Never played FM before; I now review the demo.

Having purchased CM10 for a cheap price and been heartily disappointed with a match engine that was laughable, and a shallow modelling of management, I felt FM10 was my only realistic hope of a good footie management sim this year.

I posted a thread a while back asking if FM10 was right for me, and having carefully followed the blogs by Miles, I was definitely excited about the forthcoming demo.

After downloading it and turning the strawberry demo 'on', I quickly found myself at a screen where I had to create my manager. Nothing new of course. But I did like the fact you can upload a little pic of whatever you want to represent your profile, so nice touch yep. I selected Crystal Palace as the team to manage because I support them in real life. As the game loaded and took me to a full inbox, I smiled to see all the things that were immediately being brought to my attention - this player is good, I'd like to recommend you buy or watch this player sir, our squad is weak here, and a little later - your pitch is so and so size, are you hapy with this and how it suits your style of play? The press conference was a nice experience too, and helped to solidify the feeling that I really was at the helm of at least the 6th or 7th best club in London (: P).

The 'psychological' aspect of the game carried on beautifully as I saw certain players buoyed or peeved at the things I said at press conferences or other situations. The fact that I could interact with a player and tell them to be 'more like him', or 'concentrate on your man marking skills', gave me a feeling of suitable depth. Hell, even offering players a nickname just made me feel like I was part of a little family group, not some guy at a laptop looking at letters, numerals, and panels to click. And when I played my friendlies, I found my assistant and others all offering bags of information on the team before, during, and after the game. And talking of games, I was overwhelmed at the depth of the tactics, both for the whole team and individual players - very impressive, I just hope that in the end, they will all have very obvious in-game effects when I learn to use them all correctly.

The games themselves had me impressed too. The 3d engine, while as ugly as can be, played out a heap more realistically than CM10. Despite a few annoying moments when players kicked balls out of play for no reason, or my team had absolutely zero urgency on pitch, I was satisfied with the level of authenticity, though it will have to improve for me to be completely happy. Having said that, the idea of touchline tactics, quick subs, quick player-marking, checking live scores, and the oh-so-beautiful ball hitting the net effect made me quite happy! The match engine is therefore a very good effort so far, though it certainly needs improvement.

Back off pitch, and the transfer market I thought was gorgeous. The sheer depth was marvelous, and I imagine I will have plenty of fun searching out the best players, offering them trials, percentage fees per goal, pay per plays, and everything else under the sun. This system was largely helped I think by the amount of information you get on every player - staggering, and highly impressive.

The news centre, and subscription service were very well done too, and from what I've seen so far, has been relatively realistic (although Man U's Fabio going to Bristol City on loan? Hmmm...).

I'm sure there is plenty, plenty more I haven't found yet, and I haven't even finished my pre-season! My only disappointments are: training - rubbish compared to CM10; and the layout is a little disorienting at times, though at other points it is perfectly logical so I'm not sure what to make of it yet.

All in all, I'm now enjoying a career with Exeter City, and I'm heartily looking forward to October 30th - I just hope the long-term appeal holds for me, as I tire of games quickly if they don't keep me hooked.

SI - thank you for your efforts, my first experience of FM has left me hungry for more.

Glad you are liking it so much, it's interesting to get a viewpoint from someone who has never played fm before

Very good post and an enjoyable read... Good honest and realistic opinion Thanks

Excellent point of view !

Who knows FM from long will be more critical and expect more better of course.

But there are commun critical points :

- training ( needs to be refunded and originally with a notion of "training for match preparation" and not only attribute training ! )

- 3D animations ( it's difficult to notice an excellent player in "dribbling" for ex. without seing the stats and the match analysis. )

Thanks.

Thanks for the review, it's nice to be reminded why this game is so great from time to time - sometimes the criticism around the new release can get a bit depressing

I dunno about anyone else but I feel a sense of pride when a 'newcomer' has such high praise for the thing which has been consuming my free time for the last 15 years or so..! Almost like I haven't been completely wasting my time - when in fact, as we all know, I have.

Re: urgency. You might need to look at the tempo and time wasting sliders.

Thanks for the review, it's nice to be reminded why this game is so great from time to time - sometimes the criticism around the new release can get a bit depressing

I dunno about anyone else but I feel a sense of pride when a 'newcomer' has such high praise for the thing which has been consuming my free time for the last 15 years or so..! Almost like I haven't been completely wasting my time - when in fact, as we all know, I have.

I feel the same as this, I first played FM07, but I have loved it completely since then and barely play any other computer games anymore.

put the 3D to high quality and you see how good it is

Re: urgency. You might need to look at the tempo and time wasting sliders.

Ah cheers, I will certainly have a look at that!

Thank you all for your friendly feedback!

As someone who's played since CM93/94 I doubt I could get into an FM game with no prior knowledge. It's overwhelming at times for me. Getting the balance between making it accessible to new players and more in-depth for the experienced is a job I really wouldn't want.

It certainly was a little overhwhelming at first, but not as much as I thought it'd be. I'm pleased I was almostt blinded by the amount there is to do though, means there is depth! And it means I won't see everything the game has to offer in 10mins flat. I'm playing Exeter City on the demo now as a dress rehearsal for my Palace career in the real game. Having played management sims before though, I wasn't compeltely unprepared for what FM would offer.

