This year it appears that Sports Interactive‘s main concern was to polish the game as much as possible instead of working hard to introduce tons of unfinished features. And although this is not a bad thing, I really felt the need for some more additions to the game or at least tweaks and improvements on all areas and not just a few key ones.
By “key ones” I mean – and it’s probably the most important – the 3D match engine. Football Manager 2010 manages to bring an improved 3D match engine that is no longer a pain to watch – we also have some extra eye candies, like stadiums, weather effects and so on. In other words, unlike FM2009 in which I kept playing all the matches in the classic 2D engine, Football Manager 2010 finally brings enough quality to make me switch to the 3D mode and enjoy.
The second huge change brought in by Football Manager 2010 – and the first one you’ll notice – is the interface. Starting this year, we’ll say goodbye to the classic look with sidebar menus and we’ll welcome a tabbed view, one that makes the game look more like a website than a game. However, that’s not a bad thing: even though at first, if you are a fan of the series, you’ll find it very difficult to navigate because of the tabs and sub-tabs, once you get used to it you’ll see that it actually pays off and it’s not a bad change. Still, I see no reason why it had to be done as the previous interface worked for me without any problems.
Fortunately, Sports Interactive did pay attention to one element that hadn’t been changed in a loong time: the tactic screen. Now we have a brand new tactics tool that, mostly, is a lot better than the classic one (however, the most hardcore players will find it a bit too “easy”). The nice thing about this new tactics creator is that it allows you to select different roles for your players: you can have fullbacks or wingbacks; limited defenders or complete defenders; ball winning midfielders or advanced playmakers and so on. There are lots of player roles you can give to your players and, the even better part: the most important attributes for that position are highlighted automatically once you have a player in that position. Therefore, you will never ever have to wonder if your defensive midfielder needs more creativity or more work rate…
I said in the beginning that Football Manager 2010 doesn’t bring in any new major changes (except for the tactics creator), but it does polish many of the features of last year’s title and brings in a bit more bling bling, which is always welcomed. Therefore, we can now hold press conferences to present any new signings, we have a simple match analysis tool to help us see where our tactics go wrong, we have tons of advice from the backroom staff – which is especially useful for those who are not playing Football Manager for 12 years like most of the hardcore fans do. Even more, I love that the game moves a lot faster than Football Manager 2009, I love that it shows you the estimated performance of the game with the settings you select (database size and number of leagues) and it also lets you know exactly how many players you’ll have in your game. All these bits, even though not really “must haves” certainly make your life a lot more pleasant!
So, is Football Manager 2010 still the best football management game this year? Even though I haven’t got the chance to play the new FIFA Manager, I would risk an “YES!” Championship Manager 2010 did prove to be a really pleasant surprise and an incredibly complex game and it certainly won the hearts of many virtual managers, but Football Manager 2010 is still the most complex, challenging and rewarding, wonderful and addictive management game on the market. In other words – a must buy for both fans of the series and newcomers!
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