If you’re still a little unsure of just what Ultimate Team, the just released FIFA 10 add on, actually is, there’s an in depth Q&A with FIFA line producer Paul Hossack over at ESPN.Go.com that might help you decide if it’s your cup of tea.

We sit down with a nice cup of tea and a game of FIFA. At the same time.

FIFA Online is undoubtedly the future of video games. It’s web based, free to play, able to run smoothly even on low end laptops and features a revolutionary mouse control system that not only works superbly well, but manages to make the holy grail of football gaming a reality; the ability to play with one hand, leaving the other completely free for beverage supping.

And it’s shaping up to be a really good game, too.

The usual suspects line up to hustle for the title of best football game in a World Cup year.

It’s difficult to review a game like Football Manager 2010. Not because it isn’t a huge leap forward from last year, or even just because I’m not a very good writer, but mainly because it’s physically impossible to stop playing it long enough to write anything more than a poorly constructed introduction about how difficult it is to review. Despite not bringing any truly game changing features to the table, Sports Interactive have somehow managed to make FM deeper and more involving than ever. To put it into a standard football game review analogy, this year Sports Interactive have shied away from any risky big money transfers, and instead strengthened their squad with a few very astute signings whilst improving what they already have.

When Sony first announced the PlayStation Portable five years ago, only one thought went through my mind. Pro Evo, anywhere and everywhere. How could that not be the greatest thing ever? If I had three wishes, I would have honestly wasted one of them on just that. As usual the reality didn’t quite match up to the dream and when Pro Evo 5 arrived on the PSP the novelty quickly wore off as the game just wasn’t suited to the platform, and being able to play PES anywhere, even an inferior PES, meant trips to the bathroom to play Master League at work were stretching far too close to the hour mark to not raise suspicion. And that’s how you get a reputation. And eventually become unemployed. With PES 2010, Konami have finally gotten it right, and barring a glaring miss and a few squandered opportunities, produced a classic PES game that’s actually worth playing anywhere and everywhere not just because you can, but because it’s really, really good.

Over the years the PES series has featured some of the most memorable match commentary in video games. From Jon Champion praising the usefulness of a back pass to Mark Lawrenson offering deep psychological insight into how a player ‘needs to have a look at himself’, Konami have consistently produced commentary that at its worst is completely broken, and at its best rivals ‘The Simpsons’ for quotability…

It’s an unwritten rule that sports games now have to be updated every year, which is obviously to do with publishers being so generous, and nothing at all to do with greed. Well, it was an unwritten rule. It would be safe to assume that Football Manager Handheld 2010, the successor to FMH 2009 and almost definitely the predecessor to FMH 2011, would just be last year’s game with some tinkering behind the scenes and a new lick of paint. The good news is that Sports Interactive’s tinkering and redecorating are enough to make this the best handheld FM yet.

Late one night, in the middle of a tense Master League match, something incredible happened. Jon Champion asked Mark Lawrenson for his ‘thoughts’... and what he said actually made sense. His comments were relevant to the action and actually kind of insightful. The monkeys and their typewriters had just written the great American novel. For the life of me I now can’t remember what was actually said, my mind had crashed trying to verify that it had actually happened.

Normal service was resumed seconds later as Lawro followed it up with something about keepers folding their kit up. So it’s pretty much business as usual in PES 2010, with the commentary almost word for word the same as last year with a few new lines like those featured in the above video, including some unidentifiable yelps from Champion and some classic Lawro lines. What more do you want?

With Konami left trailing after EA changed its tactics a few years back, it seems the last thing PES has going for it, apart from its new found good looks, is that it actually is PES. A lot of players have moved on after becoming disillusioned by recent lacklustre showings and the lure of the critically acclaimed FIFA series, and there will always be arguments, but those with any sense know that both games have something to offer. PES 2010 may not be the evolution it promised to be, but what we do get is PES on top form.

As the PES 2010 start screen loaded up and the first tune kicked in, it dawned on me like the detective piecing it all together at the end of 'The Usual Suspects'; Myself and others like me have more than likely heard the ‘songs’ on the PES soundtracks more than any other piece of music. If I was holding a cup I may have dropped it, only to see 'Konami' written on the broken base. Thanks to the life affirming brilliance of the gameplay, it has never really mattered that, just like the weak commentary and the presentation, the music has always been so utterly random. But realising that ‘Go to the Goal’ has hit my eardrums more than Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Born to Run’, I couldn’t help but wonder, what exactly have we been putting our ears through over the years?