Football Manager 2010 Review

The demo for Football Manager 2010 is out!  As I mentioned in an early post, I don’t have the time to dedicate to Football Manager for the next year or so and didn’t want to buy it this time around.  But, having said that, I am curious as to the new changes that appear will appear this year, keeping the game similar but subtly different.  I have read reports that it’s the same game every year but the REAL fans know the score

Create a Manager

The first thing that stands out here is you can choose female.  Now Hope Powell can play this game without feeling left out.  The other nice feature is “past experience”; enabling you to manipulate your history from Sunday league to International footballer to affect your in game reputation.  I have since tbeen told this is in 2009 but I don’t remember it!  For this little walk through and for my own curiosity, I’ll pick Man City.

Manager Information Screen

The main game screen is a HUGE difference from previous versions.  Pretty much everything you need in a nice white “Apple” look, iManager.  The fixtures show an opening day game against Man U at Old Trafford!.  The advisor is still there which is handy for new and experienced players and the addition of the status and transfer information windows is very nice.

Clicking on the inbox takes you to the main inbox screen which looks the same as 2009.  A managing news subscriptions to be able to turn off the spam in your in-box is something I like.  Your coach also offers an inter squad friendly, which I will accept witht he confidence that my team of all stars can beat the team of players they replaced.  The start of season expectations is as before so seeing as I’m only playing one game, I’ll say I’m going to win the league and have a nice £79 million to spend.

The transfer screen is also familiar so I go ahead and bid £60 million for Messi, might as well! The transfer is now in the “pending transfers” window on the mains screen for 1 minute as the bid is rejected I attend a very familiar press conference screen and tell the press and fans everything they want to hear.

On to my game against the “reserves”, which I expect to win easily!  The tactics screen has the same feel but obviously a lot better and has the same clean white iTactics look.  (BTW, I have no idea why something looking smooth and clean makes me think of Apple products :)).  A few things here are amazing.  Being able to assign a player as “available for reserves until match fit” is something I love.  Also, being able to assign roles to individuals is great.  Have one defender as a “stopper” and one as “cover”, if you have the right players.  So I’ve picked by Man City X1 in a 4-4-2 diamond and I’m on to the game.  You can now set your assistant for individual player instructions for opposition players if you wish, apart from that; it’s pretty much the same.

Given, Bridge, Richards, Toure, Lescott, Barry, Robinho, Wright-Philips, Ireland, Tevez, Adebayor

The Game

The game graphics themselves are very pretty.  It’s a closed doors game with no fans, the pitch and players look great and the net ripple is very pretty 6 minutes in and Adebayor has a goal disallowed and Bejani for the reserves goes down.  They put the ball out of play, Wayne Bridge kindly throws it back to the oppo. when play commences.  The look and controls are similar except for a couple of HUGE additions.  As Adebayor puts me one up, I miss the goal reading the list of strategies, instructions and shortcuts I can issue, but I catch the replay.

Strategies, as you expect, can be made on the fly and apply straight away.  Being able to set from various levels of defence and attack as well as changing formation will help in those tight games.  Instructions are also made on the fly but there is a pause similar in length to making a substitution, probably as you send your assistant to the touchline to shout on your behalf.  The shortcuts, including “change to saved tactic” and “quick substitution” also work this way.  Much better than having to go to the tactics screen as in previous efforts.

I mess around with the features during the game and look for anything new, different, better or wrong.  Adebayor was given offside even though he was in the middle of the pitch and the ball was played out wide.  After an Adebayor’s second, a Tevez rocket and a Roman own goal, I changed to the “Overload” strategy and selected “Shoot on sight” but never managed a shot on target.  I went back to normal, made a few subs and enjoyed the rest of the game….

Tevez’s second and “Man of the Match” Adebayor’s Hat-Trick means a 6-0 win, not too bad despite the opposition.

After the match you get the standard game summary along with a nice pro-zone style stats screen.

Transfer

Just to see a transfer go through to see if anything has changed there, I bid for Steven Taylor of Newcastle.  You are able to change the default options of transfers, which is particularly useful when trying to offload a few players in one go.  You’re able to set to options to automatically reject bids below a players value etc  I sign Taylor for £10 million, nothing has changed except the assistant manager has more to say as to the usefulness of a potential signing and you can call a press conference to unveil him.  Just for fun, I buy Maxi Rodriguez for his £21 Million release clause, thanks to my scouts for that tip!

I go on holiday to pass the time to see a build up to a real match, Manchester United Away.

There is a meeting to discuss tactics; my back room team advised me that Man Utd, particularly Wayne Rooney will be a concern.  I have a slagging match with “Sir Alex” and continue on…

0-0 at half time, alter on a I sub on Barry for De Jong and give Maxi his debut, on for Ireland.  Just to show how realistic this game is, at Old Trafford, in the 83^rd minute, Man Utd get a penalty.  I push forward put sadly lose 2-0.

Well, that’s the end of this little run through.  If you like the series and have the time to dedicate to it, I would highly recommend it!

@jestatharogue