There are two things sports fans really love: betting on their favorite sport and playing video games based on it. While for the first love, they need to spend some time finding the rational and common-sense review of a bookmaker such as this review of Spin Palace, when it comes to video games, football fans have it easy – there is definitely no shortage of them. The question is, which ones do a particularly good job at recreating the essence of this beautiful sport.
It’s generally accepted that, for many people, football is the second (or even the first) most important thing in the world. It comes as no surprise that there are thousands of football video games to choose from.
We used our long experience in gaming to narrow this selection to only five. It was extremely difficult, but we somehow managed to do it!
Championship Manager 01/02
Championship Manager was a true gem of football video gaming due to its refined and addictive gameplay. It was the first football manager game that seemingly brought all the parts of the puzzle together to form a complete game that would work seamlessly.
You could move through matches and seasons faster and with much more dynamics and excitement than ever before. It marked the beginning of the times where people would spend hours upon hours, trying to get their favorite players into the Premiership. You can still get it on Amazon, so give it a try if you haven’t already!
Pro Evolution Soccer 5 (2005)
There have been several instances when concepts in popular culture reached such a success that everyone thought they could not possibly stay there for long. Pro Evolution Soccer 5 was one of those and it proved everyone wrong.Sadly, in recent years, its standards have started to drop. However, that does not mean that the golden years from 2002-2005 were any less perfect.
So, what made it so successful? Spotless gameplay, lots of new features, and breakthrough graphics were just some of the factors.
FIFA 14
Perhaps many would disagree that FIFA 14 deserves its place on this list, but please bear with us. It was the first FIFA game where the developers really tried hard to make the franchise better. The result was an improved game engine that represented a huge leap compared to its predecessors.
Moreover, FIFA 14 was the first FIFA game playable on PS4 and Xbox One, instead of just on personal computers. The AI was much smarter than before and the graphics added much more fluid to the gameplay. The game was a definite success!
Football Manager 2011
Football Manager marked the divorce of Sports Interactive with Eidos, when they lost the right to use the name Championship Manager. However, they did not disappoint their fans and continued to make top-notch manager games in the following years. Football Manager 2011 was possibly one of the only manager-style football games worth playing at the time.
It had an amazing 3D engine which allowed you to watch the games in their entirety and for the first time taste all of the fruits of your hard work.
Pro Evolution Soccer 2019
Compared to 2005, there isn’t as much hype around Pro Evolution Soccer as before. We think that’s unfair and the only reason lies in the fact that EA and FIFA have so much more money to spend on advertising and promotion.
PES 2019 is still a game worth playing and spending countless hours in front of a console. The only setback for PES is that it still doesn’t have all of the licenses necessary to use the majority of real players, stadium, and team names. We hope that’ll change in the future.