Modern football, that overblown and ongoing soap opera, is built on a mix of loyalty and nostalgia. That team, that goal, that year – the fan sticks with the badge through countless squads. This even seems to apply to football videogames; I wanted to play PES 2014 because the memories of its predecessors, like ISS Deluxe and Pro Evolution Soccer 2, play through my mind like a Cruyff highlights reel. This is why it's important that, as the title screen appears for the first time, Nessun Dorma starts to play. This is Proust's madeleine cake for the pie-chomping masses, the evocation of a particular era and all it means, a callback to Italia 90. It is a promise; here is not just football, but romance.

The ongoing alphabet war in football games is PES versus Fifa, the Old Firm of the digital age with its legions of fans queuing up to buy one and decry the other. EA's flagship title has recently ruled the roost and, with Fifa 14 seemingly offering more of the same but better, the onus is on Konami to up its game. PES 2014 does that and then some. This is a new beginning for a series that was looking timeworn, and one where the first principles are absolutely bang on.

For the first time I can remember, PES 2014 looks better than Fifa 2014. It's not a simple matter of comparing screenshots or the various player likenesses, but how everything moves. Players constantly track the ball, and their every twitch reflects the situation – crowded, open, one on one, holding off a defender – the range of animations and the sheer liveliness of the spectacle is astonishing. The crowds and stadiums are a gigantic improvement over recent PES titles, and the match introductions for competitions like the Champions League recreate the television presentation perfectly.