I sometimes think I might like FM a bit more if I came to it brand new again. It's easier to shrug off little annoying things when you aren't used to them. A personal gripe of mine is that direct interaction between manager and player (as opposed to going through the media) just doesn't seem to be on SI's agenda.

That said, I think I'm going to have a great time with FM2010 and the opening post to this thread was really interesting.

Good post. Another FM slave is born!

Very good opening post!

I agree with Mike7077 in that I probably would have enjoyed the demo more if I hadn't played any of the previous FMs. Though I think that is the same with any game that you buy as you appreciate everything the game shows rather than just the new features.

Good post.

I've been playing for 10 years and I think this year I'll get through less seasons than usual. Not because I don't like FM10, but because I like it that much I find myself attending games just to watch teams that I like, and then I'll watch highlights from the other matches in my league. It takes me hours to get through a month or so, but it's all good fun. It's always pretty cool seeing the commentary saying it's spotted me in the crowd, and it's even cooler when there's a player there that the media know I'm interested in.

Hi HooToo, very glad to hear you are enjoying your game.

I hope my recommendations were not misleading in anyway.

As has already been pointed out, the 'timewasting' and 'tempo' controls will have an effect upon your urgency levels.

Higher the tempo, the quicker your players will look to play the ball, and the lower your timewasting settings, the more your players will look to get the ball forward quickly.

I actually personally consider that the 'timewasting' slider would be more accurately named as 'urgency' anyway.

I personally find, that the higher you have your timewasting slider set, the more your team will look to play a possession game, and keep the ball, rather than trying to create chances to score. The maximum extreme to the right of the slider, will actually do the theoretical thing called 'timewaste', as in your players will look to run to the corners, and take ages over throw ins and set plays. Anything to the left of that, I find that your players will just look to slow the game down, rather than overtly timewaste. The lower your tempo setting in combination with that, and shorter passing, all makes for ideal possession football.

If you want the opposite, then high tempo, combined with direct passing, and very low timewasting, will get the ball forward with a much more intense urgency.

I hope you'll find FM gives you the long-term immersion factor you're looking for.

Kind Regards,

Benn.

My only disappointments are: training - rubbish compared to CM10;

I'm currently playing through CM10 myself at the minute (and must be said enjoying it), but plan to pre order FM10 at some point this week.

How do the training options differ between CM10 and FM10? I ask because I find some parts of the CM10 training really impressive and others not so.

It's nice to see how someone who has never played it before feels about it. A good read.

As for the training aspects, it's fine the way it is for me. I'm not really interested in in-depth training although I can see why it would be a nice touch to the game for some.

It certainly was a little overhwhelming at first, but not as much as I thought it'd be. I'm pleased I was almostt blinded by the amount there is to do though, means there is depth! And it means I won't see everything the game has to offer in 10mins flat. I'm playing Exeter City on the demo now as a dress rehearsal for my Palace career in the real game. Having played management sims before though, I wasn't compeltely unprepared for what FM would offer.

I've played CM/FM on and off since 2000, and with all the changes for 2010 I felt a little overwhelmed because everything was in a different place. I wasn't going to buy it this year, but there are so many nice new features, and with the improved interface, I might just end up doing that again. My problem however is not putting a lot of time into FM. I know I'm not very good at it, but I never take the time to get better.

My only gripe with the last couple of FMs has been the training. I'm crap at doing it, and I just want the AI to do it, and to do a competent job of developing players. As long as potential is roughly reached then I'm happy. The way it usually is for me is that very few players improve at all.

I really enjoyed reading your review though mate

Welcome to the church of FM!!!!!

This is indeed a very good post! I am glad you like FM 2010. It is the best FM ever!!!

I'm currently playing through CM10 myself at the minute (and must be said enjoying it), but plan to pre order FM10 at some point this week.

How do the training options differ between CM10 and FM10? I ask because I find some parts of the CM10 training really impressive and others not so.

In CM10 you can mould a player into exactly the kind of person you want them to be on pitch. Take this a step further, and you could specifically train your youths to grow into desired set roles for the future, so it was nice adding your own personal touch there. CM10 also lets you do drills and practice exercises like: A team v B team, Attack v Defence, Set-Pieces, etc. It certainly wasn't perfect, but I liked the depth. FM10, from what I've seen so far, gives you a set of sliders to determine the intensity of training in regard to things like Attack, Tactics, Physicality, Defence, etc., so you can custom build your own set routines. This is by no means bad, but I would like to see SI add to the training in the future. Just adding the ability to mould a player into a specific role would be nice even!

On a side note, I also think there should be a 'Partnership' stat added to every player. This would differ from Tactical Awareness because a new player can come into a team and understand he is a striker bombing forward in a 4-5-1 formation, but he may not have the best knowledge of his new team mates. A 'Partnership' stat would be something you can build in league matches and on the training ground, and allow players to gain an excellent understanding of his team mates' on-pitch behaviour. Take a look at Robbie Keane. When he joined Liverpool, he just didn't fit in, despite the fact that all in all he's a decent player. This could be explained in FM by a simple 'Partnership' stat. Berbatov is another good example. If there actually is a stat that does this already then forgive me.

Hi Hootoo. Welcome to the world of FM!

From past experience SI are very good at altering and eventually getting things right with the patches. As per your comments about the match engine needing some work, in FM09 there was a huge leap in improvement with the final patch SI brought out so I would be pretty confident that a lot of the annoying aspects will get sorted, though it might take a patch or 2 to get there.