If patterns hold true, EA’s FIFA 20 will no doubt sell enough physical copies to reach to the Moon and back – but when it comes to on-pitch action, there’s only one soccer game this season that truly shoots for the stars. eFootball PES 2020 – to use its horrible full name – is one of Konami’s finest football games in years. Certainly of the console generation, but there’s an argument to say this is the best in what used to be known as the Pro Evolution Soccer series since PES’ PS2 pomp… even if the menus haven’t improved much since then.
If you put a lot of stock in an alluring user experience, you’ll probably have a few gripes with PES 2020 (which I refuse to stop calling it, Konami). Even after a facelift, the menus are pretty bad; a forlorn love letter to an era of awful PS2 menu music and cluttered formation screens. Yes, the songs that play in the background are now a little less ear-offending than before, yet place PES next to FIFA 20’s predictably slick, Sky Sports-aping presentation and this really is a ‘Champions League vs Johnstone Paint Trophy’ scenario.
