In the world of video soccer (or as the rest of the world calls it, "football"), there are few competitors. It's basically EA Sports' FIFA Soccer 13 or Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer 2014. Traditionally, FIFA has been known for its superior animation while PES has been known for more realistic game play. EA aggressively negotiated exclusive licensing deals for FIFA , so PES has no real European stadium models, no Spanish stadiums, and only a few Spanish teams.
Pro Evolution Soccer 2014's graphics are decent, but not much more, and certainly disappoint as compared to FIFA 13. Players are detailed enough, but they just don't look real and alive. The crowd also disappoints; it feels like the same string of 2D characters repeating itself over and over again.
Character creation is extremely detailed. I could adjust my character's height, weight, skin and hair color, facial features, even how high I pull my socks up. The level of detail is remarkable. It's fun to create and play a player, but the actual game play becomes monotonous. In the end, it's just a string of soccer matches with your character in it and some pretty standard contract negotiations.
Career and Franchise
My favorite mode is Be a Legend, which is essentially Pro Evolution Soccer 2014's career mode. You control either a player you create or a real player throughout his career. This means your first few games will be spent sitting on the bench until you earn a starting position and rise to stardom. You get to make career decisions, such as whether to hop from team to team for the money or stay on the same team out of loyalty.
Master League is the franchise mode. You can take over any team and put them in any league in your quest for world glory. Management involves setting rosters, establishing a game plan, and buying, selling and trading for players. When playing an actual match, the experience is very much like playing any other match although you will have to make (very few) coaching decisions. Salary negotiations also seem fairly arbitrary—I almost never got the player I wanted unless I shelled out the big bucks. Master League is easy to get started and play, but I suspect that true soccer fans who know every player, stadium, coach, and strategy will be disappointed at the lack of depth.
On the Field
Actual match-play is a little slow. There are several layers of controls, ranging from simple one button commands to finesse moves that require a combination of triggers, buttons, and thumbsticks. PES 2014 will go down in history as the first game to be released using Kojima's Fox Engine, the same game engine being used for the upcoming Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain due out in 2014. The development team spent a lot of time this year working on ball control moves, especially on keeping the ball on the side of your body that is away from the defender. The collision system has been updated also to take into account direction, speed, acceleration, and the size of the player. I saw some pretty good collisions while playing, most of the time followed by yellow cards. Also improved is the targeting and mechanics of free kicks so you have much more control over the play.
PES 2014 is a good soccer game, but falls well short of being a great soccer game. It's more fun to play a quick game against a friend than it is to devote the time required to play Be a Legend or Master League only to be disappointed by a shallow and repetitive experience. There are improvements over last year, but I'm not sure it's enough to warrant running out and buying it.