By focusing on its match engine, FM17 presents an impressive step forward for the series.
Despite a delightful new story mode, FIFA 17 falls short where it matters - on the pitch.
Despite a lingering scrappiness, this is the best PES in an age.
EA crafts one of the finest MMA games to date, although it's let down by a lacklustre ground game.
Despite a couple of neat additions, Football Manager 2016 is an iterative release that's sadly short on big new ideas.
After last year's disaster, 2K's series bounces back with the best wrestling game in years.
FIFA's interpretation of football removes some of the fun, but it offers so much else besides it's still a worthwhile game.
PES's legacy problems remain, but the football itself has never been better.
So, we're left with a game whose main improvements are all disappointments. And yet I'd still I'd put money on me pouring hundreds of hours into it. That's Football Manager. I'm sure that once a few patches have been released and a few things have been tweaked I'll discover that magic again. I just expect it might be a little bit harder to find than last year.
That, perhaps, is FIFA's defining contradiction. EA can quite fairly claim to have again delivered the best football game ever made. But every year the developers seem to have less of an idea what that means.