Review: Football Manager 2010 (PC)

The Football Manager series has dominated the PC charts since developer Sports Interactive broke away from the old Championship Manager franchise. Eidos have battled valiantly to catch up but it has taken them years to get close. With Champ Man now better than ever, Football Manager 2010 has a lot to do to stay in front.

You have to wonder if there’s a fear that changing Football Manager too drastically would break the formula that has led to such widespread addiction amongst football fanatics everywhere. When it comes to footy management they have created a franchise with such integrity and depth that you can fulfil all of your football dreams in it and while away hours, days and weeks of your life. Football Manager 2010 does not represent a drastic reboot because it is not needed. What we get instead is a refinement which offers several subtle improvements.

The most obvious change is the redesigned user interface. Navigation is now handled with a tab system which groups related topics into sub menus. While it may be intuitive for a newcomer, for FM fans the change will be jarring at first. Stick with it because a few hours in you’ll start to see how much of an improvement the new lay out offers. The menus are clean and streamlined and everything feels easy to access.

The big flashy new feature last year was the live matches in 3D. While they’ve improved the AI for the live TV matches and added a number of new animations, that system remains much the same. The most important new feature this year is the Tactics Creator. It is easier than ever before to set up individual player tactics and the effects of your chosen instructions are clearly explained. You can actually use a kind of tactics wizard pop up to select your approach to each game but for experienced players all of the original options are still there alongside a couple of worthy new additions. You can access the advanced tactics at the press of a button and get as specific and complicated as you like.

The feedback during matches has also been drastically improved. Your back room staff offer up advice before and during the match and your assistant manager gives you useful tips about who isn’t fulfilling their role and what opposition players need closer attention. There is also an in depth Match Analysis tool which shows up weak areas in your team and tells a statistical story about every match. The Touchline Instructions feature is another great tool which allows you to shout orders from the dugout to make quick tweaks to your team’s approach. Used correctly these instructions can turn the game.

Your immersion into the manager role gathers greater depth from the press conferences which book end most matches. They do get repetitive after a while but you can always send your assistant in your place, although be careful with that because my assistant had a positive flair for annoying the team with his comments.

As a long time fan of the series, Football Manager 2010 feels just as satisfyingly absorbing and addictive as it ever did. There have definitely been attempts to make the experience more accessible and you can choose your own level of involvement. Many of the finer details such as training programmes, opposition instructions and even contract negotiations can be left up to your support staff if you prefer. Of course the game is most rewarding if you micro manage every element of your club and if you don’t tailor your tactics to each new opponent you will struggle to succeed.

The biggest hook for me when it comes to football management is putting together the ultimate team for my preferred tactics. The database of players is up to the usual high standard and this key element of the game makes it the genre king. Seeking out new talent and nurturing them into the first team is extremely satisfying and watching your young prodigy score a hat trick in Europe or picking up his first cap is enough to spread a cheesy grin across your face every time.

Is this a revolutionary release? Absolutely not, this is subtle refinement. At the end of the day this is still a big database churning out stats and making calculations. It is an oddity in the gaming world which is mercifully free of the shallow obsession over improved graphics. Instead the focus is on fulfilling your managerial fantasies and the gaps are filled in by your own knowledge and love of the game. If you aren’t at least mildly obsessed with the results on a Saturday then you’ll never understand the appeal of this. The rest of us will continue to spend obscene amounts of time in pursuit of that perfect season. Football Manager 2010 is the best in the series yet and it still has more depth and style than the competition.