PES 09 was awesome, have no idea why people are hating. PES 08 sucked terribly yes, but 09 was really good! Very excited for PES 10.

Tried Fifa and really don't know what the fuss is about. It feels so clumsy or clunky in a way. One thing I will give it, is that everytime I pass, it passes 90% of the time to exactly the place I want it to pass. Which doesn't happen quite as often in PES (75-80%'ish I figure)

I only play soccer games with friends outside of Career like modes . So PES 09's awful online and fifa's working one wasnt at all a factor to me .
However i can understand how it would bother others .

That's PES 09 's main and worst offender actually .

As for the whole license thing ? It's a weak excuse to diss the game . Any pes player know how easy it is to download , even for all consoless , a fanmade patch with the missing players and correct names and leagues .
Fifa is almost impossible to mod on consoles , and makes you pay for a crappy roster updating service . Someone want's to argue about the crapp comment ? I could play even to this date with the correct teams rosters with PES 09 . In fifa i just cant , the service ended in may , and there is no modding scene , so you're left with doing it manually , in a quite atrocious menu .

No other problems were the following :

-the worst penalty system ever

-not actually awful but really subpar graphics

-lacks of more varied animations , and well it does affect the gameplay

-an aggravating IA who tacles without being even asked . And poor IA defense placements and actions .

-the referée , but i dont think any game will ever get a referée right .

-lack of aerial play and the balls physics . Without going too far like Fifa's ballerinhas and wacky ball (come on i can do some really weird moves unskilled players shouldnt be able to do in fifa 09) , the ball was stuck to the ground .
it was improved with the patch 1.4 but still lacking

-not many varied ways to play other than physical confrontation and running straight to goals with athletes . And both franchise are guilty of that . Points for technique or strategies were kinda useless when you can just rush to the goal and play physical

And i probably missed some others probs .
Bottom line is , i remained with PES because of the tight , precise and responsive enough controls and gameplay ... unlike imo Fifa (even judging by the demo in fifa 10 , despite better controls this time with 360 degrees) . i also enjoyed it's editing options and had fun a lot with it .

i found FIFA to be too fluid... if that is a good thing. i couldn't feel the game unlike in PES where you had to work hard, grunt, push, pull to get the ball.

i hate the fact that "letting the ball go" (when you press R1 in PES) option wasn't there in FIFA. and i missed the tugging the R stick to make the player run faster while running (with the R1 pressed). things like that actually made me feel more involved in a game.

plus in FIFA, the way the player (closer to the camera) gets blurred in replays of FIFA10 is horrible. and the score card and the map/player details always get in the way of gaming. i don't know why EA overlooked these?

There is something unnatural about Fifa.