Is there anything duller than a Man Utd/Liverpool/Chelsea/Arsenal "fan" – who invariably has been to one, maybe two live games at best – telling you how much they care about "their" team. Yawn. These people would have always bought FIFA over Pro Evolution Soccer. Generalisation? Sure, but you get the point. PES was always the game for real fans of real teams, not just the Sky/100k-a-week/Prem only mainstream. But things might, just might, have changed. This year's FIFA is a bit of a revelation.

Ok, I've only had code for a couple of days but so far so good. Off the pitch there are host of new features that show promise. I signed up to the Live Season service - one league is free - which supposedly adds real life current form data into the game. It's too early to really tell if it makes a difference but Spurs and Newcastle both lost the games I played so maybe there is something to it. General online play is pretty much lag free too – a joy compared to the laggy mess of PES online. The new 10 vs 10 online *sounds* fantastic but I've yet to find enough players to test it. This shouldn't be a problem from today so fingers crossed.

But FIFA has never had a problem with matters off field. It's the on pitch stuff that needed fixing. The good news then is that FIFA '09 is the closest one yet to replicating the fluid action seen in PES. It's not quite there yet – the players still don't feel *quite* as responsive as they do in PES – but the difference is far less marked than before. And when it comes to heading FIFA wins out, with players having much more control on where they place their header. I scored a fantastic glancing header last night against Portsmouth. Ok, it may have been a consolation for the Southampton but it felt like a winner.

The game looks the part too – with players pointing where they want the pass and the bigger players running in the style of their real-life counterparts. Up close though the players still look like freakish zombies. And get out of the top leagues and likenesses go out the window. Yes, I'm sure most punters won't care that Adam Lallana looks nothing like he does in real life but when you have the correct kit, team and player names it does annoy. Maybe this will be sorted by FIFA 2019?

But don't go thinking your PES/FIFA decision is a no-brainer. After a relatively disappointing – but still highly playable – couple of PES releases, 2009 is threatening to be a return to form. From what I've played – the demo is out now – the game feels slightly slower than last year, which has to be a good thing. Defending seems easier and more effective now, which comes as a relief after the goalfest that was 2008. Final PES code should be out soon – the game is released in a fortnight – so judgement will have to wait. But it's going to be a tough call. FIFA or PES then – which team are you supporting this year?