FIFA 09

It all stems from the essential truth that "everyone who loves football has had an argument about who's best". And, of course, everyone always thinks they know best. So this is your chance to prove it. "If you think Man Utd plays one way, you can create a Man Utd that plays that way," says Rutter.

It works as follows: there are 11 tactical sliders in the game, which simulate the way your team currently plays, how they should play, or a fantasy way of playing (although we fear even the mighty Cell processor would implode if pushed to make Chelsea's graceless brats play with humility).

Up to four of these settings can then be assigned to the d-pad or stick, depending on which you're using to play with. To demonstrate, we're shown an example of what's possible by adjusting just a single slider, the one for defensive mentality, at its maximum and minimum settings.

In example one it's Man Utd vs Liverpool using a high defensive mentality. United are completely overrun and struggling to get the ball out of their own half. But the flipside is that with so many Liverpool players committed forward, they're left vulnerable at the back. Lo and behold, Giggs releases Rooney with a sublime ball over the top giving jug-ears 30 yards of space to run into.

On a low defensive mentality setting, Liverpool are now pushed right back into their half. They're sucking up pressure well and making it hard for Man Utd to break down their defence. But sit back for too long and you're asking for trouble and, spying a gap at long last, Rooney releases Scholes, and pegs it into the box while screaming for the return pass.

To reiterate, that's just one tactical slider set at its extremes. You can be far more subtle, also adjusting aggression, width, positioning, passing speed and more. It's a far subtler approach than typical footy game tactics. As Rutter notes: "A long-passing game isn't just about hitting the ball long - it's about changing the support play, so your midfield needs to be further up for the ball to be knocked down to run on to".

"Why is this exciting?" Rutter anticipates. "Every game you play will be slightly different. Online, too. You won't know what's around the corner. It's more like real football - you can have a frantic opening, then it gets more relaxed, then a goal is scored and the other team needs to react. This doesn't really exist in games at the moment. I will feel the game change."

And we've avoided it until now, but this seems like the appropriate juncture to bring in PES. Many have noted how, in the past couple of years, the franchises have almost reversed roles, with FIFA the more considered experience, while PES has become more frantic, even arcadey.

"As an independent observer, I'd make the same conclusions," says Rutter, not very independently at all. "Years ago people played FIFA and saw it more as the arcade game and people played PES and thought, you know, that's a really hardcore sim of football. And it's flipped, and it's almost been imperceptible the change that's happened."

This is, we are told, the year Seabass and his team finally pull their fingers out and give us the PS3 and 360 from-the-ground-up PES we've been waiting for since the start of the current generation. For FIFA, complacency would now be the killer.

Thankfully, regardless of whether you can spot 250 tiny changes, or just 2.5 bigger ones, we're not seeing much evidence of that so far.