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I threw a proper tantrum at PES 2014 last week. I haven't thrown a controller at the wall in anger since the final boss of Jak 2, but I directed one at a cardboard box on the other side of the room when Nordsjaelland danced through my defence and went 4-0 up in the Champions League. I was playing as Real Madrid.I blamed Raphael Varane to anyone who would listen, but the truth is that I had lost all self-control, impatient to get on the ball and try to reduce the deficit. I was stubbornly clinging on to both defensive pressing buttons, dragging my players out of position all over the field, and I was mashing the standing tackle button and charging blindly into midfield whenever I retrieved the ball. When I got there - if I got there - I was then spraying out miracle passes that were coolly intercepted as the Danish minnows grew in confidence. 4-0 wasn't flattering. (Although Varane did have a shocker.)
As a game that increasingly resembles a simulation of football rather than a highlights reel, PES 2014 is great at throwing up these authentic sporting stories. PES Productions has made a game that rewards the patient player over the thrill-seeking dynamo, where high scores are more often a product of indiscipline than the natural order, and the line between this series' trajectory and that of the mass-market FIFA now feels clearer than ever.
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