And so the two-horse title race continues. PES vs. FIFA. Purity and depth vs flashy gameplay and official branding. Simulation vs fantasy. Art vs commence. For the last few years, such lazy distinctions have been easy to draw. But EA Sports appears to have a new manager with fresh ideas. 2004 is the year FIFA gets serious.

You know this is a more serious sim as soon as you hit the main menu. Alongside the usual cup and quick match options, there's a new career mode - an epic player-manager quest through which you can work your way up to the Champions League, either by dragging a squad of wheezing part-timers with you or accepting job offers on a ruthless career trajectory. Okay, so it's very basic, distilling management down to transfers and training, and basing the whole thing on the accumulation of prestige points (earning by winning games and spent on training and transfers), but this is an important addition to FIFA, providing a long-term challenge and a weighty riposte to PES's Master League.

On the pitch everything has changed. FIFA was once famous for its sweet spots and solo runs - every match was a ten-goal thriller with more overhead kicks than a whole season of Brazilian beach football. Well, forget all that. Now you have to tease your way through midfield, mixing short passes with lobs and cross-field balls, while making skilful use of the new right analogue freestyle moves to slip past markers. Getting down the flanks and putting in crosses is a real challenge. Flashy 40-yard strikes and scissor kicks are what they should be - a rarity.

In fact, goals of any kind are elusive at first. This is partly down to the game's utterly uncompromising through-ball and crossing mechanisms which require pinpoint accuracy in both power and direction, unlike PES which will meet you a quarter of the way, interpreting your movements and guiding the action. And the midfield seems very crowded - making space is tough, and passing options into the final third of the pitch are often few and far between. In PES you can easily string together those lovely one-touch passing moves to zigzag down the pitch. There are more dead-ends in FIFA and they're harder to get out of - the absence of an easily available back-heel means it's tougher to quickly recycle the ball. In the end you'll find yourself simply booting it from one wing to the other, just to try and break through.

Your teammates do help though, waving when they make a run and immediately drawing your attention to the passing opportunity - it's a really nice touch. In FIFA you have to be aware of your team's movement all the time. In fact, the whole idea with this game, at least on a deeper level, is to give you closer control over the way a side works together. Hence the new 'off-the-ball' controls, which - as the name suggests - give you direct access to off-the-ball players.

Say you're controlling a creative midfielder and you spot your attacker making a promising run. You can now press L1 (or L2 for more advanced off-the-ball tactics) and take control of that attacker with the right analogue stick, pointing him towards the tastiest channel before putting in a pass.

It's an interesting concept but it's horribly fiddly. Having to switch from left analogue stick to right and back again while selecting the appropriate pass button and looking out for opponents coming in to tackle your initial player takes almost super-human multitasking skills. It may well prove a step too far for gamers who prefer instinctive play. And, of course, in real life, players *can't* just possess their teammates - they have to rely on the intelligence of the off-the-ball player. It is perhaps taking the gamer's omnipotence that one step too far.

The thing is, this doesn't really matter. You can get masses out of the game without even touching the off-the-ball features. The through-ball and long pass options are highly adaptable, and there seems to be plenty of control when it comes to placing your shots (although chips are harder in FIFA than they are in PES). Most importantly, the basics are solid. The ball movement is perfectly convincing (even if free kicks sometimes look like they're being fired out of a cannon) and when you lunge in the way of a pass or a shot, the ball spins off with convincing unpredictability. And the 'organic' animation system means you get gorgeous, highly realistic movement, but also quick control responses.

Then there's the usual EA sheen. Varied and realistically delivered commentary from Jon Motson and Ally McCoist, superb player likenesses and 506 teams going right down to English Division Three (at last, you can play as Cheltenham). And finally, the massive potential of the online support, including one-on-one matches. EA is organising a range of tournament and quick-play options, promising intuitive match-making and support for communication via USB head-set and/or keyboard. This could be the most important edition to the footie sim since the sprint button.

FIFA 2004 is a great football simulation. It's a hard game, especially in this sticky midfield, and you'll need to put the effort in to get real satisfaction. Ultimately, the play doesn't quite match the sheer intuitive nature of PES - Konami's title manages to test and flatter you, providing extraordinary depth and responsiveness from its basic controls. Team management is also much more basic here. But this is just the beginning of a new FIFA era. The foundations are strong and the potential, huge. The title race just got a lot more interesting.

Graphics 90%
Smooth animation and easily recognisable players.

Sound 90%
Atmospheric crowd chants and decent commentary.

Gameplay 80%
Challenging and compelling.

Lifespan 80%
The online mode adds months to the game.

Overall 80%
PES keeps its nose ahead, but this is the best FIFA title ever. The hole in the defence is closing, Konami.