NIDZUMI+

Ever-increasing pressure, a demand for consistent improvement and the fear of losing your job after a few bad shifts, it doesn’t sound like the greatest job on earth but believe me, this is one you won’t want to put down.

Sports Interactive it’s self has arguably been under similar pressure to outperform the competition and consistently retain their throne with a brilliant simulation, year after year. Another year has come around, naturally, so has another entry in this long running stats-centric time sucker.

SI has arguably been under similar pressure to outperform and consistently refine

Football Manager 2010 doesn’t play around with the core formula but you’ll be instantly grabbed by the incredibly clean interface lift given to the entire game. Large amounts of players and larger amounts of data to go with them were often presented in something more reminiscent of an Excel Spreadsheet than an exciting, dynamic and immersive video game. Yet here everything has been simplified down to easily navigated lists across the top of the screen and it pays dividends in trying to make Football Manager more accessible and friendly.

Making the game more accessible while trying to appeal to the veterans is a difficult balancing act, something that Sports Interactive have turned into something of a fine art. 2010 introduces backroom meetings, which allow your coaching staff to offer feedback on your team. Things like we have good height or we play better in this formation are great indicators for those not wanting to troll through every height statistic or test out every formation in pre-season.

It’s not solely tactical either; occasionally they’ll recommend players or staff for you to take a look at. While the advice might not always be spot on, the fact that the game gives you more feedback is pleasing because you’ll gain a better understanding of your team, something that you’ll highly appreciate.

Before I used to download pre-made tactics or stick with the defaults but thanks to this feedback, I’ve been creating my own from scratch, with varying results to say the least. This can partly be attributed to the simplification of the tactics creator. While you can still opt for the ways of old, 2010 strips out the complex and replaces it with easy to understand player roles and touchline shouts.

2010 strips out the complex and replaces it with an easier to understand interface

The rest of the game is made up of minor tweaks here and there. In all seriousness, it’s only stuff that veterans will notice like slightly improved animations and a better external data editor.

The problem is that Sports Interactive hasn’t identified the problems from last year’s version. You still can’t contend the board accepting an offer on your behalf, you’ll still encounter a bizarre number of last minute goals and the monotonous press conferences from last year are almost identical. 2009 was unique in that the number of changes easily outweighed the flaws, 2010 doesn’t quite get this balance right.

Another gripe I could have with this year’s version is that it’s incredibly difficult to bring a team up through the ranks, easily the most enjoyable aspect of the game. For example at Parma, I took the realms and accomplished steady growth over four seasons, yet the game became more challenging. Surely as a team gets better, games should become easier but maybe I’m just bitter after eventually being sacked. It’s just after so many last minute goals, constant red cards and major decisions going against you; you’ll start to accuse the game of robbing you.

Maybe I’m just better after eventually being sacked but I started to accuse the game

Something I want to do considering it won’t let me update my specific version on OS/X. I love that Sports Interactive support the Apple platform with a day-in-date release alongside the windows version, but I haven’t been able to apply the patch, nor have I been able to find much help on the subject either.

But that’s such a niche issue that a majority of people won’t encounter, so let’s look at the bigger picture. Despite welcome improvements to the tactics and visuals, Football Manager 2010 only features marginal improvements on last year’s version. I know I’m not alone in saying that many of the annoying quirks of the game still remain. This combined with poor post-sales support and paranoia has resulted in a less than smooth transition from the game I played the most of in 2009. Newcomers will find a place here but veterans, while appreciating the improvements, will still find irritating irks.