Championship Manager 10 / FM10

Today I downloaded and installed the CM10 demo... that's right. The Dark Side. For those who are not familiar, the interface is unpolished, the game lacks soul and it's generally a less accomplished version of FM in pretty much every way.

However.

After just an hour or so, and a few pre-season friendlies I managed to get my Newcastle side to play exactly the way I want them to. I did not get angry. I did not smash my head against the keyboard. And - I didn't use one single god damned slider to achieve it.

It's reminded me of how good football sims used to be before the days of rocket science tactics and the pedantic, never ending black magic of assembling the sliders that drive the numbers that make your team play a certain way. Despite its many flaws (and there are thousands) - CM10 has given me as much enjoyment in just a couple of hours as FM09 did i the first couple of months.

My beef isn't with the complexity of FM -far from it. My beef is with the incomprehensible "rule of two" / "rule of one" crap, the fan-written unofficial user manuals that read like missile ballistic reference guides and such things.

I now there are changes afoot in FM10's tactical side - but after playing CM10 for the first time I'm considering whether I'm going to bother with FM at all. I'll make up my mind after I see the tactical engine in the demo.

Thinking about it now, the slider concept is just plain stupid. I can't imagine Sir Alex in the dressing room going "Vidic - 5 mentality. Scholes - 7 mentality and 16 creative freedom. Etc.". It's just stupid.

Anyway. Can't way for FM10 - hopefully my beef will be unjustified.

There is a 25 page long thread for this in the Off Topic Forum

http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php?t=141002