I have been a big fan of Football Manager since I was but a boy, and have wasted many a day digging through a myriad of statistics trying to find that one prolific striker - only to find that my tactics would need a complete overhaul to fit any one of them in my team. And it was those hours of analysis of every possible option that made the game so rewarding. I often fire up FM09 and find myself actually getting angry when I go a goal down - only to cheer and jump around when I claw one back! For a football fan, this series is as immersive as any Fantasy RPG as it holds exactly the same premise in that it is all about living a dream. As a boy (or girl - ofcourse), many of us dreamed of being professional footballers. When we grew up a bit and realised that actually we were pretty bad at football, we set our sites on being football managers! And although the majority of people who hold this dream will never make it in real life - Football Manager helps them to escape harsh reality and pretend they are the manager of their favourite club.
Football Manager 2009 stood out from other football management sims because it was a complete world. I remember playing Total Club Manager (2003 perhaps...?) and thinking "wow, this is a great game." But it wasn't, not really. The 3D system was excellent, it had a shout system, the manager had a personal life and the whole thing was a lot more...accessible. But that isn't what simulations are about. Simulations are about mimicking real life as far as possible without sacrificing fun. Football Manager pirposefully mimicks every section of Football Management effectively - and this makes it the best-selling football management sim in the world to date.
Ofcourse, every game has it's flaws - and FM09 wasn't exactly short of them. Cruise the forums over at www.footballmanager.com and you'll straight away see that every other post is entitled "OMFGZORZ UZBEKISTAN JUST BEAT SPAIN 2-0". Now, I hate these posts just as much as the next forum junkie, but they do have a point. Although freak results like this happen quite often in real life, the volume of freak results in FM09 was just unbelieveable. It would get to the point where you would start to think that actually you weren't affecting the scores at all - that it was just done with a random number generator. Of course, it wasn't, but no-one can help how they feel. Another set of problems are evident in the transfer market. For example, I started a game as Chelsea (I apologise) yesterday, and straight away put in a bid for Darijo Srna to the tone of £16,250,000. The bid was accepted. I offered a contract, and all was going well. Then Man City made a bid - that was also accepted. Srna agreed terms with City (for the same wage I offered) and explained why he decided to join City. Here's the punchline: "I wanted a better opportunity to win the Premier League." I don't know in which reality Man City have a better chance of winning the league than Chelsea - but this left me flabbergasted!
Despite the obvious discrepancies with reality, Football Manager 2009 was still the best game of it's type. And it's successor looks to be even better! Sports Interactive have acknowledged that the addition of big new features over the last few years have come at the expense of key features within the game - and have vowed to concentrate on these. This came due to increasing pressure from the internet community to improve the aforementioned 'discrepancies with reality', which Sports Interactive seem to have taken to heart.
Of course, there are some new features promised for FM10. These include:
Sideline Shouts - A tool to quickly change tactics in a game, simplifying in-game tactic changes.
Tactics Creator - A new way of creating tactics so that it is easier for less experienced FM players to realise their ideas.
New player roles - The ability to select players in a certain role such as 'ball-winner', using a set of pre-made tactics for each role.
The team were quick to point out that this new system will make things easier, but can be ditched by the player in favour of the slider system present in other FM games.
Another big change is touted to be an entire interface overhaul, replacing the old sidebar with an 'intuitive tab system'. Personally, I don't like the sound of that. The main thing for me that Football Manager has always had is an excellent navigation interface - you always knew where to find what you needed to find. I fear that a completely new system of navigation may confuse established players, and perhaps thought should be given to having this new interface optional.
I'm really looking forward to Football Manager 2010 - for all my doubts about new features it still promises to be the best football management sim to date.
Excitement Rating: Brink of Orgasm.
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This all sounds great :). I cant wait for it to come out. Please vote on my poll and watch me manage your team on www.fm10life.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteStevie Mitchell