.2 billion. The Chinese company will acquire Softbank’s 73 percent share of the game maker, which grossed $1.35 billion in 2015. The exact purchase price wasn’t disclosed, but to pay for it, Tencent formed a consortium and is raising additional debt. Supercell will continue to operate independently from its headquarters in Helsinki, Finland.

The deal will give Tencent two of the best-selling video games in the world as it recently bought out League of Legends producer Riot Games. That title is the world’s top-selling PC game with $1.63 billion in revenue last year, much of that via controversial in-app purchases, rather than game sales. The company also owns stakes in Activision Blizzard, the maker of World of Warcraft, and Gears of War developer Epic Games.

Japan’s Softbank is carrying over $80 billion in debt thanks in part to its $22 billion purchase of US carrier Sprint, which has been losing money for years. As a result, it’s been divesting assets and plans to sell an $8 billion chunk of Alibaba, too. The deal will close by the end of September, 2016 barring any regulatory hurdles.

Via: WSJ

Source: Tencent