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The FIFA series has long been king of the football sim on the PC and EA Sports knows it. A tidal wave of advertising smashes into us with every new release and EA’s tagline “It’s in the Game” is almost as recognisable as the Intel jingle. But trouble is on the horizon because Konami’s console fave, Pro Evolution Soccer 3, has been released on the PC for the first time and it wants the crown.

Now I have been a long term admirer of the FIFA series. I have played all fourteen and if I have a criticism, it would be that the enhancements to each new release have not always been as complete as fans would like. It seems pot luck whether we receive a complete redesign or a tweaked version with a new lick of paint. This is not helped by EA’s voracious release strategy which appears alarmingly close to Manchester United’s moral stance on unveiling new team strips. Still, with Pro Evo hovering, EA promised to push the boat out and treat fans to a game that has been recoded from the ground up.

From the start, a number of changes are apparent. A new Profile mode means multiple game configurations can be saved and the introduction of a full career mode puts you in the manager’s chair as you battle for domestic league and cup success and compete in European competition. EA is also playing a numbers game as FIFA now contains over 500 Official licenses, 350 teams in 16 leagues – including all four top flight English divisions – and 10,000 players. As usual, the game has a cracking soundtrack featuring the likes of the Kings of Leon, Dandy Warhols and even a classic from The Jam. So enthused is EA by all this, that it still advertises to you in game with “Have you tried…” screens that pop up before every game begging for your attention like a yappy little dog. That aside, the new features, as well as the expansions are more than welcome and fans of Colchester or Carlisle will be thrilled that they can now take on everyone from Bologna to Brazil.

So what about the game? Well, FIFA has never really been a football simulation in the strictest sense. Despite numerous attempts over the years EA has always managed to create an exaggerated, almost pinball like interpretation of the beautiful game. Score lines of 6-4 and 8-1 are commonplace and while it is genuinely addictive and immensely entertaining, it’s not really football. And despite some fabulous new graphics and this edition’s gimmick “Off the Ball Control”, where you temporarily give up control of the player in possession to take control of the run of the intended receiver, it still feels very artificial. But is it fun? Yes and no.

The good and the bad news is FIFA is still FIFA and – as with every new edition – it is the best version they have done. As you may have guessed, this is qualified praise, because the staple improvements have all been made. For a start, the graphics are even better. Not only does David Beckham look scarily like David Beckham, but Chris Marsden looks exactly like Chris Marsden. Who? Exactly. The amount of care EA has put into the look of this game is astonishing. Hull City’s striker Ben Burgess is a big, hefty striker, and he still is here. The audio has also raised the bar in football games. Over 300 individual crowd chants have been recorded, and a great number of them are team specific, certainly for every Premiership side. Even the acoustics for each stadium have an influence.

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