Crunchy or smooth? Pacino or De Niro? Coke or Pepsi? Beatles or Stones? The millions of preferences we all have are, in many ways, what define us. Gaming throws up thousands of such variables - dividing lines along which we can group up and bathe in the warm glow of mutual validation.
Whether or not you're a Fifa or Evo 'person' is a classic example of this. As multiplayer games, it's likely that you and your immediate peer group are devoted to either one chapel at the other, sneering at followers of the other, inferior religion.
Traditionally (and my loyalties are sure to be revealed here), the two camps were easily divided. Fifa fans were children or casual gamers, sucked in by the official license and shiny advertising campaign. Players who wanted simple, accessible fun but had no time for tactics, one-twos or slide-rule through passes.
Evo fans on the other hand, were football gaming aesthetes. They played for the beauty of the game, not the competition. They'd boast of memory card's chock-full of 30-yard top-corner volleys, not 72-match unbeaten runs. Who cared if Craig Bellamy was inexplicably named 'BELASIE'?
The tendency of the two game franchises to be influenced by (steal) each other's ideas after each release however has meant that over time, the once polar opposites have been drawn further and further together - leading in recent years for even hardened Evo devotees to cross the battle lines in the name of calloused thumbs. Both have licenses and online play, both are endorsed by star names. By all accounts, in recent years, Fifa has simply been the better game.
I, of course, could not countenance such brazen disloyalty, even though the last two Evos have been not much fun. But in the name of Gamesblog research I downloaded both demos last week (the Pro Evo 2010 demo was released on Thursday).
Having had a few days to deliberate, cogitate, and digest my immediate thoughts on the new Pro Evolution Soccer are as follows:
1. The menu screens are worse than ever.
2. The phrase 'Game Plan' has no right to be used to label the Team Management screen, and was clearly written by someone who has no interest in football.
3. The data is out of date: it's pleasantly nostalgic to play as Xabi Alonso for Liverpool but it also makes me feel sad.
4. The game feels 'smoother' than 2009 (which was one of the worst Evos) - through passes, especially chipped, work much better.
5. There was no learning curve - with previous versions it's taken me hours to score a goal as I get used to the new game engine, let alone beat Barcelona on the hardest difficulty setting. This suggests to me that the new version will be more 'fun' (like the heady days of Evo 4 and 5) than 'sim' - we may see 30 yard screamers again.
6. Hopefully they've sorted out the online play as someone scoring against you while your players are frozen is really quite frustrating.
As for Fifa?
1. It crashed, and my Xbox crashed, before I even got to the match setup screen. This is a sign. The menus were nice though, and I noticed an option to change the controls to the same as Evo's - very sneaky.
2. I've decided that since I've barely played previous versions I'd rather know what you all think than further anger my temperamental Xbox.
With Fifa out next week and Evo three weeks after, the decision will soon be upon you - could this be the year you finally switch allegiances? Unless anyone can convince me to give Fifa another go I'm pretty sure where my 35 quid is heading ...
