Genre: Sports
Developer: PES Productions
Publisher: Konami

Gone are the stilted animations from the previous franchise entries, and in comes the kind of real-time, physics-based movement that the FIFA series has enjoyed in recent years. Stadiums are incredibly life-like, as are the player faces. Spoiling things a bit are the fact that the menus and overall presentation are painfully generic and dull.

It's sad and hard to believe that FIFA International Soccer on the 3DO, which was released in 1994, has better stadium and crowd audio than a Pro Evolution title that came out in 2013-- yet it's true. The repetitive announcing is absolutely horrible, adding nothing to the matches, while the handful of licensed dubstep menu music tracks are dreadful.

This Pro Evolution title is, by miles, the best playing football game ever made. It manages to perfectly maintain the fast-paced and responsive nature that the franchise is known for, while cleverly implementing real-time physics, which almost constantly cause unpredictable, ludonarratively rich interactions to occur.

It's a shame that the rest of the package doesn't live up to the absolutely amazing match engine, because if it did this title could be an all-time classic in the genre. Many of the game modes, such as the venerable Master League, aren't technically any worse than they used to be, but they really are starting to feel stale. Perhaps next year's edition will bring the rest of the formula up to par with the wonderful core gameplay.