I was at St Mary's on Saturday to see Southampton get kicked off the park by Derby in the first leg of the Championship Play-Off semi. As I watched the Rams pump yet another long ball in the direction of their Sunday League shaped forward it suddenly struck me. No, not that Derby were doing a painful impression of Wimbledon FC circa 1990, although they were - but that videogame footy just hasn't nailed the uglier side of the beautiful game. Sure, you can do overhead kicks and fancy back flicks in FiFA and Pro Evo but elbows, niggly fouls and match-ending tackles aimed at talented teenage left backs? Not a chance.
FIFA is the worst offender - a game that filters out the physical reality and replaces it with a sanitised vision of "soccer" unrecognisable to anyone who actually goes to matches. Pro Evolution is better. At least here the players have a physical grounding with the ability to shield the ball and hold off opponents translated fairly well. But there is still too much emphasis on skill moves and trickery. And as Saturday showed, teams that try and play football - ie Saints - can get beaten by more limited and physical teams. So why do videogame football games not reflect this? Is it harder to code? Less fun to play? Maybe Canadian (FIFA) and Japanese (Pro Evo) developers need to take a trip to some of the more agricultural footballing outposts in the UK (like Pride Park)
Games are obviously supposed to be fun. Even those based on reality filter out the tedious elements - Tiger Woods titles concentrate on playing shots rather than the hike between each hole. But when you can get driving games that let you fiddle with the most obscure element of your engine and then actually see the effect in-game - i.e. Forza 2 - it's time we had a football game that matched the gritty reality of most matches.
