heres my opinion...
my past soccer gaming experiences:
ive been a long time EA sports guy. i loved madden, nba live, fifa, and even nhl back in the days. i remember having an old soccer game for the genesis and i think it was made by konami, forgot wat it was called but it was dope. After like '99 i stopped playing games altogether really. it wasnt until recently when i bought FIFA World cup 2006 and WE9, and ive also downloaded the FIFA 2006 demo.
here we go....
i started with EA's fifa world cup. ive had nothing but fun and good experiences with this game. it looks beautiful first of all, and there is a HUGE selection of countries you can choose from. more specifically, u can play as any country that was involved even in the qualifying stages of the world cup. i recently started a campaign with VANUATU, they're ranked like 115 or something like that. hahaha
the game, compared to WE9, is simpler, and that makes it easier to play. i really like simplicity, i think simplicity can be wat makes a game fun. remember when the original nintendo came out? for even older school heads, how about atari? or like space invaders or dig dug on a 486 computer? now THATS fun, and nothing gets simpler than that!
a complaint with the FIFA series is: the MENUS are little TOO damn simple for me. its very easy to navigate thru menus because it has a very simple straight forward layout. HOWEVER, i always feel they leave out alot of necessary functions in the game. for example, i still cant find out how to DELETE profiles, and old saved tournaments that i no longer want to keep. ur very limited in the menus, so that can prevent you from doing certain things sometimes, that i feel should be easy to do in the first place. WE9 is the complete opposite. its a little bit TOO confusing. too sophisticated....once u get accustomed to it, u can probably use its sophistication to your advantage, but i have yet to get there. i dont like spending time figuring out how to do things in menus, id rather just get into the game and have fun.
FIFA does good with this, but leaves a little more to be wanted. WE9 gives everything you could ever ask, plus more......plus more and more and more. alittle too much if u ask me.
anyways, i thought FIFA WC 2006 was fantastic, and i didnt know why people were always hating on EA, but that was of course before i bought WE9.
now that i have WE9 and have been playing it for a lil while, i have to say the gameplay, physics, etc. in this game are AMAZING. id have to say konami wins over EA in this aspect. the lack of licensing with WE9, and all the option file/kitserver downloading stuff can really get confusing, it took me like a whole week of intensive research and patching to finally get my game the way i want it to be. so that was a pain, but its all good in the end. i think i still mite get FIFA 2006 because they have more leagues, some of which i really want to play as.
so while i found WE9 to be a lil more realistic and accurate in terms of actual soccer gameplay, i still have to say that ive had alittle more fun playing EA's fifa. WHY? even tho the gameply isnt as realistic, even tho u mite get 20+ shots a game and the computer less than 5, to me, ITS STILL FUN. and thats wat it all comes down to. i dunno...i love killing my opponent, dominating, and just being able to create amazing plays with ease. so thats why i loved FIFA. in WE9, its definitely more challenging because its more realistic, but sometimes wen i play on the 1 star difficultly setting, i cant even score a goal in regular time!! and sometimes, thats no fun, ya feel me? i also dont like the shots that players take in WE9 compared to FIFA. its not accurate enough.....realism is great, but this is a game, not real life. sometimes its more fun if your players movements are computerized to certain degree, so you can actually get a shot on goal, instead of shanking it 10 ft. wide because ur joystick was a couple degrees off target. i mean, all that for the sake of 'realism'? i see where people are coming from but i think its a lil hyped up. (maybe im exxagerating alil bit here too....but u get my point. i still think its a valid point =P )
dont get me wrong...i still love and play we9 alot, its def an amazing game.
i guess my bottom line is, i feel WE9 v FIFA WC 2006 really is personal preference. they are both amazing soccer games, but they kind of occupy different niches in the market...almost like, theyre aimed towards different types of gamers, if u will.
if you're really concerned about having MORE teams and MORE leagues and MORE players, uniforms, faces, etc. and can ENJOY fifa for wat it is; a simpler, easier/less challenging, more basic soccer game, maybe FIFA is right for you. (i guess if u really want a challenge from FIFA, you can play at the highest difficulty setting. i only play at semi-pro cuz im naturally not that great at games heh) i think because of FIFA's complete-ness with all the licenses, etc. and its beautiful presentation, its also like a collectors item. after all, it is FIFA, the international organization, so its gotta be 'official' =)
but, if you're a hardcore soccer gaming hooligan, who is picky about every little detail of the actual playing of the game, nothing does it better than WE9. WE9 i feel is also MUCH deeper of a game, which u can even see from the thickness of the manual, compared to FIFA WC. i feel that WE9 is a little more challenging, and you need to be really precise with your moves, and know how to do all the 100000000 different moves you can do by pressing different combinations of buttons. EA's controls are A LOT less sophisticated. i find this good and bad for WE9; good because you can do so many more moves in the game, making it alot more colorful (that is, if youre good enough to DO the moves without a problem =) . ) but bad because i find myself getting confused because there are so many moves u can do.
also, remember, it takes some work to patch it so it has real names/teams,etc. but if u kno wat ur doing, its not that hard. AND another plus is, since theres such a huge following and community behind PES/WE series, theres SO MANY patches/updates/optionfiles or watever u want to call them, available online. this keeps WE9 ALWAYS up to date, with updated rosters, and even updated uniforms. i just downloaded a kit that had all the new 06/07 uniforms, something that FIFA 2006 does not have. i dont know if there are patches for FIFA that does this too, i've looked a little but havent found any. maybe i havent looked hard enough.
the WE series got me sold, no doubt. but, i love simplicity and i love all the licensing that EA has, so im gonna stick with the EA series as well. i personally have decided i am more of a FIFA guy right now, but i will def keep an eye out for WE10, when it comes out in the states!!
hope you guys found my review helpful. just remember, realistic games are cool, but REMEMBER TO HAVE FUN!! whether u find fun from konami or ea, is ur choice, but i dont want people to automatically dismiss the FIFA series because everyone seems to like the WE series more. cuz i think i like this FIFA game just a liiiitle bit more than WE9!
my recommendation: do what i did. download the demos for both sides and play them, see what you like! they're DIFFERENT games, sometimes i find it hard to even compare the two because WE9 seems much more 'serious' as a game than FIFA. again...this doesnt mean FIFA isnt fun. =)
enjoy fellas, let me know what you think!
btw....anyone know when WE10 and FIFA 07 are coming out in the states?
CnC Generals, nothing like EA buying westwood and destroying a once great game series. I need to quit typing about this before my head explodes. :s***:
; PES is the king! 
:Bow: 